The Crossing Day 1

I drove down to Whitehaven on Thursday morning and arrived in good time to register for the event and enjoy a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine walking around the town. The town was looking very well in the good weather.

The night was spent at the nearby Premier Inn. It was a very early start on Friday to drive back into town and park about 10 minutes from the event start and walk down and dump my bag. The race briefing was at 6.45 am and the start at 7.00 am. At which point the heavens opened and we got a whole morning of pretty heavy rain. The journey to Keswick was fairly pleasant and would have had some quite nice views if we could have seen far.

The pit-stop with hot pies and sausage rolls was a pretty basic affair which didn't incur lingering even if there was a tiny amount of cover from the rain. After about 30 mins and the rain still falling heavily it seemed I might as well get moving as I wasn't warming up. Thankfully the rain stopped soon out of Keswick.

There was a fair bit of pushing up the steep rough hills and at one point there was a bit of carrying required. Some lovely high moorland sections in the latter part of the ride.

Got into Shap in reasonable shape around 5 pm I think and in the first bit of rain free weather pitched the tent and then showered and ate. The showers were excellent which was quite a surprise in an impromptu camp site on a farm. It is quite a while since I've slept in my little mountain marathon tent - not very comfortable !