Day 37 - West Hay to Wellington

So today we travelled from West hay to Wellington .The idea was to do 42 km, but I ended up doing 48 km today. Very very long, I wasn't anticipating on doing that far and started off quite well, with a bit bit of energy, which was great. So Neil cooked us a lovely tea last night. Spanish chicken. He is such a good cook. We stayed in a little apartment. Managed to have a good night's sleep for the first time in ages, actually slept for probably about 7 hours. Which is quite a long time for me, especially on this trip. Woke up in the night briefly in pain as usual, but that subsided after about half an hour and went back to its usual level, which meant that I could get a little bit of sleep, which was good. I started off the day a little bit hilly then back to flattish and then up a few more large hills!

I got lulled into false sense of security, thinking that that was going to be it. I was sadly mistaken. So before we reached the really big hills Radio somerset played an interview that I had with them this morning, which was great. They put that out at about half 10, I think, because it meant that we got lots of people beeping their horns, and lots of people shouting out the window, which was really great and really encouraging.

I was wheeling along nicely. Had a decent amount of energy for the first time in a little while, which was great, and then came across a definite first. So we've managed to make it all the way from John O'groates to here, So that's probably about 1300km with no problems, until now where we came across some man that was standing in the middle of the road!

We were in Taunton. It was just a normal road with houses either side, and it was just wheeling slightly uphill, and he was standing there in the middle of the road! He kind of looked a bit like like Fagan from Oliver twist without the hat and the bierd, very disheveled looking. He must have been loud as i had music playing and still heard him shout 'get the f*** on the pavement, get off the f****** road and get on the pavement, you a******, you're holding ap all the traffic!' Which I just kind of looked at him in shock! I was going to say about the challenge, but then thought, there's absolutely no point, because an idiot like that, it's not going to listen, so I didn't say anything at all. I just wheeled round him, which probably made him more angry! He then tried to stop the car and tried to have a go at them as well. I think Karen said that she basically told him to get out of the way which is brilliant. What a complete an utter arsehole and I mean does he really think that you can talk to people like that and theyll just go okay then, I'm going to do what you say! What a completely and utter t***!

We've made it all this way without coming across one of those, so that's good, but typically we found one in Devon!

It did irritate me quite a bit and upset me a little bit initially, because I haven't had anything like that yet and thought that's just really mean! But now I think it's really funny.

On another note. I keep asking the whole team 'don't tell me about the fundraising and don't tell me about the route'. 2 reasons... so the fundraising...If I know that it's not doing very well, or as well as I wanted it to, I'll just end up stressing out about it. If I find out that the fundraising isn't doing as well as I hoped, it really would affect me quite badly, and I'll end up quite upset and trying to work extra hard to see if we can bring in more. So this means staying up very late and doing lots of social media and stuff which I'm trying to do anyway, but I'll probably end up doing more. So I need to sheter myself from that a little bit. Im just trying to concentrate on what I'm doing. The other part is I don't want to know what's coming as in hills or what the terrain is like. Psychologically, when you're doing something like this, it's very difficult to know what's coming and channel that into anything positive, especially when you're in lots of pain already and really struggling.

Even at the start, I didn't want to know. Unfortunately I got sent me a message yesterday about the fundraising saying its not as going as well as hoped! So now that's been stressing me out. Then Pam, despite my saying 'please dont tell me!' Insisted on saying about the route about 4 × today, she kept saying negative things about what was to come. I didn't need to know that there are really hilly bits coming. I wish she hadnt gone on and on about it, because it really didn't help me much in my mental preparation for things. I have now asked again not to let me know, so hopefully, she will listen this time?

