In reply to mbh:
Hi All,
I am back home now. I failed, by miles, but had a good time and learned a lot. It's been very interesting rereading this thread in the light of what I have just done.
All I did was the first leg on day one, as a recce (first mistake), then leg 2 and a bit of leg 5 on day 2. I spent twice as much time in the car as on the hill.
I only had a maximum of three days, and I had learned from doing the 3000s that getting the logistics rights is key. Get it wrong and you're frazzled before you even start. Thus recceing a leg the day before the imagined actual attempt was not ideal, but I did think I was so likely to get lost on leg 1 in the dark if I hadn't recced it that I ought to give it a look first. However, as soon as I was slogging my way up Skiddaw, and even more, shortly after, as my shoes disappeared in bog while heading for Great Calva, or my knees in water while wading the Caldew, I was appalled at the idea of having to do all this again less than 24 hours later. If I had made my food drops first, I might have carried on because of that (I had started at 8am) but I hadn't so at the end I ran back from Threlkeld to Keswick and my car along the cycle trail. Now I know leg 1 I still think it might be hard to do alone in the dark, it being so featureless from the descent of Skiddaw to Blencathra and some of the going so boggy that you'd have to do it on GPS or compass bearings.
Anyway, the first leg took me 4:10, which is just slower than a 23:15 schedule, and that was in the light. I went off the Skiddaw summit ridge too early and lost time in boggy ground trying to get to the Skiddaw house road. I also went down Hall's Fell ridge, which was easy but fiddly scrambling. Doddick fell to my left looked faster going. I took the direct descent from Calva, straight for the bend in the Caldew, and that was fine.
Before all this, I had recced Keswick, as far as the start of the Skiddaw path, having arrived for my BG attempt without even knowing where the Moot Hall was!
I felt tired after this, and thought it unlikely that I would manage the BG for real in 24 hours, so hatched a plan (several, actually but this is what I did) to start at Threlkeld the next day, at 4 am, roughly when I should have arrived there if I had started from Keswick at midnight, and go as far as I could. This is what I did. By this time I had dropped food bags at Dunmail and Honister. This takes time.
My food bags, since you ask, contained boiled new potatoes, two home made granola bars, a banana or two, a 2l bottle of water to refill by camelbak thingy, a tub of soup (chard and coconut, not very nice, whatever Sarah Raven says, but welcome at the time) and nuts and raisins. I meant to take a bag with me on leg 2, but forgot(!), so did that leg on water alone. I drank almost 2 l on the leg and wolfed down most of the food when I got to Dunmail.
I got up at 3 am, ran from Burn's Farm where I was staying and off up to Clough Head. The dawn was fantastic, as was the weather for the whole of that day. The Dodds were a doddle in perfect visibility and all was fine and on schedule until I started the descent to Grisedale when I felt pain in my shin and slowed down, noticeably. I did Fairfield up the face but became really slow on the final descent to Dunmail. My shin was hurting, which made running very difficult. By the time I got to the road I was hobbling and decided to give up on the one-push attempt. Annoyed, I caught the bus back to Keswick and started out on leg 5 towards Honister, thinking I could stay at the YHA then do legs 4 and 3 the next day and that way end up having recced the lot. But three miles out of Keswick I was really struggling to even walk, so turned back, and that was that. A limp ending, but that's how it goes.
I learned that the toughest thing when doing it alone and unsupported (though I had offers of help from kind people on the FRA forums) is the psychological challenge of dealing with the continual temptation to give up, something I recognise from all the long runs I have done, but which is all the more pressing over this much longer challenge where you have to reckon on what you will do if you don't make it. On the flip side, a fully supported attempt would fill me with anxiety about letting people down. My anxiety was of course heightened by me doing this route for the first time. Once you know the way, and have an idea of your actual capabilities on the different legs, it would be easier.
I think different temperaments might be better suited to different approaches, from alone to being surrounded by a big team. Myself, I could enjoy both,but am drawn to the former. However, lack of fell practice made all the ponderings more fearful alone. You can easily tip into self-pity when alone.
Physically,apart from the injury, I felt fine. The injury might just be soreness brought about by my using my now old Flyrocs, which felt little better at times than Converse, and I could easily deal with the sight of big hills just in front of me. They didn't cow me. It was the bigger picture that was scary.
I think I would lean to an 8 pm start, clockwise, as Etak suggested, since the going on leg 2 is easier underfoot, so long as you can navigate well. I don't fancy floundering around in the bogs of leg 1 in the dark.