Written by RO Lou Osborn
Just over a week has gone by and our event team have had their debrief and all recovered, so now is the perfect time to look back on this year’s Lakes Ultra event and share with you how it went from the organiser’s side.
This was the second year of running the Kong Lakes Ultra and we made a few changes to last year. Firstly, we did away with flagging the whole course after consulting all of the entrants from 2022. This was a popular decision with our hill teams but was also more environmentally friendly and no competitors reported any concerns about there being no flags to follow.
We also decided to place orienteering type controls on each summit; although these were not needed for timing or to show course completion (the tracking system adequately covered this) we felt that competitors would like the reassurance that they were at the right place.
We kept the courses the same but altered the cut offs slightly to encourage more runners to our event and to reduce the hours that checkpoint marshalls needed to be out.
We had 63 entrants in the long course and 45 in the short course. 16 of these did not turn up to registration which is a very similar no-show percentage as the shorter fell races we organise. That meant that we had 48 starters in the long course and 39 in the short course – a comparatively small field which we would like to increase next year.
The day started out overcast and approximately 15 degrees – a lot cooler than previous days and everyone was happy with these conditions. This also meant thick clag on the fells but this disappeared in the afternoon and led to great views later in the race.
The men’s short race was incredibly exciting to watch unfold. Three runners (Mark Darbyshire, Daniel Weller and Alan Hilley) initially set off and passed through Honister checkpoint all virtually together. Going through Esk Hause, Mark and Daniel managed to pull ahead and dropped Alan on the climb to Esk Pike. However, Mark and Daniel had a navigation error after Rossett Pike and ended up adding an extra mile and roughly 800ft of extra climbing by descending into Langstrath valley. They rejoined the route but had lost 20 minutes with their slight detour. Meanwhile, Alan had, unwittingly, overtaken them, and had no sight of them for the remainder of the race, thinking he was in 3rd. Mark and Daniel managed to close the distance to Alan to less than one minute by the Threlkeld support point. Back at race control we couldn’t believe that it was might come down to a sprint finish along the railway line between the first 3!
Alan managed to keep his lead along the Helvellyn range and smash the final section down the railway line – taking less than half an hour to run from Threlkeld to the finish – arriving back at the football club bemused by the celebrations, still convinced he was in 3rd place! Daniel and Mark finished a few minutes later together and we watched with great amusement as Mark and Daniel gave Alan the lowdown on what actually happened. A race to remember for our event team!
After Allan had knocked over an hour off the course record, it was time for Kirsty Hewitson to cruise round the short course and also beat the course record finishing in a very impressive 9 hours 38 minutes.
The long course was also incredibly exciting to watch. Gavin Dale (Ambleside AC) set off with Oliver Heaton (Bowland FR) but had opened up a small lead by Wasdale. Gavin kept up a superb pace and pulled out an over 50 minute lead on Oliver going through Threlkeld. Another exceptionally fast last leg from Gavin saw him sprint into the finish and knock 3 minutes off the men’s record – apparently, he worked out on Blencathra (the final summit of the course) that the record was on and took 48 minutes from the summit to the finish, amazing running!
Equally impressive was first lady – Georgina Lewis who finished 3rd overall in the long course in a time of 13:43:21.
So, great racing at the sharp end of both events but equally well done to all of the finishers – we had 33 finishers in the Long course and 36 finishers in the Short course. Both extremely tough routes over difficult terrain so it’s a massive achievement to complete these.
Our events could not go ahead without our fantastic team, who all give up their time in the days and weeks before the event, on the day, and after the runners go home. From manning registration, making sandwiches, running support points, providing first aid, serving food, running hill checkpoints – the sheer amount of work that goes on behind the scenes for this event is huge and the list of tasks is endless. We had 25 members of the event team this year and we are indebted to their kindness – we had so many comments about the friendliness of our team from the competitors and we thank you for your kind words.
At the end of the event, we had quite a lot of surplus food (we always seem to overestimate what people will eat!) so we donated all of the spare fruit and vegetables to the local animal rescue centre and the spare crisps, rice pudding and bread to the local Keswick foodbank – both charities who do amazing work and we were delighted to support.
We would like to thank all of you who joined us at this year’s event and congratulate you on your runs. Every single person has given our team great feedback and many of you are planning to return next year which is fantastic to hear – you all loved the down to earth nature of the event, the course, the friendly staff and the general vibe of the event.
Finally, we would like to say a huge thank you to our sponsors, INOV-8, who provided all of the race prizes of which we are extremely grateful. Their range covers all things in trail, fell and ultra running to hiking. Also enjoyed by our runners and team were the revitalising non-alcoholic beers from Athletic Brewing – thanks to them for supplying us with the tasty refreshments.
If you’re reading this and thinking of entering the next edition but want to see what’s in store, check out the below race promo film as well as a POV film made by Gary and Cheryl who took part at this year’s event! There’s also some great interviews from the finish line. More details on the race can be found on the website: www.kongultra.com/
Keep an eye on our social media channels to hear when entries open for next year!
