Mid Season/Summer and its that time again, time to decide if you feel you could drag your bike and body around the 3 peaks and boom before you know it your have filled in the form and hit send, well it is probably best not to think about it too much anyway. Then follows the wait, am I in.. will I even get a place, what about training, I should have started months ago, is it too late now?
On a personal level I wasn’t particularly ready for the event and shoved it to the back of my mind until a few days before, I did make a small effort at a bit of hike a bike training but by far not enough to warrant a good time. I was also struggling a bit mentally and the Wednesday before the event I felt so bad I truly thought I would never be able to ride a bike again, but after giving myself a mental slapping I went on my local MTB ride with The Trails, Tribulations & Cake gang (on my CX bike of course) and realised all was going to be fine.
The forecast for the day was pretty good, dry and not too warm, mountain rescue were debriefing as we arrived and the air was full of excitement and anticipation. The event organisation was on point and we were soon waiting for the off. The start was fast and it wasn’t long before we turned off for the bottom of Simons Fell, I think the best tactic here is simply to not look up.. or down, I had forgotten not how steep it was but maybe how long and I have to admit I had a little wobble halfway up, panic set in and had to have a good hard word with myself. My song for this event ended up being “Every breath you take, every step you make, and you’ll soon be there.. not correct and those lines over and over but it seemed to work and before I knew it we were at the summit of Ingleborough & 1 down. The descent that followed was interesting and the wet summer we have become accustomed to this year brought with it big peaty bogs and I was able to embrace the bog… head first over the handle bars. After a nice slice of road and a steady climb Whernside was in view, we dismounted for the water point at the bottom of the bridle way, I had told marshal “Keith Belgium” beforehand to make sure I took some water however I didn’t quite mean in the face! At least it took my mind off things for at least a few moments.
After Ingleborough I had stupidly got it into my head that the hardest climb was out of the way putting myself under a false pretence, and as I approached Whernside my heart sank, again one step at a time and each step a step closer to the top. The descent was pretty uneventful, in places quite fast and a bit bumpy as it was better to stick to the path with the grass being so wet. As I got Ribblehead in my sights I knew there was a long steady road stretch back in to Horton, my legs were tired and as I looked at my watch it was 1pm, nooooo I wasn’t going to make it within my personal target. Gutted I ploughed on as fast as my legs would allow, Pen-y-gent looked so far away. As I approached the turn off the road there was no time to think & we were straight on to the long stretch of rocky bridleway, the faster riders were now thundering past on the way back to the finish. The final climb was long and steady and not quite as steep as the others, I had no other female riders in sight so just had to keep plodding on, we reached the new steps at the top and dragged our way forward, 30 more to go someone was shouting and at this point a lovely lady walked alongside me urging me on with kind words and a drink of water (I will be ever grateful for both).
I had made it, all I had to do now was make it off Pen-y-gent in on piece, we were rerouted due to the new steps and had a few more bogs to embrace before a grassy descent, I was doing well until I panicked a little and managed to throw myself off the bike towards a rather large cluster of rocks, some how I managed to put my hand down and stay on my feet. By this time I was just happy to be on my way home and jumped back on taking a steady descent back to the road and the final push over the finish line.
Although I was a little disappointed with my time and the fact I didn’t have the ‘Hike a bike’ strength, my descending on the bike had improved 10 fold. So who knows, better strength and another improvement in my descending and I might get under that 5hrs.
Thank you to all involved making it another great event, organisers, marshals & spectators. It was great having people shout out your number and words of support along the way.
Special shout out to my long suffering Pete, All Terrain cycles, Iain Harris Physio Solutions, the TTC family, Timothy Taylor’s, Riders Cycle Centre & Whitakers Chocolates.
justgemmatowell 