I did this unsupported - brought 3.7L water, snacks, a couple first aid supplies, a compass, a battery to recharge my phone, extra layers, and a change of clothes in my running vest. I set off around noon due to train delays. The conditions were really good - mild temperatures with some sun and some clouds, only a slight drizzle for maybe 10 minutes a couple of hours in. It starts with Orrest Head, which is a “classic” from Windermere and was busy. I took a couple of different switchbacks from the original gpx to get up there (there are multiple trails to the top and I didn’t look closely enough at which one I was supposed to be on at that point).
After that it follows footpaths, which go across some farms - I had to go slowly and wait a bit for some sheep that farmers were actively herding across one field. The ground was wet across the fields, so wet shoes and socks until they dried out a bit after joining the Roman “High Street”. It’s a really nice, mostly steady climb for a while, with a couple steep, technical bits going both up and down from the high points as you run along the ridge.
The GPX file/course deviates from the High Street and misses the actual High Street summit, which I realized after I passed it. It also goes off downhill a little on a singletrack to the East of the high street only to cut across the field (no trail) back onto the high street at one point, so I think that’s a routing error from drawing on a mapping service. Similarly there are a few bits where the GPX track is just off to one side of the trail, and I think that’s a mapping error so I ran the trail. I also decided to go to the Trick point at Loadpot Hill rather than skirt around it as the course does. I asked a lovely couple that were just summiting to take my photo there.
From there (~25km in), it gets really boggy on the descent, and I ended up with wet shoes and socks again and for the rest of the run since there wasn’t more time to dry out. At around 7-8km to go, it joins the road for a bit, then back onto footpaths at 5km left. This slows the course, as the footpath has lots of walls to go over and gates, and is a bit overgrown so I got nettled. One of the last bits goes through a field with cattle in, then goes under the railway in a cool tunnel. Unfortunately after that is the M6 highway, where I had to wait for traffic/signals to get around a massive roundabout. Then the home stretch on the pavement of the A road to the finish in front of the Penrith Castle ruins and the train station!
Note: I had trouble with the photo upload, so please see photos and videos at the Dropbox link in Verification links above. Thanks!