Social Running on a Helvellyn Mountain Trail

14th November 2015

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Helvellyn 15k was a trail challenge fantastic for myself, Ben, Dan, Simon.

For the first time I was being regarded as a #trailrunning veteran – what with Ben having done Hawkshead only – and it being virgin territory for Dan and Simon. By coincidence, Helvellyn had been my first ever trail run and had got me well and truly hooked!

Ben and I had sincerely promised each other we’d jog and walk around due to serious hip concern and ITB injury respectively. The night before, our Facebook feeds showed many friends who know us well were convinced we’d end up legging it around. Giving into adrenaline etc. Part of me wanted to do that but knew it would mean risking longer-term injury.

Weather on the drive up had been well and truly awful. Bucketing down so badly there were times when road visibility was quite dangerous. I quickly caught up with Event Director, Graham Patten, Pete Lashley and Mark M-H aka GBStick11.  And just before the start the sun broke through, to make what was to be a cracking day even brighter 🙂

At the sound of the klaxon, we soon headed out of Glenridding. Ensuring we did actually trot out it felt great to be looking forward to a run to simply take in the scenery and not for one second worry about pace or time.  This was Ben’s swansong after all so we wanted to embrace it (if not each other!). A muddy, mucky affair it was difficult to keep our feet.  At times we were practically surfing downhill! Fantastic stuff!

We let Dan stride off effortlessly into the distance – he was in good nick so myself and Ben were only holding him back. Simon on the other hand was really struggling due to the rain and relatively mild weather – his glasses becoming useless in the conditions, so making foot placement very dodgy! We waited for him near the switchback before the bog. The marshal kindly took this pic of us having a rest 🙂

To me the whole day really embodied the joys of running socially. We helped bring Simon to the finish and thoroughly enjoyed chatting throughout. The weather didn’t once dampen the atmosphere of another great day on the trails. Afterwards it was a case of grabbing some fab fuel food from the stall holders, before retiring to a warm Glenridding pub to enjoy a soft drink…

Finally, a quick thank you…

The number of people who took a moment to introduce themselves to me and complement me on this blog was a lovely surprise. It’s a real bonus and does mean a lot that fellow runners find your blog writing and interviews informative, entertaining and really interesting. I’m honestly very grateful 🙂

Dan is now really keen on more Lakeland Trails events for 2016. I’ll defo be joining him! But maybe competing next time 🙂 

All pics by Ben Keegan, except official course photography.