Day 4 - Day 2 of the Run, Up, Over, Down, Up, Over, Down, Up, Over, Along!

This was always going to be a toughy, starting in Borrowdale in the Lakes and heading out to Shap.

First thing was to get some Breakfast, instant ish porridge and hot cross buns:

After some faffing and deliberation it was out of the campsite and up Green Up Gill:

Looking back down Green Up Gill after the climb from Borrowdale:

As always in the Lakes the climb was hard, a bit of trotting up, but a fair amount of grinding, these are not hills for running up! Luckily the winds had eased off a tad which made running a bit easier.

I then dropped down Grasmere Common into Grasmere, not a nice feeling losing all that altitude when you know you've got to pick it all up again. A quick muesli bar at Low Mill bridge and then another climb up the east side of Great Tongue to Grisedale tarn, I stopped at these waterfalls for a quick snapshot of a hiker having his sarnies:

Looking back down Tongue Gill, the path to the left:

Luckily after taking a few photos it started to rain heavily, I saw it coming in so just about got the waterproof on time, then continued upwards. Up at Grisedale Tarn I had a quick chat with some walkers, explaining that it wasn't too cold for shorts! I started heading down Grisedale Beck, rocky and rubbley as ever in the Lakes., the rain clearing about half way down. so off with the waterproof and into sheep chasing mode, it wasn't my fault but the daft ewes insisted on running down the path in front of me.

I ran down into Patterdale where it started to rain again, but I couldn't be bothered with the waterproof as I was hopiong to find dad round the corner parked up for our lunch stop. As always he didn't disappoint!

Some refuelling on soup, ham, bread, probably a cup of tea or two and it was off for some more lakeland hills:

The climb out of Patterdale was a biggy, continued steep incline up to Boredale Hause, then more climb up to Angle Tarn. On the bright side the sun popped out briefly so I could get rid of the waterproof. It was then up near Satura Crag, my ipod Nano playing up on me a lot by this stage, it obviously wasn't appreciating the weather as much as me. I headed out onto the Straits of Riggindale (I love all these Hill names! ) before turning left up to Kidsty Pike, the highest point on the C2C if you don't go for any of the hilly detours (which I decided to miss this time, being a softy). from there I could see for miles, including the works at Shap which seemed very small in the distance and my target for the evening. Heading down was nice to beign with, grassy, not too steep, but this soon changed to steep, rocks, mud steps etc, and then the rain came in again for good measure.

I reached the bottom and Haweswater Reservoir where I overtook a fair few groups of walkers. The path again wasn't nice, but up and down, rocky and on a slope. I felt a low energy patch starting to appear, whilst concentrating on the descent I hadn't been drinking or stopping for snacks. A Muesli bar, apple and Tracker helped pick me up and get me all along the shoreline.

From there it was a few miles of faffing through fields, to Shap Abbey and then along the road for the final haul into Shap where dad had managed to secure parking behind the pub. Another 33 miles done. It was then more food, beer and bed!