Well its good to see that thuis race has captured your imagination, its hard keeping up with all the posts.
Firstly thank you for your kind thoughts on my efforts.
Kit discrepencies - yes there have been a few. Its a lottery at registration whether they check your full kit or just partly. Just three of my items were checked.
Pav took the 3 hour penalty although I'm not sure what he was short of, my thoughts are that it was most likely cooking equipment.
The French couple laso penalised 3 hours were not carrying Goggles. turns out it was a translation problem as the description on the compulsory list translated to safety glasses in french. Goggles were quickly found and they were allowed to carry on.
Tom Hollins again I don't know.
Eugeni retired due to his two GPS's failing. he had maps and can navigate with them in a limited fashion. However in all his other international races he uses the GPS exclusively and in periods of bad visibilty and at night he lacks confidence without them. He made a very honest and open post concerning this and has regained much respect as a result.
Pavel, what can you say, he burned them all off didn't he.
Everyone on the Facebook Spine Group are all now rooting for the tailenders, the two behind the last two ladies are going to find it a struggle going beyond Bellingham even if they do make the cut off.
The two that I was with just before my retirement, Allan Cormack and Michelle Payne, I'm afraid didn't make it. Michelle was shivering in the cafe at Ponden and I feared she would go down with hypothermia, which she did and was pulled out by medics at Tan Hill. Allan battled on the Dufton where everything finally caught up with him and with Cross Fell ahead decided enough was enough.