I flew back from Norway on the Friday night and pushed some things into my bag, hoping to pass the kit check early on Saturday morning! A meal would have been good but I'd missed all the action so a chocolate bar sufficed! After the price of Norwegian food, I was quite peckish but I'd seen the Fellsman menu and knew I wouldn't be hungry for long once the race started!
Heading up Ingleborough, the icy wind blew which was a refreshing wake up! After a steep downhill, we were soon rewarded with the first feed station and a great cup of tea and the trend of frequent, amazing checkpoints continued. The food just kept getting better; cheese pasties, cups of beans, soups, pasta and sooo many biscuits! I barely noticed running the first 40 miles as the sun came out, cruising down the hills with my arms stretched out like aeroplane wings and chatting to many other runners. There was a slight panic at only 12 miles when my toe (suspected toenail infection) became the most painful thing in the world, but there was no way I was having a DNF on my first Fellsman! Tempted as I was to crawl back down the hill howling, I trudged through the bogs thinking it would be a great exercise in suffering. Here I met two awesome guys, Steve (married to Nicky Spinks!!) and Andy (signed up for the Spine 2014!) as well as a friend from the L100. We cruised down into Dent where Ian showed us an awesome little route to the checkpoint. Ian had broken his toe and it was gutting to not have him racing, but so good to see him supporting!
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| A brilliant classic Yorkshire route |
Leaving Dent, I was reunited with some Calderdale Hike friends, Steve and Garry, who are great fun and always have loads of excellent ideas for more adventures! Apparently there was an enormous turkey at Stonehouse but somehow we missed that! Past half way and I was starting to feel stronger and stronger, so I pressed on, hoping to get a good team at nightfall. It was awesome to see Annie Garcia and catch up on the Pennine Way towards Hawes...I hadn't even recognised it until Annie pointed it out! There were some suffering runners up ahead who I didn't fancy teaming up with for the night so I legged it to Fleet Moss. From here on, we would be grouped and have to stick together. I was relieved to catch up the smiley Yorkshire-women that I knew would be great grouping friends as they'd maintained a consistent pace all day and looked healthy, along with having the local knowledge! There was just enough time to eat some delicious rice pudding before we grabbed three more healthy members and off we ventured into the bogs!
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| Team mugshots! Phil :-) |
Phil from Southwell was a great navigator, Captain Nick had a GPS and Rachael was very handy with the map too, so we were set! Other team members Clare and Kevin were great and it felt like a fresh adventure as the sun began to set. We lept over bogs all through the night, keeping a good pace on the uphills and eating lots of biscuits. It was really cool to look back at all the headlights of the teams behind us and occasionally bump into Annie's team. I really enjoy running at night, although it was a little chilly! Clare was sick just before Great Whernside but made an impressive recovery! Rachael was amazingly strong and Phil rewarded us on Whernside by sharing his final sweets - perfect team-mate! :-) In the last 5 miles, I began to get exceptionally tired and passed the time fantasising about the John Lewis duvet department and being allowed to dive in despite my very muddy appearance. Phil managed to fall asleep mid-pee (!) but thankfully caught us up again. Once we hit the road, it felt fresh again. A very swift coffee at the last checkpoint and the race was on! We were de-grouped and the clock was ticking! Coming into Treshfield, it was 4 minutes until 20hrs so we put some effort into the last little flick up from the bridge and burst into the school with 2 minutes to spare! :-) Thanks for an awesome night, team!
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| Enthusiastic faces at Park Rash :-) |
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| Bumping into Annnniiee :-) |
A quick nap on the seats in the foyer and then it was time for a delicious breakfast! Spaghetti hoops on toast and a great catch up with super-fast Karen, Ian, Mark Brooks, Jon Steele, Annie, etc. Excellent race and some RunFurther points bagged :-)
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