In April my wonderful buddy Tracey and I set ourselves the goal of raising money for the Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC) by walking The Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, a 23.1 mile hike up some pretty big mountains (well big enough to scare me and make me wonder if physically I could actually finish the challenge, let alone do it in under 12 hours!).
Two weeks beforehand, as part of our training, we completed the Baildon Boundary 13 mile walk (in approx 3 hrs 37 mins). However after this walk I ached a lot and it took me a couple of days to recover. I seriously doubted whether I could do 23 miles in total.
The day before the Three Peaks it hit me full force what I had let myself in for and all the uncertainty and doubts came flooding in. Every time I thought about the challenge ahead I became very nervous and fearful. I was worried about the unknown, my focus was on the 'what ifs' instead of 'wow I wonder how I'll do?' and 'what an adventure'! Things didn't improve on the morning of the walk, my nerves increased when we were handed a map and told if we didn't make the 2nd checkpoint by 4pm we wouldn't be allowed to continue for safety reasons.
I rose to the challenge within a challenge and kept a good pace. I kept pushing myself, determined to not be beaten by the heat (apparently the best weather they'd had in 8 years!) and not knowing what lay ahead of me. Keeping myself hydrated and fuelled obviously helped tremendously. To cut a long story short we got to the 2nd checkpoint by 3.30pm, phew! From then on the pressure was off and I really enjoyed the climb to the top of the last peak.
The high of completing this challenge was immense and I not only experienced a huge energy boost mentally when we got to the end with a time of 11 hours, but also emotionally and physically. I really 'got' how the more I stretched myself the bigger the high afterwards. And although physically I was sore and tired I still felt a massive boost just knowing that my body actually did it.
Between us we have raised our £500 target, which has meant a lot to us because not only did we challenge ourselves physically but also in the amount we wanted to raise. A huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and messages of support. For those of you who would like to donate, the sponsorship page is still open at www.justgiving.com/traceycowell3.
Coach’s Challenge – If you haven’t done this for a while, give yourself a well deserved energy boost and challenge yourself to do something that will stretch you out of your comfort zone. Imagine you’re an elastic band, do you know how far you can stretch yet?
Warmest Wishes,
Zoe
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