Saturday 23rd May saw the final Spa2Summit team training walk, covering the final 17 miles or so of the route. It began at Crickhowell where our last walk ended and headed up Pen Y Fan to the summit. There were only four of us this time - myself, Ken, Pete and Grant - Ollie was away (he bottled it!) and we had no Jonty.
After a long and drawn out journey positioning cars at specific points along the route (realising at this point how much we missed Jont!) we finally started, much later than we had planned to. Yet again we had been lucky with the weather, after a week of constant heavy showers we walked in brilliant warm sunshine. Trees were every shade of green, lakes had the kind of sparkle that make you want to jump in and the hills and mountains had the kind of majesty that leave you in awe. A perfect day that we hope to have during the real thing.
The first quarter of the route yesterday passed alongside a canal under a thin tree canopy. There were people walking dogs and others moored up in canal boats. Grant had brought some leaflets so we handed them out to those we passed. There was one couple that Pete and I chatted to and they very kindly made a donation on the spot but I'll leave Pete to tell you about them.
Not long after the canal we made our way upwards and across fields, minute by minute the views would get better and better. Then I began to worry, my stomach had begun to cause me a lot of pain. After crossing a couple of fields the pain didn't subside and suddenly got worse. I turned to the lads and said, "Boys, I think I'm going to have diarrhoea!" This verbal acknowledgement seemed to trigger a green light inside me and I realised I had to find a nice quiet spot immediately. The other guys kindly walked on into the next field (I think more for self-preservation than for my sake) and I found a convenient spot where I removed pack, poles and anything else attached to me in record quick time.
After a forage for dock leaves and a hasty, er, burial I caught up with the others and left this now 'special' place behind, having given the sheep in the adjacent field a horror story to tell their grand-lambs.
I'm not sure what caused this "outburst" as it was still relatively early into the walk. Dehydration was out as I had been drinking plenty all day so I assumed it must have been something I'd eaten - maybe last night's pasta & potatoes that I'd had for lunch and planned to eat before ascending Pen Y Fan or it could have been the smoked kabanos sausages I'd been eating as we walked. Whichever it was I avoided both for the rest of the walk and faced no more problems.
We arrived at the car we had positioned at the foot of Pen Y Fan and its surrounding peaks. After filling up Camelbaks and changing socks and footwear (my trail shoes were replaced with the boots that caused me so many problems on the first training walk) and we headed upwards past a beautifully enticing reservoir.
This is the terrain I am most comfortable on and I quickly got into a rhythm, eating into the ascent and unfortunately disappearing into my own world, becoming oblivious to the pace of the team as a whole. But then that's what the training walks are about and I think that on the day at this point, after 65 miles or so, there won't be much difference in pace.
After some absolutely stunning views and being able to see much of our route from above (we could roughly trace the route back as far as The Skirrid, as well as seeing landmark towns beyond) we ploughed onwards and upwards until we emerged with a 360˚ view, welcomed by an impressive sunset which cast our shadows onto a nearby cairn. The hardest part was over.
As the sun went down so did the temperature so fleeces and windproofs got a run-out. A mild descent along stone-slabbed paths (and a dad out camping with his son) saw us pass around Cribyn and face the now cloud-topped Pen Y Fan. A steep but clearly marked path led us to the summit and, despite it being around 10 o'clock at night, there was still enough visibility to see without headtorches.
Finally, at around 10:45pm we reached the summit, the seventy miles covered. At one point the cloud at the top parted in a Moses & Red Sea kind of way and we could see an abundance of stars, yet another reward for our effort. As we made the shorter descent down the other side of Pen Y Fan to the final car spot we were kept company by a beautifully clear night, with more stars than I have seen for many years, this was a perfect end to a day of perfect conditions!*
*I won't mention how after descending we then had a struggle finding a 24 hour petrol station to fill up my truck which by this point was scarily low on fuel! This was not fun. Thanks to all the boys for sticking with me while I free-wheeled and drove painfully slowly when they were desperate to get home!
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I enjoyed this section of the walk. I mean I really enjoyed this section. I have to admit that after the second training walk I was dubious of our chances of success. Now, having done the whole route, my goal is to successfully reach Crickhowell unscathed. The next 17 miles are the reward for the first 54. Psychologically that is how I plan to treat things. The flat and beautiful canal section will more than make up for the monotonous 5 miles leading to Crickhowell.
The adjustments I made to my Raichle boots since the problems of the first walk paid off although the right boot was still cutting into my heel and causing me pain but nowhere near as bad as before. A few more modifications should get them perfect for the final section.
Fitness wise, there were no problems at all and, if anything, I found myself getting stronger as the walk went on. Obviously this won't be the case in June and that is something I will have to take into account. And hopefully diarrhoea won't be an issue, although I now plan to pack some toilet roll!
Thanks for all your continued support and keep the donations coming!
Oh, and if you're planning on joining us for some of the walk in June, please contact Jonty (jonty@spa2summit.org) and coordinate with him. That should keep him busy!
I can't really contribute much to Chris' eloquent synopsis of our last training walk yesterday.
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure to chat to Chris and Barry beside their beautiful narrow boat 'Megan' who donated a fiver there and then as Macmillan had done so much for Chris's mum. This really brought home to me the reason we're doing this walk, although we've enjoyed the training and the beautiful scenery it's all about raising money for Macmillan, it seems that almost everyone has a Macmillan story and they are always, without exception, glowing in their praise.
Similar to Chris i'd had blister issues with my walking boots on the first walk so put mine on with some trepidation at the halfway point yesterday but had no problems with them, which has eased some of my fears.
More fears were eased by the fact that having hydrated enough (Spa2summiteers don't drink, they hydrate!) and worked out before hand how much i needed to drink, sorry hydrate, i had no collapsing issues this time and actually felt really good at the end. This was evidenced by the awful but spirited singing that Grant and I resorted to to keep ourselves awake on the way home.
You weren't alone in singing! Once we'd finally found a 24hr petrol station and Ken had sped off comfortable that I knew how to get back, I too had to resort to making up songs to keep myself awake on the lonely journey home.
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