Arrange to run with Russ and cover some of the Lakes 50 route. The weather is good and after breakfast at More Bakery I pick Russ up and head to Pooley Bridge. Here we meet some other guys recce'ing the route, their day will much longer than ours !
We head out of Pooley Bridge The Cockpit, an ancient stone circle and then head West and then South West along a good track to the checkpoint at Howtown; this section brings back good memories of when I was racing in the Lakes 100 last summer and Garry and Craig were shouting abuse (or perhaps words of encouragement) from Arthur's Pike.
We check out the checkpoint at Howtown and then head along Fusedale to cross the Roman Road and the highest section of the entire route. This is familiar ground as I had run down this way just a couple of weeks ago with Charlie.
Across the ridge and we then run down over High Kop and then Low Kop before starting to descend to the footbridge over Measand Beck at Fordingdale Bottom. We do go all the way down to this, but recce the route from higher up, time is against us.
We then head back up the ridge and turn North to follow the Roman Road over Wether Hill and Loadpot Hill. This also serves as a recce for Russ's Joss Naylor Challenge (JNC) which is planned for this big Birthday in November !
From Loadpot Hill we head to Arthur's Pike and descend through the caravan park to the Howtown road, we check this as an alternative route out of Pooley Bridge for the JNC. It works, after a short road section a path across fields brings us the Pooley Bridge - we just need to remember this....in reverse and at 4am on a late November morning !
A good day out, about 4 hours of steady running and we manage time for a quick pint in the Hawkshead Brewery on the way home.
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