Running for Sol

Day Five - The Last Push

Worst night's sleep ever. Up every hour with road noise, bathroom breaks and body aches. We struggled through breakfast before heading back to the start point outside the Wellington. Simon's sister, Sarah, joined us at the start for what she hoped to be a marathon, something she herself had trained hard towards. It was a perfect morning with cold clear skies that preserved the snowy peaks over the beacons for much of the day. We set out on the Taff trail that leads from Brecon to Cardiff Bay, which would give us vital space and freedom to run without traffic as well as a variety of surfaces, which the joints craved.

The three of us, along with the ever-present and impressive Bri (who would finish the week with 160 mountain bike miles under his belt having never ridden more than 25 miles in one go before) made good progress and reached the Talybont reservoir by 10am where we were joined again by Tim and David who, despite feeling stiff from the previous day's effort, were keen to share some more miles with us.This next section was beautiful as we were off-road and enjoying a steady climb up and away from the water's edge to give us amazing vistas of the snowy Brecon Beacons with evergreen trees and freshwater in the foreground. The sun was out to join us too and was very welcome. Unfortunately for both runners, as we were heading towards the coast and started on fairly high ground, we were inevitably going to have to encounter a fair amount of downhill running. We usually enjoy these sections and let our legs run hard down the hills rather than slowing them down and increasing pressure on the joints. However, we were tentative to say the least and were probably slower running down than up with a mixture of backwards running and grimacing with every step.We next passed the Pontsticill reservoir, which was equally stunning as we cruised towards lunch.

Lunch came just north of Merthyr Tydfil where we were joined by even more family and friends. We said goodbye to Tim and David and thanked them for their monumental support, which was delivered in timely fashion in our darkest hour. After lunch, the two of us and our entourage set about getting through the town of Merthyr and reuniting with the Taff Trail. We were joined by Danny, Dean, Jonathan, Andrea, Lewis, Jonathan, Mo as well as Sarah who decided to continue on with us too! We were soon back on the trail and enjoying the different conversations from our new members of 'Running for Sol'.Although the mood was light, both of us were feeling the strain on the body. By now, we were firm believers in those theories that place mental toughness as most important in endurance events. The pain that we were able to endure because of our cause, because of the time and dedication we had given our training and because of our knowledge of where the finish line was still came as a surprise to us, despite reading about it beforehand. In fact, we can explain man's physical capabilities through training and physiology but the resilience of the mind is something that you need to experience before you believe it and even then you'll never be bale to completely understand it. With a firm goal in mind, human potential is verging on limitless.

We were greeted to a rapturous welcome as we stopped at 'The Bunch of Grapes' pub in Pontypridd. It wasn't just our family, it seemed as though half of the pub had heard of our challenge and had come out to cheer us on. This gave us a taste of what was to come later and we knew that with just a half marathon to run, we would finish - it would just be a question of when. Continuing on the trail kept us away from the main road but we were still aware that we were now very much in suburbia. We'd left the beautiful rolling hills and expansive lakes behind us and entered residnetial Cardiff.

Simon's wife Chloe was running with 4 month old Lennon in the running buggy and we each shared a turn in running with him for a mile or two, Sarah included, who completed the whole of day 5 - a phenomonal achievement in itself. In fact, there were a whole host of peronal bests throughout 'Running for Sol'. Mike Hodgkinson, day 1, 32 miles; David Shardlow and Tim Porter, day 4, 24 miles; Danny Call and Dean Corden, day 5, 16 miles; Chloe Baker, day 5, 16 miles; Bri Ashton, days 2-5, 160 miles on the bike and finally Sarah Baker, day 5, 51 miles!!! What a fantastic inspiration 'Running for Sol' had been for so many!

The final few miles took us through parkland that was only made possible by the cycling support of Charlie Cunliffe and Emily Buckle who lit the trail up for us to see where we were running. This turned out to be the longest stretch of the whole run, most probably through anticipation and mentally winding down. We let the support crew get to the stadium as both runners joined up with their shadow Matt Davey for a final huddle and to allow things to start to sink in. One years worth of training, one hundred miles of running per week at times, the hill repeats, the dietary discipline and of course Solomon was in our thoughts as we prepared to complete our dream - ultrarunning the length of Wales in 5 days.

As soon as we came into view, we could hear the roar of our tremendous support who had travelled miles and miles, just as we had, to see us reach the Millenium Stadium. A whole host of emotions were fairly obvious on our faces as we crossed the brilliantly decorated finish line. It was 10pm but the faithful crowd had stayed with us and waited to share our moment with us, which is one we'll never forget. With our friendship strengthened through our experiences of the last 5 days, we stood together and felt proud of each other, proud of the money we'd raised and proud to have been 'Running for Sol'.