FRA Juniors Clougha Pike and Quernmore Sports

This Saturday saw the penultimate fell race of the FRA Junior Championships at Clougha Pike as part of Quernmore Sports. This wasn't too far from Lancaster in the Trough of Bowland so relatively local to us. 

The first group to tackle their course were the under 9's who had to complete one lap of the field:

Then it was the under 11's who had to do a bigger lap of the next field as well as the first climb:

For the under 13's, such as my son, had a longer course than normal with 3 km. This meant two big laps at the top which was tough on the younger ones:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Cumbrian Edition #R2BC

I am writing this on the coldest day we have had for weeks in Cumbria! A brief hiatus in our hot spell that seems to have lasted for ages... Hoping that the warm weather has made many more reasons to be cheerful and that lots of you will join in this week... Here are my Cumbrian reasons to be cheerful:
1) Proud Mum
My son did his last school fun run as he is in year 6. Luckily I was there to support the event and could capture him on his way to 20 laps which equated to 10 km in 1 hour!

2) Keswick Mountain Festival

I got to spend my weekend soaking up the festival whilst volunteering in this stunning setting. Two blogposts about it already with more to come!

3) Record Breakers

Whilst in Keswick I was able to witness and record teams from Helm Hill completing the Billy Bland challenge of running the Bob Graham round in a pairs relay. Both the men's and mixed teams beat the existing records and the ladies weren't too far off:

Keswick Mountain Festival Junior 5 km

On the weekend 9th and 10th June I attended Keswick Mountain Festival as a volunteer. Before I had any tasks I watched the Junior 5 km trail run as they raced from Crow Park. Here are my photographs:

This was before the fabulous music concert I blogged about from the Saturday night.

Keswick Mountain Festival Music on Saturday

I was volunteering at Keswick Mountain Festival this weekend and one of the perks was access into the music. This gives you a taste of The Farm and Melanie C plus the atmosphere and stunning location. Can you spot the man on his stag do?:

Chateau and Velo Rail at Commequiers

One of days out was to the Velo Rail at Commequiers. We first discovered the joys of the Cycle Trains when staying in Seine et Marne in 2013 and so were keen to have another go now that my son was tall enough to pedal! 

We allowed time to picnic on the way having pre-booked for 2 pm (be warned its very popular so you have to reserve...). So we hunted down the Chateau Commequiers:

Unfortunately due its state of disrepair the castle has been closed for access since 2014 and they are raising funds to rescue it. They still use the grounds for a medieval spectacular in August:

Hidden in the woods we discovered a children's play area: