Well I completed my second Trailtrekker! I am sitting here a mere two-and-a-half months after finishing and I still have many fond memories of another great Trailtrekker day. By now, I have largely forgotten most of the bad stuff but will try to dredge some of it from my memory to paint an accurate a picture as I can so long after the event. I'm afraid the delay in posting this arises from my own laziness. I have been meaning to do it since I crossed the finish line!
We set off from Aireville school at 7:00am on the morning of Saturday June 5th, making good time to Gargrave (Waterstop 1), arriving after 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Pressing on to Checkpoint 1 at Malham via a slightly different, and thankfully flatter, route than we expected, arriving after 3 hours 20 minutes.
Walking along the canal by Gargrave
The team arrive at the Airton bridge.
Leaving Malham checkpoint, we were asked to complete a kit check before leaving for Horton. Despite the intense heat, we were asked to carry all the compulsory kit, including waterproof trousers, hat, warm gloves etc. I found this sort of hand-holding quite annoying being a relatively experienced walker. I notice the local fell rescue team were conducting the checks, so maybe it was at their insistance... Annoying nevertheless with the boiling temperatures to have to take thermal hat and gloves just to tick some box on a sheet! A common sense approach would be nice next year please Oxfam!
The event, as last year, co-incided with Malham Safari, so we passed plenty of elephants and flamingoes on our way through the town!
The team left the checkpoint in high spirits and we made good progress up Malham Cove with all its steps and round Malham Tarn, past some crazy swimmers who were swimming across to the other side and back again!
The team approach Malham Cove
This unofficial waterstop sprang up between Malham and Fountains Fell - a welcome break!
The team struggled up Fountains Fell,the highest part of the route, where I took the opportunity to update the Trailtrekker Twitter feed with the team's progress. We descended to Waterstop 2 where we took on some more fluids and saw a couple of people retiring. From there, the journey up the side of Pen Y Ghent (this year's route mercifully missed out the top third or so) was relatively easy and heading down into Horton, we managed to make contact with the support crew, and Suzy's boyfriend Mark came up to meet us.
Descending from Pen Y Ghent towards Horton-in-Ribblesdale
The Pen Y Ghent café - home of the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge!
The Horton Checkpoint (CP2)
The support team did another great job at Checkpoint 2, refilling water bottles and preparing barbeque food. Yet another bizarre kit-check occurred on leaving the checkpoint as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. An aeroplane of some kind seemed to be buzzing us as we walked up and over the undulating terrain towards Cam Fell. We wondered whether it was hired by Oxfam to oversee the walkers on what was probably the hardest bit to navigate.
Heading towards Cam Fell, we encountered this team, who had already lost one of their number!
The woodland near Cam Farm - very remote!!
Cam Farm, Waterstop 3, made the halfway point of the route and by now, the bottoms of my feet felt like they were on fire. The farmer had kindly made his barn available for the refreshments and as we entered a guy was being treated for a head injury after passing out and smacking his head on the floor! Scary times :-)
We all felt pretty rough at that point, and I think most of us had some painkillers of some sort. I think I opted for ibuprofen gel on my feet!
Cam Farm, getting ready to leave :o)
We left the Waterstop and began the journey to Waterstop 4 at Deepdale. At this point it was starting to get dark and it wasn't long until we had to bring out our headtorches. The painkillers I'd taken didn;t seem to last long and I remember being in some discomfort. There was a last minute route change to avoid a short section of road that one of the local farmers had decided could not be used because his daughter's wedding celebrations were taking place in adjoining buildings. Sadly, this meant an unschedled steep climb and descent back down, which did nothing to help our mood or energy levels!
Unfortunately, Suzy was also suffering pretty badly and received some treatment from a passing paramedic to some severe blistering on her feet. She bravely battled on for the next couple of miles but unfortunately could not carry on and decided at the waterstop that she would not be continuing. Down to three and feeling somewhat deflated at having lost a team member, we bid farewell to Suzy and continued on to the checkpoint at Buckden.
The journey to Buckden, although only about 6 miles, felt very long indeed and seemed to take forever, but we eventually saw the glow of the floodlights through the blackness and made radio contact once again with the support crew who were just fantastic at this checkpoint. Suzy had already been transferred to the checkpoint when we arrived so it was re-assuring to know she was OK. Nick and Ady rustled up some warm food I think (memory a bit fuzzy!) and really made an effort to help make things as easy as possible for us as we were all clearly struggling. The prospect of walking another 20-odd miles was a daunting one and I remember being sat at Buckden was probably a low point for me. Throughout the route up until now, I had been getting regular text updates from my friend Hollie (I am pleased to say she is now my girlfriend lol) which had really helped to keep me going when it would have been easy to stop. Unfortunately, there is something of a mobile phone blackspot throughout most of the top part of the route (if you're on O2 anyway!) but I knew from a walk a couple of weeks previously that there was a decent-ish signal on the tops by Conistone and I remember thinking that there might be texts waiting if I could get up there (you can kinda see the tops in question from Buckden)! I think we spent the best part of an hour at Buckden and then the sun started to come up, which further lifted my spirits.
