Lakeland 100
Colm O’Cofaigh completed yet another 100+ mile ultra race over the weekend, this time the Lakeland 100 which is actually 104 miles long.
The Lakeland 100 ‘Ultra Tour of the Lake District’ is a spectacular long distance trail race and encompasses the whole of the Lakeland fells and includes in the region of 6300m of ascent on public bridleways and footpaths. The route starts in Coniston and heads South before completing a clockwise loop which takes in the Dunnerdale fells, Eskdale, Wasdale and Buttermere before arriving in Keswick. From here the route heads to Matterdale and continues over to Haweswater before returning via Kentmere, Ambleside and Elterwater to the finish at Coniston. The route does not pass over any of the ‘popular’ Lakeland summits. Instead, it weaves it’s way through stunning valleys, contours picturesque fells and cuts it’s own line through the amazing Lakeland topography. The event is continuous in nature and runners have 40 hours in which to complete it, with 50 to 60% of runners failing to finish within the cut off.
There are 14 manned checkpoints on the course which are compulsory to visit, with food and drink available at each. With the event starting at 6:00pm on the Friday evening and the final cut off at 10:00am Sunday morning, most runners miss two nights sleep in order to complete the run in time, but Colm overcome all these obstacles to finish with just 21 minutes to spare in 39 hours 39 minutes.