Ambleside Sports 2018

 

On Thursday my son and I headed up to Ambleside for the annual Ambleside Sports. We have been twice before in 2014 and 2015 but have been away for the last couple of years as it is always the last Thursday in July. The fell race was part of the club championships but there was plenty of other stuff going on as well.

We watched some cycling and the start of the gruelling 9 mile Rydal Round before he had a Cumberland & Westmorland Wrestling competition. Unfortunately he came across the eventually champion in round 1 so that was game over... Then he lined up with his team mates for the under 12's fell race (photo by Woodentops):

It was a there and back again race up quite a steep hill:

He had an awesome sprint finish:

Reasons to be Cheerful #CountryKids at Ambleside Sports #R2BC

 

This is the last week that the wonderful Jo at Ojo's World is hosting the linky as she hands it back to me for August! She has been an amazing host whilst my life has been a whirlwind so I hope she enjoys the break until September. I am combing this with my second country kids post of the week as it was such a huge reason to be cheerful. We made our second ever visit to Ambleside Sports as we had enjoyed it so much last year (my daughter winning £10 wrestling helped!). So here are our Country Kids at Ambleside Sports reasons to be cheerful:


1) Healthy sibling rivalry

A free competition to see how far you could row in 5 minutes or how many calories you could burn on the cross trainer made both the children happy:

2) Beautiful scenery and inspirational athletes:

My son and I saw the start of the amazing 9 mile Rydal Round from part way up the fell race course. One hundred tough fell runners who were out for a minimum of an hour and half with an awful lot of ascent and descent:

3) Up close to the action

There can't be many places were the cyclists race on grass:

4) Fell racing

This is my son in a race to the finish in the under 12s fell race. As he is only 8 he did well to finish 63rd out of 85th. He really accelerated when he heard the Helm Hill supports screaming his name!

#CountryKids at Ambleside Sports

For the first time since moving up here 4 years ago we made it to Ambleside Sports. The event has been running since 1887 and since 1947 have been held on the last Thursday of July in the same field (except during the Foot and Mouth outbreak):

We arrived not long after the gates opened at 10 to avoid queuing for the car park. Then we had 1.5 hours of wandering around the stalls etc before the Cumbria Thunderdrummers entertained us with Taiko drumming before the official opening ceremony: