Bob Graham Round update - 8 mins up on Skiddaw and then 10 mins down by the top of Blencathra. Very difficult and slippy going underfoot along with increasingly poor visibility. 25 mins down by Threlkeld with a good bash on the ankle where I managed to pop it straight in to a rocky crevice on the way down. Oops. At this stage eternal optimism seemed to be the way ahead and, rationalising it, I figured if I made the pit stops 5 mins less and kept the pace going I'd still be in with a slim chance. Especially as I was on a 23 1/2 hour schedule - so there was another 30 minutes!
So my fantastic support crew (who had just been running with me for 4 and a half hours in the wet) pandered to my every need for 10 mins and then I set off on Leg 2 in to the ever decreasing visibility and ever wetter weather with a new support team (1 of whom had just joined at 5 that afternoon because my original navigator had tweeked his back).
Anyway, awful conditions - but, well, you just get on with it. Very difficult nav and lost a bit of time here and there with little purchase in places on the muddy terrain. In fact there were a couple of spots where you would have thought we were wading ankle deep across rivers and streams.
Result was I ended up being 1hr 25 mins down by Dunmail. Sore ankle playing up and the prospect of trying to claw back all that time (in what was not a favourable forecast as it happens) meant that it was knocked on the head. A difficult decision but now that I am hobbling around like Kaiser Soze - the right one.
A big up thank you to the folk that ran with me and my apologies to everyone else who had volunteered to help that I didn't end up needing your services.
Great views coming down of Seat Sandal though when the cloud lifted.
Hey ho.
It was a brave decision to set off considering the weather and you did well under the terrible circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI'm still very proud of you and the team.
Jonathan