At the beginning of August, I travelled to near Grasmere in the Lake District. The trip involved quite a few soggy hikes, including Catbells in Keswick, Great Rigg, Fairfield, and Nab Scar in Grasmere. The peaks which weren’t in cloud: they had amazing views from the top!
I got some amazing trail runs in, too. My favourite went up Helm Crag and Steel Fell and had almost 700m elevation in 13.5km, which was, in hindsight, a bit brutal for before breakfast. I attempted to fit in a different wild swim for each day of the trip. By the end of the week I had swum in Windermere, Grasmere, Derwent Water, Rydal Water and Alcock Tarn. And I spent a great deal of the trip a bit damp and wandering around in my dry robe!
I just about managed to squeeze in two beautiful bike rides on the days when the roads were almost dry! The first ride included a couple of pretty difficult climbs, such as Blea Tarn and Red Bank. It was a lot of fun as I had a couple of friends to ride with and we met some friendly locals along the way. The next day I took on ‘the struggle’ which is 4.6km with gradient averaging at 8.6%. Suffice to say, I understand why it has earned its name and was very pleased to make it to the top.
The trip was a real highlight of my summer. Being able to get out of London and into the countryside for my training was amazing and I’m really grateful to the Gateway Challenges award for making it possible.
Clare Jackson
Undergraduate student, Psychological and Behavioural Sciences