Sunday, 15 June 2008
The Yorkshire 3 Peaks
Full of optimism I decided to complete the challenge on the 3rd day of the holiday just in case I'd horrendously underestimated the challenge and failed dismally. At least if the worst happened I'd have the rest of the week to make a second attempt. Thankfully one attempt was all that was needed.
I started at 06:35 and was as lucky as I could have been with the weather. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to start the walk in shorts. The first half of the walk was fairly uneventful. The scenery was beautiful and between Horton in Ribblesdale and the Ribblehead viaduct not a soul was to be seen. I made it to the summit of Pen-y-Ghent in just under an hour and with no aches, pains or twinges I decided to jog from the summit over to Whernside.
On reaching the Ribblehead viaduct I decided to take it easy and walk to the summit of Whernside and then jog from the summit over to Ingleborough. Sat on the summit of whernside having a banana I felt absolutely fine, still no aches, pains or twinges. And then I started to jog. It was at this point that the pain began in my right knee and I realised that I'd be walking the rest of the route. 150m down the side of Whernside and my knee was in agony. Everytime I took a step down hill leading with my right foot it felt like my knee was about to explode. At least the the left was knee was fine.
I finally reached the base of Ingleborough and found that climbing up hill caused me very little pain at all. I reached the summit of Ingleborough and then faced the daunting task of getting down without bending my right leg. Try walking down the stairs without bending one of your legs just to see how difficult this is. Now try it without bending either leg and you'll know the situation I was in about 5 minutes down the side of Ingleborough.
The next two and a half hours was absolute agony. Walking on the flat or a slight slope was OK so long as I didn't stop. If I stopped or had to take a large step down hill my knees exploded and then the profanity would start (and generally last until I found a slight slope to walk on). I tried walking backwards, sliding on my backside, taking giant steps and taking little steps but nothing alleviated the agony. Watching me trying to get down the hill must have been similar to watching the Monty Python silly walks sketch.
Thanking the lord (which I've never done before!) I finally made it back to the Pen-y-Ghent cafe in Horton-in-Ribblesdale and settled down to a one pint cup of tea with about 6 sugars in!!. The total time taken was just under 8.5 hours. Considering I hobbled the last 10 - 13 miles I was fairly chuffed with the time but a touch disappointed that my 31 year old knees were acting more like 71 year old knees. God help me on the National 3 peaks if my knees react in the same fashion.
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