Stages 8 and 9 - the hours of darkness and insanity
CP7 has a reputation with Trailwalkers – although the Gurkhas lay on a hot meal (more pasta!) this is also the stage at which a large proportion of those who withdraw from the event do so. With this in mind, we focused our efforts on eating, putting on warm clothes, sorting out torches and hi-vis vests and getting back on our way before we could succumb to any moments of weakness. Stage 8 felt quite swift, probably due to the novelty of walking in the dark. Stage 9, however, had been our bête noire since a training walk on the route in early June, when we had covered much of the ground but found ourselves going in circles round the Old Racecourse. It had subsequently become apparent that poorly written directions were to blame, and indeed, the route had been altered slightly for the event. This alteration made the stage 12.5km long and these were, for the Ridgeway team, the longest hours of the entire event. Tiredness gave way to disorientation. Disorientation was displaced by (mild) hysteria, which was in turn replaced by straightforward exhaustion. We couldn’t sing songs, because we couldn’t remember the words (imagine if you will, four weedy voices singing “Always look on the bright side of life” and trailing away after that single line); jokes weren’t an option, however dark the humour. My enduring memory of this stage is of concentrating on “left foot, right foot” and repeating the process on and on. Finally, over three hours after setting off on the stage, we arrived at CP9. This was the final checkpoint at which we were able to meet up with the Support Crew, so we made the most of hot soup, new socks and the opportunity to ditch our head torches as dawn was just about breaking.