So the alarm woke me up at 1:50 am and I was out the door for 2:15 and on my way to Thelkeld. There was light in the sky to the east as it was already approaching dawn, and it was slightly strange to realise that most of the traffic on the road were people heading home from a Friday nights partying, not heading out as I was! As I approached Keswick, the sky has started to look ominously darker in the east, and as I parked up in Thelkeld the rain arrived.
The BG contender Nick arrived 2 minutes up on schedule and after 5 minutes rest we headed out towards Clough Head. I was relieved that by this time we did not need torches. The rain got heavier as we gained height, and soon lost the two teams in front of us in the cloud. As we reached the summit of Clough Head the rain turned to sleet then snow as forecasted with a stiff easterly wind. We were doing fine schedule wise and trogged on through to the Dodds.
But the weather was against us and the snow started falling much more heavily and it became almost a whiteout with gale force easterlies battering our left sides. By the time we were approaching Stybarrow Dodd, the conditions were making it hard even to follow the footprints in front and Nick had slowed considerably. I'm not sure I'd have been mentally prepared to endure essentially winter conditions in June!
So as we approached Sticks Pass, Nick decided that enough was enough. We all live locally and the hills would be here another more summer-like day! So we bailed off down to Stannah to await pick up by Nick's wife. I can't really reccommend 3 wet and cold adults sheltering in a telephone box for over an hour as a great way to spend a saturday morning but the craic was good - we were down and safe!
This effort took a reasonable amount out of me as it took me a long time to warm up coupled with the very early start and loss of sleep. I managed to drive home safely, and spent the rest of the day pottering at home doing odd jobs. Sunday I had to fight off major lethargy to get out for a run but only managed a very slow 3.5 miles. My legs felt dead! But a good nights sleep on the Sunday got me back on track!
I rode to work and back on Monday and then made the best (?!) of a trip to Surrey for a training course to get 3 runs in of 6.5 miles (1700'), 9.5 miles (1700') and 3.5 miles (1100') on the roads and tracks around where I was based. I also ploughed up and down the hotel pool for a while managing a 600m swim.
The phone rang again on the Thursday asking if I would provide navigation support for leg 4 on a BG for a friend of a friend. I got home at 10:30pm on Friday night and Ryan wanted me at Wasdale for 8:30am! So I got up fairly early and found enough dry and sweet(ish) smelling running kit to use! I met up with the other support guy at the NT car park amoung what seemed like thousands of 3 peakers, and sat down to wait. Ryan arrived ahead of schedule and we were off soon after 10am up Yewbarrow.
I set off at a bit too fast a pace, but Ryan kept it up, until we realised that the pace was too good, and slowed up to avoid over cooking it. We still reached Yewbarrow summit 9 minutes up and set off in thick mist towards Red Pike.
I was nervous before hand as although I know this leg well, I have never done it when it really counts i.e. supported someone on it and felt under some pressure to get it right. To be honest I needn't have worried as I got all the summits spot on and picked the best lines pretty much all the time. I did play it safe a couple of times opting for easy to navigate lines as opposed the really good lines which could go wrong in bad weather. After the intial climb up Yewbarrow we didn't have any rain, but the mist was as thick as I have ever known it to be with visibility down to 5 meters in someplaces.
The run took us from Red Pike, to Steeple, Pillar, Kirkfell (via Joss's Gully), Great Gable, Green Gable, Brandreth and Grey Knotts before dropping down to the top of Honister Pass. We didn't see a thing until we dropped off the summit of Pillar and the bottom of Mosedale popped out the cloud for a few glorious seconds!! I'm not sure if Ryan felt the uplift in spirits but it had an impact on me, even though I knew exactly where we were it always has a good effect suddenly seeing the surroundings!
As we approached Beckhead, we passed Ian Charters on his 55@55 attempt being support by a couple of mates. He looked to be going well at that point! Ryan was really doing well here, he was eating and drinking plenty and was strong up hills still, but was starting to suffer from painful shins which were slowing him down on the descents, but we were keeping to schedule . As we dropped off Green Gable we popped out of the cloud for the last time and had a lovely sunny run along the more grassy paths to Brandreth and Grey Knotts and a good descent to Honister, where the Leg 5 supporters were waiting and took Ryan on to finish in 22:33!!
I had originally planned to run back to the car at Wasdale, but had been offered a lift, which I decided to take given how tired I had felt that morning when I got up. With hindsight I should've run back but nevermind!! It was a good day out on the hill and gave me a lot of confidence on that leg that I know it as well I thought!!
Sunday, P and I walked up to the Samson Stones in Upper Eskdale to go bouldering. We both felt tired but it was a lovely dry day and so took advantage of the breeze and sunshine to boulder up there. It's about an hours walk in and in such lovely settings! I managed finally to do a proper V3!! and then found out another problem I did which our guide says is V1 is a V3 too!! Bonus!
Yesterday I rode to work and back in more sunshine. Tonight then plan is for a mountain bike ride in the Duddon. I'm watching the weather closely as it'd be nice if it didn't rain!!
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