Mark's 50 at 50 - Leg 3 - The wheels came off

For leg 3 I was joined by Bob, and Mark stayed on. We all left Dunmail together in a big group, still half an hour up, and climbed fast up Steel Fell, but I was not keeping pace. Big effort to catch the others at the summit. Trying to stay in touch with the group. Needing to eat, but no appetite. Can’t chew anything solid. Only stuff that would go down was gels – I’d had 2 towards the end of leg 2, and had more now. This was not good. I should be keeping gels for emergencies. Stomach was in pain - tight and uncomfortable. Knew that I couldn’t go on much longer without fuel. Struggling hard to keep up at Sergeant Man. Conscious that I wasn’t in the mood to chat, that Al was running alongside to keep me company, with Mark behind to make sure I wasn’t last. The signs weren’t good. By High Raise breathing laboured, I sensed that I badly needed a rest but I couldn’t decide where, and thought I could rest at Wasdale – as this was 4½ hours away I’d clearly lost the power of thinking straight. Resting was not unusual for me: I’d slept for 90 mins in the previous year’s Lakeland 100, and for 60 mins in the Ridgeway race, and gone on to finish both. To my relief the decision was taken for me at Thunacar Knott – I was slurring my words by then. Andy, Rick and the others had waited for me, but would go on, I would walk from here with Mark and Bob until I’d eaten and regained strength. I’d been going only 10 hours..........
A common question is how do you train for these events? You don’t need to be fast. Mental stamina is the key. I think this is probably more important than physical. After several hours on the go it is harder to take rational decisions and it’s easy to get confused by emotion, fatigue, pain, delusions, and ‘why on earth am I doing this to myself’ thoughts. For the previous 6 months I’d rehearsed this mental state, and my response to it was always the same – just keep going. It was essential that I had a simple plan: stripped down to its essence, it was to take no decisions on the day, make no changes, and keep going to the end, so that (as I joked in the months leading up) they would have to peel me off the mountain if I didn’t make it. This meant that on the day I wouldn’t need to summon up new mental energy when it got hard – hard was part of the plan: it was never going to be easy, but I wasn’t going out there to make excuses.

Walked, threw up, walked some more, drank, ate a bit, drank, ate, jogged, and with Bob and Mark’s patience after 2½ hours started to find the right pace again. Sorry about there being no pretty sunrise photos here: I was grim, and so were the conditions, getting windy, with rain showers. The forecast was right, but this was normal weather for the Lakes. Bowfell at last, now in the rocky (and wet) section, lost a bit more time to Scafell, rapid descent to Wasdale down the screes, and in the car park 18 minutes behind schedule.