So it was incredibly tough, mentally and physically! The hills... I think it's either my second or third highest climb today, which really surprised me.1450 feet, which is an awful lot. The 4 and a bit hours in total, and that lot of climbing was probably in the last couple of hours too. Although it was made much better by something... As I was coming up a hill, I could just make out a few people standing at the side of the road, which again, I just thought wow that's really lovely. I saw them looking in my direction and just thought they were random people. I've been up a hill, quite cold outside and glasses that I always wear were foggy, so actually couldnt make out who it was until I was right there on top of them... But all of a sudden I saw it was Theresa, Paul and Amber. They were clapping and cheering and it was just really lovely, really, really lovely. I kind of went past and realised who it was and then did a sort of leaning back and look back and the shouted "oh, thank you" like a complete idiot. Luckily, they're very understanding and they know me and Paul's been on the route with me, so he knew that I might not have seen. They then drove forward a little bit and then they were there again, which was so amazing. After the worst hill that I've done in a while where the terrain was awful. The road was really nasty, like double cake road pretty much all day. They really cheered me up.

I don't know what they're doing with the roads in Devon, but whatever is it's not very good. Really cakey, lots of potholes, lots of patchworks on the road, which makes things really tough to deal with.

We've also had a a few near misses today with cars, where people have really cut into me quite quite close! Its happened from time to time! But after such a long way itd be a shame to wnd it with my being squished. When I'm so close to the end, that'd be a bit of a bummer!

So today I thaugjt the planned finish was gping to be at the usual 42 km, which is the marathon. So I kind of pulled over at that point, thought that was done for the day, just to realise that I wasn't and I had to carry onto this other point, which I had no idea where! I know when you are driving a car you don't really notice how tough these roads can be. But we had a cut off point planned where I said I never wanted to go over 45km on days which were hilly. Or any days for that matter. There was no need to. I was in a good place distanve wise. At the end of every day i still had alot of things to do to prepare me for the next day as well. Plus the start days which I had originally asked to be early... no later than 7am, so that I would have time to complete my other tasks of the day, amd have important medication... well, these got later and later. I kept asking for them not to be changed, but when the 2 main support crew had formed an alliance, and wanted the same things, my vite simply did not count, so before i knew it, the start time was 9am!

So on top of that late start im still going after 42km... The day was ticking along. It was such a tougj day as well. So many hills of the up hill variety. The down hills may seem like youd get a rest, but with no breaks you can be working really hard to stop yourself from hurtling down actual mountains!!

Later in the day, I was going up amd down these mammoth hills when I got another suprise... It was Theresa and Paul again. I was so pleased to see them. By this point i had completed the planned marathon and another 5km on top and was still being told to keep going! Then I had set off again for what I thought was just going to be a few yards up the road, ended up being another 5 km which was incredibly tough! When you think 45km is the limit, and your at that and someone says to you to do another 5K on top of a marathon, and then another 5km on top of that... It's a lot an awful lot to do! But I managed to do it somehow, and got to that finish line of that day. It could not have come quick enough.

When I saw my finish point, it was amazing. Loads of poeple had come out to see me. Theresa and Paul were there. Tory and Glenn was there, which was lovely to see. I was so exhausted that I felt like a complete pillock, but nobody seemed to mind.

I then discovered that Theresa and Paul had gone and picked up little Nico and bought him along as well, which was really sweet and Sharon's son was there as well, which was really nice to see and he's really lovely too. So lots of people around. It was just really nice. Such a wonderful ending to a very difficult day and everyone was smiling and happy, which was so great for me. Smiles were exactly what i needed.

But then I dont know what happened after that, bacause when we got in the car to go Pam seemed to be in a really really bad mood when she's got in the car.

I don't know why and will probably never will know, but yeah, she was really really snappy again. I would thought she'd be happy because she was going home for a few nights. She's been doing nothing but talking about going home from day one so that was odd, but hopefully she's alright and she did sent me a nice picture of the flapjacks she made later in the evening which is wonderful, she does make the best flapjacks ever, so im looking forward to those tomorrow, they'll keep me going.

Im very, very tired now, as always, it's 11 o'clock and I seem to start getting tired about 8 o'clock lately. Im really hoping that I dont have to do any extra tomorrow! We will see!!!

Share this post

• Endurance
• End2end
• Wheelchair
• Amputee
• Enduranceathlete