Day 4 - Kirkby Stephen to Richmond
34.5 miles
9 hours 52 mins
5,443ftft ascent
The last tricky day and over the half-way point.
Mentally, this was the final obstacle of the attempt, the longest day, with a reasonable amount of climbing and exposed moors without any support (beyond a meet up for some food 15 miles in). I set off slowly through the jitty from Kirkby Stephen and found the path out of town toward Nine Standards Rigg climbing 1600ft to the summit in just over an hour passing a few groups of walkers on the way. My legs felt strong, and although I hadn’t successfully done much running from the pain of placing my foot, I kept a 4mph average pace up the hill which felt good. Shortly after the second trig point there was a sign instructing which route depending on the time of year to preserve heather, contradicting the GPS route I had intended to take. I took the guidance of the sign but after 50m the well marked trail dissipated into moorland path over heather and bog. After half a mile of questioning myself I realised I was now without fast reference on the GPS, on moorland with an indistinguishable path. I had maps and compass but the speed of GPS route following can’t be under-stated so I took a direct route over the moor to meet the GPS route on my watch which was hard going, running and jumping over heather and bog.
I picked up the original route again, followed it down to a valley and along the meandering river to a proper trail, and after 9 miles I was back on discernible track. The route cut down to the road into Keld where Pa met me on his bike by the river. After a quick pitstop for some food and a top-up of pain meds and I carried on into Keld village, crossing the path of the Pennine Way before ascending up onto Melbecks Moor. The weather was holding calm and peaceful, clear cool and easy, my shin took a darker tone and stopped me dead on the trail climbing up to the moor. I sat and massaged the tissue, took the compression sock off wondering whether the tension was making things worse, and had a think about where I was and what options I had. After 15-20 mins, I got up and I carried on climbing out of the valley hoping it would ease, and after a mile or so of level ground on the top I could move more naturally again. Every descent needed a lot more effort and consideration now, but the flats and ups were still manageable.
Pa had parked a few miles outside Reeth and cycled up the quarry road to find me on the moor, so we passed back down the trail for a few miles together, taking it steady. He peeled off and I continued the last 4 miles into Reeth itself, the first point I’d intended to have a bail-out option for the day, 24 miles in. I felt okay, the weather was good and anything I didn’t do today stacked onto tomorrow so I carried on. Next meeting point was Marrick, just edging over the marathon distance after a short climb up from the valley bottom, momentarily getting stuck behind a tractor tussling with some unfamiliar single-track users. I made the call to carry on from Marske to Richmond, everything was still working, the weather was perfect, and I wanted to get the mileage in. I felt good on the final descent into town and sped up to a 8 min/mile pace to reach the obelisk in the market square - this might have been a mistake.
Felt like the final major obstacle of the attempt was done, 3 easier days remain and I will have done it.
