The Montane Howgills Trail 26 - 17/05/2015

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings" - John Muir

I had been really looking forward to this race all year.  A marathon in the magnificent Howgill Fells.

The Howgills are great saddleback hills separating the famous Lakeland Fells and the smaller hills and valleys of the Yorkshire Dales.  The area is quiet and beautiful and I have visited for hiking before and knew it would make great trail running country. Mountains are a passion and I was excited to experience the biggest hills I have run yet.

The race starts and finishes in the pretty town of Sedbergh and is organised by the same guys who put on the famous Lakeland 100 ultra.  What works for them as a warm up has got to be good enough for me and my prep for the South Downs Way 100 which is my A race this year.

Cool shirt memento

I made an early start driving over from York and arrived to grey skies but high cloud.  It was cool if a little breezy, all in all not bad for running.

We were led from the race hq down to the start line by a lone bagpiper which was a nice touch although I'm not sure what the locals would have made of a load of lunatics and a piper disturbing their Sunday morning peace.

The first five miles are tough climbing straight out of Sedbergh, up to Winder and then the Calf at 674m in height.  The going here was tough and the wind had grown stronger and colder.  For the steepest sections the most effective tactic was to simply stick your backside out and hike to save some gas for the remaining 20 miles or so.

Once the top is reached the brakes come off for a brilliant technical rocky descent across remote terrain into Bowderdale. The trail was pretty wet and I managed to catch and pass a few runners here making a meal of the mud and standing water by simply ploughing on through - great fun!

Awesome Howgills trails

Now in the valley bottom there were a few muddy miles meandering over to Ravenstonedale and then another hard climb on quiet roads on the flanks of Harter Fell.

The next section for me was the best part of the day.  Just as you drag yourself wearily to the top of the climb you were rewarded with a spectacular flying descent back down to the River Rawthay in the shadow of Cautley Spout. This section was just awesome with the Howgills looming over you and some truly spectacular views of this rugged and special place.

It sounds weird I know for a tough marathon in the mountains that I actually felt sad at this point that the race would all be over in an hour or so.  I'm not sure I've had this much fun in a trail race before.

Soothing stream crossing after 20 odd miles of tough trail

Soon we were following the river home via some cooling stream crossings (bliss on the now battered feet) to finish on the town playing fields in Sedbergh.

I came in 26th in 4.26 out of 159 runners

A great route which was well marked, beautiful mountains and a brilliant little adventure.  I even managed to miss out on my usual fall.   The Howgills were everything I was expecting and more. Thanks to the Trail 26 guys for organising a fab race, for all the jelly babies and for a couple of the photos used here.

So thats it then, the next race will be the big one.  100 miles and 4,000m of ascent along the South Downs Way in only three weeks or so.  It seems mad to see such big numbers in black and white but I'm going to give it everything I've got.  If I have half as much fun as I have had in all the training and preparations this year I'll be ok.

DNF or glory, I'll see you on the other side....