Lakeland trials

Coniston marathon
5:18:12

That was brutal...and beautiful!
The course around Coniston Water was stunning. It really was a variety of terrain from roads, service tracks, hard surface paths, mountain trails, rocky scree, and muddy quagmire. There was a lap of Tarn Hows* thrown in as well as 3500ft of climb including a view over the lake at Parkamoor* (I know it's not my picture but it's better than the one I got up there).

The weather really didn't look good first thing and it rained pretty much non stop from waking up till the start of the race. Then, it miraculously held off in the main except for an apocalyptic downpour as I went over High Pass...on my own...not being able to see anybody in front or behind. There were a few moments when I started to doubt I was going the right way especially hugging the lakeside through the last 10K but I knew I was at least going in the right direction and it was the thought of pizza* at the end that kept me going.

Amazing, wonderful, exhilarating, knackering.

The sting in the tail, once I'd arrived home and showered, was getting out to Owen crying downstairs. Turns out he'd got a lego stud stuck up his nose...cue a frantic trip to A&E.
Apparently it's quite common and the trick is to close the other nostril and blow into his mouth to magically find a snot-covered stud. Despite fearing the worst on a Sunday night, we were in and out inside 20 minutes!