It was only when I felt the warm tingling of light dancing across the nape of my neck that I realised that the sun had risen. I looked up, and some of the tension and stress that had built up in my face during the night fell away, as I smiled at the orange glow that was the dawn's first light tentatively feeling its way across the rolling landscape that lay before me. Fueled with renewed passion and inspired by an unspoken hope, I continued my pace, unwilling to give up this close, determined to continue no matter what it took...it was moments like these I realised, moments of stunning clarity, during which I was able to glimpse the whole of the valley that lay before me, brilliantly lit after a night that had seemed a cold eternity, that made up for what had happened - and what was going to happen. Already the freezing fog was beginning to rise and my panting breath was suddenly turning to mist in front of my face...but this time round I was ready for anything.
