
Although I am relatively new to trail running, I enjoyed a weekend in the Lake District in 2014, racing on two consecutive days. This year I am participating in the British Athletics Mountain Running Challenge.
This is a series of races which provides a focus for endurance athletes to compete at mountain running events in the UK, with opportunities to be selected for Home country or National teams at International Championships, plus a further incentive to enter mountain races in Europe.
I have already competed in the first of the series, the Inter Counties Championships ( Up & Down ) – Betws-y-Coed, North Wales, which was held on Saturday 16 May. This was a tough 12km race which started with a steep uphill with some technical fast descending later in the race. I thoroughly enjoyed the race, (despite bruising my foot on a rock after about 3km) and finished first for the North East counties and 21st in the field.
The next in the series was the European Championship Trial ( Uphill ) – Glenridding, Lake District, Sunday 31 May. Unfortunately my foot had not recovered sufficiently for this race so I did not compete.