The Three Peaks, (Yorks.)

Stuff and Nonsense, this game. Stuff and Nonsense. Well, hold on just a wee, dawgone minute there Mr. Dillon. Clearly, for the likes of Neighbour and Semple this was to be a breeze. Really.

Was this confidence, over-confidence, or mere stupidity? Well, the 57th Annual Race gets underway 10.00 a.m. tomorrow,(30thApril). Over-subscribed as usual.We had our day on Good Friday, perhaps as you were tucking into your Lunch, High Tea, Dinner,Supper,Drinks, Bedtime Drink. No,no, that’s giving too much away,too soon.

So, what are the stats. Distance is 37.4K with 1,608m of ascent/descent. Pen-y-Ghent 689m, Whernside 723m, Ingleborough 722m. You can "clock-in" as if you are on your shift. And what a shift it is. I said shift!!!!!!!!!!!! "Calm down Dear", Calm down. Blimey. To walk the route they recommend 12 hrs. and you are in the Hall of Fame.Wonderful. Last year we did walk it in a relaxed, very relaxed, 9 hrs.,did’nt bother with that clocking in nonsense. But this year – raging bulls- let us at it. Clocked in just after noon, with Neighbour having trained a full 2 miles (flat ground) in the last month, and Semple well out for 4 hrs plus on the hill previous week-end. So,clearly nothing could go wrong? Never happy with the weather, too cold, too hot, too muggy? Just to give everyone an indication of the times: 2010 3.02 winning time, 2009 2.54, 2008 one J. Lennox 2.53. Course Record 2.29 in 1974. Present Course Winning Time 2.46. Plus there are cut-offs 2.10 to Ribblehead and 3.30 to Chapel-le- Dale.

Ribblehead is 9.65miles in and after a long re-fueling on the summit of Pen-y-Ghent, and a sociable chat with walkers we were just over the cut 2.16. So good to get to Ribblehead as there’s a road section before it which just kills your legs,feet, in fact everything. What a slog it is from Pen-y-Ghent to Whernside, goes on and on and on. Friday was the day for it, and it just happened to be HOT,HOT,HOT, i think it was hot.So just get on and do it,and we were on the route after crossing the road at Chapel-le-Dale when what’s this up ahead, and coming towards us? It’s The Naked Rambler,or his brother or whomever. "Don’t look Ethel", but it was too late. This guy was striding out,yes without his strides. Stark bollock naked, with a notice on his abdomen about collecting for Testicular Cancer. So,presumably he just had to remind everyone exactly what the testes looked like.No, not a pretty sight. You can quite imagine that this put us right off our stride. Another good excuse logged.

Well,we could have ruined the entire week(we were off to the Lakes after a few days) if we had tried for that 2.29 Hah. Hence the Executive decision was to have lunch at the pub and resume after 4hrs. Actually, perhaps we should have done just that. But no, we kept on and on and enjoyed it,rather than killing ourselves. Finished in what 7hrs 10 . So, if you have put the miles in, this would be a wee cracker,no a big cracker. Anyone got an entry for this tomorrow?