Saturday 27 August 2011

Day 28 - Penrith to Carlisle (18 miles)

18 miles!! What is this? A day off?

As I head North my family are trying to plan my route based on B&B's so I may occasionally drop below 20 miles from here on in. To compensate for the lack of miles I really pushed myself hard today. You have to take into consideration that I am carrying 35+ lbs on my back and I have over 500 miles in my weary legs so far. Hence pushing myself meant getting up to a heady speed of 4 mph for 30 minutes today. That 30 minutes hurt like hell I can tell you! The rest of the time I am usually dragging along at about 3 mph and trying not to think of where it hurts.

Going back to the start of the day and I left Penrith at bang on 9am. This may be a weekend but for me it was just another day out clocking up the mileage.

I'd decided that I would be pushing hard today so I stuck my headphones in and turned on the iPod. My choice of album was not the best. Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits. A good album but it conjures up some very strong memories for me. So ensued a few hours (with some songs on repeat) of me having to wear sunglasses to hide my eyes. A grown man(?) crying is not pretty. I've found that being out on the road day after day, punishing your body does make you feel good but also makes you very emotional!

With thoughts of past relationships, my Dad's condition, and my daughter all swimming around my head I decided I'd just go with whatever feelings came to me. If ever there was going to be a time to iron out my emotions, now was that time. I felt extreme emotions swaying from happiness to sadness to worry and then back to happiness. I just let everything go and kept putting one foot in front of the other. I was pushing myself harder and harder so the bad feelings didn't drag me down. I was really wrestling with things when all of a sudden an impossibly massive Mark Knopfler appeared over the horizon smashing out the guitar riff for Money For Nothing... I'd gone mad.

Whatever had just happened my brain was done with the bad feelings and had switched instead to "music video" mode. I imagined the gargantuan Knopfler and equally huge Guy Fletcher using the scenery as their stage, playing just for me.

I seriously thought for a second that the madness had come but it was extremely funny to me how ridiculous the sway from being down to being back in the game occurred. Our brain's are complex bits of kit and letting mine try and sort itself out had just worked. It had taken all the sad elements of what was 'up there' and basically taken what it could from my surroundings (in this case Dire Straits) and squashed/played out the sadness. I was happy, and sane, once again. No need to call the men in White coats.

There was another good reason for going fast today. Wolves were playing Aston Villa away and it was being aired on TV. I'd done a bit of homework and there was a pub I could reach by 12:30 at best if I went fast. I would miss some of the start of the game but I'd still get to see a good chunk of it. The pub was The Rose and Crown just outside of Carlisle. I'd timed it impeccably. My feet were screaming at me to stop and I thought with about 100 meters to go of a nice cool drink, me sat on a cushioned seat, sat in front of a big screen watching my team playing the glorious game.

Shut.

My homework hadn't extended to seeing if the pub was open let alone showing any sport. Oh well, it was probably for the best. Instead I made do with reading updates on my phone. This passed the time and took my mind off of the pain in my feet.

Before I knew it I was in Carlisle. This is the earliest I've finished a day so far. I'd done 18 miles in a little over five and a quarter hours. Averaged out this was about 3.4 mph and all other days I've only managed to average around 2.7 mph. It had been a crazy day but I think I broke the back of a lot of emotional baggage and in double quick time!

Tomorrow is a rest day but following from last weekends successful 'short walk' I will be doing a 10 miler to cross the border to Gretna (no marriage) and into Bonnie Scotland!

Oh and today I passed 500 miles. If anyone can verify that?

4 comments:

  1. Emotions are good even better when you can openly express them, rock on, this journey for you is something very special,you.re doing amazing.TOMORROW, GRETNA GREEN, YES, BONNIE SCOTLAND.It was,nt untill 1552 that a settlement was made dividing the border between England and Scotland, the river Sark,1mile from Gretna Green was used as the divider,the southern part belonging to England and northen part to Scotland.This meant that Gretna Green was the first village in Scotland and therefore Scotish law applied,,,,,bet you already knew that eh?? Walking over the border, we,re sure will be another one of "those" moments to treasure for you, ONWARD and "OVER" happy walking.look forward to next blog.

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  2. Hi Bruv. best start with a call to the Doc. as you are obviously suffering with some kind of delirium! 500 miles? Not even close! having done the maths from each days blog you have now notched up 553 miles! you Brother are doing a whole lot better than you obviously think you are - unless of course you have been to places you don't even know about????? Either way massive well done - and now the border to cross as well - this should be a very memorable day - especially for the Scots after all it's not every day that a Walker held in such high regard walks into their country - Be sure to tell them how lucky they are!! Here's to Scotland and the final countdown. You won't be walking alone for this stretch bruv as you have an army of followers all standing shoulder to shoulder every step of the way. Bit unfortunate if you have a sunglasses moment again I know but there we go....

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  3. Well what an emotional day, this is you finding you and you will be a stronger person for it. The Scots don't know how lucky they are having such an extrodinary person in their midst. Over half way now and heading the right way to your GOAL, well done and hooray for Mark Knopfler.Keep on going on Daimon we are right behind you.

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  4. Oh Daimon! I commented on yesterday's blog a moment ago about the emotions and voices! Looks like you hit it today! I'm sorry for you but you came out the positive! Look at what and why you are doing this! You'll remember this journey forever. You are one of the good guys!! Good will come to you, and you will be happy :) 'Prophecy of Bliss' ;)

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