5 Valleys Ultra, 27th September 2025

Organised by the Great Run Company in partnership with the Lake District National Park, the 5 Valleys Ultra is a 56K race across some of the Cumbria’s most stunning landscape. Starting at Waterhead, Ambleside and finishing in Keswick. the route crosses the valleys of Windermere, Haweswater, Ullswater, Thirlmere and finally Borrowdale & Bassenthwaite, Inevitably, there is a lot of up and down too!

The route description says that “The course sticks to established footpaths, however at times may have challenging and technical terrain. The route has been chosen to limit exposure to ridges wherever possible.”, and I admit that the “wherever possible” bit would have me worried!

Arthur Liu was mad brave enough to take on this challenge, adding a couple of extra kilometres according to his Strava, and climbing an impressive 2,371 metres, to finish in 324th place in a time of 9 hours 29 minutes.