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Running Wainwright's Coast to Coast
I am all booked up to do this at the end of May with a friend From St Bees to RHB in 7 days. He's walking and I'm running, with us meeting at our evening destinations for dinner etc. has anyone on here run it and if so, what advice do you have?
our itinery so far is-
1. St Bees - Rosthwsite
2 Rosthwaite - Patterdale
3 Patterdale - Orton
4.Orton - Reeth
5 Reeth- Ingleby Cross
6 Ingleby cross - Blakey
7 Blakey - RHB
i walked st bees - Rostwaite over 2 days last year so have a good idea of that first day, which should make it easier, but any advice appreciated!
thanks!
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somewhere between 188-196. He did it in 9 days walking last year (I joined for first two of those) and he's a pretty fit. That first day is going to be a bit of a killer for him. Last year we did St Bees - the YHA that's half way down Ennerdale valley before Black sail, then had a short day on day two. I'm hoping we should be ok, though I reckon we are going to have to set off pretty early on a morning.
One area I could really do with some assistance with is fuelling. Living in hotels and Youth hostels, isn't going to be the best and from memory, there are no shops between St Bees and Rosthwaite (the ones I cam across in villages before climbing Dent were all closed).
I was thinking I'm probably going to have to take the majority of my through the day food / gels with me for the first 3-4 days at least? Then there's the question of trying to stay away from full english breakfasts in hotels...
I tried this in 5 days with a friend a few years back. I got injured so called it quits after 3 days, but my mate did it. Our schedule was
St Bees - Grasmere,
- Kirkby Stephen,
- Richmond,
- Lion Inn, Blakey Ridge,
- RHB
We started 8-9 most mornings, limiting factor was usually the hotel/b&b breakfast times (we often did full English to get a good fill up). But one place obliged with an earlier breakfast on request. Day two of the above was about the longest and hardest due to big early climbs and we finished in darkness.
Your quite right in that restocking water and food on route needs some attention. Our first day was a hot one in late April and we bought a coke and restocked water at a pub in village west of Ennerdale and then topped up water from fresh water gushing down the sides of the dale (still ice cold and lovely). We neglected to have a proper lunch earlier so had to grab something quite a long time in to the afternoon at the Honistor Slate mine visitor centre. Lesson learned for next few days and future endeavours, best to try and have a breakfast, lunch (maybe two tops if you struggle to digest much food and keep going), and dinner and fill in between with snacks.
Grasmere to Kirkby Stephen is better overall for food drink options, but still quite few and far between so don't pass up getting something at Patterdale, Shap, etc...
Kirkby Stephen to Richmond was good for us as we followed the lower routes in Swaledale where possible so a few villages, towns, etc on route.
From there I'd say more of the same regular villages until the north york moors where it'd be best to check out which of the small settlements on route actually have pubs, shops as can be a bit far between especially if its a crap weather day up there.
Due to our overnight stops usually being reasonable sized settlements food on a night wasn't an issue and quite varied. For your smaller settlements stops it may be worth checking in advance what is there if you might be too late arriving for food at accommodation, or if they don't do an evening meal.
Thanks for your advice very much appreciated. I aim to have breakfast and pack lunch for that first day (perhaps 2 days). The water issue does concern me, but like you say, there are rivers. I'm going to get a life straw so that should help out.
It's that middle bit after Pafterdale and before Richmond I'm concerned about. I live close to ingleby cross so going to go home, raid my parents cupboards and eat till the cows come home (plus stock enough food for the last two days). But the 3 days inbetween are the worry as we are staying in pretty isolated locations.
In terms of training what did you try and do? I know that back to back long runs on a Sat are going to be key, but what about the rest of the week?
Hi Yorkshire Runner. I didn't do anything specific training-wise, but a lot of time on feet. I'd first done a 3 marathons in 3 days on trail in late 2009, then taken on ultra distance a bit more seriously the next year and did enough long runs and days in long days lakes to knock off several long uns including fellsman and Lakes 100 in 2010. So my confidence to take on any challenge was pretty high at this time.
Specifically in months building to this from about Nov 2010 to April 2011 I did loads of 40m+ weeks and 5 x 60-75m weeks. Lots of LDWA challenges and similar lengthed runs (over 20m), was doing one nearly every weekend, but rarely did two runs at a weekend barring scarborough rock 24 and a 26m Lakeland 100 recce one weekend mid-Jan. Did the Hardmoors 55 in the mid-March and Calderdale Hike 36m a few weeks previous to C2C. More time on feet in consecutive days training would have probably helped me or maybe not such an ambitious timescale for the run.
Re. between Patterdale and Richmond. I'd agree that Patterdale to Kirkby Stephen the food/drink offerings are Spartan. As I said before Shap has a supermarket, there was a farm on route towards KS that had a mini-shop to supply C2C'ers. You don't have to go too far off-route in Swaledale to find a shop (though we mostly took the in the dale route options once past 9-standards rigg, Going up top you may bypass a few more settlements).