HAWESWATER HALF MARATHON.......EASING DOWN

  One of the dreams I've had since I was a small child  was to visit the place where the water came from that was used to fill my tin bath placed before our coal fire on a Saturday night.  You see our mam insisted we were clean when the relatives came a callin' on a Sunday afternoon.  (Only kidding..........we didn't even have a coal fire we were so poor)    But seriously...........

 Learing that the Manchester Water Corporation were authorised,  by a bill in Parliament no less,  to use Haweswater in the Lake District as a reservoir, it seemed only fitting that once in my life I should run the HAWESWATER HALF MARATHON.
   I know it's only 2 weeks after Blackpool but having averaged over 50 per week this year I should be strong enough to race both of them reasonably well.  However, I have been reliably informed that the course, to my surprise, is "a killer".
 From other souces I learn that it is "the most scenic half marathon in the country"  and "challenging".  So all in all certainly not a course in which it's likely to see an improvement on the Blackpool time but plenty to look at whilst we're all  suffering.   I had thought that the main part of the race would be a nice flat road by the water but as you can see from the shot here .....there is no road.  One thing seems clear we'll be able to see those in front of us when they are on their way back. Might take the camera and "shoot" whilst I race!  That will be a first.
   The "wind down" to the race was planned as 8......7........4.......3.   So Wednesday saw back on the Bolton Abbey and Strid trail for the 8 , the first time in weeks.  Couldn't have gone much slower if I had my legs tied together and was quite happy to stop when approached by two young ladies from my old college in Leeds who wanted to directions to the Strid waterfall.

 I showed them and warned them to be careful; telling them about the young honeymooners who had slipped in and failed to get out.
   I saw the young students  again 10 minutes later and they were as close as they could get to the water, ignoring my warning.  Having said that Wednesday was a dry and sunny day.