About halfway up the climb, the cramps returned yet again to my hip
flexors, but after a brief pause, we were soon cresting the top of the slope
and were cruising towards the summit, with a couple of minutes gained on
schedule.
The next few peaks were all ticked off more or less on or above the
scheduled pace, with only the occasional pause to admire the stunning dawn. On
this section, my legs seemed to perk up a little and I was taking little chunks
out of the schedule, was eating well and most happily wasn’t cramping. As such
I tried to make a little hay while the sun shone, and had taken 6 minutes back
out of my schedule to this point.
After Pike of Stickle, I noticed that I’d stopped chatting and it was
getting a lot tougher. It was around here that I discovered the truth in many
completers accounts of this section being where things got serious and the enormity
of the remaining task became clear. No matter, just worry about the next peak
and keep the legs moving.
By simply worrying about putting one foot in front of the other we were
on top of Rossett Pike, took a moment to enjoy the magnificent view down
towards the Langdales. From Rossett, it was down and soon back up the
precipitous sloped that make up the direct route up Bowfell. Once again, as the ground steepened, my hip
flexors started to hurt again, and progress was slowed a little, but soon
enough we crested the summit plateau and headed up to Bowfell.
With Bowfell comes the rockiest tops of the round, and despite plenty
of effort over the last few years, I’m still poor on this terrain. As a result,
the schedule was very generous for this section (for most!) but I managed to
stick more or less with it to Scafell Pike. It was on this section that I saw
the first few people (that weren’t supporting me!) in 13 odd hours.
It was on the steep bits of this section that I realised that the
cramps appeared to be passing. This was good, but left in their wake some
serious stiffness and a bit of pain from the affected hip flexors. This was bad.
Still, it just gave me something slightly different to worry about while I
carried on regardless. It was around this point I committed to taking drugs at
Wasdale if it didn’t ease.
Leaving the only slightly busy Scafell Pike, we trotted down to the
stretcher box at Mickledore before heading down to the entrance of Lords Rake. Despite
the legs occasionally requiring my arms to lift them to them up the larger
steps of the rakes as my hip flexors were really not happy, the rakes were
reasonably enjoyable, and the views were simply stunning from the rakes.
Soon enough, we were reaching the summit of Scafell only 3 minutes down
on my leg 3 schedule. All of that time, and a couple more minutes were found as
I persuaded my now rather pained legs into an easy trot down the 3000 foot
descent to Wasdale. On this descent, Brian was brilliant and managed to come
down slowly enough to act as a sensible hare for me, but still got me moving
again at a moderate lick.
As we crossed the river and descended towards Brackenclose, it was time
to slalom around the bank holiday crowds going up and headed to my wonderful
support crew, this time of Kate, Helen, Mum, Dad and Pete. Unbeknown to me,
they’d all been plotting on the Saturday while I’d been trying to rest and had
arranged a banner for the support car that did a fine job of cheering me up
just before the now standard super smooth pit stop and lunch.
Splits for interest (Schedule in brackets)
Steel Fell 21 (24)
Calf Crag 21 (19)
Sergeant Man 33 (34)
High Raise 9 (9)
Thunacar Knott 12 (15)
Harrison Stickle 9 (10)
Pike o Stickle 14 (12)
Rossett Pike 45 (44)
Bowfell 39 (37)
Esk Pike 26 (26)
Great End 29 (26)
Ill Crag 17 (18)
Broad Crag 12 (14)
Scafell Pike 14 (14)
Scafell 42 (38)
Wasdale 30 (35)
Leg Time 6:13 (6:15)
More of Brian’s excellent photos can be found here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/16716009@N03/sets/72157646842288345/
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