Well, we did it. We weren't quite as fast as we might have liked: I was still struggling with my cold and Sean wasn't used to running up such constant steep gradients, but we made it nonetheless, in about two hours to the summit. The descent was somewhat faster; as always, though, it was that part that I found the most difficult. On the climbs, my aerobic capacity and lactate threshold mean that I can keep going up the steep gradients, and hill-running is all about marrying that to an economic, centered kind of running. The going on the path up Nevis gets pretty unstable underfoot after the 2,500 foot level, though, and there was a bit more walking than running. The last 800 feet of altitude was still covered in snow, frozen and rutted after a winter's climbing, so there was a fair bit of caution to be exercised there, but the run across the last section to the summit was fun nonetheless. The descent really hammers the muscles, though, as you fight against gravity in a very different way, struggling to keep momentum under control, and that's when I get tired. By the time we got back to the car, my quads were well and truly wrecked. Thankfully, Shawn was tired too!
Interesting observation: Shawn and I were very careful in our choice of footwear and ran the hill with backpacks stocked with warm clothes and recovery foods, but all the way up we were passing walkers with woefully inadequate clothing and footwear. I can't help but feel that with treacherous conditions on the summit - hard ice, cornices, and fresh snow falling while we were there - it might be a kindness to our rescue services if walkers could take some basic preparations ...
Anyway, 2 down and 1 to go. The last leg is tomorrow: a 3 mile swim before work. That's about 200 lengths of the pool.
Click on the links above to give to Project Zambia.
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