Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon:
PUB CAT PEN BAD WIN

Another weekend, another mountain marathon… this one was the Saunders, which this year started from Wet Sleddale. We set off on Saturday morning in gorgeous sunshine, with 28.6km and 1300m of climb ahead of us. The marshalls were planning ahead—“no sunblock, no run” was the instruction from Rhona (the woman whose lovely pictures graced our Highlander blog this year) at the start.
The course took us north to Swindale, then all the way down to the east end of Haweswater, around to the North side and then west towards Wether Hill. The early controls were quite straightforward, even the one we marked on the wrong knoll and then ran straight to the right one! After circling around Haweswater we climbed up to High Raise and picked up the path that runs south to High Street and Kentmere. Our next control was all the way down almost at Kentmere Reservoir, with a very steep descent and a dodgy traverse on sheep trods.

Mountain marathons always like to test you, and sure enough we went straight back up the other side of the valley to the ridge between Kentmere Pike and Harter Fell, and then right down into Longsleddale, only a couple of kilometres from the overnight camp, but instead of heading in, we had to go all the way out to Mosedale, and then come back to Longsleddale from the other direction, finishing with a precipitous descent into the valley.

The campsite was a welcome sight, but not as welcome as the table with beer, coke, milk, and other refreshments! One of the highlights of the Saunders each year. We finished day one in fifth place in the Scafell Class (the longest class for pairs), and first mixed team, an unlikely two hours ahead of our nearest rivals. The evening was taken up with consuming calories, sitting in the sunshine and chatting to friends.

We set off on day two with the sixth place team starting just 18 seconds behind us. The start was a 400m climb straight back out of the valley and into the clouds, during which the other team stuck right at our heels. We then went north along the west side of the valley, with navigation proving difficult in the clouds. The third control was most of the way up Branstree, and at that point the sixth place team past us. By this time it was pouring with rain, and we went over the summit in strong winds and horizontal rain—proper mountain marathon weather! The next few controls were quite tricky, with easily missed features in indistinct terrain, and we took some conservative lines to some of them. Happily, we also re-passed the sixth place team, at which point they once again clung to our heels. Unhappily, our SI card that records our visits to each control stopped working and we were forced to memorise the three letter words written on each control instead!
We finished with a long drag along the ridge between Haweswater and Swindale, on which we managed to pull out a couple of minutes lead, and then a drop into Swindale and back up the other side, with a final tricky stretch back to Wet Sleddale with another challenging control on a waterfall. Happily we managed to extend our lead on this bit so that we didn’t end up with a repeat of last year’s frantic sprint finish. At the end we had to reveal our word-list, PUB, CAT, PEN, BAD, WIN—we’d each been chanting it under our breath for the last two hours! We’d maintained our fifth place and first mixed team, and won two etched whiskey glasses for our efforts.

Instead of our usual post-mountain marathon drive on the M6, we opted to stay at the blog master’s house. A great evening, that included pimms, champagne and a delicious three course meal. We couldn’t have asked for more.

Series - SLMM

1. Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon
2. Soggy Saunders
3. Saunders Mountain Marathon 2009
4. Saunders Mountain Marathon: the Other Story
5. Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon:
   PUB CAT PEN BAD WIN
6. SLMM 2011 – a practical guide!