The reason for our trip to the Lakes was the JOK Champs, AGM and Annual Dinner. The first of these was held on Loughrigg Fell above Ambleside. The sun was breaking through as we arrived and while Christine was out running I had an easy time of looking after Emma as she played with the other JOK kids.
When my turn came (in truth Christine hadn’t returned but Emma was having so much fun I doubt she noticed) I was overheating in the sunshine by the time I’d finished the long trek up to the start. As you can see from the following GPS track, things didn’t get off to a good start as I overshot the first control and then just wandered aimlessly on my way to the third. My navigation improved after that but I still found it very hard going through the high (albeit mostly dead) bracken. That was until the penultimate control when I ended up hunting for the mini kite in between the wrong two blocks of trees.
JOK Champs GPX, Loughrigg Fell
I haven’t seen any results yet but I’m sure my 111 minutes was well down on the winning time. In my defence, I did run nearly 12km rather than the 9km the course was meant to be! At least the weather was fantastic with some great views.
I missed the AGM as I was putting Emma to bed at the Ambleside Backpackers where most of us were staying (Christine was carrying out her last Presidential duty by chairing the meeting). Fortunately Emma went off to sleep without trouble and, having added our baby monitor to the row in front of the baby sitter, I was able to join everyone else for the dinner at Miller Howe on the outskirts of Windermere. The quality of the food was very good if the portions were perhaps a little miserly. It’s just a shame that the attitude of the staff wasn’t always helpful.