The night before we had a briefing where the organiser of the event went through the route with a fine toothcombe. At this point we learnt there had been a couple of route changes which frankly terrified us because we were using the Satmap Active 10 to get us around and had already imported the gpx files. Apparently, Paul can read a map so if worst came to worst we should be okay, but I wasn't convinced! We also found out that the weather was going to be, for lack of a better word....shit. It was going to rain, we were going to have 30-40 mph winds and the cloud would be so low we would be lucky to see our hand out in front of us. Luckily, only two of those three turned out to be true but I will come on to that later.
So we headed back to the hotel, nervous and excited about the challenge the following day. After a pretty average nights sleep we woke up at 4.30am and set of to the Rugby club that served as the start point. By this point I was feeling physically sick with nerves and Hannah literally forced me to eat half a bacon sandwich and a few spoons of porridge. 7am came round far to quickly and then we were at the start point!
Section One:So all 33 teams of four set off together at 7am. Fairly quickly these broke off into 3 distinct groups, the super fast, the middle and the slow. We were in the middle and it became pretty clear early on the extent of the challenge we had signed up for. For starters, the elevation profile seemed alot more intense than I had originally anticipated which got me worried as I knew there were some big hills coming up in later sections. How big would they really be?! Anyway, because this was the first section we were all pretty pumped and the weather was nice to us. After 6 miles we reached the first checkpoint, loaded up on supplies then started section two...
Section Two:
None of us were overly concerned with this section as we knew it was mostly flat/downhill and we started to take in the beauty of the Pennine Way. However, the weather had other plans for us. We probably were not even a mile in before the wind and the rain came along. And we're talking 30mph winds and the kind of rain that slaps you across the face. But, we persevered, I got really screwed at this section as the rain was that bad it permeated my boots from the top meaning I had wet feet for most of the section. Not good when I already know I have a pre-existing vulnerability to blisters. This meant I had to take a stop and patch up my feet the best I could but the blisters still came...and hurt. We carried on with the section and although it was only 8 miles, it seemed to go on a bit, possibly because the initial excitement of section one had washed away with the rain. It was during this section that we approached the first route change, luckily the event organisers stuck up helpful little arrows to send us on the right track. The easy diversion we expected became a horrible downhill trek! Walking downhill is fine, walking downhill for 10-15 minutes ruins your knees! Again we ploughed on through and reached Hebden Bridge and our second checkpoint. After another round of patching up feet, changing into clean socks and getting supplies we headed off for Section Three, otherwise known as the Bitch Section...
Section Three...The Bitch SectionLong before the event, I dreaded Section Three. It was 13.9 miles and had some pretty horrendous hills in it. Needless to say I did not start this section in a positive mental attitude. After tussling with the Hebden Bridge Carnival we started the section. Paul had a fag, as naturally you do on a 50 mile walk and we thought about the challenge ahead. After some initial confusion as to where we were supposed to head (Us with our Satmap versus some guys with a Map) we settled on the route. I was starting to slump and had to force myself (Hannah force me) to eat. The problem I was having was I was retching every time I took a bite. We kept going and surprisingly the first bitch hill passed beneath us pretty quickly. I had a blister pop beneath compeed not long after this which was pretty grim but after it drained, the pressure had released and actually I didn't feel this blister for the rest of the Trek! We took in some pretty beautiful scenery during this section whilst battling with the occasional bursts of rain. It was in this section that camaraderie with other groups began to show as we would overtake them and they us as we both took short breaks along the route.
This section was my personal hell. I hit the wall and I hit it bad. When we had been walking for what felt like forever and Hannah informed me we weren't even half way through the section, the ipod came out. Then came another big hill, which I hated but climbed anyway and didn't take that many stops on during the ascent. Then it transpires we have missed a turn at some point. Not a total disaster as we could rejoin the path later but I felt so crap at that point it felt like the end of the world. I started experiencing joint pain and was questioning my ability to finish this section let alone the rest of the challenge. The only thing that kept me going was the support of Hannah and Paul who were so patient with me during this session. Honestly, I was a whiny child, I do not know how they coped, although apparently Paul had a grouchy moment I missed. Hannah must have been on Prozac or something because she was just inherently cheerful! The other things that kept me going were the thought of a proper toilet, a hot meal, a longer break and some stronger painkillers at the next checkpoint. The checkpoint just never seemed to come. I later found out that for the last 3 miles of this section Hannah kept telling me had 1 mile to go...that's how bad it was! Eventually, we reached the final stretch of the route...another downhill and we reached the checkpoint. I don't think I have ever been so happy to see Sam in my life (our support vehicle driver!). We sat down, relaxed, refreshed, took some painkillers and one hour later we set off on Section Four...
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