Saturday 19th
The adidas Terrex (yes them again the main sponsor) 10km trail race is held on the Saturday mornings, registration and getting my number onto my shorts made me happy on this very pleasant morning. The whole town seemed to have a happy glow about it. plenty folk sporting the free adidas terrex headbands. Aldo kane was there and spoke with me a couple of times, he was there to with his kids out to support his wife who was running the race, the weather was chilly but sunny too warm for late November, it’s been the hottest autumn on record, which like our record-breaking summer this year was due to human caused climate change, I was wondering what winter will bring? Then I put climate change to the back of my brain I was going to enjoy this run, which I did very much so; its straight up through the town streets then out into the hills, as I was leaving the road section the Kendal Mountain rescue people were marshalling the runners of the road onto a path. I couldn’t believe my eyes one of them was mike Brogden! I had journeyed with on so many occasions during the running out of time climate relay. he was one of the four person support crew for the baton, he had done an amazing job during that journey I was delighted to see him, (we got a selfie to send to pals) there was a bit of a bottle neck where the trail narrowed at the far side of a field, then up hill on track along a cliff edge, then; when approaching the summit there was a samba band bashing out some drum inspiration, absolutely marvelous; I loved the run back into town down the stairs and a great cheery crowd at the end, no crappy goody bag to sadden my eyes, just a bottle of excellent beer which gladdened me further, I opened it and drank it straight away, what a brilliant start to the day
It was a Run back to the hotel to get washed and changed as I had to be back into town quickly to see Guy Shrubsole, he is a British researcher, writer and campaigner. He wrote Who Owns England for that book he spent years researching who owns the land in England, In August 2020, Shrubsole launched a campaign on freedom to roam in England, called Right to Roam. In July 2021 he and Hayes collaborated with Landscapes of Freedom and David Bangs to organise a mass trespass on the Sussex Downs, to raise awareness of the failings of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which Shrubsole claims still only gives the public access to 8% of land and 3% of rivers in England. He used to work as Policy and Campaigns Coordinator at Rewilding Britain. I am guessing he lost faith in them as I did? On this day at the KMF he was being interviewed about his latest book - Lost Rainforests of Britain a campaign to find, map, photograph, and restore the Atlantic Oakwood forests, woodlands variously referred to in Britain as Upland Oakwoods, Temperate Rainforest, Caledonian forest, and colloquiall
Pardon the pun - he is my kind o guy! And knows his shrooms so a funguy also lol; the talk was excellent i learned a lot, at the Q&A at the end; I said I had concerns about hordes of tourists descending on whats left of the rainforests! I then asked him why he advocates reintroduction of lynx not wolves? I also told him I have been lucky enough to have witnessed Scottish rainforests, after the show, I was in a que for the loo he was behind me and asked which rainforest I had visited, I got a bit mixed up at the time as I was thinking was it when hiking or biking? When in fact it was both one forest while hiking the Stevenson way, the other while cycling down from john o groats
Next up it was a march across town to the leisure centre for the merrel running session a celebration of running and community with what they billed as the biggest names in the world of fell, mountain, trail and road. A bringing together of people setting records for the hardest and most inspiring routes across the globe. First up was a legend -
Finlay Wild - as British Fell Running Champion, Finley is a legend with a long list of running accolades. His achievements include winning three races in the British Championships, breaking the 34 year old record for the Buckden Pike race and beating the brutal Seven Sevens record in the Mourne Mountains. He was really good what a happy human he seems, Next was
Renee McGregor - sports dietitian and author of 'More Fuel You' and ‘The Female Athlete Training Diary’ Renee will be joining us to discuss athlete health and performance, and her own running journey as she currently trains for a 250km ultra. She was good I wanted to ask if her book was plant-based meat free, but she hardly spoke about her book, she spoke more about being a woman and a woman of colour in sport I tried to research for myself later, but could find nothing about plant based dairy free linked with her, so not much point in me buying that book, next it was
Trina Dawkins - Trina is a social butterfly for all things running. She is a member of inclusive running clubs, Out Runners and Black Trail Runners, next was -
Lauren Munro-Bennett - Lauren is a running, triathlon and open water swimming coach driven to make these sports more accessible. She also started guiding individuals with visual impairments in triathlons; is an ambassador for TrashFree Trails and a committed ‘plogger'; and this year finished 5th in the Lakeland Classics - a challenging series of the longest and toughest Lake District fell races. Next was-
Chris Richards - born and raised in Kendal, Chris likes to mix up his running disciplines. Alongside competing for team GB in 6 international mountain races, he won the British Fell Running Championships, the Cumbria Cross Country Championships and the Inter-Counties Fell Running Championships, and this year ran a 14:22 5k!
