It turns out there’s a bit of north-west England called “The Lake District” – they’ve got hills and everything. You should check it out.

Chris invited me to this “Lake District” to accompany him on a recce of some bits he’d never been to before. Our spirits remained high on Friday night despite traffic jams and me managing to lock my car keys in someone else’s house, but at 1am we finally gave up hope of reaching Wasdale and pitched up for the night at the top of Wrynose pass. A scant few hours later we completed the driving, and set off for the first of day’s jaunts: Sca Fell.
Leg status: Feeling good.

A steep and relentless start up the side of Lingmell Gill saw Chris pulling away right from the starting blocks as I pushed (unsuccessfully) to match his pace. As we reached the top, and Mickledore, we were confronted by Broad Stand and its Bad Step. Luckily someone was doing a Bob Graham ground and so there was a caving ladder over the one difficult move. Chris despatched the outside of the corner with aplomb while I showed no shame in making use of the ladder. The rest of the ground is lovely fun, and we soon found ourselves at the top of Sca Fell.
Leg status: Tired, but getting a second wind.

A fast descent back to the van at Wasdale Head followed, with some sandwiches and a quick rest before starting the second ‘half’ of the day.
Leg status: Everything’s going to be fine.

The fun soon drained from my day as we slogged our way up Yewbarrow through six-hundred vertical metres of steep steep steep heather.
Leg status: Things are definitely not fine.

Eventually there was no more uphill, and we dropped to Dore Head before climbing back up to Red Pike and on to Steeple. All of the day’s peaks had been new so far, but Steeple was definitely the most interesting, perched at the end of the ridge like a mini Tryfan. From here I suggested that Chris carry on at his own pace, so he agreed to head over Pillar while I descended Wind Gap into Mosedale instead.
Leg status: If I just stop for five minutes, maybe they’ll start working again.

Shortly after dropping from the col I realised I should have just carried on over Pillar, instead of descending 500-ish metres of horribly loose scree with a couple climbing up below me directly in the fall line of any debris I accidentally dislodged. This made my progress intolerably slow and careful, and I was relieved to finally reach the bottom and break into some sort of shambling run again back to the van.
Leg status: Technically I can still move them.

Having re-convened we drove around to Keswick and found a lovely sunny campsite with plenty of room – no mean feat on a sunny bank holiday weekend at the start of half term. Spaghetti bolognese provided some lovely recovery food, and I settled down in anticipation of a tough day two on tired legs.
Leg status: Ah, the bliss of lying in a sleeping bag.

Suprisingly, day two also began without a cloud in the sky, and we set off from a car park at the foot of Blencathra to join up with the big path up Skiddaw from Keswick. It quickly became clear that my legs were suffering from the day before as Chris trotted off in front of me.
Leg status: I didn’t think they’d be this bad.

[photonav url=’http://www.haydnwilliams.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130526-08.jpg’ mode=’move’ popup=’colorbox’ animate=” container_width=’1200′ container_height=”]CLICK FOR FULL SIZE. Our route for the day – Skiddaw and Blencathra. © Haydn Williams 2013

On reaching the top of the steep track, I told Chris to carry on without me – there was no way I was going to get over Skiddaw, Great Calva and Blencathra on anything approaching his timescale. I instead followed him over Skiddaw and down Hare Crag at a more sedate pace, and left him to complete the rest of the route while I returned to the van past Skiddaw House.
Leg status: If I don’t try to climb or descend, they’re fine.

[photonav url=’http://www.haydnwilliams.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130526-09.jpg’ mode=’move’ popup=’colorbox’ animate=” container_width=’1200′ container_height=”]CLICK FOR FULL SIZE. Chris is somewhere on the left-hand ridge (Hare Crag) heading towards Great Calva in the middle. © Haydn Williams 2013

Chris re-appeared at the car park in a despairingly short time, having evidently enjoyed being left to run at his own pace instead of waiting for me. In his absence a herd of sheep had attempted to get into the van but fortunately I fended them off and averted disaster. With running complete, we retired to Keswick to do some gear shopping.
Leg status: It’s a good job shops have seats for trying on shoes, otherwise I may have keeled over.

So Chris got to see some new bits of the Lake District, I got to do 2850m of ascent and 23 miles of running, and the sun shone throughout. Absolutely worth getting wobbly legs for.
Leg status: Who cares, it’s a whole week until the Welsh 1000m race!