I burnt 5,500 calories in one day... my NSV!!!

Sounds excessive right? Well yeah it is. But is was during a charity challenge that I signed up to six months ago. A number of years back I lost my nan to Alzheimers. Anyone who has lost someone to this knows what a terrible disease it is.

I support the charity Alzheimers Society and while on their site I saw a link for a charity event they were doing. The Yorkshire 3 Peak event. This is a 26 mile trek which goes over the top of the highest three mountains in Yorkshire. I figured I had 6 months to train so I signed up!

Well..... the problem with working full time and having two young kids is that training for a 25 mile trek isn't exactly easy. While I did walk around 250 miles in the last couple of months, it was all 3 miles here.... 5 miles there. Absolutely useless for this kind of challenge lol. I did lose 40lbs for the challenge but am still a long way from goal. Just for reference here is my before pic. I hate this pic lol. I still have another 50lbs to go to my goal but am almost half way there!!



So yesterday morning at 4.30am I get up and drive to the village for the start. The rain was pouring down and by 4 miles my "waterproof" boots weren't so waterproof!!

The first peak is Pen Y Ghent and you go up the steep side, along the back and down the easier side. It's a bit of a scramble to the top and I am afraid of heights but the weather was so bad the steep drops couldn't even be seen lol. Here's the mountain on a better day lol.



Then comes the "easy" bit. A 7 mile walk from the first to the second mountain. It's supposed to be easy however the previous rain (which had stopped but left me and my boots soaking wet!) has caused problems with rivers and bogs so the terrain was very tough going.

The second peak Whernside is one serious slog up a huge hill. Just a continuous up hill walk... never seeming to end.... takes forever and really saps the energy from your legs. The route down is even worse, just a steep rocky decline. Here's Whernside.



After that the weather improved and I actually ended up getting sunburn. In spite of putting dry socks on, as my boots were still wet the blisters started. Today I have a total of 8 blisters, all right underneath my toes!!!

The less said about the last peak Ingleborough the better to be honest. It was horrible. I cried. Every inch of my body hurt, not even half way up and I was sat down crying thinking I couldn't go on but couldn't face giving up. I eventually got up and did it. Every single step of the steep incline up and the rocky uneven steep decline down caused me pain. My legs felt like lead and my back was on fire. Here's Ingleborough.



But I did it!! The 5 mile walk back to the start point was horrid and painful but knowing that I could hold my head up high and say I had done it was amazing. People were clapping as we walked back through the village over the finish line, and I felt so so proud of myself. 10 hours and 40 minutes...a respectable time.... it felt like a lifetime though lol.



I wasn't actually surprised when I found out my calorie burn for the day was over 5,500 lol. Ironically though the one day I could pig out and I was too tired to do it. I got back to my B&B and tried to go for pizza for but halfway through it was too tired. I just needed to sleep.

Seriously though if anyone has any tips to ease aching muscles I would much appreciate it! I can hardly walk today, I am hoping it will ease as I am back to work tomorrow. I can hardly walk up and down the steps!!