My alarm woke me after about two hours of sleep in total confusion. I think my conversation with Lindley had affected my dreams as I awoke convinced I was in the middle of my kit check. I packed my stuff up and went back to the main room to hunt down breakfast and get some attention for my feet. Generally they weren’t too bad but I hadn’t managed to get rid of a callus on my left heel before the race and it had blistered. I’d started off taping it myself but as the race went on it became harder to bend myself round to tape my own heel so at CP2 I’d asked a medic to do it and was hoping for a repeat at CP3.
I did get my feet taped but it was a bit tight on timing. The pre-race briefing tells you not to rely on medics for foot taping as they may have more serious emergencies to deal with. As I was waiting, Sabrina and Raj arrived. I didn’t get to see them as Sabrina did require the attention of one of the medics. Fortunately she was OK and, although I wouldn’t cross paths with them again, both she and Raj would finish. As it was I just got my feet taped and kit check done before my 6 hours were up.
CP3 to CP4 – Middleton to Alston – really is a leg of two halves. It starts of with the Tees and the waterfalls thereon. It continues with High Cup Nick and drops down into Dufton with its promise of places to eat and drink. However it then has the tough slog up to Green Fell (or is it Knock Fell? I’ve never been sure) and the run over Great Dun Fell, Little Dun Fell and finally the notorious Cross Fell. After all that there is still 11 miles to go before arriving in Alston.
Anyway I’m getting ahead of myself. Last year I left CP3 at sometime on a sunny afternoon and was sharing the path with numerous tourists, at about quarter past four in the morning it was a lot quieter!
It was a very pleasant early morning saunter along the Tees from Low Force to High Force.
After High Force it was fairly easy going until the scramble over various boulders – which may or may not be Falcon Clints, I’m not sure. I did however forget to photograph them as I was using all my concentration just to find a way through. I can only assume that when the likes of John Kelly and Damien Hall set FKTs on the Pennine Way they must have their route though the boulders memorised – I certainly didn’t remember how I did it last year but I think I was a little better this time.
Eventually I reached Cauldron Snout. The scramble up the side is quite easy – in summer at least – as you are some distance from the actual water. Adam, one of the photographers is the small figure in orange and was documenting my ungainly ascent.
After the scramble it was about 5 miles across Dufton Fell to one of the highlights of the Pennine Way – High Cup Nick. Sadly I knew I wouldn’t be seeing it at its best due to the low cloud but it was still worth a picture.
Shortly after leaving High Cup Nick I found a sheltered area where I stopped for a short rest and to give a quick live update to anyone listening. Soon after I met some hikers who informed me they had seen people eating breakfast in Dufton. That was all the incentive I needed to get down ASAP!
As I came to the centre of Dufton I was met by a lovely marshal who asked what I needed. ‘Breakfast’ was the answer so she ordered me a full English and a latte from the Post Box Pantry – which turned out to be quite possibly the finest full English on the Pennine Way!
Properly fuelled I was ready to tackle the hardest part of the challenge so far, Cross Fell. I had recced this section recently, which makes it even more annoying that I was seduced off course by the very big and obvious stile that isn’t on the Pennine Way… Anyway I was soon on the right route and slowly ascending to Green (or Knock) Fell.
There isn’t really a lot to see up on the fells. The giant golf ball antenna thing on Great Dun Fell is the most significant thing and to be fair it is quite significant. As an electronic engineer I should probably find it quite interesting, as a Spine racer I was just happy to have it behind me.
Soon I reached Little Dun Fell and the patch of scree that caused me to lose all my confidence last year. Having recced it and it being daylight this time, I crossed it without incident and headed to the final climb to Cross Fell.
I didn’t hang about on Cross Fell as visibility wasn’t great. Getting there had been a combination of GPS and just heading cairn to cairn until I reached the wind shelter. The route down seemed vague at the start on my recce and was still vague this time. However I soon joined the path to Greg’s Hut.
I had a brief stop at Greg’s Hut – where I noticed that I’d had my shorts on inside out all day! If you looked very closely at the photo of me on Cauldron Snout you may already be aware of this… This race did appear to be characterised by an inability to dress myself properly.
On the path down from Greg’s Hut I was caught by Gerry Dance. It’s a bit of a trek from Greg’s Hut to Alston so it was nice to have someone to chat to – although Gerry now knows far more about phone boxes than he possibly ever wanted to! Soon we arrived in Garrigill and passed through the village before turning on to the South Tyne for the last few miles to Alston. Last year I kept running backwards and forwards along this part of the route, convinced I’d missed the checkpoint. Unfortunately this year wasn’t without incident either. About two and a half miles before CP4 I got a sharp pain in the tendon behind my right knee. It didn’t affect my mobility but it did hurt – it may well have been caused by my lean.
However all pain and fatigue was forgotten as I approached CP4 to be greeted by Rachel. Rachel was one my angels from last year and she was back volunteering at CP4 again after successfully completing the Spine Sprint earlier in the week. It was great to see her again, especially as this year I was in far better shape and was able to hold a proper conversation. There was a certain amount of deja vu as I sat in the same place and was fed lasagne (obviously, this is Alston after all) but it was great to be at CP4 in a positive frame of mind and with only slightly battered feet! I discussed my knee pain with the medic, her verdict was that nothing was ruptured or displaced but it was very inflamed. She would give me some pain relief before I set off from the checkpoint but there didn’t appear to be anything seriously wrong.
I was aware that I hadn’t washed since I started so I took the opportunity to have a shower before retiring for a couple of hours rest. Tomorrow I would be heading to the scene of my demise last year, how would I fare this year? Not really a cliff hanger as you already know I finish but it isn’t all plain sailing…
The Only Way Is Pennine... 