Reasons to be Cheerful: Cats and Dogs #R2BC

 
I love joining in with Michelle our lovely hostess this month. Finally sat down long enough to write my post this week! Here are some of my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Filming on Cat Bells

I have been filming in a gorgeous location again up on Cat Bells over Derwentwater. My son did one of the junior races:

I really enjoyed being up there on a beautiful day:

2) Puppy Love

I love seeing the affection between my daughter and her puppy:

3) Bluebells

I love this time of year when the bluebells are out:

English Schools' Fell Running Championships 2018

Yesterday my son represented his school in the English Schools' Fell Running Championship at Giggleswick School. The course was similar to the Kendal Winter League Route so we only had to walk up to the other fell to check out the route to the top:

I then set myself up near the stream crossing to video the races as I know it makes the most interesting moments (yes I was hoping for a face plant or two!). My son made sure his leap wasn't a comedy moment with this massive jump:

Here is the video of his Year 7 race as they tackled the stream:

#CountryKids FRA Junior Championships Blacko

On Sunday my son and I travelled for just over an hour to Blacko in Lancashire for the 2nd of the Fell Running Associations Junior Championships. (First event was at Todd Cragg in Ambleside). We arrived in plenty of time as we knew parking was going to be an issue (it did result in total gridlock in the village!). This also gave us time to walk the course and check out the obstacles and let me decide on filming points.
We actually got lost walking the route as we were so early they hadn't flagged it out (the landowner wanted it all done at the last minute). However we did manage to discover the bog of doom and how many stiles they would have to climb (4 in total but 2 would be repeated):

Looking at my strava recording I can see where we went wrong but it wasn't easy to see on the ground:

The first two races were taking a slightly different route which had no mud but an awful lot of hill. I positioned myself on the hillside with both cameras and enjoyed the sunshine whilst waiting for the under 9 runners to get to me. Bear in mind some of these are only 6 years old:

Kendal Winter League Cunswick Fell Race

After all the snow and chaos it was a relief that the latest fell race went ahead at Cunswick just outside Kendal. My son and I arrived in plenty of time to walk the course:

The run has some interesting obstacles with a squeeze stile:

And a very icy stone stile:

The under 13 route was the only one that went up on the public footpaths across Kendal Golf Club:

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:

Kendal Winter League Longsleddale #CountryKids

After the almost vertical racing last week at Barbondale this week the league was a more traditional fell race in Longsleddale Valley from Docker Nook farm.

Conditions were muddy and slippery but at least it stayed dry this week. The start enabled a mad dash at the start as captured by another spectator:

I had wandered up the track trying to find good positions to film:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Half Term, YouTube, Tots 100 and more #R2BC

I have lost track of the days as its the school holidays so only just realised its Thursday and time for Reasons to be Cheerful! Hopefully folks will still join in and share the love. Despite having a cold for a few days I have had plenty of reasons to be cheerful during a week off school:
1) Marshalling and Filming at Fell Foot parkrun
I had my monthly volunteering slot at my local parkrun by marshalling at one of the turns. I managed to combine it with videoing the runners too. Amazing how many smiles I managed to raise in the rain:

2) Barbondale Fell Race
This has to be one of the most entertaining fell races to watch. It is so steep most runners come down at least some of the route on their bottoms or in one case fronts! There were a few spectacular face plants as well. My son helped me film this time and our videos have had nearly 1000 views in less than week!! Here is the summary video:

3) Fixed Internet

Just as my YouTube videos were becoming popular my Internet connection had lost lots of it upload speed so it was taking a day to upload one video! BT finally sent out an engineer and the upload speed has gone back up to taking only a couple of hours for one of the videos:

KWL 2018 Barbondale Fell Race #CountryKIds

Another freezing cold Sunday meant another few hours on a fell side videoing fell running! It was the toughest event in Kendal Winter League as its mostly vertical from the bottom of this slope:

My son wasn't running it as he doesn't like the vertical races so he was happy to help the sponsors set up before the event:

Then he clambered up the hillside with me so that we could find the best spots for filming. I stayed below the infamous scree patch and he initially went to the under 13 turning point which was just above the scree. This was my view whilst I was waiting for the runners:

Reasons to be cheerful: The Gruffalo and more! #R2BC

Once again the lovely Michelle is hosting the happiest linky around! I look forward to seeing what everyone else is posting too.. Here my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Outdoor fun in the forest

I have already posted about my lovely time at Whinlatter with my son hunting the Gruffalo. We had so much fun at this lovely location with adventures around characters from one of our favourite ever stories:

2) Proud Mum #1

My son had his latest fell race this weekend and had his best finish position of the season. He is getting faster again and seems so much fitter with all his different sporting activities.

3) Proud Mum #2

#CountryKids Kendal Winter Series, Giggleswick Fell Race

So proud of my lad that after the upset the week before he was dead keen to run again today. We did have a bit of a worry that we wouldn't get there as the snow was coming down heavily but luckily the roads to Giggleswick were safe enough if slower than normal. This time we arrived in plenty of time to check out the course:

It looked as if they would be running in the falling snow:

Together we walked the first half of the course but chickened out on crossing the ford that was part of the route! Then it was back to the club base for the warm up:

#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:

#CountryKids at Langdale Gala

Running in the Herdwick 10 km gave me free entry into the Langdale Gala yesterday so I dragged 2 protesting children into the car for another trip up until the beautiful valley:

As soon as they saw the bouncy castles etc they were much happier and threw themselves into the fun:

The event was officially opened by a parade led by the Staveley Kookaburra all stars: