Borrowdale Fell Race 2011

Borrowdale 2011
Having done the BG I thought I should at least pitch out and do a proper fell race, so here I found myself on the start line in a field in Rosthwaite, everyone seemed quite relaxed, I’d likely just cruise round and take in the views!??
Objectives for the day:
1. Don’t get timed out
2. Don’t DNF
3. Don’t be last!
The start down the track was a bottle neck and the first few hundred yards done at walking pace, I thought I can handle this, I’ve been in faster starts at LDWA events!
As we ran down the road section through Rosthwaite to Bessy Boot I felt quite good, and overtook 10 or 15 folk, but it was flat at this stage!
As we turned to face the ascent up Dry Gill to the summit of Bessy Boot it looked a bit steep, and I went into BG mode and started to plod up, suddenly those 20 folk I’d passed on the road came steaming past with relative ease, I tried to speed up on the climb but not being used to this pace my legs were almost trashed by the first checkpoint at the summit of Bessy B! I’d changed my outlook by now, this was going to hurt if I had any chance of achieving objective 1.
I dug in behind some Helm Hill runners round to Esk Hause the 2 nd check point, and didn’t feel too bad, up onto Scafell Pike, familiar territory, then the dare devil scree descent straight off scafell to join the corridor route, I was beginning to enjoy this the scree was great fun!
The descent down to Stye Head seemed to take forever, and was quite technical, at one stage I ran into a deep bog , momentum carrying me forward and both my shoes came off in the mud! I turned to find them, they were nowhere to be seen!
I waded back in just socks, and had to plunge my arm in up to the shoulder and try and fish them out, the stuff was like quick sand, and it took quite some effort and time to extract my mudclaws!
Catching a quick drink and cheer from Ariane at Stye head in front loomed the huge bulk of great gable and another massive climb, my legs were already trashed and it was just a case of digging in and plodding up it like a snail, surprisingly I overtook 2 or 3 dark peak runners!
The rest was fairly painful, the climb up Dale head seeming harder than on my BG!
Finally over the line, objectives achieved, not last but nearly!
Three shires next then!