Three Shires Fell Race

In my attempt to do all 6 of the Lakeland Classics, in one summer, my dodgy adducter muscle and I completed number five – the Three Shires Fell Race in Little Langdale. This is 12M/4700ft of truly “classic” Lakes terrain, steep, rough climbs, rocky ridge paths, long grassy descents and a brilliant Lakes pub to relax outside after in the sunshine, the Three Shires Inn. The dreaded uphill start only lasted for twenty yards or so before the 265 starters then had a mile or so of steady running on tracks to the foot of the north face of Wetherlam. The field split up here for the very steep and rough climb up to the 2502 ft summit, with myself and a few others taking the “FRA forum alternative route” that wasn’t really any quicker but did have less people and bracken for me to contend with. After that lung and thigh-buster of a 50min start it was a rocky walkers’ path that had us into running mode over Black Sails and up Prison Band to the summit of Swirl How (2630 ft). In the clear sunny weather the views were fantastic, though I could only snatch glimpses of it as the path was very technical and too much gazing at the views would have led to a nasty fall. After Swirl How there was a cracking runnable descent on a nice trod 1400 ft down to the road crossing at the Three Shires Stone. A trudge up to Pike of Blisco summit (2304 ft) was next and I managed to claw back quite a few places as a few runners started to wilt in the heat. The descent from the rocky summit had provided lots of discussion on the FRA forum, and I managed to remember enough of it to backtrack a hundred yards or so to find the runners’ trod that was meant to be easier than the walkers’ one. The descent was great, contouring its way over streams, across grassy slopes and through trodden bracken down to the gorgeous Blea Tarn. The tourists picnicking in the glorious sunshine by the lake definitely were the sensible ones compared to us runners as we laboured past trying to look fast and cool. The last climb up to Lingmoor Fell was tough and slow in the heat, though I still managed to crawl past a good few runners to arrive at the summit on my own. The flagged descent was a beauty, a good runnable angle, grassy trods and rocky zig-zag paths that re-energised my tired legs for the final effort down to the pub. I was almost spot on my pre-race estimate of 2h 45m, finishing in 89th place of the 265 starters which I was chuffed about. Nick Sharpe won in 2h 03m and Helene Diamantides in 2h 20m. The finish field contained an assortment of recovering bodies in various states, but we all managed to recover sufficiently to enjoy the free soup & roll from the pub, though I did need a wee 30m “power nap” in the car before I could really muster any energy for conversation and beer in the sunny beer garden after. A great day out in a fantastic part of the Lakes – hopefully I will be back there in a few weeks for the final Lakeland Classics Race, the Langdale Horeshoe.
Results here


Photos here