I was equally excited and nervous to attempt the Northern Traverse, my first continuous race, and true to expectations this was by far the hardest thing I've attempted. After a few weeks flip-flopping between fear and excitement, I felt calm as we walked down to the sea front. After all, I had no idea what to be worried about, not knowing how my body and mind would cope with what was to come.

“The Lake District was a dream”

There were so many highlights – the Lake District section was a dream! I felt great, it was dry, sunny and cool and big views stretched out in all directions. It was sociable too; I spent time chatting with many fellow runners, including passing a few good friends moving well on the lakes traverse. I loved skipping along the rocky path beside Ennerdale and golden hour at Grisedale Tarn was just stunning. At Patterdale I caught up with my brother-in-law Pete and we teamed up to run the next section. We were moving well under the starry skies above Kidsty Pike and chatted our way through the night to Kirkby Stephen. 

By Kirkby Stephen we'd formed a small pack and I was running with Pete, James L, James P and Juhana. We spent a lot of time together, on and off, over the next 100km. Things started to get a bit hard from here and I was grateful for the company. It was getting light at Kirkby Stephen and I was starting to feel sleepy and noticing some sore bits on my feet. I don't visit the Dales often and it was very special to be running here on yet another perfect weather day despite feeling so sleepy. I enjoyed the soft boggy descent down to Ravenseat and through the lead mines to Reeth for a quick pit stop. 

“The 100 mile mark was bittersweet”

Reaching halfway and the 100mile mark was bittersweet. We had come so far and I was so proud of reaching a milestone distance, ~100km being the furthest I had ever run before, but oh boy, it was still so far to go! The next section to Richmond seemed to take an eternity as sleep-deprivation induced negativity seeped into my mind. I'm glad I enjoyed my recce of this bit as I can't say I appreciated the scenery, I just wanted to lie down.  

I slept like a log for 2 hours at Richmond and was grateful for the opportunity to dry out my feet which had a few blisters forming, something I've not experienced before. Luckily I just managed to wake up just in time to tag on with Pete and Juhana for the Vale of York section. I felt better after a sleep but still, the less said about this section the better. I didn't appreciate it at the time but in hindsight it's probably better that the A19 garage didn't let us in as I may have lay down and not got up again. The wind and rain put trailside naps out of the question, needing to keep moving to stay warm. I was grateful to reach the more interesting terrain of the North York Moors and was enjoying reminiscing about our sociable recce of this section in February (in equally blowy and wet weather). I left Pete and Juhana after Lordstones. We didn't have much energy left for conversation so I was grateful for some time by myself not feeling like I was slowing them down or using too much energy to try and keep up (and able to sing as loud as I wanted). The weather kept me awake and I was strangely comforted by the lights of civilization in the distance to the north and seeing the occasional headtorch ahead and behind.

“The adrenaline of being nearly done dulled the pain in my feet’

While trudging along the cinder tracks I promised myself a sleep at the Lion Inn but in the end I found I couldn't be organised enough with my kit to do anything quickly. I had a short rest, taped my sore toes, gobbled some food and got on with it, deciding I could always have a trailside nap in the sun if absolutely necessary. After a wobbly start I started to feel much better on the descent to Glaisdale, buoyed by knowing I was the home straight. Frequent appearences of Jimmy Hyland with his camera always made me chuckle and wonder from behind which corner he was going to appear from next! Anything that wasn't soft, smooth and flat was fairly sore to run but at Falling Foss I looked at my watch, calculated that sub 53 hrs was possible if I got on with it. Miraculously, the softer ground to Hawsker (I'm a bog lover) and the adrenaline of being nearly done dulled the pain in my feet and the tiredness disappeared. I'm still not quite sure how I managed to sprint down the hill to Robin Hood's bay, I was genuinely loving it! 

The camera crew were missing a trick by not watching Pete and I hobble down again to our cottage later on..!

‘I really loved the journey, route and experience and learnt so much.”

I finished in 52:52:57, over 7 hours quicker than the tentative schedule I had made which I'm totally amazed by. As a person who loves sleep and whose emotions are closely linked to how tired I am, I knew the sleep deprivation would be the hardest part, and it really was. I'm simultaneously a bit traumatised by how horrible withholding sleep was and amazed/proud that I managed to push through it and finish so strongly.  

I really loved the journey, route and experience and learnt so much. Thanks to everyone working and volunteering with Ourea events for a class race experience as always.