March 19, 2010

BGR route reconnaissance : strategic error

Work has been a bit mad of late and I had some holiday to take by the end of March. Wednesday was the 1st day I had been able to take off and the weather was not great after a run of really good weather. I set out to run from Honister over leg 4 in reverse then coming back over Kirk Fell from Wasdale.

The good thing about the day out was that visibility was very poor, so my best friend Mr Compass and I spent a lot of time conversing with Mr Map. Indeed, I could not see the Honister sprawl until I was within 15 meters of it on my return. It was also quite windy, combined with drizzle made things a bit cold. I got as far a Kirk Fell, before retracing my steps. Its OK being a bit cold when you are quite fresh, but once you are tired then errors can creep in and it was not a day for errors. Most of the snow had gone, but there was still quite a lot on Great Gable, some ice was still around so it a day for taking care where you put your feet rather than worrying about your splits between peaks.

The strategic error from a BGR training point of view was going out in wet weather running kit plus some margin (shelter, plus spare gloves and food) for 3 hours rather than full Gore-tex body armor and being content with walking, with the odd trot, for 8 hours. Less can be more.

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