On Saturday 30th Sept I took part in the 2 Valleys race as part of the OS Champion team at the inaugural 13 Valleys ultra trail running event.

Ordnance Survey were the mapping partners for this event, which meant everyone could download the route to OS Maps to make sure they stayed on track. They also produced a fantastic, limited edition paper map showing all the routes and race details.

There were several ultra distance races going on including the: • 5 Valleys at 55km • 7 Valleys at 110km • 13 Valleys covering all the valleys in the Lake District National Park at 180km. With all those valleys covered they each had a fair amount of elevation too!

If those distances sound a little far to you, or you want to try the world of trail running the 2 Valleys at 20km is an ideal introduction. Like the 13 Valley course, the 2 Valleys starts and finishes in Keswick.

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You begin out of town on pavements and then go along the fairly flat paved cycle way to Threlkeld. This allows you to get into a nice running rhythm and have easy underfoot conditions to fully enjoy the views.

You will still want your trail shoes on for what is to come. It was around 8/9km to Threlkeld where the aid station for the 2 Valleys was. The bonus of being at an event with longer distances is the aid stations were amazing with so many snack options.

From here the road starts to take you up into the hills so you can into uphill mode before hitting the trails. The trail starts off fairly smooth and then gets rockier as you get up higher around Lonscale Fell.

Be prepared for your feet to get a bit wet, particularly as the trail goes over Whit Beck.

The 2 Valleys route has around 500m of elevation and there was some clouds hanging around at the top which meant I didn’t get the full views, however being up in the clouds was pretty cool too!

Around the 15km mark you start heading downhill. Here you can let your legs go a bit and enjoy the assistance from gravity. Soon Keswick comes into view and you are back on pavements. Depending how conditioned your legs are to running downhill, your quads might now be complaining that the ground has gone flat and solid! But it’s not far to go, through the town centre and Crow Park to the finish line.

I was the 8th female and crossed the line in 2hours 8mins. The medals at this event are ones you definitely want to add to your collection. It’s a local slate coaster and iron on patch in one.

There was a great race village to refuel and Keswick is an ideal place to go if you are plant based. My top recommendations are: • The Pocket Cafe bar – that had a delicious vegan pizza and offered gluten free bases • The Fellpack with numerous vegan and gluten free options • Plant by Kat’s Kitchen which had delicious lunch options as well as great vegan and gluten free cake.

We couldn’t choose between the chocolate and carrot cake so had to share a slice of each!

The OS Champion team was out in full force and big shout out the other ladies on the team, Gee who ran the 7 Valleys and Helen who ran all 13 Valleys and was the 2nd female across the line!

This is a fantastic event, very well run and with great marshals. I highly recommend it, particularly the 2 Valleys course if you are new to trail running and want a bit of a taster of the fun you could have!

Another bonus of being in the Lake District is you get to see their beautiful native Herwick sheep.