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Taking on The Lakeland 50
Reckon an ultra-marathon is the one for you?
Perhaps the Lakeland 50 tickles your fancy. Meet fundraisers Adam, Liam and James who took on the ultra-marathon and fundraised for Cool Earth.
Please tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Our names are Adam, Liam and James. We are 29 or 30 years old.
We all grew up and went to school together in Pontefract which is where we all still live.
We all have amazing wives/fiances who put up with us ditching them to go out running together pretty much every weekend.
We love playing and watching pretty much all sports.
We love to get out and appreciate some of the more remote and beautiful places of the country.
Trail running and surfing are probably our two most favourite things to do as they are fun activities that can take you to some of the most amazing areas of natural beauty. Even if we are terrible at surfing.
Training for the Lakeland 50 – James, Adam and Liam
What is the Lakeland 50 and why did you decide to take on this challenge?
The Lakeland 50 is an event that takes place around the end of July every year in the Lake District. It is a 50-mile course that runs from Dalemain to Coniston. The course is predominantly on trails and has roughly 10,000 feet of ascent.
We’d seen the event before and some of the inspirational people that had taken part. Since we love to challenge ourselves and it provided an opportunity to raise some money for a good cause, we thought we’d give it a go.
What was the best part?
The best part of the event in our opinion is how so many people come together to support each other and cheer each other on. There are times during the event when your feeling pretty low but a few kind words from a supporter or another competitor can really give you a boost to push on.
Lakeland 50 – completed. Liam, James and Adam
What was the most challenging part of this event?
The hardest part was probably the night section. When you’ve already been on the go for around 12 hours and it starts to get dark and is chucking it down with rain, it can be a pretty lonely, miserable place. It’s a good job we stuck together throughout the event as the constant banter kept us going through the night.
How did you find about about Cool Earth and why did you choose to fundraise for us?
We always knew that we wanted to raise money for a good cause. The difficult part was deciding which one. There are so many amazing charities out there that all do fantastic work.
But when the 3 of us love and spend so much time in some incredibly beautiful and natural places, it makes you realise what an amazing place our planet is. That is why it needs preserving. And the climate crisis is something that every single one of us is facing.
So we decided that we would raise money for an environmental charity.
We had heard of Cool Earth along with many other charities so sat down to actually research the differences and how each one goes about fighting climate change.
Having done that, we realised that Cool Earth’s ideas and values aligned strongly with our own and therefore was obviously the one to raise the money for.
Adam, James and Liam – Race ready.
We hear you going for a second round, what’s your aim this time?
The main aim for our next attempt at the Lakeland 50 is the same as last time. Just to finish. Although there is also a Lakeland 100 event and to qualify for that, you have to complete the 50 in less than 16 hours. And whilst the 100 might be a little out of our league it would still be nice to qualify for it. Just incase we fancied a crack.
Do you have three top tips for fundraising?
If we had any tips for fundraising it would be to find something you enjoy doing, and a cause you’re passionate about. That way you will have fun and be motivated to keep doing it. And people can be very generous, especially when they see how enthusiastic you are about what you’re doing.