There is No Map in Hell by Steve Birkinshaw

Author:Steve Birkinshaw [Steve Birkinshaw]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910240953
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
Published: 2017-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

– PART 3 –

Taking on the Wainwrights

– CHAPTER 18 –

DAY ONE

SECTION 1 Keswick to Borrowdale School

DETAIL 31.9km, 1,730m ascent, 11 Wainwrights

SUPPORT TEAM Paul ‘Corny’ Cornforth and Nic Barber

TIMES Start time 09.00, end time 13.50, break at end of leg 00.09

So the big day has arrived. I am desperate to get going but I am also desperately trying to stay calm and relaxed so as not to waste any energy. I have done everything I can to be perfectly prepared for this run. The training has gone well, the logistics and support are sorted enough for me to forget about them and leave to Jane to sort out. Amazingly the weather for the week looks dry and warm. The weather is often the key to an attempt such as this and is obviously outside my control. If it is too hot, like during Joss’s attempt, then it can be really hard work with dehydration and heat stroke a big problem. On the other hand, wet and windy weather makes the rocks slippery, navigation difficult and there is the inverse problem of hypothermia. Overall, I am delighted to have settled, dry and warm weather – which also makes it so much easier and more enjoyable for the support team. The first day looks slightly too hot and very humid, but if I can cope with this then the rest of the week looks great. I decided on a 9 a.m. start so I can get a decent night’s sleep before I begin and so I’m not sleep deprived on the first day. Despite my nerves I slept well; it helps sleeping in my own bed.

After a quick breakfast Jane drives me to Keswick. We get there at 8.30 a.m. and there are lots of market traders setting up their stalls but no one else around. A few people gradually appear including my support team on this section, Corny and Nic. Corny lives locally and is self-employed while Nic is having a break from work before he starts a PhD so both say they will come out and support me quite a lot over the week. James Thurlow also turns up with the trackers.

My family turn up with around five minutes to go. I hug them, pose for a few photos and climb the steps to the Moot Hall, feeling quite scared waiting for the clock to strike 9 a.m. I am scared of the pain I expect to push myself through over the next seven days. The accounts of the pain that Alan and Joss went through are clear in my mind.

The clock strikes and I set off. Nic and Corny join me and we are running towards Latrigg and the first of the 214 Wainwrights. Nic and Corny have a rucksack each with my spare clothes, food and drink for the section and the tracker. I relax and I am happy to forget all the logistics and media side of things and do what I do best and enjoy, which is running on the fells.

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