The Lakeland 5 Day 1998

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The Lakeland 5 Day 1998James Head

Day 1 WitherslackWhat a bright sunny day we had to begin the Lakes 5 day, somewhere, someone must have

been laughing. Nearly all of the events were characterised by lengthy walks to the start soyou had plenty of time to talk to fellow Orienteers along the way. Some people mentioned

running on this area several years ago as part of the JK but they werent letting out much

information. Getting off to a rocky start my first control on M21S involved a very steep

descent down the side of a quarry and whilst I was slowly making my way down Paul

Glanville seemed to bounce along behind me. Why didnt you use the path he asked me

later.

The long courses followed a figure of eight guiding us through the woodland towards the very

technical north end of the map before coming back across the open heathland on top. The

fact that not all the crossing points were overprinted on the maps was commented on

afterwards by several competitors. The planners have since said that this was to prevent

people from straying in to the out of bounds areas, of which not all were overprinted on the

map. This did cause some confusion and I myself nearly ran straight through the start on the

way back. Although the course was rather long there were some very nice technical areas

which were well used by the planners.

In the evening, Brendon and Caedmon Gould, together with Troy Hargreaves managed to

amuse themselves by building a dam across the river running through the campsite. This

might seem like a trivial piece of information until you learn of what was to occur the next

morning.

The Flood

I was woken up at five-thirty by the sound of rain hitting my tent which continued unabatedfor the rest of the morning. After having breakfast and hearing that the start times had been

put back for two hours I sat in my car and began to read a book, totally oblivious to the chaos

that was occurring around me. Several parts of the field were by now covered by standing

water but I wasnt too concerned since I had pitched my tent on a small rise. At around ten-

fifteen it seems that the camp site organisers began to alert campers to the danger of the

rapidly rising river level and instructed people to leave the site and pass on the message by

word of mouth. This word of mouth never reached myself until eleven when I hurriedly

gathered up most of my stuff except for the flysheet - which was in danger of being swept

away - and drove out. The river, which had been a trickle the day before was now within a

foot of bursting its banks which it did minutes later. I joined the throng of sightseers that had

gathered to watch as the campsite disappeared leaving only the top of a single large brown

tent exposed above the waterline. During the afternoon, once the rain had stopped the water

began to drain away from the campsite revealing a few mangled tents and in one case, a large

metal tent pole that had been bent into a right angle, twice!

Day 2 Silver HowAmazingly we were allowed back onto the campsite where I was reunited with the flysheet of

my tent. Unfortunately however the poles were broken in three places so it looked a very

pitiful sight when erected to dry off. It was a long slog uphill to the start but the organisers

had thoughtfully placed a couple of portaloos on the route. This rather spoiled the view from

the kitchen window of the holiday cottage Rosemary was staying in though!


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The Silver How map covered an entirely open area of fell with no trace of woodland so the

mapper had decided not to use the more normal pale orange colour for rough open but had

instead left it as all white with exception of the juniper bushes. Some people seemed to think

that this made things easier for them but I myself didnt notice any difference. The map did

however show the Dungeon Ghyll Hotel so if you felt a little thirsty out on the run

After the previous days excitement the course seemed a little uneventful really.

Day 3 LingmoorLingmoor included another lengthy uphill walk to the start, this time however on the other

side of the valley. Weatherwise it was an unusual type of day, for the most part sunny but

with several periods of intermittent rain and sometimes quite windy, particularly as the long

courses negotiated the steep sides of the valley. The rough open moorland was quite rocky in

places and the very high bracken also helped to make the courses more difficult by hiding

several controls, especially on the south facing slopes. Most of the courses however did seem

so suffer from one major flaw, in order to get people down from the moorland and into thewoods the planners had placed a crossing point at the north end of a long downhill wall which

meant competitors had to negotiate an 85 metre descent along the edge of the wall to get to

the next crossing point. Any route diagonally down the hillside was blocked by large crags.

Over the course of the event this route turned very dangerous as the trodden bracken became

slippery and the earth began to erode away. This resulted in a Sea King rescue helicopter

being scrambled to aid one injured female competitor. As Jill Green pointed out later, all the

planners had to do was move the first crossing point 85m downhill so that competitors would

use the path on the western side of the wall, or come down diagonally across the hill side.

The change from open to wood confused some but thankfully I managed to get through

quickly. I had still taken the longest amount of time I have ever done though - three hours -

and most of this had been on the previously mentioned descent.

Day 4 Blae RiggOn arriving we found out that the starts had been put back two hours giving us plenty of time

to socialise with other Devon and Kerno members in the assembly area over mugs of Wilfs

coffee. Those running from the red start had the furthest to go today, a walk of an hour and

fifteen minutes! I decided to cut out controls 2 to 5 so that the Greens would not be waiting

an age for my return so I was rather surprised to see that I am actually recorded in the results

as completing the course in 90 minutes and have not been put down as retired! Those doing

the long course had the added bonus of being able to see a spectacular rainbow over Easedale

Tarn, if you werent concentrating too much on your course that is. Much of the courseseemed to be straightforward until the last control where I somehow managed to aim off a

little too much to the right and ended up 400m from the control but quickly relocated.

Day 5 Grizedale ForestI like forests, especially very big ones with lots of features that are very runnable so I thought

Id like Grizedale Forest. Well the first half - along the eastern slopes - was okay and I was

going slightly faster then usual but after we had crossed an area of rough open in the centre of

the map the forest changed from being nice to something resembling Fernworthy at last

years Gallopen only ten times worst. The forest got a little better before the end although the

planner decided to bring us back along what appeared to be the most rocky and treacherous

parts of the forest. The Lakeland 5 day had been more physically demanding then any othermultiday event I had been on and the organisation had appeared to be as slick although the


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all the finishs had been very low key and seemed to run smoothly on very low manpower,

especially when you consider how far away some of them had been from the road.

One last thought, if any of you saw Geraldine Gould hanging around Tory Brook with a ruler

in hand at the Caddihoe Chase you now know why!

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The Lakeland 5 Day 1998