Anniversary Waltz 2011

With not much mileage in my legs I entered the Anniversary Waltz, near Keswick. I have had my eye on this race since last year. Albert had entered the Teenager with Altitude with Ian Charters and was planning to take it easy and not race the route, just run with Ian.

Setting off slightly later, my race headed up the valley, up Robinson. There was no cloud on the way up but by the time we neared the summit (with the other back markers) the cloud had dropped and we didn’t come out of it for a while after that. It stayed with us all the way to Hindscarth and Dalehead. Only after Dalehead did we drop out of it enough to see where we were going.

Before long it was up hill into the cloud to HighSpy. By this point I was being regularly passed by the runners on the Teenager route. I looked back and was convinced I could see Albert and Ian but they never passed me. After HighSpy I headed over Maiden Moor, at one point loosing my bearings and convincing myself that my compass was wrong until all of a sudden all the cloud simply blew away as if some higher being was trying to tell me “Oi, look where you are numpty!”.

So now after trusting in my compass I headed North towards Catbells and the steep descent to the finish. As I ran down the last descent I could feel Cramp kicking in and just tried to hold back enough to prevent my legs screaming.

Overall I think it was a bit of a poor run. Tiredness seemed to kick in a little early and my legs weren’t really flowing right. I’d finished though and after a few cups of tea with Albert (Who, along with Ian had also become a little lost on Maiden Moor) we headed home.

Funniest part of the day: Watching one lady drive her car in to the farmers gatepost. Luckily the wood was rotten and it just snapped the thick pole without really doing any damage to the car. How she didn’t see it I don’t know!!