It felt strange not having Ant with us, I'd had to wait for my brew after we finished on day 11. I think he would have really enjoyed where we had camped, he appreciates a good view more than most his age. He was missed in the morning too, everything just seemed to take longer with only three of us. We'd had to get up earlier to get ourselves down to Kendal to the start point.
This was it. Shap summit, the climb I had been dreading for 18 months, the climb at least six people had told me wasn't doable in a wheelchair. Because of all the horror stories I'd heard when planning my trip I had only aimed to do 16 miles on day 12. I had planned on climbing up to Shap Summit having lunch and then rolling back down the other side and not doing much else!
I'd woke up to lots of good luck messages and bits of advice for the climb. I'd hoped to have a lot of support on this section of the challenge, with the date change and then the bigger daily mileage totals meaning I was ahead of schedule, I only had Nick and Ed with me. Making our way to the start my stomach was doing summersaults, Would I have pushed 450+ miles to mess up here and not make it to John O'Groats?
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| Some of the good luck messages. |
Ed and Nick asked me what I wanted them to do for me as I climbed, I told them to keep talking to me, not to take any abuse I gave them to heart and if I started to fall asleep to mark the point on the road I'd got to then take me to the motorhome for some food. We also planned to stop every half hour for something to eat and drink. I was worried that running myself in to the ground on this climb might affect the following few days pushing.
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| Very quick photo before we set off. |
As soon as we got to the start I got in my chair and set off. I was nervous enough so didn't want to be faffing about at the start. There was no route to learn it was just a case of pushing up the bloody hill. Nick was excellent, just chatting away. Mainly talking to himself because I was too busy breathing to chat back to him. Ed was parking up at every opportunity, running back down to me and running or walking along side of me whilst shouting at me to keep pushing. I wasn't about to stop pushing or I'd find myself back down in Kendal town centre!
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| Just leaving Kendal. |
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| Climbing. |
My climbing had improved during the challenge, I'm never going to be as quick as some wheelchair athletes on climbs in races, my legs are still way bigger than most athletes and they weigh me down. There are plenty of wheelchair athletes who are also amputees so they have no added weight to carry. On these big climbs, the more extreme hills that you wouldn't get in races, I think I'm as good as anybody else on them. For the first couple of miles on this climb I was doing great. I was actually enjoying it. Nick stopped me after 30min as I told him to do. I was feeling perfectly ok but I ate half an energy bar and had a drink then carted on with this hill. Again we had people pulling over to cheer and donate. The higher we got the better the views were. The views gave me something else to think about other then my arms falling off at any moment.
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| Pretty hills. |
On the climb to Shap Summit there are two or three small streams that run under the road and at these points there was a short sharp downhill which gave my arms a few seconds to recover before starting to climb again. Those few moments of rest helped me keep going at a decent speed for climbing a hill like Shap. After my second half hour stop I was starting to feel confident I would make the top. Ed had been for a drive ahead and said I was more than two thirds of the way to the top. It did get steeper but we could see the top now so I knew where I had to get to. There was nowhere for Ed to stop with the motorhome between where we made our second stop and the very top of the hill. He let us get on our way before driving past us pipping away and cheering out of the window.
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| One of the few rests during the climb! |
This last part of the hill was steeper so I was going pretty slow, we were overtook by a couple of cyclists out training. They said hello and well done but flew past us - I'd have loved to have their gears at that point! A few minutes later we were caught by another cyclist. He stopped with us for a while, he was cycling from his home in London down to Lands End then to John O'Groats before cycling home again to London. That's some journey! I think I was as impressed with him as he was with me. It was nice to chat with him, it passed another 10 minutes of the climb for me but he was soon on his way.
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| Getting near to the top. |
The hill had a nasty sting in the tail with the last 100m or so being much steeper. Nick hadn't had to catch me rolling backwards yet and I wanted to keep it that way until the top. So I put my head down and just tried to keep the chair moving forward. After a good few minutes of the final effort to get to the top I sat up to check how much further I had to go. As soon as I looked up I was greeted with Ed crouched in front of me in the road taking photos like the paparazzi. The photos are good ones, you can tell how hard I'm trying but it was a strange thing to see. I had no idea he was close by! That was it I was at the top. Again, I missed Ant being there because there wasn't a brew waiting for me at the motorhome. We did a quick video at the top and I posted a photo on my facebook to let everyone know I had got up Shap before lunch. I'd expected it to take hours! 8.45 miles of climbing boxed off, the bit that I'd been told I couldn't do was done.
