Sabrina Verjee, Blea Tarn

IF YOU’VE EVER puffed your way up a high Lakeland fell, you’ll feel slack-jawed respect for records set by runners like Joss Naylor, the shepherd from Wasdale who ran over 100 miles up 72 peaks in 23 hours and 20 minutes in 1975. And now Surrey-born vet Sabrina Verjee has moved to the Lakes and is setting astonishing times, including a 326-mile, non-stop round of all 214 Wainwrights last summer, when she became the first woman – and fifth person – ever to complete the challenge, with its mind-boggling 118,000 feet of ascent, in 161 hours, 51 minutes and 11 seconds. It’s not all three-digit mileage though, and one of her regular routes makes a gorgeous walk: “My favourite little run in the Lakes is up to Blea Tarn, with its breathtaking view of the Langdale Pikes. From Great Langdale Bunkhouse, I run along the Cumbrian Way to Old Dungeon Ghyll then up the zig-zag road to the tarn. I turn right on a path along the lake and follow the trail through the woods, stopping at the top of the lake to look back over the Pikes. Then I head back to the quiet country road, taking a right onto the path just after the cattle grid to bomb down the zig-zag path to the NT campsite and road, and right back to the start and the Stickle Barn Pub. Wonderful.”