Paddy Buckley

Paddy Buckley

I did it !! On the 19th/20th May 2007 in 23.55 hours

I had postponed from Friday to Saturday as the winds were forecasted to drop. At 6.20pm they were still blowing strongly but by the time we got to Rhyd Ddu there was no wind and the midges were out. My plan had been to try and get 10mins up on the schedule and then stay there. The first two legs went very smoothly although I think I overdid it a bit as I was 30mins up by Llanberis and that was where I was first sick. From then on it was a bit of a rollar coaster - I would lose time, then gain time, then lose time, then gain time. Tryfan seemed very hard and that worried me but looking at the split times I did it nearly on schedule. I was despondent when I reached Llyn Ogwen but with lots of encouragement and still being 25mins up on schedule I set off up Pen Y Ole Wen. There were lots of nice things about this year - I didn't have any knee pain, it wasn't raining, the going was brilliant and the visibility was excellant. I did decide that if I couldn't get round in these conditions I would never get round and I just started taking one hill at a time and trying to eat. My stomach annoyed me all the way round and I think I was sick 3 times.

The last section was quite hard to the quarries but Nick and Mark got me working efficiently which made a huge difference to my speed. I had always doubted my ability to get from Moelwyn Mawr up Cnict in 50 mins and then from Cnict to finish in 50 mins as on recce's these were two legs that I had never done with plenty of time. I steeled myself for the Moelwyns but they passed off ok. On Moelwyn Mawr I had 2 hours to go. It took an hour to the top of Cnict which seemed to take forever and I resorted to climbing using my hands. Then I had another hour to the finish and this was the longest !!!!

I finished with lots of my supporters running alongside and it was an immense relief to be able to stop and know I had done it. Since then I have been on Cloud 9. I have loved going to Wales and its been one of best experiences of my life.

I wish to thank all my supporters so much -

Leg 1 Ian Charlesworth, Nick Cable

Leg 2 Tom Westgate, Bob Berzins, John Rowe

Leg 3 Andy Plummer, Neil Drake, Iain Ridgeway

Leg 4 Nick Cable, Tim Ray, Phil Walters, Roy Small

Leg 5 Nick Whittingham, Mark Harvey

Leg 6 Nick Whittingham, Mark Harvey, Nick Cable, Neil Drake

Road support Charlie Spinks and Carol Scott, home support Steve Burgess !

Also thanks to Jeff Cole (Sports Therapist) at 23ksportsinjuryclinic

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