Plus, Martin Stone, who was instrumental in coordinating Jack Kuenzle's Bob Graham record attempt - bringing together a team of local fell runners to support Jack's unbelievable (to me and many others) record! A number of the support runners were on the stage including Nic Jackson, Billy Cartwright and Matthew Atkinson of Keswick AC, and Helm Hill Runners Kirk Wadsworth and his son Noah - who is just 14. I enjoyed This it was really good they showed jack Kuenzle, getting an award for his amazing bob Graeme round record-breaking run,
I also enjoyed the film at this session about 86year old marathon runner Ginette Bernard, there was a film shown from the black trail runners, it was ok but; I felt it was just a short and punchy adidas advert, with lots of flash new adidas kit, I personally have stopped buying anything new and trying to encourage others to do the same, but; you end up being what you see with product placement ads like this, this is why brands sponsor athletes and give them new shiny freebies, this film made that shiny stuff cool!
When walking back to town there was time for a beer in a nice-looking local bar down by the river, I ordered an ale then whilst drinking that one, I seen you could get six half pints of different ales for ten pounds! Oh, aye says aye this is too good to miss and I had time, this was silly as that made four pints in a short space of time! could I managed the whole next session without a loo break? No chance
Next was the feature film about the spine, a world premier hosted by montane -
Britain's most brutal race!
Covering the whole of the Pennine Way in the depths of winter, the Montane Spine Race has a world-wide reputation for being Britain’s most brutal adventure race. Celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of the first race dreamed up by British polar explorers Phil Hayday-Brown and Scott Gilmour, the film was looking back at the rich history of this incredible event; that offers its participants an epic experience like nothing else, after the film there was special guest speakers, on stage were Spine Race competitors Debbie Martin-Consani and Damian Hall, founder and race director Phil Hayday-Brown, and filmmakers Matt and Ellie Green
I really loved it all I dot watch the spine nearly every year, this film brought some good memories back, highly entertaining; the only criticism I would have is that nobody mentioned the protesters of kinder scouts mass trespass without which there would be no Pennine way, everyone enjoying the fun and freedom to roam the hills and nobody thanking the protesters who were jailed to win us ordinary folk the freedom to walk the Pennine way; there could also have been a wee message on climate change (winter aint as bad as the old days Ecostalgia) or the horrific damage done to the east coast forest that had competitors requiring to be bussed around part of the course, this was due to human caused climate change storm Arwen. Runners were taken by motorised transport between Bellingham and Byrness during the 2022 race due to many trees on or near that section of the route having been blown down during Storm Arwen. This reduced the course distance by about fifteen miles.
It’s hard to believe now just how restricted the access to the countryside was in the past. This year saw the 90th anniversary of one of the events that marked a key point in the battle for public access to the once private moorland of the High Peak, the Great Kinder Trespass. But the protesters at that event in April 1932 were far from the only element of a varied campaign for the freedom to roam. Thye imprisonment of five young protesters was a massive turning point in the major effort which led to the creation of the Pennine Way. Especially as the yet to be created Pennine Way would include a path over the forbidden Kinder Scout.
Especially with the new protest laws that this government has brought in and is enforcing. You would think somebody would have something to say? personally I think there should have been freedom to roam mentioned in the film, also maybe something said about regeneration off the countryside, along with the climate change and ecological emergencies we are in,
I was getting a square bum with all this sitting! Knowing from experience that the ques for food at basecamp etc would be massive all day on the Saturday, I never even bothered trying, I was standing across the road from the brewery arts centre in front of a Thai restaurant looking at the menu on the wall, when; the green runner chap from the adidas stand approached to chat, he asked if I would mind if he joined me for dinner, which obviously I had no objection to, it’s always good to get a bit of chat with a fellow runner and this was a sponsored athlete, (strangely we mostly ended up talking about me) asking for a table inside it was unfortunately fully booked in that Thai restaurant, my new friend said he knew of another which we walked around to, he was assuring me that it had good vegan options, I think that’s his main pillar with the green running community how we fuel, sure enough when we got there it looked great and the staff seemed to know him, but; unfortunately this was also fully booked! as we left we passed Damian hall with a group of what I guessed to be some of the spine people and ultra runners, I don’t think he noticed or recognise us this time, I am reasonably certain they were going to the Thai restaurant we couldn’t get into; I gave up on raking about the streets - I was hungry, I explained to my new friend that I could get decent vegan options and definitely a seat, with decent beer at the Wetherspoons which is what we done to end the day off
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