Day 4- Run stage completed but it was an unexpected battle

Location- Petersville Road, Peters Creek

Distance- 148km Running Time 15hrs 45min

Song of the day- Dub me crazy (Bulletproof)

Thought of the day- When do you listen to pain and when do you ignore it? 

Thank you- Mike and Rich, everyone who sent messages of support, God, family and Lynnruss

Notes- For some reason, I have spent the last couple of days ignoring and suppressing a rising pain on the outside of my right knee. This morning that pain finally got the better of me and debilitated me to the point I was actually unable to walk without pretending to be a member of NWA. 

I still had 18km to go till I reached the road end and I know that is not much in the scheme of things but it my knee completely locked up. After problem solving with a few physio contacts I had, we diagnosed the problem as Illiotibial Band Syndrome or ITBS. After some strapping and walking through the pain I managed to get it warm enough to withstand a pace that would see me shuffle my way to the finish without causing too much further damage. 

Mike joined the whole way and distracted me by trying to spot Moose and identifying Bear tracks. Just having him walking next to me was a huge support and together we started dreaming and contemplating the forthcoming approach. I was extremely frustrated as I have spent a year training for this and my muscles and mind were both feeling strong, but this tiny spot on my knee joint felt like it was on fire. Researching after this may have been preventable by rolling out my IT bands after each day running . I have never encountered this issue before though, even after running over twice the distance. This goes to show that it does not matter how much you prepare for something you never really know what is going to happen, so you must be resilient and flexible enough to adapt your plan.

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After a while my body adapted and understood that it was being forced to finish this and the pain dissapated, the limp turned to a strut and I was able to shuffle at about half pace. I find it fascinating the signals that our body’s give us to try to make us stop, and how it has the ability to adapt and push through when you do not give it another option. Our body really is a pretty amazing machine capable of far more than we know. 

With only 2km to go my body hit adrenaline mode and I started flying down the road at around 7kmph!!!! I would have beaten Mo Farah. 

It was a really special moment to limp into the finish with my good mate who will be with me 24/7 for the next four weeks. We are now in Talkeetna trying to organise our approach gear vs climbing gear, exit flights off the mountain as well as have our induction with the Park Rangers. 

 Now the fun really begins as this Monday (Tuesday NZ) we leave the comforts of the road and Ski Tour and climb our way through the wilderness towards the mighty Kahiltna Glacier! The cool part is you will be able to track us the whole way by following this link 

https://share.garmin.com/sea2summit7

We look forward to hearing from you along the way. For now…..I rest and recover 

Arohanui