Climbing Snowdon, getting home and The Burrito Challenge

I didn't have a very good night's sleep as there were a few midges that had found their way into the toilet causing me to continuously have to swat them during the 3 hours that I was in there. Despite this I was up and raring to go when the 3.00am alarm woke me up, knowing that this was the last push, and that I couldn't afford to snooze or take my time. It was dark when I set off - thankfully the lower sections of the path were easy to follow despite the terrain being a bit inconsistent (mostly path but with some sections of large boulders/rocks where I had to watch my footing). There was a group of 3 guys I remember running past lower down. Daylight greeted me about halfway up - I was very grateful for this as the path became increasingly hard to make out. This made me feel a bit better about not attempting the climb last night as trying to navigate up here at night would have been extremely difficult and slow, if not impossible. The weather wasn't too bad (cloudy and a bit damp) with some mist as the altitude increased. I remember having to stop for a couple of minutes at one particular point as the path ahead met a large smooth sloping rock section, and spotting where the path continued after the smooth rock was tricky. I certainly didn't want to go off piste and get lost. Taking my time paid off and I was soon a stones-throw from the summit. I needed a poo by the time I reached the top. Under normal circumstances I may have been able to gingerly walk back down holding it in until I reached the toilet at the bottom. However gingerly walking down would have taken too long, so I had to squat down and have one up there. It was the quickest poo ever - the cold misty wind made sure of that. I reached the summit at exactly 5.30am - 74 hours and 29 minutes after starting Ben Nevis. The 'challenge' was over but the race to get back in time to catch the coach wasn't. I'd really been pushing myself to get up as quickly as possible as time was so tight. The descent was completed significantly quicker than the ascent (remembering path and improved light helped). This meant that it wasn't too much of a rush packing everything up from the disabled toilet, and I even had enough time for a few photos. The weather had deteriorated on the final stages of the path (foggier and wetter). Cycling downhill in this was horrible not helped by the fact that I wasn't able to clip in with one of my cleats (the irrational running uphill last night had ruined it). Also my hands were suffering (I'd developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in 2012 whilst doing my Land's End to John O'Groats cycle, and it's been a recurring problem since). This time it was a combination of getting too cold at the top of Scafell Pike as well as the past 3 days relentless cycling that triggered it). Anyway I struggled down and felt slightly more comfortable when I eventually reached the bottom and was able to pedal more to warm up. The one dodgy cleat was annoying just resting on the pedal above where it was supposed to clip in, and this slowed me down. Hunger and low energy levels were setting in just to add to the predicament. I didn't have a computer so was unaware of how far I had to go/how long I had to get there, but knew that it was close to the wire. Thankfully the Caernarfon coach station was easy to find and arriving with about 10 minutes to spare was a relief. Just enough time to grab some food before boarding :) . I ran to the nearest cafe and ordered two sandwiches. Then had to run to a cashpoint as they didn't accept cards. I could see out of the cafe window that my coach had pulled up as I took my sandwiches. So ran back over the road to the coach. The driver was very nice and thankfully in no rush to leave. He even helped me bungee the bike securely to the side of the bag storage hold. Once onboard I could finally relax. The sandwiches were demolished within the first 5 minutes. Post eating I gave my parents a quick call and did a quick Facebook update before messaging some friends back in Reading about meeting up for a Burrito Challenge (a mega-calorific huge triple burrito - the kind of thing you would see on Man vs Food) at Mission Burrito in town later. I was must have burned somewhere in the region of 40,000 calories and hadn't consumed anywhere near this amount so the excessive quantity of burrito would help to balance the deficit. It took me at least 30 minutes to calm down and start snoozing. The coach back to London took all day and was pretty uneventful (all I remember was buying sugary food at a shop in Wrexham (allowing some for now and some for tomorrow's lunch, and resentfully having to pay to use the toilet at the Milton Keynes Coach Station). Once we were in London it took ages to get through the afternoon rush hour finally arriving in Victoria about 30 minutes behind schedule. Thankfully my connecting coach between London and Reading was also behind schedule (had it been on time I would have missed it). Then of course getting out of London involved more traffic and I didn't get back to Reading Calcot until about 8.00pm. I was originally planning on nipping back home for a shower before the burrito but there wasn't time for this. I got to Mission Burrito at about 8.40. Within 10 minutes one of my housemates Colm had arrived with his D-lock. After locking the bike up we went inside. After I'd gone to the toilet to make some space I went up and got the ordered 'El Triple'. The girl at the counter was very generous with the portions and I was presented with a beast along with the obligatory jug of water. I started tucking in at about 9pm giving me one hour to finish before the restaurant closed at 10pm. I was shortly joined my other friends Matt, Ben, Lucille and Nik. None of them were here to eat - they came for moral support/to find out about the trip. Matt/Colm were timing me/filling my cup with water whilst the others were asking about the trip - not easy trying to have a conversation whilst trying to demolish the burrito within the hour. I ate over half of it easily, then it started to get harder. The last 10% was particularly difficult and I had to sip a tiny bit of water before each bloated mouthful. I didn't quite manage to finish it all by 10pm - thankfully the staff could see that I was almost there and were happy to let me finish. Eventually at about 10.10pm I was done :) . After getting my t-shirt (presented to anyone who successfully finishes 'El Triple') I had to walk home with the bike as was too bloated to cycle. A great way to conclude the trip.