Rest day at the end of week 2 - Park Hall Hotel (about 400m from Charnock Richards services on M6)
The highlight of yesterday evening was getting to see Helen and of course spending today with her. We were joined for lunch today by my sister Heather & nephew Bill. They evaded photos but the Strawberry Cheesecake we had for lunch did not. Hoping to see Heather & Bill again tomorrow as run through Garstang.
With it being the end of the week we said goodbye to a number of the crew including Torsten, Ian, Joe, (all RunBrit vets) plus Emmie & Kirsten.
With Kirsten's departure we lose a great personality from the crew, who would deliver us by minibus to the accommodation making every effort to minimise the distance from bus to hotel door in the same way one might for a 90 year old granny, with cries of "don't worry - I've got your back!"
The best Kirsten story of this trip comes from her driving down the single track lanes above Hay on Wye. (Background note: Kirsten's nickname is "The Stig" and with 29 year's service in the police she's not one to mess with). Being followed by a tractor with trailer, the minibus driving Kirsten came upon a group of motorcyclists coming the other way. Being a single track road someone needed to back up, and any reasonable neutral observer would have expected this to be the motorcyclists rather than, minibus plus farmer with trailer.
An impasse followed and after some gesticulating there was no movement. Kirsten switched off her engine and climbed out of the minibus to double down on her position. Striding over to the leader of the motorcyclists she was told that he couldn't possibly turn his bike round there. And in a flash Kirsten just said "Hop off then darlin', I'll do it for you!" Leader of motorcyclists firmly put in his place and duly relented.
Kirsten will be missed!
Scoreboard at end week 2:
Official distance covered = 456 miles
Actual distance covered= 464 miles (+8 miles due to running round Hayle estuary & assorted navigation errors, cow dodging, nettle evasion etc)
Distance Remaining = 574 miles
So 44% of route done in 13 days of running. Over 50% of climbing done already.
Collateral Damage:
Left Achilles weak but being managed via taping by physio.
Assorted blisters - all manageable and feet beginning to harden up.
The week ahead:
Tomorrow is another big day of 34 miles to Lancaster. After that we have four shorter days of around marathon distance as we head through the Lakes and up to the Scottish border. I think we are all looking forward to a slightly less intense week than the last two. I'm certainly looking forward to getting on to familiar terrain.
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