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| Ed's paparazzi shot! |
Ed told us that when the cyclist doing his own challenge had got to him at the top of the hill he had stopped for a chat and the pair of them had got quite emotional over the whole thing. This lad had emptied all of the change he had on him into my collection buckets and said to Ed that seeing me taking Shap on had given him a boost on a day he'd been feeling sorry for himself. That was really touching to hear because he'd got to me just as I was starting to fade on the hill and chatting to him helped me out.
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| He had even messaged my page to say well done. |
After a brew, a snack and a quick stretch I decided I wasn't ready for lunch and I'd push a bit further. I did an extra 12.5 miles, almost all of it was downhill so It wasn't really working. Nick was having a hard time keeping up with me which I always enjoy. I'd already smashed my mileage target for that day so we stopped for lunch on a motorway bridge over the M6. We had beans on toast for lunch again - fast becoming my favourite!
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| The photo I put on Facebook showing I'd made it up the hill! |
Day 12 Morning Stats
Shap Climb
Miles: 8.45
Time: 1:41:47
Average Moving Speed: 5mph
Top Speed: 37.5mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 8 - 23:53
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 5 - 5:22
Total Ascent: 1358ft
Average Heart Rate: 150bpm
Max Heart Rate: 171bpm
Remainder of Morning Push
Miles: 12.53
Time: 1:00:57
Average Moving Speed: 12.3mph
Top Speed: 31.0mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 7 - 7:03
Fastest Mile Split: mile 2 - 2:31
Total Ascent: 285ft
Average Heart Rate: 139bpm
Max Heart Rate: 160bpm
Day 12 Morning Progress Maps
Day 12 Afternoon
It absolutely pissed down during lunch so we gave it a bit longer before starting the afternoon session, we hoped the rain would pass. All three of us fell asleep whilst waiting for the rain to pass. Sleeping at lunch time was part of the original plan but it had made me feel really groggy on the first few days so I'd avoiding sleeping at lunch ever since. When I woke up the rain had eased although it hadn't dried up completely. I hadn't expected to be this far down the road today so I hadn't looked at the map. I opened it up checking what direction I would be going in and I saw a village called Plumpton on the route. It was only a mater of months since my Grandma's cousin and husband had both passed away. Jean and Tom Plumpton. It seemed right to try and push to that village and dedicate the day with my toughest climb to them. I wasn't close to Jean and Tom but I had enjoyed chatting to them whenever I met them and my Great Aunt Coleen who I love to bits was very very close to Jean. I told the lads that's where we were aiming for and asked Ed to try his best to get a photo of me next to the village signpost if there was one. I didn't want to stop and pose for a photo, like the other action shots I wanted it to be as natural as possible.
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| For Jean and Tom. |
I was slow to get going after the break, I'm pretty sure it was the sleep that did it. The terrain had returned to rolling hills which were pretty difficult after climbing Shap. Also I was back to pushing in damp gloves again so slipping away. Nick had been whinging for a couple of miles about his new waterproof jacket not being waterproof. On and on he went. I'm taking this back to Halfords, it's false advertising... I turned around to tell him to stop moaning because we were both wet through. Then I realised this was the latest Nickism. We hadn't had one for a few days.
"Nick! Your fucking jacket is unzipped you absolute numpty, it can't keep you dry if you don't zip it up!"
"Oh Yeah!"
He'd forgot to zip it up and not even noticed when he was soaking wet that his jacket was flapping around his armpits. I told him he should take it back to the Halfords at Styves but to watch out for the bears in the area!
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| Day 12 |
We ended the day about 6 miles away from Carlisle, Almost 20 miles over my target distance which meant we would definitely cross the border the next day and I would get my favourite southern goon to Scotland. We stopped at Dalston Hall Holiday Park our 12th free site in a row. it was in the grounds of an old mansion house and had its own golf course. I think it would have been a very posh place at one time. The family that ran it were really friendly, they told us that there was a restaurant in the old social club and we decided to have food there as it was Nicks last night with us. The other campers in the restaurant were really friendly, we collected some sponsorship off them. The food was Nicks dream, not the best. Things like bangers and mash, chicken nuggets and chips, fish and chips - it was edible and Nick enjoyed it, I guess that was the main thing as it was his treat. We all had a pint as we chatted about Shap, about crossing over into Scotland the next day and how it would be hard to see Nick go. Who would keep us entertained?
Day 12 Afternoon Stats
Miles: 14.63
Time: 1:35:29
Average Moving Speed: 9.2mph
Top Speed: 33.2mph
Slowest Mile Split: Mile 14 - !3:02
Fastest Mile Split: Mile 2 - 4:22
Total Ascent: 762ft
Average Heart Rate: 139bpm
Max Heart Rate: 159bpm
Day 12 Afternoon Progress Maps
Total Daily Mileage: 35.61
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