Day 6 - Swainby to Grosmont - Attempt abandoned.
6.86 miles
3 hours 14 mins
1,877 ft ascent
I found my physical limit.
This morning I lay still trying to work out whether I could even start today or not. I could feel my shin deeply aching, my muscles stiff, and both of my knees sore. I awkwardly walked to the toilet block, and the palpable question of whether I could finish it in this state was hanging just outside the conversation as I sat and had breakfast. I had 46 miles to go, a few short climbs up onto the moor, some long open tracks dropping down to Grosmont then the final 16 mile stretch to the coast and down to Robin Hoods Bay on Saturday.
I spoke to my sister, messaged Georgie and looked into the actual safe max dose of codeine and ibuprofen. Turns out with ibuprofen - 40mg per kg, split into 3 or 4 doses per 24 hours, so I can have 800mg every 4 hours, 4 times. Co-codamol is limited by the paracetamol quantity, to 4 times of 2x 500mg paracetamol pills, and it comes in 3 strengths of codeine, which don’t affect the number you can have. I had been on a single tablet of 8/500 (codeine/para) every 4 hours, but I had some 13/500, and I can take two. In short.. I worked out I can double my ibuprofen intake and triple my codeine intake, so I tried that, and started the rest of the morning routine hoping it would make some sort of difference. An hour later I was able to walk around, my sister was on her way north and would be meeting around the time I was going to set off, intending to support with some running later and the final stretch tomorrow, Georgie was coming up a little later today to support the last two days too. I put the doubt back and got ready to start Day 6.
Jax arrived a few minutes after we did to the start point for the day which was a big boost to see her and my youngest niece. I set off from the post-box and begun an awkward jog up the hill until I was out of sight and continued on with a march assisted with poles up toward Gold Hill following the Cleveland Way. I could maintain a quick walk on hills and flats, and an uncomfortable descent, it wasn’t going to be a fast day but I was hopeful everything would loosen a little and I could get most of the mileage done. At the summit of Carlton Moor, I could see the North Sea just beyond Middlesbrough and Hartlepool with ships in the harbour. I didn’t linger there, I felt spurred on but wanted to get closer as nothing was coming easily anymore and the weather was due to come in later in the day. The trail dropped down to a road, before climbing back up again to the next moor, and my descending was now so slow I was now losing ground from walkers ahead of me on the trail. I carried on pulling hard on the poles in the climbs, and managing my footing on the flats, loading the poles heavily on the downs.
It was raining pretty heavily but I was okay with that, I was okay that I couldn’t see the coast anymore too. My tracker was working, I had plenty of energy, strength, the want to complete, I was 41 miles from the end. I looked at the next short down before a little climb, and felt a dread that the terrain kept undulating. A casual day walker passed me remarking that the rain looked like it wasn’t going to end, as he picked his way carefully down the path, into the distance and away from me. I asked Jax to send me a pin of her exact location, 2.2 miles away, that would take me an hour at my current pace. I rung Georgie and talked it through, she was 40 ish miles away, and would probably beat me to the meeting point with Jax. I was done.
I saw a route around the next little climb which would save me some descending, and took to the forest trail instead - Jax walked toward me and found me 0.5 miles from where she’d set off. Within 5 minutes of my getting to the van Georgie had arrived. After some food and sitting down, I tried to jog/walk 20m down the road and had to slowly return to a walk. I wanted to be sure I couldn’t do it if I abandoned it now, but my legs had had enough.
156.4 miles and 24,382 ft - that’s my limit.
The knee pains are probably muscle related, and you can push through that. The ankle is possibly a stress fracture which you should not push through. I have localised pain in two places, fairly pronounced swelling and a lot of discomfort which eases when the leg is unloaded. You can MRI to confirm (sometimes x-ray if its significant enough but not easily spotted) but the treatment is RICE anyway, so long as it’s not progressed into a full fracture. Without the desire to cause any more significant damage, I have conceded that stopping was the right thing to do.
Thank you to Pa, Tomtom, Georgie, Jax, Mum, and my friends/family who have given me advice, support in multiple ways, and belief with this. Very disappointed but I’ll find a way to finish it appropriately in the future.
