Here I am at the summit of Greater Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales with my cousin Andrea. The photo below is of Andrea and her husband Simon....the three of us went off and climbed Whernside Sunday just gone.
I cannot tell you how much I am still buzzing from climbing this peak this weekend gone, the last time I climbed this was in June when we were tackling the Yorkshire 3 peaks as a sponsored challenge for WOC. I was very unwell on the way down and had to call it a day when I reached the bottom, the support vehicle had to take me back to the start/finish point where I spent the next 6 hours being sick. Although I know realistically I had done well to finish one of the peaks, especially since I'd only recently made the decision to stop taking my cancer prevention drug 3 years early because of all the serious complications I had been suffering from taking it. I had only also been back in the gym a matter of weeks. I had hoped in all honesty to complete two of the three....however it wasn't my time then.
So to be invited by my cousins to go back and have another crack at it was brilliant. Thank you Andi & Si for asking me! It was the best feeling in the world to complete Whernside and have no illness or adverse side effects on the day or the day after. It feels like another massive personal step to my own full recovery. I know we cannot live in hindsight, but sometimes I question why I gave the cancer prevention drugs two years and didn't stop them earlier. Well no matter what happens in my future, I know I gave the drugs my best shot. But couldn't live with the lack of quality of life anymore.... like I said before, I am too young to be struggling to get myself out of bed and dressed.
Don't get me wrong, I am still on a nerve blocking pain killer, but now I'm off the cancer drug, my joint stiffness, muscle and bone pain is manageable and my flexibility and movement is very much improved and I feel totally validated in my decision to stop the Letrozole. Hell I can click my fingers to the beat of a song again!!
There are some more photos loaded in the gallery from the climb, and we were lucky to have some visibility at the summit. It was a cloudy overcast day with the odd blast off sun breaking through the clouds, it was a warm day though. When you climb Whernside, it is a long sweeping climb up, starting off by walking along the side of the Ribblehead Viaduct where the Settle to Carlisle steam train still passes. There are some steep parts to climb on route to the summit, which is 736m or 2414ft. When had some food and a drink at the summit. It started to drizzle has we set off on our descent down the other side of the peak, it didn't take long for it to start raining pretty heavy, which it more or less maintained the whole way down.....it in no way spoiled our climb and we were in fine fettle, laughing and joking all the way down. The rain soaked through my waterproof jacket, we were all pretty drenched through to the skin by the time we got back to the car. The climb is actually 8.02 miles, but this is over very rough terrain and a fair old climb up and a very steep section on the descent which was made much more difficult with the rocks been slippy with the rain. We didn't rush and completed the walk in around 3.5-4.0 hours... I can't remember exactly.
We are going to go climb Pen-Y-Ghent in a few weeks time, I am really looking forward to this because I never made it that far in June. My plan is to climb all three peaks separately this year, and if I don;t get chance to tackle all three this year, I will definitely try next year. It was a challenge and I want to make up for failing this year.
I am planning on getting out walking a lot through the autumn and winter, cutting down on the gym and getting a mix of flat and hill walking in....I need to get out in the rough terrain to help build up my stamina and endurance more, because of the fatigue I'm fine until I hit empty, then it's hard to find anything in reserve, I want to change that by next year.....after all I hope to have a really busy year catching up on my challenges that I didn't complete or had to delay until 2013. So as well as completing the Yorkshire 3 peaks, I will be tackling Mt. Kilimanjaro and also as long as I can get places, the plan is to power walk the New York marathon for Walk the Walk uniting against breast cancer charity. It will be a great year with so much going on, I cannot wait to sink my teeth into it...and after my successful climb of Whernside, I have regained my equilibrium after my disappointments earlier in the year. I still feel like I'm improving almost daily still from the stopping of the Letrozole and Simvastatin....long may it continue!!
Until next time
Tracy
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