There’s just no getting around it — whatever training we did to get our mileage up to prepare for this thing was inadequate w/r/t whatever it would have taken to get our feet in shape. For the most part I would have expected us to be a bit tired and sore — thought we’re in decent shape and had been doing a fair bit of walking to prepare, certainly we hadn’t done 45 miles over 3 days ever (and that’s to say nothing of the two long days of tourist-ing we did in Glasgow beforehand and the 28-hour travel day preceding that (much of which spent on our feet in security lines, hiking through Heathrow*, etc)). So we’re a bit sore and a bit tired at the end of these long days, yes, but nothing we can’t handle for the most part. But our FEET, good lord, that’s the thing that’s really slowing us down and causing us the most trials.
Today was — despite again truly glorious weather and amazing scenery — a big of a slog, due to foot pain and a finish line that kept receding on us. The route along Loch Lomond was fairly technical for long stretches — having to really watch our step and clamber over and around boulders and branches, but the route finally climbed up and over a ridgeline and into a wide open glen and down into a perfectly lovely valley. While there were many moments of bliss and delight, the final stretch into town may have involved some actual weeping, which I personally am hoping is the low point of the trip (as this day was described as some of the hardest hiking along the Way, and as we are in for a couple of shorter, easier segments over the next couple of days, and as at some point here surely we will turn a corner and start hardening up as our bodies realize this is the way it’s going to be for the foreseeable future). In town we had a lovely dinner outside where the midges joined us as we commiserated with some of our new trail friends over the state of tortured, bloody feet.
* Heathrow is terrible!? Apparently I have never been through Heathrow in all my travels and never knew that. Anyway, memo to self: always to avoid Heathrow if at all possible in future.