Lake District Sports - Lake District Fell Running

There's nothing new about extreme sports, or at least not in Cumbria. The Lakeland Fells are the historical and spiritual home of one of the oldest and most gruelling of them all - and it's still going from strength to strength.

Welcome to the ultimate test of physical fitness and mental toughness. If you find it hard to contemplate running up a mountain, just imagine sprinting down.

Cumbria hosts over 50 fell races every year. There are short races up and down a single slope, or marathons like the Borrowdale and Wasdale runs : traditional events that involve the whole community. At the other end of the scale, there are solitary personal challenges that will take you to forsaken summits and unspoilt uplands. Try a 'Bob Graham Round' - 42 peaks in 24 hours!

Always wear proper fell running shoes and follow the advice of the experts about carrying spare clothes, emergency rations, map and compass etc.

History

Racing up and down hills has a long history in the north of England and throughout Scotland and Wales where most of the UK's hills are found. The sport appears to have started, and been sustained, as a part of many community fairs and games. In the highlands of Scotland these became highland games and across the North of England they were fairs or sports days. The sport was a simple affair and was based upon the community's values for physical ability as were the other sports found in these games such as wrestling and heavy events such as throwing the hammer. These fairs or games events were often commercial as well as cultural. One might find music and dances as well as livestock shows and sales. For the sports in a community of shepherds and agricultural labourers comparisons of speed and strength would be interesting to spectators and a source of professional pride for competitors. A fast shepherd or a strong labourer would be as respected, one imagines, as any top ranking colleague in a more modern employment.

Courtesy of torpenhow3.

Sail Beck Fell race, Simon Booth of Borrowdale Fell Runners in the lead.

Like most of these sports the early events were probably in some way professional. The rise of amateur sport in the Victorian era brought a change to the sport, a change that was to eventually create the modern sport with more complex and longer courses that make less of a spectacle for spectators but a more modern endurance running sport.

Fell running does not involve rock climbing. Races avoid rock climbs and are subject to change when any ground nearby becomes unstable. A small number of fell runners who are also rock climbers nevertheless do attempt records traversing ridges that allow running and involve scrambling and rock climbing – particularly where the record is 24 hrs or less. Foremost of these in the UK is probably the traverse of the Cuillin Main Ridge on Skye, and the Greater Traverse, including Blaven. Nor does fell running involve expeditions. Race records vary from minutes to, generally, a few hours. Some of the mountain marathons do call for pairs of runners to carry equipment and food for camping overnight. Even the most extreme fell runners will tend to ”bite” at a record that stands 24 hrs or less – often a "round" that ends at the start line. The exceptions to the extreme fell runner are attempts at a continuous round of Munros. Mountaineers who traverse light and fast over high Alpine, Himalayan or through other such continental, high altitude are considered Alpine style mountaineers.

Fell Running for Novices

Fell running is a reasonably accessible sport, requiring little in the way of expensive equipment and facilities. As with all running sports a reasonable level of fitness is required to participate. However, unlike other endurance running sports, there is an additional small but very real risk of death on longer races where exhaustion and poor weather in remote areas infrequently leads to death from exposure. Unlike most distance running where really severe exhaustion means sitting on a pavement waiting for help; help might be hours away and temperatures may plummet in the mountains whilst the fell runner wears only light clothing.

Most fell runners begin by initially trying a short race. Even the most fit and fast road, track or cross country runners can benefit from a couple of weeks of including sharp climbs and descents in their training to prepare untrained muscle groups.

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