200 runners prepare for 2014 Great Lakeland 3Day™
For the third successive year the Great Lakeland 3Day™ has sold out and this May bank holiday weekend will see a record 200 competitors setting off on a three day mountain running journey in the Lake District.
The location for the 2014 GL3D™ Event Centre is at Pooley Bridge at the North Eastern tip of Ullswater, and this is where competitors will be arriving on Friday night for registration. Pooley Bridge is one of those quintessential Lake District villages surrounded by water and mountains and it is a fitting staging post for the adventure ahead.
Where precisely the Elite, A, B and C courses go from there is a closely guarded secret but in the best traditions of the Lowe Alpine Mountain Marathon, the competitors have been promised a surprise on the first morning. Race Director, Shane Ohly explains further:
“The LAMM has a deserved reputation for surprising competitors on the first day with an unexpected change of venue or logistic and I wanted to embrace this idea for the GL3D™.”
The Great Lakeland 3Day™ has earned a reputation for being an informal and friendly event and the new C or ‘Cafe Class’ course embraces this ethos. Ohly continued:
“New for 2014 is the C Course, which is specifically aimed at walkers and the slowest runners and features checkpoints in cafe’s! Because we allow competitors to simply enter the event and then choose their desired course on the day we can’t be certain how popular it is going to be. However, the record number of entries suggests it’ll be very popular indeed!”
Despite the relaxed atmosphere the Great Lakeland 3Day™ remains a formidable challenge with the Elite course covering 130+ kilometres with over 8,000m of ascent in three days. It promises to be a grand tour of some of the best Lakeland ridges, summits and valleys.
The early GL3D™s aimed to cover about 25 miles on average each day and this is the distance that the organisers now aim for on the A Course. Usually the first and second days are slightly further/harder than the last day to help participants get away at a reasonable time after the event has finished. Race Planner Charlie Sproson from Mountain Run has planned the 2014 event and his summary optimum distances and height gains are shown below.
Former GL3D elite winner, artist and author, Heather Dawe who recently published the widely acclaimed Adventures in Mind has kindly provided two prints for the fastest male and female on the Elite course. With Heather’s connection to the event, it seems like a fitting way to recognise the effort of the leading runners.
The GL3D™ is sponsored by Lowe Alpine and supported by Climbers Shop, Joe Browns and Harvey Maps.
Event pictures, results and write up will be available on the Great Lakeland 3Day™ website early next week.
