Coast to Coast 2020 - Day 3 (Gunnerside to Ingleby Cross, 38 miles, 133 total)
I set the alarm for 5.00am and this time I was determined to stick to it. I knew a four day finish was touch and go and a couple of hours would make all the difference. The initial plan was for me to start at 5.45am and walk to Reeth which was about 6 miles away, come back for breakfast and then set off again fully fuelled up. As I headed outside it was raining yet again, but it improved bit by bit and then stopped completely as I arrived at 7.20am. I was feeling reasonable and if anything my legs had improved but my feet remained the same. I had done some thinking in those first couple of hours and felt that Ingleby Cross was the absolute minimum goal (with no guarantee of a final day finish), but if I could even get a few miles beyond it would make all the difference. I therefore decided to have breakfast in the car and press on after a 10 minute stop. This was the make or break day.
Start of Day 3 Review at Gunnerside
Gunnerside - Reeth
The next leg was a relatively short 10 mile leg to Richmond (111 miles) and during this section I exited the dales. There was not a huge amount to report other than I attempted a short bit of running to begin with then soon gave up and reverted back to a walk. I arrived into Richmond at 11.00am, but although mentally I was fine, my feet once again were becoming a state. A further 15min break and a Greggs Sausage Roll later I headed off for transition leg between the Yorkshire Dales and the Yorkshire Moors. The area is pretty flat - this doesn't actually mean quick as it can involve lots of stiles, twists and turns etc. However, there was nothing of note to impede progress - it was all down to me and my constant mental battles. To break up the leg a bit I added in a interim stop at Danby Wiske (124 miles) before finishing the leg at Ingleby Cross (133 miles) some 22 miles later.
Reeth - Richmond
Richmond - Danby Wiske
Danby Wiske - Ingleby Cross
In theory I could have done some extra miles over the last hour or 90 minutes - it really would have made the difference on the final day. I needed to average 43.5 miles over today and tomorrow and 38 on what is the easier of the two days just added to the pressure. The reality though was that I was cooked; the best thing was to call it a day, take the extra rest and just hope that I could recover somewhat overnight, ready for an early start first thing.
My wife found a place called Swan House, just a couple of miles away on the A19. I have to say it was incredibly good value and continued our good run with accommodation booked en-route. Whilst in the middle of nowhere, we were given a pizza menu that did delivery. In the meantime I took a shower and immediately it was clear something was quite wrong, I was shivering, saying slightly random things about mileage and was borderline delirious. I think my body was pretty much literally running on empty, so much so that I couldn't regulate my temperature properly and it was starting to affect my head. My wife properly looked after me with copious amounts of tea, wrapped me up in bed and made me eat plenty of cold pasta. A quick sleep followed by half a pizza and fudge cake did the job. Nonetheless it was the only time I didn't do a video review, I just didn't have the energy.
So the day ended up finishing on a bit of a low. The question was whether I could fuel back up and if I had left too much to do on the final day - 49 miles?
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