Last weekend, Saturday 18th June I completed the Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge with 7 friends. We climbed Yorkshire Dales’ 3 highest peaks; Pen Y Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough. We ascended 1381m (4531ft) and covered 23 miles.
This was the hardest challenge I’ve done physically ever. We were walking continuously for 12.5 hours with our longest stop being about 10 mins. Every muscle in my body hurt at some point during the walk, there were times when you thought you couldn’t continue, there were times when you couldn’t decide whether using your walking sticks were beneficial or a hindrance, there were times when you looked up the steep incline and wondered how in the hell you were going to get up or looked down at the decline and wondered if you’d get down without falling and breaking all your bones and there were times when you were desperate for the end!
Saying all of this, we encouraged and motivated each other to finish the challenge.
The first peak was not a problem, we were ready for the challenge, there were lots of people, everyone was buzzing. Achieving the first peak was a great feeling especially as there were some very steep parts and lots of people to navigate around. I had a sore left glute/lower back from the practice walk the previous weekend and could feel this tensing up. I stretched everytime we had a little break (by the end of the walk, the left side of my body felt extra flexible)!
Going up the second peak was a lot more of a gradual incline, which might sound good but was more tiring and painful than a step incline. Halfway up we lost someone to blisters, and it was sad to lose one of the team. But we powered on to the top, at which point we got devoured by midges! Still have all the scars from them. Coming down the second peak was steep and it was at this point I started to feel the pain in my knees hurting. By the time we reached the bottom I was ready for the end. If someone had said that was the end, I would have been really happy.
The third peak was very steep to climb up. We had to use our hands to climb up as that felt the safest and most secure way to do it. It was hard, everything was sore by this point. The group had split into 2 to accommodate for the different paces. Reaching the 3rd peak was amazing, we had achieved what we had set out to do! It was great knowing we had done it.
Unfortunately, we didn’t take into account our 2.5 hour walk back to the bottom of the hill. This was the most excruciating part. It was a slow incline. Our feet were hurting, our glutes, legs, knees, backs, and all we wanted to do was reach the end! Of course, we did reach the end and as we hobbled over to the pub for a well-deserved drink and dinner, we realised what we had accomplished and how great it felt to have completed the 3 peaks, something that if I’m honest, I wasn’t really prepared for.
If you would like to sponsor me and my team on our Yorkshire 3 Peaks Challenge, which is raising money to support teenagers, please click here www.justgiving.com/arbonne3peaks.