What I really needed was a good start with few if any blisters on the first leg and ideally the second too. What I got was something a little different.
My journey from that point forward is a series of remembered feelings of levels of pain from my feet. A good step was a painful one, while a bad step made me wince and a really bad step generated gasps and swears... (sorry anyone within earshot)
By the 4th checkpoint I was in real trouble and went to the first aid people for help. There advise was simple, stop! Which was not what I wanted to hear. The only thing they could offer was more padding and in hindsight accepting this was a mistake. The padding crushed my feet in my shoes and affected my gait putting additional pressure on my knees.
I would never have forgiven myself for not attempting the last leg but it was probably doomed to failure. As the pain grew worse and my speed became little more than a crawl I went into denial, probably costing the others their chance of making 30 hours. When my knees started to buckle on a particularly steep hill it was time to call a halt. Little did I realise how emotional I would feel as failure is not an experience I am used to.
The next photos are not for the squeamish!
A huge thank you to our support team, all the Oxfam marshal's, first aid and masseuse who kept us going. To the team who fantastically got to the finish line, you should be very proud guys. And finally to Oxfam's Kim who who is one of the nicest and honest people one could wish to meet.
Look out for my epic poem coming soon...
1 comment:
you can hold your head up high Ady. to battle on as far as you did - just watching the video from Malham reminded me how long you were suffering for - is inspirational. I'd have packed in before Horton if I'd been in your boots. Your story is more about success (raising shed loads of cash and breaking 80km) than failure. 100km is there for the taking next year if you're up for it!!!
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