Allendale Challenge 2024

Let's cut to the chase:

1. I made it to the end
2. I did so in under 10 hours

YES. Goal achieved. ✅

One of the nicer shots I took on the way round, this one being a little over a mile in, at 8:35am.

Sitting here now, with zero blisters, all the skin still on my heels, and all of my toenails intact (even if one's a bit sore), it seems odd that I'm left feeling... a bit subdued about the whole thing. 😐

I guess I'd secretly hoped to blitz my previous time of 8h45, given that that had been done carrying some pretty gruesome injuries for the last 8-10 miles. In the end, I was almost an hour slower than my unfit self from 2010, registering a time of 9:42:02.

The deeply disappointing lack-of-occasion that was the start line. I miss the old mass start. 😢

Granted, I'd intentionally not set off at breakneck speed, so as to preserve my heels and toes, but I'd kind of expected to make up a lot of time on the return stretch. Instead, I had various issues from the past come back to haunt me, starting about 7 miles in. First my left ankle (thanks, Simonside heather) started complaining at one too many twists on a rocky track, then my left hip (thanks, overdoing it) started complaining. Then it was my left knee (nice one, clicky knee), sustained riots of pain in my left foot when straddling boggy bits (thanks, rubbish feet), blue and powerless fingers (I couldn't even unclip my rucksack) from Raynaud's when I stopped for lunch, and finally the feeling that the big toenail on my right foot was being lifted off (thanks, Allendale 2010). That last one happened at about 15-16 miles in, but I'd already come seriously close to quitting at 13 miles, even asking the team in the event ambulance for their advice on my ankle.

This might not look too bad, but you'll start sinking stood almost anywhere in this photo

Small mercies, however, the weather was better than I'd feared. The gale force winds were absolutely incredible, forcing me to the ground on occasions and forever blowing me off my footing, but at least it barely rained at all. That said, I could've done without being sandblasted by gravel on the back of my legs all the way up The Drag; that was massively painful at times. But yeah, thank god for the lack of rain. That almost certainly would've seen me quit, if in combination with the wind and joint pain.

Checkpoint #5 at the windiest point. I really did pity these marshals. Gusts were probably 70mph.

Anyway, I'm out the other side now. I've done the Allendale Challenge twice now, and twice it will remain for the rest of my days. I've beaten my dad's times twice now, including at an age older than he was. (In yer face, Fatha!) And I've ticked off another item from the 2024 goals list. It was a lot harder than I'd expected, but I did it. Now, I'm just gonna focus on letting my body recover for maybe a couple of weeks; I definitely can't run 5K when I'm still stumbling around like a zombie just trying to walk and my knee and hip are a world of pain. Maybe, just maybe, I'll manage to junior parkrun with Daughter the First this coming weekend, but no promises...