“Everything
about the Coniston 14 -the scenery, the organisation, the camaraderie,
even the hills!-make this popular event well worth the journey.” (Runners World. June 2000).
The climb
out of Coniston from the John Ruskin School, which serves as start,
finish and headquarters for the event, is gentle, but it continues
for about three miles. Then it drops sharply quickly before rising
again. It’s a pattern repeated frequently as the route follows
the picture perfect road which circles Coniston Water. Coniston
Lake may be flat and calm, but that does not transpose onto the surrounding
land, with its stunning scenery and undulating roads. The real
beauty of the event is that it feels like you are in the mountains,
but you don’t actually have to run in them. And far from being
some little known hidden gem run exclusively by a bearded group of
trail runners, Coniston is very much a club race, where fast times
are possible and at the sharp end is very sharp. Most years the top
100 runners can break 90 minutes. It is not just Northern club runners either. In among
the vests from Clayton-le-Moors Harriers, Red Rose Road Runners and
Penny Lane Striders, there are enough Maidenheads, Edinburghs and Bristols for anyone to
realise that the Coniston 14 is at best a badly kept secret all over
the country. From a
runners point of view the timing of the race is perfect. By staging
the event on Saturday rather than a Sunday, you can make a genuine
weekend of it. The 14 miles are certainly testing but not debilitating,
and the run is quickly behind you rather than hanging over you for
half the weekend. Long after
the last runner has completed the course (in a little less than 3
hours) the school playing field, which doubles as the race car park,
is usually still littered with vehicles. It just isn’t a race
that people are inclined or encouraged to rush off from, which we
are told is as much of the appeal as the scenery. The Committee
hope that for you it’s what every road race should be, simple,
straightforward, cheap, friendly, and accurate. And in the kind of
location that will make you ask.” Why do I live in London” Yes, it
does have hills. Terrible, quad-sapping, gravity-defying, monstrous
hills. But then, that’s all part of the appeal as well.
(Extracts from "Runners World" June 2000) |
