The Lap Clockwise - 75km
I got rid of Strava and IG a while ago, but this event was too amazing not to tell someone about.
The Lap is a race all the way around the largest lake in England, 75km and ~2900m elevation. It’s held twice a year, same route but Clockwise in May and Anticlockwise in September.
It was my first 75km race but I’ve done 5 50km and 2 trail marathons in the last year so was feeling good going into it, and oh man what an event!!
Started at 6am so registration was the night before which was abit of a change, and with almost 1400 people I was expecting a bun fight but it was the smoothest experience. Kit check - number collection - tracker allocation - free shirt collection - bar and food. Easy.
The race itself was an absolutely stunning route and the day for it was just perfect. This is nothing like the terrain and scenery where I live so it was like running in another country. They always say ‘Nothing new on race day’ but I changed my fueling strategy entirely because my last 50km was abit rough, and I think it made all the difference. I crossed the point of my furthest ever run (53km) feeling pretty fresh, no cramp, zero gut issues and powered on.
I fuelled and hydrated in a way that really really worked for me, I ran the runnable downs and flats and power hiked the climbs - and there were some steep climbs!
As for the organisation, I truly cannot praise them enough. The entry price included entry, gps tracker, 2 free meals, medal, tshirt and all the race photography, which is just unheard of in the races I’ve done previously!
Every single volunteer was your best mate, they couldn’t do enough for you, the feed stations were literal buffets of everything you could possibly want, and the sheer amount of photographers covering the race was phenomenal!
I could go on about it forever, but if you’re in the UK (or not) and looking for a race this distance, I literally cannot recommend The Lap enough.