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Wednesday 7 June 2017

Coniston Half Marathon Trail race

When my mates Craig and Jill suggested I join them for the Coniston Half Trail race this weekend, I was tempted by the promise of beers and lunch in the Lakes after a nice morning on the trails. I kind of forgot about the running bit. And totally forgot I'd never run a trail race before...

The Lakeland Trails series had some good reviews within my running club and I can see why. There were many different options for races on the day, a 10k, a half marathon and a marathon, with all distances having a 'challenge' option for slower runners or walkers which started an hour before the 'race' option.  After some oversharing toilet chat (standard) we were all set to go and lined up with about 250 others to head out on the trails. It was a small race, smaller than our local parkrun, but the atmosphere was really friendly.

Start line selfie
The course was really challenging and technical, with a whole load of different type surfaces to run on including trails, big rocks and lots of slate, which kept you on your toes and kept the miles ticking over. It was so different to the usual road races I'm used to. By mile 4 my legs were screaming at me, and looking at the profile afterwards I see why! The climbs were quite big at times and then leveled out before sending you up again. This continued until about mile 9 when the downhill was so steep you couldn't hold yourself back even if you tried. I loved the variety of the run and made sure I kept looking up at the scenery (and taking photos whilst on the move). I wanted to just enjoy the run so whilst I glanced at my watch when it buzzed each mile, it was more of a 'oh look at that' rather than with a time goal in mind. My miles ranged from 7.30 minutes to 10.30 and you can probably guess where these were from the pic below. It was really quite liberating running without any time pressure.

Course Elevation profile
Stunning scenery (taken on the move!)
The marshals were really friendly and the sheer amount of races taking place meant that there were a few people out on the course, but sometimes I was running alone which was also nice. The water stations I passed seemed really well stocked for the marathon runners, with enormous flapjacks, coke, water and squash. The route was well marked for the most part although there were a couple of occasions where we had no idea where to go! At one point there was an unmarked fork in the road which really irked some of the pro trail runners near me - but I just chose to keep running and took the down option rather than going up an unnecessary hill - if in doubt, go DOWN! Turns out I was right and I was free to fling myself down the downhills with no one in my way! The route markings could have been a little clearer though from halfway onwards.

Photographer at the TOP of a hill - 8 miles in
My goal for the race was to have fun and not stop even on the hills, and I was pleased I managed both. The last mile or so was back on flat road and grass which is more of my usual preference so I was able to take a couple of ladies in the last 500 metres and cross the finish line as 11th lady and a shout out over the tannoy!

The scenery was beautiful, the atmosphere was great, and we all agreed it was a cracking race. The post run beers in the sunshine weren't too bad either. I think I will be adding more trail races to my calendar pretty soon...

FINISHERS!

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