The Big Day - Part 3

Halfway Cake!

After a surprise 'Halfway Cake' from the support crew we departed checkpoint 5 with darkness on the outside and inside... we knew these next 2 stages, overnight, were going to be tough going, and so it proved. The first mile after CP5 is mostly tarmac so we had dry feet for a short time, an unbelievably amazing sensation! Soon though we were onto a chalky, muddy, uphill track towards Chanctonbury Ring. Our headtorches really didn't enable us to see the mud well enough and we slowed down noticeably during the hours of darkness.

Stage 6 should have taken about 2 hours, it actually took 3 hours. CP6 is right next to a river and, just like CP4, was under several inches of water. We'd taken so long to get there that we really needed something... despite not having the support crew meet us we all took the opportunity to down some of the Tomato soup on offer and have a 5 minute sit down on the Gurkha campbeds inside a tent. This was a very low point, at our current pace we knew that we had about another 3 hours until we saw the crew again, our feet were drenched and we were cold and miserable.

There was no point prolonging the agony so we struck out again, wading through the water towards the river footpath which was ankle deep in mud and there was a real danger of slipping down the bank in the darkness. Finally the path came to an end and we emerged into a housing estate, onto a short stretch of tarmac... bliss! The bliss soon turned to despair as we began a long uphill section on a muddy but stony track. Gelly was really struggling at this point, regularly dropping to her knees on the ground, feeling nauseous and entirely lacking in energy. She took an anti-sickness pill, downed an energy gel and plodded on stoically to the top of the hill, but all at a slow pace. Once at the top we were onto a mile of flat tarmac and this gave her enough time to recover a bit.

CP7 shrouded in mist

We began the final approach to CP7 in the early morning light but we were not to be rewarded with a dramatic sunrise as everywhere was blanketed in mist. It had rained for most of the night and we didn't arrive at CP7 until 05:33... 2 hours behind schedule. There was Gurkha food available at CP7 but we elected to go straight to our crew and get the maximum amount of relaxation time and tlc as possible. We had rung ahead to inform the crew of Gelly's situation and they made sure she ate some proper food to help her recover.

Shell-shocked at CP7

Checkpoint 7 marked two thirds distance and felt like a real milestone after such a difficult night. Once again we spent much longer here than planned and this was the first time that Rachel's problems began to surface. She took a very long time to get going again after the stop. We didn't really notice as we were so tired, but the support crew did. Some proper food and a bit of a rest perked Gelly up enough to carry on and eventually we all set off again, heading for the Jack and Jill windmills, just over 4 miles away, a nice short stage.


To be continued...