Just a quick note to say that it was a fantastic run and I'm just sorry that my legs just forgot to turn up for it. Maybe I just didn't taper enough or maybe the thrashing I gave them at Ingleborough (especially the nutter sprint all the way down) last week was still in them - either way I was already struggling a little on the long but gradual climb from Clough Head to Great Dodd so just what, 16 miles in, I knew I was in for a tough day. (My legs had perversely been brilliantly strong after full on 50 miles on my previous weather halted attempt, just 4 weeks ago!!)
I was down (on my 23 hour schedule) by 15 minutes at the top of Blencathra, due mainly to pissing rain and poor visibility on Skiddaw, 10 at Threlkeld after throwing myself off the side of Doddick in misty drizzle and thick fog and, even though I struggled along much of the Helvellyn ridgeline and we took a dodgy line off of Nethermost Pike, just 4 minutes by Dunmail. To to be honest though, I'd expected to be half an hour up by then. I wasn't firing on all cylinders and things got gradually worse from Calf Crag, losing a couple of minutes here and there. It was raining on and off most of the time and foggy on the tops but, after getting through the Langdales, a complete and utter monsoon set in which reached horrendous proportions by Bowfell, with a heck of a wind chill thrown in. I'd lost some more time by then, down 23 minutes, (but more positively still 37 up on a 24 hour schedule) but had, at least for the moment, managed to stop the rot. But now the weather had chosen to go mental too in what quite frankly couldn't have been a worse place!
My legs (my quads specifically) were feeling really ropey and after marching on the best we could striving against the elements it was plain that the weather was becoming borderline dangerous. We were all drenched through and shivering pretty badly and we still had all the boulder scrambling and fannying about to do over Scafell Pike and Scafell before we could drop out of the weather. My quads weren't getting better any time soon anyway and we were all freezing cold so I called it a day. Regardless of my legs I think it was the right decision as it still took us a good while struggling through a continual deluge to get down to Wasdale via Esk Haus and Sty Head and we had to run most of the time regardless of my legs just to keep warm.
Eventually I turned up like a drowned rat at the Wasdale Head Inn and scrounged an immediate pint on a tab whilst Martyn, Mark and Lucas went to tell the support crew what had happened.
Thanks to all my helpers and pacers - Hes, Gav and Lee leg 1, Mark (mk1) and Adrian leg 2, Martyn, Mark (mk2) and Lucas leg 3 and unused Jack leg 4 and Kelly (ground support and leg 5). Martyn and Mark were both hoping to do leg 4 too and Hes leg 5 but it would have taken some sort of bottle in those conditions to want to carry on! And not forgetting Harry and Wallace on leg 3 who mostly loved it too, although both of them were shivering with the cold and driving rain on Bowfell. Top team.
Oh and a fantastic memory of a shooting star just as we started climbing the reverse slope of Blencathra (a gap in the clouds!) and the sun did try and burst through briefly too...
And awesome Nicky Spinks!
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