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Coniston Country Fair – Sunday 24th July

Checkers had told me about this race which is held as part of the Coniston Country Fair a traditional Cumberland summer fair whith lots to do for the family. £6 to enter the summer fair – fell race is free. Lots of stalls selling toffee, cake, juice and home made Cider! beautiful. Kids games Potato on a spoon race, space hopper, sack race, then tug-o-war, wrestling, lots of dog shows / displays and a fell race. Just before the start i saw Mike who had brought his family up for a day out and then Checkers – so 3 amigos from Lostock again! so much for a casual jaunt up to the Old Man and back.

The race starts on the event field at Coniston Old Hall and just goes straight up to Coniston Old Man and then back down, there are 3 CPs. It was a very hot day and we set off at 2pm approx. 70 runners went up past the Hall across the field turning right onto the main road then immediatelty left up a road which led to a track and then the open fields climbing all the time. There was a CP just before Over the Rigg then a flatish open section and then Walna Scar Road before the main ascent to the Old Man of Coniston, at this point we were climbing with very little running after all this race has over 2000ft of ascent. Mike was well ahead with Checkers and his unmistakable shorts 40 yds ahead of me, he was taking lots of pictures on the way up, with very little cloud cover the views going up were brilliant. At the top Checkers was posing for a picture the marshall was kindly taking of him, here there was a perfect view of Coniston water and the surrounding hills…. 53 minutes to the top turn round and all down hill back to the finish.
The descent was rocky and steep but thats part of the attraction of fell running and with my Mudclaws on i left Checkers and set off in search of someone to follow below. At the end on the steep descent just before the flat section of Walna Scar Road i saw Mike 50 yds ahead, once on the flat bit the heat hit me and running was very difficult. After CP3 the route down was only partially marked and i had lost sight of the runner infront, running on my own i continued down tracks and then tarmac single track roads before hitting the main Coniston road and the entrance to Coniston Old Hall via a long field, then onto the finish funnel with the heat too much by now.