PCC – Day 3
Day 2 is now in the bag in 6:00 plus a few seconds change (if only I had known how close the end was).
For me, it was much tougher as my left knee was quite tender from the end of yesterday’s run. Running shallow downhills was ok but the steeper, rockier stuff was horrible. I had to go down them very, very gingerly. Steps were pretty bad too. I realised that I land down from a step on my left foot and that’s the knee that is hurt. So I consciously tried to land with my right foot, only to find that I automatically revert back to my left knee within three steps. The guide to the path says that there are 390 steps in the four miles after you leave Newgale (start of Day 2) . I got overtaken by quite a few people here.
It rained a bit at the start and there was a brief shower mid-way through but other than that we had clouds with the odd bit of sun, getting more sunny between CP2 and CP3. The long shadows in front of me meant I started to get worried about losing daylight. I certainly didn’t want to be there in the dark!
All the way to about 10k before CP3 (14k from finish) I had decided that I wasn’t going to do day 3. I have nothing to prove (two marathons in two days sounds ok), my knee was sore so why let it get worse, and so on.
Then I started thinking about the race T-shirt. It’s not the best in the world but it’s ok. And it mentions three marathons in three days. Which is one more than two – it’s going to have to be a bike rag! Or perhaps I do tomorrow?
About 14k from the end I was well and truly out of water which made me think that I had better get a move on. So I increased the effort and caught two runners, then a walker. After CP3, I was motoring and caught another two runners and two runners/walkers. If the route was a bit longer, I would have caught another three.
Best bits:
- I finished very strong and confident
- Still lots of rugged coast line, made more beautiful with sun at times
- Last 14k felt very good (very good compared to the first 29k – not very good in an absolute sense)
- Shoes were still very good
Worst bits
- Getting off of St David’s head. I turned to go across the head when my GPS said but there was no proper path back for what seemed like 15 minutes. There were lots of little paths but no proper path for ages. This involved a lot of rock climbing and walking. Because of rocks and my knee, the downhill bits were just as slow as the uphill bits. 
- Feeling the pressure to go faster at the start because there were lots of people behind me.
- My left knee
Tomorrow morning I will check my knee out properly but I feel so much better getting out the van than I did yesterday. But I think that was because I was so wet yesterday! Walking back from dinner wasn’t too good though…
I think you are awesome Mark, do the last day, even if you have to crawl, or you will be hell to live with and I will have to make you do it again next year to get over it! Remember to take in the view, the pain is just your body’s way of saying thank you for not letting me sit and stagnate! It will feel amazing in a day or two.