Day 1 of the coast to coast started off reasonably badly (for me) with the
cancelling of the first paddle leg from whitehaven to st bees, and it being
replaced with a clifftop run.
Starting off at a reasonable pace, I immediately dropped into follow the
leader mode, following the crowd up a long flight of steps and along the
tops. I slowly started picking people off, dropping down to st bees with 3
or 4 people visible in front of me.
A swift transition onto the bike and I was off on the route that we recce'd
last week when we were up, jumping onto the coast to coast cycleway I
seemed to be making reasonable progress, passing a few other cyclists,
checking I was on the right track with a walker, and nearly taking out a
dumb golden retriever.
On the roads towards the transition I pulled in a guy that I figured was in
2nd, and could see another ahead. Slowly reeling them in I took a short cut
following one, pulled out onto the road, and BANG sodding tubeless tyres!
This tyre had been a git to get on, and I was not happy I was going to have
to fix it.
Despite my misgivings, the tyre goop everywhere, and having to use tyre
levers for the first time in years, I managed to get it sorted, and got
back on the bike on a mission. Overtaking a couple of people I ran into
issues with support crew vehicles not being particularly sensible about
heading in. Dropping the bike with barry and heather I got my BA on, threw
the kayak on my shoulder and headed for the get in.
There were a few boats on the water, all heading further left than I
thought was strictly necessary, so I headed further right, getting pushed
along by a nice little squall, pushing me past most of the others.
Overtaking a double getting out, I chased the only other person I could
see. Overtaking him, he told me he was leading, so taking another 5 minutes
out of him on the 2nd lake, I headed onto the run with a cushion.
Looking back halfway up the hill I was amazed not to see anyone chasing,
but assumed they were heading a different way. A long walk up the hill and
then an out and back to a marshal sheltering behind a cairn and still
no-one in sight, sweet! Down, up and down again saw me at dalehead tarn,
where a photographer said he could see no-one else, so thoughts of winning
the day started to set in.
Up the ridge onto maiden moor and the weather set in. SERIOUSLY! I got
shotblasted by hail for about 10 minutes along the top, got very strange
looks from all the walkers huddled in groups against the weather
(seriously, they thought I was mad?), and ran down off Cat Bells in a 2-6
inch deep stream of water.
Once off the tops, the weather improved, and I got to swim across a flat
calm derwent water. Coming out, I was informed by the crowd (well 3's a
crowd right?) that no-one else was in the water, which was great to hear as
my adductors, hamstrings and quads all cramped on me all the way to the
finish line, which apparently I approached too soon, and from the wrong
direction for my support crew to get a photo.
Kev came in a couple of hours looking good, and sounding positive despite
the downpour he ran through and the freezing lake he'd just swam.
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