Well they say that problems come in 3s, so hopefully after the puncture on Friday, the route choice yesterday, and today's catastrophe, hopefully we're done with the bike issues and will have a smooth day tomorrow. So what happened today? All in good time. <br />
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Yesterday we'd been pretty efficient after the race getting fed and set up for today, the only issue was my complete inability to sleep, at least that gave me the opportunity to eat plenty, so hopefully I would be well fuelled unlike Tom Gibbs from HH-Nuun who had been ill several times overnight, and so would be doing the first run on jelly babies.<br />
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Bruce set off looking pretty keen, and then HHN were 4 minutes after him, and my countdown started. At 9:04 I was away, leaving Kirkby Stephen looking for a footpath. This took me off towards some farmland where I lost a minute or so getting my bearings, and then onto moorland heading for 9 Standards Rigg, a stone circle that I eventually approached, shrouded in mist, an hour into my run, having seen no other soul as I battled across the boggy surface. <br />
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From the top there was more bog hopping down past an 'area of shake holes', which was a very cool field full of small flat boulders, that looked like a huge rock sheet that had symmetrically cracked as it cooled. Here I saw a couple of walkers braving the forecast before hitting the B6270. <br />
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Slogging along the road I still hadn't seen any other racers, and just had the chance to say a quick hi to H2O before heading back across the moorland. A navigation error here cost me another few minutes as I found myself on the wrong side of some bogginess. <br />
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Heading south I managed to avoid sinking too far and reached the track to Keld, which was very boggy, slippy and generally hard going, especially as I was fairly certain Bruce was going hard and eroding my lead. <br />
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Shortly before Keld I caught Ant Emmett, and we ran into TA together, him confirming Bruce was on a mission today ... Oh good ;-( <br />
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The time check told me he was 15 mins ahead, so 7 mins gone from my lead .. Could be worse, but he's a strong rider so I expect that to grow as we head out for an MTB stage. <br />
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After Friday's puncture I was a little cautious on the rocky sections, and the foot plates that had been doing so well on the road turned against me, slipping every time I stopped to open a gate, not seating back into the pedals very quickly, and being too slippy to pedal unclipped. At least that's my excuse for losing another 5 minutes on the ride ;-)
SleepMonsters
