So, how did it all go? Well, I was up and out of bed at 5:40am, had a cooked breakfast, packed all my gear, made a flask of coffee and loaded the car. By 6:50am I'm ready for setting off. No such luck! It may well still have been dark but one of our friendly Blackbirds wanted some food!
After feeding the wildlife I'm off to meet Mel, my sometime training partner at the gym. Having picked her up we set off to Cromford and the starting point of the walk. The drive there only takes around half an hour so we arrived in plenty of time for our 8:30am start. Once in the car park we met up with my mate Paul and then handed in our registration cards. A quick photo call and we're off.
The first mile or so was alongside the old canal and nice and flat, after that we hit the first climb of the day, and it's a big one! Still, best getting it out of the way now and not at the end of the day! The view from the top was worth the effort in the end. After that we had another few easy miles before hitting our second climb - I was glad when we reached the top and the first BHF rest point. We grabbed a quick cold drink here and set off again.
The next 6 or 7 miles were quite easy going, the ground was still very hard from the overnight frost ( -4C when I left home ) and we made good time, passing many of the walkers that had set off ahead of us. At 10:45am we took a 10 minute break for drinks and a bite to eat. I'm not sure but I think it was around the Longcliffe area, so we'd covered about 8 miles.
Minninglow was the second BHF rest halt at 10.5 miles. Here Paul had some soup from the BHF, Mel had a cup of tea and I had more of my coffee. We rested here for 15 minutes - the breaks were taking longer now! We decided to push on for another 2.5 miles so that we could reach Friden where we had our lunch stop. This was at around the 13 mile point. Lunch took us 25 minutes, I said the breaks were taking longer!
Getting started again after lunch proved a bit of a pain! Literally! My knees were starting to feel the distance now. Still, only a little over 4 miles left. The next couple of miles didn't prove too bad once we'd settled back into our pace. Even my knees eased off a little.
Parsley Hay was our final rest point only 2 miles from the end, and we only stopped for 10 minutes! What a mistake though! My legs were starting to seize up by now! We also noticed that we were no longer catching other walkers up, or being overtaken! Everyone was feeling the strain! Having said that, the morale was still very high with everyone - ourselves included.
We covered the last 2 miles in half an hour so the pace was still quite good but it certainly hurt. Not just me, but also Mel and Paul! And just about every other walker that was around us! At the final check point we had our sponsorship forms stamped, took a few more pictures and headed slowly off to find the coaches that were waiting to take us back to Cromford and the car.
All in all a great day! Rouned off by a gentle swim back at the gym followed by a short time in the spa pool. Can still feel my knees though!
So, will I do it again? I think so! I've had problems with one of my knees for a few years now so expected a bit of a pain there, the muscles in my legs feel fine and I'm not tired at all. If my knees are OK in a day or so then yes, I'll be back again next year!
BHF walk photos here!
Glad to hear about the walk! Heading over to the rest of the photos in a bit. Talk to ya later!
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