The checkpoint at Buckden in the middle of the night.
We set off with renewed optimism and met up with Caroline and Joseph from a team called M.A.D (Making a Difference) but they pulled away from us as we neared Kettlewell. We were clearly behind most of the other walkers at this point and way behind our planned schedule (We were aiming for 28 hours initially).Unfortunately it wasn't long before the other two remaining team members were struggling once again. James S and Dan were both feeling the effects of tiredness and we took a 5 minute break for them to gather their thoughts. We arrived at Kettlewell shortly after where we stopped to use the toilets and during this time James and Dan both arrived at their decisions to drop out and ait with the martial at Kettlewell.
Determined to carry on, I waited for the next team to come along. At this point, Liam, Donna and Nick from Team GL appeared and were looking determined so I asked if I could join them. We made great progress out of Kettlewell and straight up on to the tops above Conistone. I decided to push ahead because I wanted to get to the checkpoint there and have a decent break. I made radio contact at about 7am with the support crew who informed me that I had only 30 minutes to *leave* the Conistone checkpoint before I would be retired from the event! Somewhat shocked, I found the energy to jog down parts of the slope and arrived with about 10 minutes to spare. James, Dan and the support crew gave me a great welcome and helped me stock up my rucksack with provisions for the final stage of the route.
After a brief break, I wandered over to a group of people milling around near the exit from the checkpoint and asked if I could join them. They turned out to be a bit of a mixture of walkers from at least two teams, but the one I ended up walking the first part of next stage was called 'Whoops There Go My Bloomers' and were a great bunch of people! They kindly offered me some painkillers (Solpadeine?) and we began the long climb out of Conistone towards Skipton! At this point we had about 15 miles to burn off but as with last time, this was the point where I knew I was going to do it! The 30 hour target appeared to now be impossible and my objective started out just to finish the route and get my medal!
As we progressed towards the final waterstop at Hetton, I began to gain a bit more confidence and energy, and spurred on by some lovely texts from Hollie and a desire to get back home to my bed, I started to speed up a little! I lost count of the number of walkers I overtook but unsurprisingly most teams were going pretty slowly! I arrived at Hetton a mere 2 hours 25 minutes later. A lot of people seemed to be sat down for a prolonged stop but I just stopped for some free cake and then carried straight on! I think I just wanted to get it over with and being on my own, there was nobody to talk to anyway if I stopped!
As with the first time I did Trailtrekker, I found that my body had numbed itself to much of the discomfort I had been feeling during previous hours and I was able to pick up the pace a bit more! It was about this time when I began to realise that I was just about going to be OK for the 30 hours and this just made me want to go faster! Crossing over Sharphaw, it started to drizzle and I got chatting to briefly to a couple of ladies who were walking a dog (I think) and they gave me some kind words of encouragement.A short while later, I was able to make radio contact with the support crew and gave them an estimated time of arrival. I got chatting briefly to the remnants of a couple of other teams, both of which seemed very cheerful at the prospect of being almost back!
As I neared the finish, I realised I was on course for beating not just the 30 hour target, but also the 29 hours! I crossed the line a mere 28 hours and 34 minutes after starting the previous day. I was wet through from the rain and it was great to see Joel (from last year's team) who had made the effort to come down and see us cross the finish line! Thanks to Ady for a great welcome, Joel for the champagne and Nick for the umbrella!
All in all, another great experience! I am keen to register for the 2011 event, but Oxfam, please revise your fundraising targets, which I thought were quite optimistic in the current climate and probably put off a lot of teams from entering this year! I was pleased that the tendonitis I had suffered the previous year had not bothered me at all throughout training or the walk itself :-)
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the support crew for a fantastic effort, the other walkers for some great company and memories, and Hollie for the moral support. I couldn't have done it without you guys! :o)
See you in 2011!
My times from this year:
http://live.sportident.co.uk/home/event/search/entrypunchsummary.html?&racenumber=&name=&club=q-team&eventid=d8a3e857-3d85-4c4b-9cb3-251e77345915&mobile=false&entryid=435034e9-e499-481d-96b5-1fe019b1cf48
| No.: | 134A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name: | James Robertson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team: | The Q-Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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great read James. Inspiring for next year.
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