Alistair Dennis, who ran from Keswick to Barrow in support of A Dignified Revolution and Cancer UK has sent us this account of his run (walk) to share with those who sponsored him.
"First off thank you all very much for sponsoring me in my 40 mile run/walk - it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience which I hope to do again very soon.... ok this is somewhat of a white lie... I am still alive the run did not kill me, apologies for the delay in emailing you all. but here is an email all about the day....
So..... in 2008 I took on this challenge with very little preparation and finished it in a touch under 8hours 15 minutes!! so I thought this time I am going to prepare well and finish in under 8 hours....
so this time in preparation for the run I did.... in all honesty, very little relevant training - apart from a couple 5km runs which I did back in February my training focused very heavily on upper body weight training... now as I am sure you are aware there are very few long distance runners that weigh more than a couple of stone. So my rather hefty 16 stone frame did not lend itself well to a 40 mile endurance run through hilly terrain.
However, strong at least in spirit I headed up to the Lake District on Friday 6th May - this confidence only grew stronger throughout the evening and night, as the majority of my team arrived late meaning those that arrived early had to wait in the pub for them... needless to say, 5 pints of cider down and heading back to the B&B at just gone 11 we were all visible excited about the prospect of what lay before us and confident of destroying those measly 40 miles... fools!!!!
4.30am was swiftly upon us and as alarms rang out throughout the B&B's, the team arose and there were a few weary looking heads to say the least. The confidence that was so high only a few hours before was nowhere to be seen, replaced only by the stark realisation that it was very early, still dark, and there was a certain wetness in the air. The only ray of sunshine was that the little old lady who ran the B&B had kindly, and well beyond the call of duty, got up before us to make us all bacon sarnies!!
So we piled into the people carriers which took us to the start line, where hundreds of cars, vans, mini buses and coaches were waiting to offload peoples... our driver told us to get out as he didn't want to get caught up in it so threw us out and made us walk to the start line... as if the 40 miles wasn't quite enough (I did not buy him a pint afterwards)!!
The sun (I say sun... it was more it was just getting light rather than actual sun) was just about starting to get through the drizzly clouds as we finally crossed the start line and begun our "journey" at 5.52 am.... ON A SATURDAY!!!!!
The first section of the run is quite nice, it is at the side of a huge reservoir (which does go on forever) but the best bit is... at this point your body feels no pain (except the hazy head from the aforementioned cider consumption). For the first section I kept with a colleague Mike from work, we walked the first half mile or so to get the legs going and blood flowing... at which point we got overtaken by some people who were def going to feel the effects of starting so quickly, and to our surprise batman and robin
Mike, who I must add is one of the most enthusiastic people ever - evidenced by his need to encourage every single person we ran past, as well as clapping the supporters that came out to clap us, insisted that to get a good time we should start "jogging it out"... now at this point I should mention that unlike me... Mike had trained, and had done more than a few 16 mile runs in preparation..... and the real run began!!!
we set off on a nice steady pace, slowly making the ground back on those people that had earlier overtaken us finding it hard no to have a smile to our selves! We ran pretty much the rest of the way round the lake which got us to about the 7 mile spot, at which point we agreed to walk the uphill sections and jog the flat and declines! We continued to do this for the next few miles, and Mike being a lake district local pointed out all the various sites and attractions... such as the lion and lamb! I am not going to lie a lot of this went over my head as I could start to feel the aches and pains creak up on me!!
About 12 miles in and just when we were starting to feel a little bit low we were sent a little bit of inspiration as we ran past two young ladies on a downhill section, then 5 minutes later they ran back past us, needless to say on the next flat section Mike and I re-took our lead, only for a few minutes later for them to pass us once again.... Mike and I looked at each other and decided well this is competition now.... so we embarked (foolishly may I add) on a prolonged jog to make some ground on them, finally looking back to see they were nowhere to be seen we strolled it out for a bit (man pride restored!!!). that was the end of that..... so we thought...... 17 miles in and they only ran past us again, this time only by a few metres so we started chatting to them.... turns out they had done back to back marathons this year already and this was a training event for a bigger run.... well me and Mike being the gentlemen we are kindly "let" them run on ahead!!
20 miles in.... my body was hurting now... feeling like I was holding Mike back I let him go on ahead
26 miles in... marathon done.... only 14 miles left then!!!!!!!
28 miles in... my body and moral was at an all time low, blisters were def forming, ankles swollen, knees jarring... jogging was all but out of the question and if you had pulled alongside me in a car and asked if I wanted a lift I would have hugged you!
32 miles in... I started walking with another team member that had caught me up.... he offered me pain killers... this was the start of a resurgence!!!!
35 miles in... the pain killers had def kicked in... from out of nowhere I could jog again... and my god did I jog!!!! I was like Forest Gump, weaving in and out of the foot traffic I started making up some of the lost time from the previous 15 mile slump and a sub 8 hour time was on the table again!! the rain started coming down again, but this did not deter me, or the supporters who came out on the roads and clapped every single one of the 2000 runners through!!!
then came 37miles onwards... now here is a little bit of advice if anybody ever wrangles you in to doing this event.... don't every believe a word that comes out of your support crews mouths in this final section... they lie!! and they think its lies that help and encourage you... its not!!! they think that telling you there is only 2.3 miles left not 3, or 1 not 2 miles, of 500 metres not a mile left helps... it really doesn't... it just disappoints you!! and further more the last slog is through towns, so gone are the pretty views, idyllic settings and encouraging country folk, in there places are chavs shouting abuse, and cars trying to run you over - and worst of all IT IS ALL UP HILL!!!
but eventually, finally, getting clapped in through the final section I crossed the line. at this point you get a medal, a card which shows your times at all the check points and best of all two vouchers for free pints at the bar!!!!!!!
Now if you remember at the beginning of this ramble my aim was a sub 8 hour time... well there is a photo of my completed card and times - I am sure you will understand if I don't want to talk about my overall result in detail, its still somewhat of a sore point!!
However, I did finish and while I was nowhere near the winning time of 4 hours 31 minutes!!!!!!!!! I did finish 233rd which I think is respectable given the amount of training I did!
And more importantly, thanks to all your generous contributions over £600 has been raised for two great charities, along with the hundreds of thousands that have been raised by all the other walkers!
More information about the day can be found at http://www.keswick2barrow.co.uk/ and there are more photos of the whole event here http://www.flickr.com/photos/keswick2barrow
thank you all again and if I am stupid enough, I may even do it again next year!"
