Mark's 50 at 50 - Damage Limitation on leg 4

Complete change of support here – joined by Sarah, Peter and Paul for leg 4. My brother Julian had driven supporters and supplies here; he’d been told by mum not to let me get too tired! thankfully he chose to disregard this piece of parental advice. By taking only half the planned break, we left Wasdale only 10 mins down on schedule, thinking that it would be tough, but achievable as long as I got to Honister in good shape. While Leg 3 may the longest, leg 4 is tougher with the big climb coming straight after the 900m descent from Scafell. Started climbing Yewbarrow too fast (altimeter read 15m/min), was sweating, reduced pace, and ascent was exactly on pace. Morale good. Sarah reminding me to eat. For me leg 4 was about damage limitation, I soon gave up caring about the schedule and found a pace that was comfortable. Along the way Paul pointed out a few extra summits that would involve a small detour. Not interested. My route was planned, and I was sticking to it. Pace dropped at Kirk Fell and Great Gable, causing a bit of worry in the team; I didn’t know at the time, but they were seeing my 24 hours slipping out of reach again. Paul navigating up front, Sarah doing a great job sticking close and keeping me focused. Green Gable done, picking up a bit of speed on the grass, stumbled, tripped, fell headlong, avoided most of the rocks, supporters worried, checked for injury, no damage apart from torn altimeter strap, but a whole minute lost. I was more worried about being told off by Sarah for not concentrating than by the fall itself. Underway again. Last summit of this leg was Grey Knotts. Paul, “it’s 14 minutes to Honister from here, 12 if you push it”; checked watch, it said 13:11, I’m still in with a chance of the 24 hours. Damage was limited, now let’s go: we came down in 12 minutes.