Originally Posted by
Stolly
Brilliant, brilliant event in incredible weather. That wind was just brutal all day long. Unfortunately I had to retire at Cray after 45 miles because I had what I thought was probably the beginnings of hypothermia; at the Hell Gap CP just before Cray my vision was completely blurred and I had trouble speaking anything but dribble to the tally hole puncher. When I'd trotted down to the tent in Cray I was completely starving and had (no kidding) two saucepans full of rice pudding mixed with fruit cocktail but I just couldn't get warm and became very sleepy and groggy. Dropping out seemed a sensible move. Even if I had recovered (what with the wide open wind battered tops of Buckden Pike of Great Whernside to come) I'd have been a real liability to any team I grouped with and I was wary of me having to then drop out and kill their race in the process. The guys at Cray were brilliant by the way - they made a right fuss of me wrapping me in blankets and foil survival blankets and even gave me a hot water bottle. The race doctor happened to be there too and he gave me a good once over.
As for my race I think it died from self inflicted wounds to be honest. I started brilliantly and fairly whizzed to Dent (the 20 mile point) in 3 hours 55 minutes. Unfortunately though I lost my camera dropping down to Flinter's Gill and got side tracked reporting that to the Dent marshals and didn't take any proper food on board, just a couple of chocolate biscuits which I ate trotting off down the road (they were like trying to eat dust biscuits and I kept choking on them). All the same I was feeling strong all the way up the side of Whernside but this feeling died on me completely by the top of Blea Moor where my blood sugar seemed to fall through the floor. After dropping down through the woods (to get out of the fricking wind as best I could) I ate the best part of a snickers and felt much better and stopped properly to eat pasta and two slices of fruit cake in Stonehouse. After that I still only managed a trudge to the top of Great Knoutberry but, by the time I got there, I was feeling good again and ran in good nick all the way to Redshaw.
At Redshaw though I made another food error and just walked out with a hot dog and, although the hot dog itself was okay, I couldn't chew the bread down into anything swallowable and had to spit it out. I was still running strong though and got to the top of Dodd Fell in good order............ only for the cold to really get to me for the first time. I'd been running in two long sleeve tops but my bottom layer, one of those tight paunch hugging thermals, was probably to become the bane of my run. At this point I'd been out a long time exposed to the elements and I was feeling chilled to the bone - I should have put my wind proof on there and then but I delayed doing this until I'd dropped off the hill. I then put on my wooly hat, changed into my seal skin gloves and put on my wind proof. By the time I reached Fleet Moss I was warm but starting to feel another bonk coming on. At this point though I'd reached Fleet Moss (say 38 miles in) after 8.5 hours and a 15 to 16 hour finish was still on the cards.
I ate a delicious jam roll at Fleet Moss and had a mug of soup too and felt much better again. Here though I made another mistake. Wary of getting cold again I added another layer, my waterproof on top of my wind proof on top of my running top, on top of my thermal. I ran the stretch to Deepdale really well and was very warm to boot. Then the guy I'd hooked up with at that point unfortunately made a 'slight' detour to his cunning plan to get on the quad bike tracks to the Middle Tongue checkpoint but we found them after a bit of wading through the tussocks and again were able to run quickly to the CP. After that though it became the beginning of the end for me - my pal vamoosed and I was left on my tod just taking an eastward line, mainly walking, through tussocks head on into the wind and I started to chill very very fast. My energy levels also starting dropping quickly too and I was very, very hungry. Ironically adding the extra layer had made me sweat and the thermal kept that clammy sweat close to my body and while walking I just went from hot to fricking frozen in no time. The 2 or 3 miles to Hell Gap were absolute hell and I knew I would be struggling to be able to continue at Cray as I'd used up all my layers.
In hind sight wearing the thermal next to my skin was a massive mistake as I know that I'm an easy sweating :) type of person and sweat gone cold is something I've suffered from many times before. Having another replacement layer in my rucksack would have been perfect but I didn't have one. Nor had I been able to pair up with anybody else to that point which, if nothing else, would have helped on the morale point of view. So having reached Cray and wolfed down my first saucepan full of rice pudding and found myself getting colder and colder I pulled the plug on my race. And almost certainly avoided what could have been a very sticky end in the hills.
Fantastic day out though.......
EDIT: Oh and well done Hes for completing her first (of many ;) ) Fellsman. Not just a normal Fellsman either but a Fellsman with nobs and a half on!
