Day 27 - Tebay to Penrith (20 miles)

I left Tebay early and the RAF must have heard because they did a fly-by just as I was leaving. Very good of them to give me the nod.

It comes to this time of the week and I struggle. Today was no different. I've bruised the soft tissue on my heel of my left foot which means the bodies natural reaction is to only allow you to walk flat footed. This strains everywhere else and after 8 hours of walking you can guarantee pain. Even though my heel hurt like hell I just kept saying to myself "it will heal, it will heal". Eventually the pain subsided as the bodies natural pain killers took hold.

I tried to take my mind off of the niggles by doing maths in my head. I often give myself problems to solve to pass the time. If it takes me X amount of minutes to walk 20 paces, how far in miles would I walk in 10 hours? For example. Jumbled up questions that need sorting first. I puzzled for what seemed like a good 50 minutes or so then o checked my Garmin to see how long it had been since I last looked. 7 minutes had passed. I was clock watching and when you do that time may as well stand still. I marched on.

To help ease the time factor I took videos of myself speaking some of my thoughts. I noted that you don't feel lonely but when you finally get to talk to someone you just talk and talk. I've had to stop myself a few times mid flow with people because my stories overlap and it gets confusing. That's because I'm trying to say everything at once. It also occurred to me that when I left Lands End people thought it crazy, I moved up the country and crazy turned to amazing, moved up again and amazing turned to impressive. Today I got a "good luck" without even telling the person what I was doing. I can only guess that by the time I reach John O'Groats I will tell people what I am doing and they'll say "well, you picked a nice day for it" and they'll stroll off.

My watch was now speeding up, great! I'd got through the lull. I then entered Clifton which proudly states on it's village sign "last Battlefield on English Soil 1745". I wondered if this was a good thing or bad thing. Does this mean Clifton is a peace loving area or does this mean Clifton is long overdue a scrap? It turns out this is the place the Duke of Cumberland's army caught up with Bonnie Prince Charlie's Highlanders as they retreated from Derby. So ensued a bloody battle where the Duke came out tops... or so the sign said in the middle of the village.

I reached Penrith early but bruised and battered. My body is under enormous pressure to consistently perform this 8 hour walk, day in day out but I do also feel stronger, in mind and body. A good rest tonight will mean I'm all set for Carlisle tomorrow.