The fifteen minutes here went very quickly. I seemed to do nothing except shove foods in my mouth – a wonderful egg butty. Ros washed my feet – something no one should have to do, and vaslined them again before I put on new socks and same shoes. Again a change of top and shorts and new bandana, slapped on the factor 30 sun cream, and all too soon it was time to leave with another butty in hand for the first climb with Mike and Tracy and Ben the dog. The climb up Yewbarrow was fine, again I knew it so well that I felt mentally prepared for it to hurt. We were spot on time up here and Tracy and I had a great natter on the descent to Dore Head and climb up Red Pike. In fact it was a generally chatty leg and was great at keeping my mind off my knee. Ben has brilliant despite getting under my feet a few times. He was suffering in the heat being a black dog, but seemed to settle down after the first climb, and soon started seeking out puddles and tarns to cool off in!
After Red Pike, Mike picked a soft line off to Scoat fell, where we left Tracy to reorganise the sacs & food, while Mike and I ticked off Steeple. My memories of this winter in the deep snow coming back to me. No problem with rotten snow today, and we were soon back and trotting along dropping down past Black Crags and down to Wind Gap. The climb up Pillar passed quickly and soon we dropped off the main path to the good grassier trod towards Black Sail. At this point Mike heard on the MRT radio that one of the P&B guys had fallen and injured his face, it was thought potentially a broken cheek bone. Mike was busy keeping up to date with what was happening, but they must have been on the main path above us as we reached Black Sail without seeing them.
Here we caught up with Larry from Macclesfield Harriers who had just sat down and had finally been persuaded to get up and carry on. Chris C was supporting him, and we caught up with the day so far with him as we climbed Kirkfell together, up Joss’s Gully. Larry seemed to be suffering badly in the heat which I just wasn’t noticing. I still felt really quite good! Food and water were going down well, and I still felt really strong on the climbs. At the top of Joss’s gully, Annette was waiting for Larry and team, and passed a segment of orange to me which tasted soo good! We reached the summit just before Larry and headed off down to Beck Head, as he went for a dip in the tarn near the summit. They over took us on the descent down to Beck Head, but again we pulled ahead on the climb up gable. It was somewhat distracting to have this to-ing and fro-ing going on, and made me worry about my descending speed, but I was moving so much better up hill I figured that it was something to worry about too much. Also Larry had started 30 minutes before me which did help my mind.
After Gable, we worked as one team on the descent to Windy Gap. After Green Gable Larry and team seemed to find a second wind and off they went, as I was still struggling to maintain a good pace across the undulating terrain after Green Gable. However, Brandreth and Grey Knotts arrived and went quickly, as the ground was very dry and easy going. Mike sought out a great soft line off Grey Knotts to Honister and it was a great feeling to run into Honister. Rich ran up to find out what I was craving most and Pete wondered up taking some photos on the run in. I even got a round of applause from people in the car park, including the Macc. Harriers support!
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