21 Miles

On Bank Holiday Monday, after procrastinating quite spectacularly over the weekend (well Saturday was my birthday) I mapped out my route, and set off into the midday.. well I wish I could say sun, brisk breeze was more like it.... As usual I like to take in the sights of Windsor as I go. Exactly four miles from my house is the top of the Long Walk, where you then head down towards a marvellous view of Windsor Castle. At that point, I met two other ladies sporting their Moonwalk Pink hats, and stopped for a chat. They were 13 miles into their walk, and really looking forward to the event. I headed down the Long Walk, towards Datchet, round Home Park, through Eton, and down the Jubilee River to Maidenhead. From there, I headed up through Burnham and ended up at Mums. I wrote a while back on my blog http://pinkhourglass.blogspot.com, that I hit a training wall. This year I haven't had as much time to train in such a leisurely manner, due to moving back to full time teaching from working for myself. The imagined pressure that I *had* to get the training done this year was new to me. I am glad to say that I walked the 21 miles in a reasonable time - 5 hours 40. I ran very low on energy (my own fault) but I did it! Later that evening, I reported in via Twitter with the other group of girls that are doing the walk, and we had all made it, with varying reports of blisters and bruises. It is so worth it on the day. The dawn breaks when you are about 17 miles in. The volunteers cheer you on with a massive smile and encouragement. And there is nothing like hugging your family at the end. Oh - and looking at your sponsorship (hint) This week is the creative week with the bra.. I will post when it is done! Enjoy. Claire xxx

Hitting the Wall

It was inevitable. Hitting the wall with my Moonwalk Training. It happened in 2008 and 2009 - the point where the whole challenge seems impossible. The general train of thought during the wall experience are usually things like - My legs won't move fast enough, my mile times are awful, I won't finish on the night, and doing this by myself is, at times, very, very lonely.

My dose of 2010 doubts surfaced this morning with a 14 mile training walk scheduled. Which makes getting dressed, organised and ready to hit the pavement a challenge in itself. I knew this was coming, and perhaps should have been a bit more mentally prepared to get through it.

With Pete away watching the football, my brother and his wife were charged with picking the dogs up, walking them and then looking after them in Burnham for the rest of the day. The planned route meant walking from Windsor to Burnham, and then having dinner with my them both and my parents, and coming back again. I was on the verge of phoning and finding a feeble excuse, but my mobile rang to inform me they were on their way. No getting out of that arrangement then!

After they had all gone, I set up the iphone to track my walk via GPS and got my trusty ipod nano ready with the tunes.

For the first 4 miles, my legs felt like lead. Then my ipod started to get to some motivational tunes. At four miles, I hit the top of the Long Walk and start to head down. The sun was shining and people were happy. My mood lifted slightly, and I gave myself a real talking to as I powered towards the Castle.

The thing is, when I reached Burnham (after 3 hours and 50 mins), the block lifted. I entered the house to be greeted by the dogs. There was the wonderful smell of Roast Chicken. And a big hug and "Well Done" from the two people who are the whole reason for doing this. Mum and Dad. The Breast Cancer Survivor and Kidney Cancer Survivor.

Because if we don't keep working towards a cancer cure, I wouldn't have eaten such a marvellous Sunday Roast. They wouldn't have been here to do it.

Virginia Water Lake

Morning walk for me and the dogs today. Virginia Water is just over 4 miles, so perfect distance for a short Moonwalk training session, and for the dogs to stretch their legs and get as muddy/wet as possible. I also have new trainers which were far too white and gleaming, so something needed to be done about that. (Asics Gel-Kinsei 2 for the athletes out there!)

I also tried out my EveryTrail app for the iphone. I have been using Runkeeper, which is great as long as you don't go into a shaded area. Runkeeper was also tracking my average minutes per mile, which was helpful for the Moonwalk.

However, EveryTrail seems to have managed to map all the way around the Lake, which is excellent, and provided a HTML code for blogs, so let's see if that works too.

What was even better was the sun was shining.. Spring is definitely here!

Virginia Water

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Moonwalk Complete!

