So a few folk donated and entered including Jamie Booth, Paul Aengenheister, Max Cousins and Simon Young, they went for the 200km as a challenge! While I went for just 100 miles, not done that before. So preparation, yes rode a few more miles on the MTB, rode the sections I had not done, including one Thursday ride;) and Jamie added Strava miles and rode some of the route. I also went with memorising the route instead of GPS and my memory worked!
On the Saturday the 200km crew set off at 6am, I set off from Staveley at 7.10 am before the mass start about 9 am, so happy to ride away on my own taking it steady, going over to Longsleddale a chap ahead held a gate open, he had set out earlier but taken a wrong turn on his GPS, he was on a Cotic Rocket with good waterproof bags, we stayed together for a little while as I showed him into the next valley, where it started to rain, heavily, this was not forecast, Goretex had to go on including the hood under helmet, arrhhhh! At Sadgill start the climb up, rain slightly easing but wet though, anyhow keep going I am here now and lets see how far I get, rode up to middle gate but walked the S bends to save legs, continued on, down the other side (9am) and onto 3 rivers section after Kentmere church, steady away, then High Borrans route to Dubbs to to Garburn then left and right at Limefitt for the long green head section, then Troutbeck and Robin lane onto Ambleside (11.30am) for coffee and a bake, then popped into Ghyllside and caught up with Joel, who had his camp gear all ready on the fattie and so we made a plan to meet up after work.
I then set off for the coffin route, round to Grasmere, along the shore, round and over Loughrigg, tarn, YHA, Elterwater, Chapel Stile, Langdale, back bridleway for hike-a-bike then back for food at Stickle Barn pub (3pm).
 |
| Bike prep' |
 |
| Brightening up ;) |
 |
| Windermere under cloud |
 |
| Recognise this spot...you can just see some riders on the beach |
 |
| Stickle barn mid-afternoon snack |
 |
| Brekkie |
 |
| What camp looked like in the morning |
 |
| Reward:) |
 |
| Jennride 100 Strava map |
 |
| The other route, JB's Jennride 200km |
So onward and heading for Elterwater, Little Langdale, Tilberthwaite, Iron Keld (6pm) and then onto Hawkshead for food and meet up with JP, it was now about 8pm and we headed up the NF route, dropped into the visitor centre for water and headed up onto the fell at Parkamoor, now getting dark at 9.45pm so pitch camp, it was windy but should keep any midges at bay and there was a view, JP had a tent while I was in a bivi; coffee and chocolate consumed, time for bed 11.30pm.
Sunday: Some of us were up at 4.30am it was daylight, grey, but daybreak, so up and about to get warm, brew on and porridge. Then de-camp and pack up, a few other early risers were on their way, JP was doing well and stayed in bed, I said goodbye and set off at 6.30am, parkamoor, left through the forest to Satterthwaite, up and over Breasty, cross the road and back into the forest, passed another Jennrider camped in the wood who had ridden a spell with, then on to near sawrey and up onto Claiffe, stopped for snacks at Moss Eccles, now raining, steady climb ahead, another group passed me they had camped a little further on, just took longer to get going. Over the top and onto guide posts, turn left and down to Colthouse, right on the road and round to basecamp, steady climb, nip into camp for water, back out and up to Belle Grange descent, it was slippy on the cobbles!
Down to the shore and along to Wray, then head to Ambleside along the trails, the marathon was on at Brathay so very busy, detour round and into Gregs for coffee and pasty before heading out and up Mirk, into Troutbeck up the first section of Longmire, then right and along road until Dubbs, here I shouted hello to a rider and it turned out to be Paul, he was in knackered ride all night mode (no stopping) and just asked if I was OK, yes I was, so I carried on up Dubbs and onto Garburn steady to the top, this involved some walking to make sure I had legs for the technical descent, especially after seeing someone the day before having an OTB accident. A few folk passed me at the top while I was snacking by the gate, then steady down and over Green quarter and back via HP, felt good at the end, back 3pm. Sunday had involved 3 gels through just to help fuel the ride.
Back to sign off and collect my beer reward:) Then coffee, pork pie and cake and catch up with Jamie, Paul, Max and Simon. Their story was a bit different, briefly two of them had ridden through the night, Max kept going and was back around 11am and Paul an hour or so after, basically 30-31 hrs total for 200km, I had takem 31 hrs overall with 18 actual riding, 5 sleeping (sort of) and the rest you know out there. Jamie and Simon were sensible and slept from around 2am-4am, so they were fine, back around 2.45pm.
All good, over £10,300 plus gift aid plus £500 raffle was raised for charity.
No comments:
Post a Comment