A couple of weeks ago L dangled the Derwent Water 10 in
front of me. I was tempted, if my leg was up to it. I guess there’s only one way
to find out. The rain even stops and the wind drops. It's just me though, L isn’t doing it although she does do her
own run beforehand then takes up supporting duties with the dogs.
Starting from Keswick, the runs takes a scenic clockwise lap
around around Derwent Water. First off there’s half a mile or so along the pedestrianized
centre of Keswick causing many shoppers to dive into shop doorways to get out
of the way of the oncoming stampede.
Then we’re out on to the roads where the tourists get even
more frustrated as the race causes a massive traffic jam. After a few miles
though we’re onto the more minor roads around the lake and the problem moves on
from the continuous impatient traffic to the continuous upwards trajectory of
miles 6 and 7. Luckily the course does go down as well as up and I suppose it’s all very
pretty. If you like that sort of thing.
My legs feel ok aside from a huge blister on my left foot which
makes the last two miles agony but in a sadistic sort of way, it was all excellent.
I limp home in 1:22:17,
which isn’t great but when compared with my last 10 miler in May at Burton
starts to look a bit better. I beat that time by over a minutes... somehow.
It’s a no-frills run but not at a particularly no-frills
price. There were no t-shirts/medals/ mementos and I didn’t even get a cup of
water at the end. Water supplies at the finish totally ran out and apparently the kitchens
at the school where the race started were closed, so they couldn't get any
more.
Timing was done by a Parkrun style system with bar codes and seemed to
work well enough.
