Posting as Slogger. Well Ive had nothing but dnf's during the last two years of long distance attempts. It has been a bit of a shock not being able to complete what I set out to do. a couple i can put down to injury but the two C2C failures, the first ending a few miles after Sunbiggin Tarn, was purely due to leg fatigue. I was on schedule but it was an effort and my legs empty.
The second a couple of weeks later was purely down to bad ball of foot blisters and ended in Gunnerside.
This year started with my dnf during the Spine race in January, due to severe quad muscle pain at Lothersdale. Following this was a failure on the 72 mile Ribble way after 54 miles at Settle, then another failure on a non stop Cumbria Way at Keswick after 30 miles, legs ok this time but mental strength low. just couldn't get the motivation to pass the length of Borrowdale and beyond during the chilly dark of night time.
I have done nothing since, but am itching to do something. It may turn out to be a big mistake as confidence is low and that's not a good marker for these type of attempts, but i feel I have to give it a go and see.
The attempt will take place in a couple of weeks time following Wainwrights route to the letter, starting at St.Bees.
Instead of trying to beat my previous best time to the summit of Dent, I will aim to equal the time I did on my first sub 5 dayer, or even slightly slower. I will use that first schedule as a guide. However I am a bit stuck for somewhere to camp or wild camp in the Richmond area?
During that first full C2C before I started to find a shorter straighter line I make several time consuming errors. The first was after Dent, upon reaching the road I turned right instead of left and went a fair distance before turning around and getting back on track. The second was after Sunbiggin Tarn in the dark of very early morning. i reached a big wall and couldn't decide whether to follow it or go through the gate. I went through the gate and ended up on the wrong side of the deep old railway cutting. Eventually finding a way out of the field onto the old railway and managing to escape down to Smardale bridge. Third error was not being able (again in the dark of evening) find the stile near Hollins Farm on the way to Marske. I spent aleast two hours wandering around fields before taking a compass bearing due North to intercept the road where I needed to be. Shortly after that just before Marske i failed to see the sign and turned to the right at a road junction instead of going slightly left. That had me doing a big loop detour along the road all the way to Richmond which I reached several hours late bang on midnight.
Thankfully after those I made no further errors and arrived RHB after 4 days 15 hours after setting off from St. Bees.
My theory is that taking it easier due to my lack of fitness and conditioning of late I should still have (now I know the route) more than half a day in hand available to use bearing in mind that first schedule time.
We will see.
Dave.