Lakeland 100 and Lakeland 50 course maps and checkpoints

Entry is by ballot. For 2027 it opened on 1 September 2026 for 48 hours, everyone heard by 5 September, and successful entrants had 48 hours to pay. You can enter the ballot for the 50 or the 100, not both. Charity places opened on 8 September, first come first served, with a £200 donation on top of the fee that you get back once you've raised £200. Entries for 2027 are now closed.

For the 100 you need one of these: a Lakeland 50 under 16 hours in 2025 or 2026, any earlier Lakeland 100 finish, a trail ultra of 100 miles or more in 2025 or 2026, or a mountain event of over 50 miles with 3,000 m of climbing in the Lakes, Scotland or Snowdonia, finished at under 16 hours for 50 miles, in 2025 or 2026. The 50 has no entry standard, but the organizer suggests you've already run a marathon on mountain terrain.

There are no deferrals or transfers, and you can't switch between the 50 and the 100. Withdraw by 31 May and half your fee comes back, with the other half going to charity. From 1 June you get nothing back.

Race HQ is the John Ruskin School on Lake Road, and your entry includes camping and parking there on Friday and Saturday night, for one car and one tent. Coniston is about 20 miles west of Kendal, and Stagecoach's 505 bus links it with Ambleside and Windermere.

The road through Coniston closes for the 6 PM start, so arrive before 5:30 PM or after 6:30 PM. Don't park on Lake Road at any time. If you're running the 50, book your coach seat when you enter; the drive to Dalemain takes about an hour.

Nobody but checkpoint staff and other runners may help you. Friends can't hand you food, drink or kit anywhere on the course, there are no pacers, and stashing supplies beforehand counts as cheating. The only exception is the first 4 miles of the 50, when friends can run the Dalemain loop with you.

On the 2026 list, supporters could watch at Coniston, Boot, Wasdale Head (from the Wasdale Inn), the back of Fitz Park in Keswick, Dalemain, Pooley Bridge, Ambleside, the Skelwith Bridge Hotel and Elterwater. The other checkpoints were off limits, and a supporter turning up at one gets their runner disqualified with no appeal.

The organizer's advice for driving between them: from Dalemain, take the A66 and St John's in the Vale to Ambleside rather than Kirkstone Pass. Keep off Wrynose and Hardknott in the dark.

Keswick, on the course, averages a high of 19.8°C and a low of 11.6°C in July, with 94.9 mm of rain over 13.5 wet days (Met Office, 1991 to 2020). Expect rain at some point, and a night on the fells.

Your kit is checked at registration, and without it you don't start. The list includes a fully waterproof jacket with a hood and taped seams, waterproof trousers, a sealed set of spare base layers, a hat and gloves, a head torch with spare batteries or a second torch, a compass, a whistle, a survival bag or blanket, sealed emergency food and a charged phone. There are no cups at the checkpoints, so bring a solid one and a spork. Bring £1 too, for the bucket at the foot of Jacob's Ladder, which goes to children's cancer research.