Rat Race Run Britannia - Week 5, day 6 - Mybster to finish line at John O'Groats
Rain, pain, and the final finish line
Distance: 47.76km (final total 1519.16km)
Total climb: 381m (final total 25,945m)
Steps: 55,806 (final total 1,798,352)
This was it - the final day of five long weeks. It was the shortest day of the week as well - a mere 47km. The route had changed from the map above since I set these up before the event - we were now heading for the coast, up the coast road and then the final section would be along the edge of the cliffs to the Duncansby Head lighthouse before turning west along the coast to John O'Groats, thus making sure we were getting the extra 3km of the UK that we'd have missed if we'd gone straight to the finish line.
The start of the day was fun. Greg the slightly mad Aussie had made a point of enjoying a few different transport options during his trip across the UK - these had included bumming a lift on a canal boat, riding the Harry Potter train, and taking a boat out onto Loch Ness to look for Nessie - so it was appropriate that his last day would start with another entry for his collection, a quad bike helpfully supplied by the local farmer. So we set off on the last day as a convoy, led by Greg on the back of his bike. Legend.
The fun didn't last too long, though. Scotland had decided to say goodbye to us in typical fashion - it was raining right from the start and didn't really stop until well into the afternoon. I was also badly hobbling - yesterday's infected toe was really hurting now, and there wasn't much anyone could do about it. I taped it, and it was the only day I really had to hit the painkillers to get through. We'd been told that it was a road shoes day (although more on that later) which at least meant I didn't have to try and get my trail shoes back on - I'm not sure I'd have managed that.
The going was generally flat, and fairly bleak. We were on roads for the whole morning, with the wind on our right hand side driving the rain at us. Andy and I had agreed that just as we completed the first day together, we would complete the last day together - but most of the morning was just a case of keeping our heads down and working through the weather. We were mostly on minor roads, but there was one point where we turned directly into the wind and rain onto a much busier road.
Inevitably, that was the point we missed our turning. Its more difficult to look at your watch when your waterproofs are covering it, and with the noise from the traffic we'd never have heard any warning beep. So that was an extra kilometre we could have done without - we were eventually rescued by the crew who had spotted us going off course on our trackers. We'd done pretty well all in all navigating up the country, but that was definitely a miss. We told everyone we'd detoured to look at the RAF memorial that was outside the old RAF base on that road.
That took us from the middle of the party to the back of the pack, just as the rain was cranking up again, and it didn't do much for us. I had to stop to layer up again, and by the time I'd done that I only caught Andy up at lunch.
They'd pulled out the stops for our final lunch. We were now about 12km out from the end, and everyone had been held back to be together. They'd booked a hall, which made a pleasant change from the usual al fresco lunches, and particularly today it was very nice to get out of the cold and the rain and steam off a bit.
The food was a sort of high-class tea, with little sandwiches and cakes - so different from the usual lunches that it seemed very odd, if tasty. There wasn't a cereal bar to be seen. Quite a lot of people's families had joined them for the last day, and they were all around at the lunch, which made it a cheerful affair. We also had our speech from Kate our run leader, and the presentation of orange arrows (the ones we'd been following to the feedstations for the last 5 weeks) to each of us as a prize for a specific thing. Andy got "Bog Girl" after her achievements a couple of days before - I got a suggestion that arrows needed to be higher up for me to spot them!
We set off together after lunch on the final leg - a couple of km of road, and then only what Scotland calls a coast path. The path was mostly theoretical - the bogs it crossed were not. We were also nicely close to some fairly high cliffs, which made us glad for the grippy trail shoes that we weren't wearing.
Initially we were with some of our friends, but I've never been good at slippery bog walking at the best of times, and the painkillers were failing to block the pain every time my right foot went down, and so I was holding Andy further and further back.
To be fair, we did want to look around us - the rain was easing, and although there still wasn't much of a view out to sea we could see some fairly spectacular cliffs.
Further along we reached the rocks known as "The Stacks", which were another mark on the journey.
We finally knew we were getting close when we saw the Duncansby Head lighthouse - the very north east point of the UK.
All logic would have made this the finish line - but unfortunately someone had put John O'Groats further along the coast, so we weren't quite done yet. We turned west, came down the lighthouse access road and turned off along the final path past Wick Cove.
There was a flock of Scottish sheep to say goodbye to us, and a slightly hazy view of the Orkney Islands - that was really the point where I understood how far north we were, stupid as it sounds.
The good news was that we were now in sight of John O'Groats, even through the mizzle of the afternoon.
We had some brief views of the group in front of us going across a field, so although definitely last we weren't as far behind as I'd feared. We came into John O'Groats across the car park and up to the hotel, where the finish line had been set up.
They'd even laid on a piper to welcome us.
And that was how, after five weeks and just over 1500km, we crossed the finish line.
And took the appropriate photo at the signpost to match one we'd taken five weeks (although it didn't feel like it) before at Land's End.
Song of the day? I've thought of plenty - there are some obvious 80s cheesy options - but in the end I looked in a different direction, and picked a song by a friend - "Homecoming" by Chris Conway, off his "Close the Circle" album. It had been an amazing adventure, but "...the journey's over, the day is done, I'm coming home".
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