HAWESWATER HALF......A KILLER?

  Race day dawned and forecasts for a cloudless but chilly day proved pretty correct.  Despite staying  in the region of the Lakes for the weekend and the race location being fairly close "as the crow flies" we allowed an hour for the drive as there are no roads crossing the mountains that a crow might fly over!  So after an interesting drive through Shap and down the narrow lanes we arrived at the village of Bampton, between Kendal and Penrith where the race would start an hour before the 11.30 start time.  Plenty of time of my compulsory warm up of 2 miles but with prerace chat and search for the start and the finish,  the warm up becomes a touch panicky and shorter than planned. 
  I have always said that the first lesson in road racing is to find the alternative toilets;  the ones that are out of the way, with no queues.  The local pub , situated 100 metres before the start, serves the purpose nicely. I thank the landlord and leave him preparing his post race barbeque!

  I join the assembled throng of 517 taking part and optimistically place myself on row 4 or so of the narrow start.  Elbows firmly out as usual practice, as I manage  6.58 for the first mile and runners are passing me as if I'm going backwards.  I can't believe the number who are operating at sub 90 pace.
  Significantly, a couple of lovely Lancashire lassies,
Sarah and Michaela  who were just in front of me at Blackpool two weeks ago have overtaken me plus
my one M60 who beat me over 10k just before Christmas.   I can see them and could have slipped behind them but the pace feels more than fast enough and I let them go.
The undulations kick in almost immediately and the pace shoots down to 7.47 and 7.44 but after 3 miles we reach the spectacular view we've come along to enjoy on this "most scenic" half and enjoy the marvel for 2 flattish miles.....7.16 and 7.19

The road unfortunately leaves the reservoir edge and  we climb again........7.42.  The pace isn't bad but the hills are taking a toll on the hamstrings. At the top of the hill, we can now see the turn around point. We know that the next mile will be a downhill section (7.06) but of course we now witness the leaders coming back towards us, tackling the incline we're running down and know that it'll be our turn to endure the challenge within minutes.
  Of course,  I see my M60 rival still with a significant lead.  He is going to have to fold badly for me to win today.  But there's always a chance and I make a determined challenge overtaking several on the climb on this 8th mile.....8.02. Over the top and I'm still overtaking and things are really starting to flow now whilst the legs still feel a bit fragile.  I shorten the stride, quicken the cadence and select another target to go for.  My two Lancashire lassies are amongst those I've nudged ahead of.  Four good miles follow......7.09,  7.20 (uphill) 7.16 and then a good charge for the line with some much younger fast finishers.

The results confirm my "rival" didn't fold and went on to beat me by 2 minutes with another M60 slotting in between us.  So 3rd in the age group of 18. 135th of the 517 who finished.  Time?  Well, I knew it was going to be slower than the much flatter Blackpool; my differential was plus 1 min. 46 secs. 96.30 compared with 94.44. This compared well however with 3 who beat me at Blackpool  who had differentials of over 3 minutes and were in turn behind me today. 

 As forecast my 50 miles per week average for the year and good consistency over the last few months seemed to have stood me in good stead.    All in all, no way a P.B. race unless it was someone's first!  But a really memorable one that I was happy to add to the list and a nice mug as a souvenir.                                    I leave you with another view of the source of Manchester's water ........the reservoir they created in 1935, flooding two villages to do it. 84 billion litres of water when full but when it's not, in extremly dry weather, the stone walls and Mardale village bridge can still be seen.