Race Date : Sunday 5th March 2017

A small group of Striders ventured up to Cumbria for the weekend to partake in the Haweswater half marathon. Hosted by Syd (my Dad)  we were spoilt rotten and had to, at times, kindly refuse the copious amount of food, beer, gin, wine that was put in front of us.

The weekend kicked off with the Penrith parkrun. As you can’t have Lakes without water, there had been amble rain in the days preceeding our visit and part of the parkrun course led us to act like Bambi on Ice. No Pb for me but some excellent free cake in the post parkrun clubhouse.

Part 2 of the jolly involved a trip to Keswick. Trev and I circumnavigated Derwentwater, a nice pre half marathon 10 miler making 16 miles for the day. Probably not the best preparation but it was well worth it. The scenery was stunning. Paul and Jen probably had the better pre marathon preparation of coffee and cake in a nice cafe in Keswick.

Part 3 was a trip to the Agricultural Hotel for a hearty pre half meal and probably a few too many beers. Peggy joined us at this point, having pointlessly (literally) watched Norwich get stuffed 5-1 at Hillsborough. Peggy arrived to the restaurant to find a nice owl menu board occupying his seat. We thought it was very funny anyway – perhaps you had to be there!

Part 4 and the main attraction was the Haweswater half with an unusual start time of 11.30am. The race was stunning as we ran along the edge of Haweswater, climbed then descended to the end of the lake, turned around and came all the way back. There was snow capped hills on both sides of the lake and thankfully the weather held off to make the experience the best it could be.

There were 458 runners and the race was won by Thomas Durcan of Derwent AC in 1.12.39. The first woman was our very own Jen Rich in 1.25.44. Well done Jen, brilliant result.

Striders Results: