Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Drumnadrochit - Inverness (Part 1)

We all felt pretty good coming into the checkpoint and seeing everyone gave us a bit of a pick-me-up. Having said that, the first port of call was the massage table. Words cannot describe how guid it felt afterwards and my legs felt brand new. However, it was only after that, that I realised how sore my feet were. Luckily for me, Scott's wife Laura used her marathon running experience to out my plates of meat with various bits and pieces. I am convinced that bought me an extra few miles. I was surprised to see that Laura was not rewarded in the Queen's Honour's list for her services to feet.

We were fed, watered, massaged and changed and our family and friends lined up to give us a guard of honour as we set off for Inverness and the most surreal Saturday night of our lives.

About three steps into the stage I felt a sharp pain in my left ankle which stayed with me until the end. The whole mind over matter thing really does kick in as there are so many aches and pains going on and your body just learnt to accept them. I kept hearing a wee voice in my head saying 'Git ower it min' (Get over it man).

'THAT HILL' at the start of the Gold Stage was where we probably all thought we might not be able to finish it. Having wrapped up warm to deal with the temperatures that were due to drop, we ended up stripping down to our t-shirts as the sweat poured off us and we scrambled up the hill, asking the course stewards 'how far to the top?' Not one of them told us the truth ;-)

However they did say that after THAT HILL, we wouldnt encounter anything as steep again and thankfully that was true.

That's my lunchtime up, so will finish this off later!

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