Vacaciones!

Good morning folks

Here is the latest ladfromtad.com blog.
Less writing and more pics this time.
Just back from our first family jollies in the last 6 years.
T’Lakes. (Which means this blog is heavily Lakes & fellrunning biased).
In this mixed bag summer of sunshine and showers, we didn’t do too badly.

Packing as lightly as possible for 2.5 weeks was always going to be one of our biggest hurdles, but as long as we packed the car in exactly the same way, each time, in between moving around the Lakes, we would manage!

Valentina “borrowed” my phone whilst I was driving, and I found this, and others, later on 🙂

Ambleside Sports

So, we loosely planned our trip around the school holidays, my holidays and a few things going on in the Lakes. kicking off with Ambleside Sports.

The Nipper & I have got involved with a brilliant podcast by the name of “On the Back Foot“, which is mainly about fellrunning, but interspersed with other (mainly daft) stuff too. Although I had met mein host, JT, today was the day that Valentina first met the man himself 🙂

Meeting the legendary Jacob Tonkin, from ON THE BACK FOOT podcast.

Rydal Round fell race, the less said the better!
In a nutshell, I got everything wrong; pacing, training, food, navigation, shoes, and more.

Blue ice cream, before watching the Guides Race and Hound Trailing, after the Cumberland Westmorland Wrestling, what more could a person want?!

The Bridge House wasn’t quite as impressive, as in the photos!

Whilst I do like to support the local community, the price of this loaf came as a shock, and it wasn’t made with cocaine and saffron either!

Saturday sporting spectacular!

Saturday 27th August was a bit of a mad day sports and weatherwise.
Awaking to torrential rain, we headed from Langdale to Whinlatter Pass, near Keswick for Lina to take part in one of the hilliest Parkruns in the country, for which the monsoon halted and it slowly turned into a cracking day!

Back to Langdale for the British Championship race, The Blisco Dash. It was a bit of a Challenge Anneka for us to get there in time, but we did it.

**Still haven’t seen any famous climbers at the ODG.**

The men’s winner, Matthew Knowles (Lancaster & Morecambe AC).

Pudsey & Bramley legends: Rachel Pilling (V40 British Ladies champion) and Rob Hope (V50 British Mens champion).

Headlights of Lakeland 50 & 100 runners floating through the valley on the Saturday night. To be continued…

Kendal

We headed back to my hometown for a few days to stock up on Kendal Mint Cake and shoes at Pete Bland Sports.

The best fellrunning shoes I have ever had. VJ Irocks, found a pair which fitted me. Sticky as glue on wet rock. These are the future!

Spent the hottest day of the year in this souless launderette! Always good to have clean clobber though.

Borrowdale

(After Wasdale) the big race of the year for me, coinciding with my birthday and the race being covered by Countryfile (which I haven’t seen yet).

A race I love and a route I know. Last year I fell and bashed my ribs within the first mile. This year was better, but despite the insane grip of my out-of-the-box VJs, I almost took a headlong plunge down the steepest part of the descent off Scafell Pike, my birthday guardian angels were looking down on me, as I somehow righted my right size 13 mid-fall and didn’t kill myself, nor break my neck!

Perfect conditions. Big field. Got under 5hrs. Job done 🙂

Wasdale

We headed up to remote Wasdale for a family meet with the club.
It is a place that I absolutely love to bits. A bit of a hike, but more than worth it.

The elusive Emerald Pool.

Before the storm!

Descending from Styhead Pass, blowing a gale, driving rain, Lake District summer!

Less than 24hrs later…

Free fish pedicure! They musy have been blooming starving to tackle my plates of meat

Paddleboarding. I was too traumatised to have a go, due to by trying//failing to windsurf on a school trip to Morecambe Bay, 75 years ago.

Drigg beach, August.

Natterjack Toad, released unharmed, although maybe a bit bemused!

Steel Fell

Got word of a midweek sports special. The Steel Fell race.
Fellrunning at its simplest.
100 people in a field, someone (Scoffer) shouts “GO”, run up hill, run down hill. Free entry. How could one resist?

On a day of constant on-off downpours, we just sat in the hut, chatting and I broke my tea drinking record with 14 cups before 5pm!

My first “short” fell race in over 20 years and I absolutely loved it. No need to think about kit, food, navigation. Just a straightforward as it gets up-&-down blast. Steel Fell is convex, so on the descent you can see Thirlmere, but it looks like you are dropping off the edge of the earth to get to it. Pure, trying not to fall on your ar$e, fun 🙂

Josie, too fast for the camera!

Jose, Josie & Johnny!

Even I couldn’t get lost on a race like this 🙂

Josie & Lina.

A special mention to a friend from the club who has done something that I have been failing at for the past few years; tempting Lina on to the fells!

Josie took Lina under her wing and showed her the ropes around Langdale.
It gave Lina the confidence to take on her first ever fell race, let’s see where it leads to!

Wild swimmers.

Not a sport I am likely to get into soon, but I have nothing but respect and admiration for people who do it. (I am too much of a wuss, blaming it on Raynaud’s Syndrome and I am sticking by that).

Big THANK YOU to Josie, Rachel & Katie for the motivation for getting the girls in the water.

Next stop, crossing the Channel!

Fiestas Patrias.

Peruvian Independence Day was spent rambling around the Langdale valley.

**Fleeing the cloud of Horsefiles which descended on us at Blea Tarn.**

We had no Peruvian tucker, but managed to rustle up some Venezuelan Arepas, which meant we were all full for the rest of the week 🙂

Second bite of the cherry!

Rusland Sports.
Our friend, Bobby Gard-Storry, had tipped me off about this hidden gem.
The original plan was a trip to N.Wales, to recce the Peris Horseshoe route, but this crumbled a few days before, so with 2 days off work, we headed back to Langdale, to try and cram as much in over 3 days as possible!

Always the Bridesmaid and never the Bride! BGS 2nd to Jack Wright (again & again & again!)
My first ever live interview, right here: https://shows.acast.com/otbfpod/episodes/prost

Lina, not 100% about her impulsive entry into her first ever fell race.

BGS (2nd male) & Lina (1st Lady V40). Although she was the only Lady V40, you have to be in it to win it and with her £20 cash prize, she quadrupled my winnings of the last 35 years.

1st Lady V40 in the BOFRA Fell Race and 3rd in the U12 Fancy Dress competition.

Raiders round-up.

After countless inconsistent results, then a draw against Bradford Bulls and a win last week away against Dewsbury, the mighty Raiders are hopefully

turning things around. They kept their cool against Swinton. This drags us out of the quicksand at the bottom of the Championship league table, with only 5 games left.

Barrow Ladies take a 3 week break but really need to up their game against Featherstone next weekend, with only 3 games left in the Superleague season.

COYR 🙂

Take Hart!

Raynaud’s Syndrome is my standard excuse for being crap at anything in the cold and colourblindness is my excuse for being crap at anyhting arty, (as long as the source of a lifelong pain that I could never make it as a Pilot and then get picked as an Astronaut!)

Thankfully the Youngster has inherited her Mum’s artistic flair.