Course recce completed!

I did the Howtown to Ambleside leg last thursday, and my legs have just about recovered - achy quads mostly. ~24 miles and 5,800 feet of ascent, so that's fair enough!

John (neighbour, did the 50 last year, doing the 100 this year...) and I set off 9:30-ish from the Ullswater lake side and headed up Fusedale, waterproof jackets went on as we crossed over the ridge at High Kop, and stayed on for the rest of the day. Waterproof trousers spent all day being put on and taken off again, until I got fed up with the hopping around on one foot trying to get the other leg on over very muddy trainers.

The run down off High Kop turned out to be a highlight - soft springy turf with a gentle downhill gradient, and one of the few points where you can really pick up some speed.
John put his ankle over just before we got down to the lake, and although it didn't seem to slow him down it was clearly troubling him, so he decided not to risk the next weeks training or the event, and called it a day. Turned out he hitched down to the pub in Bampton and called his wife for a lift. Naturally some carb replacement was required during the wait.....

I pressed on, the steep haul up Gatesgarth pass was gruelling but I kept myself going by thinking of the nice long run down the other side into Sadgill......which turned out to be so rocky underfoot that running was out of the question :-(

I got to Ambleside in just over 7 hours, so now I've done the entire course bar the 4 mile loop at the start (which is only open for the event anyway), and with an aggregate time of 13.5 hours.....that's without any stops, and without the slowing-down effects of distance and time on one's feet.....

gear successes include my new Haglofs Endo jacket - what a brilliant thing that is, purpose made for light-weight & intense events like this - and the OMM front pouch, which is the first map-case I've really got on with. It clips to the rucsac straps each side, and has a fold-down front that fits the route book and a map very well. Then there's a pouch for hat/ gloves/ snacks readily to hand - by carrying often-needed items right in front of you, it saves an amount of taking off the sac, which is just as well as it also makes de-rucsac-ing that bit more involved. I'm intending to modify it with some quick-release buckles.

Also worthy of mention is my Holux GPS, with route downloaded, it's very easy to confirm you're on the right path.

One near-disaster was putting chia seeds in my 3-litre water bladder. these things are great, but have a tendency to clump together, which I discovered by doing a quick test before getting in the car - the tube was completely blocked.

Learning point - make sure that the chia seeds are well-stirred if you want them to have any sort of flow. I've decided to do isostar in the bladder and chia/ isostar mix in a drink bottle which can easily be shaken to keep everything moving.
Speaking of keeping moving, the high fibre content of chia probably rules out 3 litres of it on an endurance run anyway!