Salomon Kielder Marathon

I loved this Marathon, it takes place around Kielder Dams Lakeside Way which is a footpath that follows the Kielder lake shoreline for 26 miles, it takes you through the most scenic countryside Northern England has to offer, weaving its way through beautiful woodland, over bridges and along the lakes breath taking shore line until you burst out into a huge open space and run across the dam before disappearing back into the trail on the other side of the lake for the final push of 8 miles to the finish. Urban Jungle marathon runners should be prepared though, as it is undulating for most of its length culminating in 1600+ feet of climbing so good hill climbing prowess is definitely needed to get to the finish line.The whole route is so quiet and peaceful, it makes you relax just being there and the miles just seem to drift away easily, the whole natural vibe of the place saw me run it in barefoot style and it really felt the right way to run it for me, Zen running at its best.Loading...
The Salomon Kielder Marathon 2011I entered the event as part of a reunion with my Marathon Des Sable tent mates and I was pleasantly surprised by how great an atmosphere it had , with really nice laid back runners, marshals and a very entertaining girl as compare; the tent was buzzing at the end and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Pretty much I would say it was a 60/40 men to women mix of runners and all along the route there was excellent crowd support as both the spectators and locals joined in the fun.As for costumes, there wasn't the usual huge number of runners sporting them but I did see a few and my favourites would be the "Cool Running's" Jamaican Bobsleigh team, although there wasn't many of them running at the end but they did look good.If anyone hasn't ran a trail marathon before then its time they tried it and Kielder would be the perfect one... 10/10.