FRA Juniors 2019 - Sedbergh

On a very wet and overcast morning we arrived at the People's Hall in Sedbergh in advance of Helm Hill's hosting of the FRA Junior championship for 2019. At the time it was so cloudy that the tops of the hills weren't visible and it was a worry as to whether it would be safe for the under 19s to run their full route as it took in 3 summits (luckily the weather cleared in plenty of time!).

After my marshal briefing I walked the under 9 route with my son so I could find the best videoing spot. It was a challenging if not too long a route for them:

My son and his friend walked some more of their under 15 route whilst I set myself up to film just below the under 9 turn. There were 26 runners from 6-8 years in this race:

After they had gone I walked up along the descent route to capture the under 11s. This shows how steep some of the course was:

Kendal Winter League at Sedbergh School #CountryKids

This Sunday I set off to what is traditionally a mudbath of a fell race My son had headed off to Blackpool with Gramps for an indoor athletics competition so this time it was just me. I had had to scrape ice off the car to leave and some of the route was a bit icy but oh boy was the view lovely. In fact I had to find a legal place to stop and capture it:

I arrived in plenty of time to use the car park at Sedbergh School and then walked down to the cross country course. My original plan had been to film at the Water Jump but when I walked the course it had been fenced off due to the frozen water:

So I carried on up to the highest point of the course which the runners would all pass some multiple times:

Reasons to be Cheerful: The Birthday Edition #R2BC

Where is October vanishing to? We have had a very busy time as it was birthdays for 2 of us! Therefore I have had plenty of reasons to be cheerful:
1) Birthday Girls
I had a special night out with my daughter to celebrate our birthdays. We went out for pizza and then mocktails at Slate. It was a lovely evening with my mini me:

2) Spoiled rotten

I was very lucky to be sent plenty of cards and some lovely gifts for my birthday. This was one of the wonderful birthday messages that made me smile:

#CountryKids Kendal Winter League Sedbergh Fell Race

Another Sunday another cold, wet muddy field for a fell race!

After registering we had a quick look at the course:

My son sensibly decided he didn't need to walk all of it as he would have plenty of people to follow to get around the race. It is an under 12 event and he is only 8. Back at the start there was a very helpful weather report: