Well, where do I begin. I didn't achieve my goal of finishing the Spine Challenger. Normally I think DNFing would bother me immensely but for some reason I now feel more challenged and excited about what I am going to do to over come this hurdle. There's a number of factors that came into play that affected my plan and resulted in my decision to pull out and I will try to explain these as I go. This event for me was awesome, it is everything I love and want from a race but I was so far off understanding what is required to complete something as brutal and technically difficult as this. Its very hard to explain because for once I wasn't able to just rely on determination, bull dog spirit and a never give in attitude. Things were getting out of my control and I couldn't see a way around the obstacles that I faced. These obstacles were something new for me to deal with really as it wasn't the fitness side if things as was going ok in that respect, yes I was aching and hurting which is normal, I was having problems with my lower back but was able to work through that and then my left knee became very sore but again I had that in hand. No the biggest problem I had was a logistical dilemma and a head torch problem. Now I think normally I'm quite good at solving problems on the move which is something that you need to be able to do on these events and that is not easy when dealing with exhaustion and the demons telling you to quit as its easier.
In all went wrong from the off really but this is kind of what I wanted because I wanted to see where my problems may lie when I go to the Sahara. So on a cold misty January morning in Edale, I stood at the start line of whats recognised and billed as the most brutal race on the British race calender. This was enough to make me nervous and excited on its own. I turned to Chris my support crew and said 'what I am doing here?' 'I'm not meant to be here, these guys are mental!!!'. Well that says it all really. What an incredible build up, the hustle and bustle in the race HQ before the race and the lead up to the race including the race brief and kit check. Here we were counting down 3,2,1 boom off we go. I didn't even know which way I was running lol! Follow the crowd to begin with that was the plan, head up Jacobs ladder and get passed Kinder Scout, ha ha, make it all sound so easy. Well within 5 meters of the start line I had encountered my first problem, my water bottle that was hanging in front of me on the shoulder strap just popped off and fell to the ground. Apart from slightly embarrassing I couldn't help but laugh. Un - bloody - believable!!!
The first section was as normal, very giddy and chatty people. Not before long it soon became a more focused approach due to the snow and ice and the hill factor. We soon approached "Jacobs Ladder" this is just how it sounds, a long climb uphill up what can only be described as steps. Well, if you weren't warm before this you soon gained body, blimey, I was boiling, sweating uncontrollably and thinking I'd over done it on the clothing. This soon changed again as we steered round the hills to the start of "Kinder Scout". This presented us with another steep climb, this time no steps just a few trodden snowy foot prints leaving a trail to follow. The mist was descending gradually and the snow was getting increasingly deeper and more difficult to stomp through. The next runner was soon going to disappear so I decided to work harder as in these conditions I didn't want to lose sight of others. The mist turned into thin snow and vision became more and more difficult as did reading the map and following this white, slightly trodden path leading me into the depths of this mountain range. What happened next was what could only be described as "school boy error!" but quite a dangerous one in some cases. I had managed to stay close to a group that were making good pace and I was able to keep with them, which at the moment like I said due to the weather I was keen to do just in case of emergency etc. Anyway we heading over the top and following a very slight path with very few footprints on which already roused my suspicions but instead of trusting myself and stopping to check the map and gps I just carried on. Until! The lead guy just stopped, obviously realising something wasn't right but I tried to be bold and carry on which was when I made a lunging step and my foot disappeared into the snow, infact my whole leg did. This was the moment when I thought retrace your steps check the map and get back on the trail. Funnily enough the crowd behind me who had also just followed suddenly all started shouting 'we've gone wrong!!!' so we all headed back about 300 yrds and found the path or turn that we had missed. To be fair you could see how someone could miss it as hardly anything there just a little white trodden trail.
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