Bother

In both senses of the word! I did not afterall get round on my first go, the chief culprit I think being the weather conditions rather than my condition. It's hard to say whether my fitness was enough for the task, as all I can really say is it wasn't up to the task in the weather we had. I had a bit of knee trouble, felt knackered to the point of stopping on certain climbs (Clough Head, Scafell, Yewbarrow), but on the other hand I was still running on leg 4 ok through to Honister where I stopped.
The weather was quite a story. We set off from Keswick in shorts and sunnies and had no trouble at all, just a hint of cool when we came over the top of Blencathra for the descent to Threlkeld. On the climb up Clough Head we still just had a top on each but at the summit I could feel the cold and a hard wind picking up, plus it was 1030 or 11pm so on went the jackets. Then the waterproof trousers. Then the clag came in. We had rain, clag and wind for the rest of the day; the mist gave between 5 and 100 metres visibility which hampered us sometimes, especially around Sargeant Man where we lost around an hour, but it was the wind which really scuppered the Round. It was relentless at 40 - 60 mph, making us stagger and demanding untold amounts of extra effort for the running. Although I'd always thought I'd complete even if over time, you never know what you'll do until you're at that point, and I'd had enough. In fact the wind if anything was getting even stronger and as we came into Honister the rain also lashed down again. It seemed a good choice!
There's always another day eh? We'll see. At the moment I am thinkiing of having another go later this year but need to check the diary.
The last and massively important point to say is the support I had, which was outstanding in every way. The nav was excellent, allowing for the visibility some places, I was fed and watered constantly, encouraged mercilessly, pampered at the roadside and even met in the howling gales at Sticks Pass and Rosset by those who'd walked up from the nearest road with sweet coffee and flapjack: honestly, no one could have more generous and welcome support, thanks so much to you all!