My unexpected completion of the George Fisher Tea Round definitely reignited a spark for the fells. Undertaking big challenges, or even running for that matter, isn\u2019t second nature. As much as I\u2019d like it to be the case, I must actively push myself to get out there. Sometimes this means I don\u2019t do things, and fitness falls to the wayside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seeing the route had a little sister that followed the very start and end of the route, I thought why not return and get it done. Cleverly named, though likely to Damian Hall\u2019s disgust, the espresso round is roughly a half marathon (depending on how good your lines are) with 1000m of ascent covering Cat Bells, Rowling End, Causey, and Barrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I left Keswick at quarter past six in the morning, an early start to allow me to partake in the day\u2019s later activities back in Ambleside. Light struggled to find passage through the clouds, the air still and cool. I wasn\u2019t in any rush that day, and I sat into a gentle pace up the winding path of Cat Bells. I briefly became assimilated into a group of six or seven who had just started their own Tea Round journey. The light trickled through even more at the summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Descending was pleasant. Well-worn tracks through the bracken guided me to roads and the second climb. A path less trodden, the bracken grasped at my legs, diverting the path in irregular ways to weave madly up. I took a brief respite at the summit, enjoying the view and reminiscing on the scenic wee I\u2019d taken here a few weeks before. It is a kindness to call Rowling End a summit. It stands a few metres proud of the next saddle and sits in the shadow of Causey, the true summit of the route. A view you must fight for, the path steepens with large steps and loose rock, but the battle is worth the reward. The Lakes laid bare, quintessential British beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I allowed myself some fun on the descent, bounding madly with free abandon to hop from puddle to puddle and the occasional foot consuming hole, into the loose stone trail that cuts up the valley. A left turn back onto tight singletrack paths that undulated with both the movement of the hillside and the scattering of exposed rocks. I didn\u2019t spent much time on Barrow, its wide and undefined summit of grass not inspiring much of a view in comparison to its taller sister, I took more care here to safely return down to ground level, and back into Keswick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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My unexpected completion of the George Fisher Tea Round definitely reignited a spark for the fells. Undertaking big challenges, or even running for that matter, isn\u2019t second nature. As much as I\u2019d like it to be the case, I must actively push myself to get out there. Sometimes this means I don\u2019t do things, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[19,6,10],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-race","tag-lake-district","tag-run","tag-trail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chasingthearbitrary.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}