Hawkshead Trail 15K

It was my first off road race and the longest race I have done and to be honest I was very very surprised how hard going it was with the hills, and if I'm honest a little too tuff. I never for one minute thought I would be walking for sections of the race. Its made me now think twice about enetering the rest of the races.

So I'm taking it from Mr Slugs comment that it was that very difficult for the catagory of 'trail' race?

I agree about the road shoe point, I'm very glad I took advice and bought the Mizuno trail shoes.

It was great fun though!!!!!!

Could we the km markers be made a little bigger next time as I missed a lot of them as I was pushing that much. 

Hope this doesn't come across a tad negative becuase I had a great day and enjoyed it a lot.

Neither Derwentwater nor Coniston are as hard as Hawkshead but both do have significant climbs and 'their moments'.  Derwentwater, for example, has basically only one climb - but its unrelenting for nearly four miles and traverses a bog before the steep bit at the end.  If you go to the Lakelend Trails website and look at each set of pages for the different events, you'll see that the silhouette image at the bottom of the page differs in each case - that image at the bottom of the page is the race profile.

I'm sorry Daz - you and I will have to agree to disagree on this one - but I can't bring myself to call this a fell race, primarily because of the terrain.  It was virtually all on graded paths (with about a mile of tarmac) and there was nothing really steep or technical anywhere.  Obviously, the boundary between trail and fell is blurred - and I'd agree that sections at both Derwentwater and Coniston cross over into fell running country but not at Hawkshead. 

In terms of toughness of other trail races, its hard for me to be objective since all the other trail events I have done have been similar.  That said, I have seen adverts for other 'trail' races that involve running along canal towpaths, forest roads or through country parks - so I suppose these could be towards the upper end of the difficulty spectrum but that's mostly because they're in the Lake District.

Mr Ben wrote (see)

Oh one question, although I've no chance of doing 24KM of the Garburn race can anyone tell me if the other two races (Derwentwater and Coniston) have hill profiles similar to Saturdays?

CumbriAndy - I've done several fell races with easier underfoot conditions than Hawkshead - Rainow and Gravy Pud spring to mind - even Rivington Pike that I did the week before

What a fantastic event

Had a most enjoyable time and will be back to race it next time

Roll on Garburn!!

Isn't the primary difference between a fell race and a trail race that the object of a fell race is to get from point A to point B by your own judgement whereas a trail race is on a pre-determined, marshalled course?

I think Hawkshead is a trail race that just happens to be on a very challenging course!

 Flippin 'eck.....that was a tough one!

What scenery though. I think I should have entered the challenge race, rather than the trail, but thankfully the marshalls let me get away with being over the cut-off time....phew!!

Loved the drummers. And what about the weather? More like July.

Ria, well done you finished it, which is an achievment in itself. Hope you are going to enter some of the other 3 races, I know I am.

The split between the challenge and the race was a bit fuzzy, there were a lot of people who got very good times in the challenge. Should they not have been in the race?

My training for the remaining races will now be to go to the local multi story car park and repeatedly run up and down to the top level.  

That is one tough run!!

Finished in 1.37

Have done a few marathons and lots of half marathons.

 Hawkshead was MUCH harder than any of them.....but now I know what to expect I will adjust my training to include a lot more hills

It made me giggle at prizegiving to hear all the top women in this race were international athletes! One did well at the Commonwealth Games!! What was I doing racing in this company!! I am mad.......

I wonder why the ninja fast people did the challenge race then??

Getting worried for the Cader Idris race now. 5 miles up the mountain, then down.

I've got a bad back.....eeeeeek......

This was  my first ever race and what a race to start with!!  It was really tough going but it could've been even harder had it been wet.  The weather was perfect and I thought the drummers were excellent.  The general concenus was that I could do it in running shoes and I was cursing them people the whole way round.  I nearly lost my footing a few times.  I didn't get a proper chance to take in all the scenary as I was too busy watching where I put my feet!!

That "Coffin Trail" was horrendous.  I needed a bloody coffin at the end of it!!  Glad it was at the end though, it would have been demoralising had I started with that!!

 I enjoyed it so much that I'm going to enter the Derwent and Coniston one.  I was so pleased with myself that I managed to complete the course that it's given me the confidence to tackle anyhting (within reason!!).  And I don't think Garburn is within "reason" at the moment.

I'm going to enter the Cumbrian Half-Marathon and the people who had done this and the Half-Marathon said that the half-marathon was a doddle compared to this!!

Ria - see you at Cader Idris! get a few big-hill training seshes in in between and you'll be fine

Heidi_M - "I didn't get a proper chance to take in all the scenary as I was too busy watching where I put my feet!!" - another good way to distinguish between a trail and a fell race!

Ria - I have just bumped your existing thread for Cader Idris - we can talk about it there...

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