4:00am, Saturday 2nd July, over 100 of us gathered in the Swirls Car Park by Thirlmere lake for the 2011 10 Peaks Challenge. After last year when no-one managed 10 peaks, the numbers had now doubled and there was a very young and athletic feel to the occasion, all wanting to be the first competitor to complete the tough course. The course travels about 45 miles over a route that includes the 10 highest summits in the Lake District, some 18,500 ft of climb.

Me, well I have mountain experience now – 7 to be exact. Yes the 7 that we conquered at last year’s event!

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I was a bit wary of this brown tube as I saw it lying in the boot of the marshal’s car at Honistor Slate Mine but I would go as far as to say it is partly responsible for me finishing the course!

I gave up black tea at the beginning of January but promised myself I could have a cup when I reached CP4 to give me the much needed boost I would need. I arrived at the mine after the café had shut so I thought I would give the Activator a try. The caffeine hit combined with jacket potato and chilli was perfect to prepare me for the final stages of the event. As I headed up towards Dale Head Tarn my previous weakness was behind me and running across Maiden Moor and Catbells as the sun was setting was one of my highlights of the event.

The Activators can be bought from Team Nutrition. I won’t be doing an endurance event again without one.

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3am in the morning and I’m sat up in bed, wearing just my navy blue Patagonia Y fronts and a head torch. I’m also smearing factor 30 sun block on my arms and legs. A guy looks in the window, he’s wearing a hoodie, we stare at each other, it doesn’t take long to workout which one of us is the “misfit”

You see I have entered the “10 Peaks Challenge”. A race around the 10 highest peaks in the Lake District. I have slept the night in my landrover, parked near the grounds of a posh Keswick hotel and the transfer coaches leave for the start in 15 minutes. This is the second year for the event. A charity event for Macmillan Cancer Research. Last year 52 people started and non finished!

The coaches leave on time and we arrive at Thirlmere. A pep talk from the organiser follows, I look around at my fellow competitors. There’s a good mix of long distance runners and walkers. Also a smattering of hard as nails fell runners, with their tatty and worn gear, obligatory holes in their Helly Hansen thermals and calf muscles shaped like spades. Contrasting with the road runners, well dressed in co-ordinated Ronhills, nattering about negative split times and mile markers.

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It’s not just the competitors that go the extra mile in aid of charity. The 10 Peaks Challenge attracts extreme marshals too! Aqua Consultants were not content with setting up a check point on top of the highest mountain in England, they set up an aid station providing bottled water and energy bars for all competitors! They were joined by a member of Raynet who provided the comms to other check points and back to base.

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Saturday July 2nd was a very long day for all 102 people who made it to the start line of the 2nd 10 Peaks Challenge. At 3.20am two coaches picked up competitors from Keswick for the 20 minute ride to the start at Swirls Car Park. It was fairly quiet on the coaches, not just because of the time of day but perhaps the dawning of the mammoth task that lay ahead.

The climb to Helvellyn from Thirlmere

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Adam Jackson

A huge well done to our 2011 winners. Adam Jackson became the first person to ever complete the course and he did so in a time of 14 hours 30 minutes. He was followed by Ozzy Kershaw (pictured below) who was 27 minutes behind and Joseph Gale (pictured below) who finished 61 minutes behind Adam in a time of 15 hours and 31 minutes.

Rebecca Lounds (pictured below) was the first female finisher in a time of 22 hours 26 minutes.

Both the male and female winners recieved a pair of Newton Terra Momentus Trail shoes worth £120 kindly donated by Newton Running. Read more

It really was fantastic, epic. There were a lot of highs but it was also brutal, with some considerable lows!! As the website said, “Too hard, too far!”

J. Hobbs & A. Eve

A huge thank you to all the staff at Honister Slate Mine who played host to the event on Saturday. Not only did they allow us to use their mine as a venue for a check point but they also cooked some much appreciated food for us. Competitors enjoyed a choice of jacket potato and chilli, or a veggie pasta dish. All the food was prepared at the mine especially for the 10 Peaks Challenge. I know from personal experience that I was looking forward to the chilli for hours before hand! And I wasn’t disappointed. The hot meal was just what I needed to give me a boost to get me up to Dale Head Tarn!

Honister is a working slate mine but also offers Via Ferrata. Via Ferrata is Italian for “Iron Way” and the system has been used in the Alps for more than a century. Honister’s Via Ferrata is an adventure climbing system that uses a permanently fixed cable for safety and protection up the rock face of the old miners’ route. You are attached to this system by a harness provided by Honister. Full safety instructions are provided and initially all tours will be guided. Check out their website for more information.

I found my knees giving way on the way down Scafell, and the route up to Pillar was a killer. Hands and knees all the way up. Then Great Gable was lovely in its loneliness. The night traverse from the slate mine past the Tarn was horrendous, I have scars all over my right leg and got wet feet as I constantly struggled with no path, bog, rocky outcrops, a GPS with dead batteries and the dark. View James’s video diary of the event here.