I confess to writing this over 3 days since I finished the Moonwalk, and collapsed home into my bed! I wanted a couple of days to reflect on the experience, and not blog "Never Again!" straight afterwards, as I am sure were the thoughts of many of us who padded through London in our pink hats and corsetry during the early hours on Sunday morning!

The lovely Tina and Lizzy Needham picked me up with their Peter and we drove into London very excited, and alighted at Hyde Park. In the distance, a big Pink Tent loomed, with lots of other Moonwalkers in their White hats (Half-Moon) or Pink Hats (Full-Moon) queued (in very British, orderly fashion) to get through the entrance to Playtex city.

The wonderful Volunteers, who were ever present throughout the night, ushered us in, with big smiles and good luck wishes. Once in, we made our way to the food section, and collected a yummy pasta meal, which I knew would be vitally important later on in the night, especially for me. I was too nervous to eat last year, and only had a few mouthfuls, and later on I paid for it. So it was eaten, followed by the flapjack. The volunteers had also given us our space blankets and weather capes, and I was just wondering how on earth I was going to pack them into my already straining bum bag, when Tina came back from the stall with a present for myself and Lizzy - a lanyard and a WalktheWalk pin. The lanyard had a catch on the end, so the cape (and bizarrely) my sunglasses were put onto that, and my pin into my bag.

I had another friend participating the half-moon - Marissa, and met up for a quick chat and good luck hug. Then back to Tina and Lizzy, for the warm up and introduction to the evening by Nina Barough. I raced off to put my bag away and I was ready.

The power of Twitter

I had made contact through Twitter with a full-moon walker called Amanda (@MandyPandy32) who had been fundraising using Twitter. I had initially responded to a tweet (from Jonathan Ross - @wossy) saying I was doing the Moonwalk, and good luck. We kept in touch, and she had asked lots of advice, and we kept up to date on our training.

Once she learnt that I was walking the Full by myself, she asked me to join her and her friend Nicky, so I had company. The Full and Half Moon walks split at 9 miles, and as Tina, Lizzy and Marissa were also in a different group, I decided to walk the whole thing with Amanda, as I would have to face 17 miles on my own!!

Lizzy, Tina and myself wished each other luck, and I set off to find Amanda. The three of us got on straight away, and we headed to the start line. We crossed at 23.50 (sent off by Nina and her team) and headed out into the dark London streets.

Once thing to learn about the actual event, is that you don't walk as fast as your training walks, purely as there are thousands of people on the path with you! The Moonwalk stays to footpaths as far as possible, so overtaking slower people can be tricky. We settled into an easy rhythm, talking and contributing to Amanda's phlog - a phone blog which is run by ipadio. They were also geotagging our walk as we went. We averaged out about 18 mins per mile, and enjoyed the sights of London as we went. To see the phlog click here


The Fire Brigade lend us a loo... At about 10 miles we passed the London Fire Brigade on the Embankment, and Amanda pointed out that maybe they would let us use their amenities. It looked almost deserted as we approached, but we stuck our heads around to see about 6 other Moonwalkers' with the same idea! The firemen were very welcoming and showed lots of damsels in distress to the various loos around the station!! Thanks guys!  

Loo of death

After another stop in Battersea park for the loo (you do need to go a lot..) we found our next convenience in fashionable Chelsea... too far to the next organised, loos, so we queued (very British again..) but only had 2 x20p for 3 of us... Nicky and Amanda bravely squeezed in together and got out in time before the loo cleaned itself!

The three of us trundled on, and took pictures as we went. At 22 miles we made our last loo stop (again a very accommodating concierge at an apartment block) and we noticed that the "Powerwalking" technique had gone from most people, and everyone was walking with a slight waddle! (Can I point out that WalktheWalk did provide loos at different points, but there are never enough!) At this point I got a burning pain in my shin, then in my thigh. Muscle pull :-( Basically I gritted my teeth and got on with it - but boy it hurt!

Along the way at this point, many were redressing blisters by the side of the road, and there were a few tears being shed, mainly through pain or exhaustion. The amazing volunteers kept us going with encouragement throughout the night. We passed Big Ben for the 3rd and final time and headed on the home straight.


In St-James's park, Nicky's brother met us, and at the entrance to Hyde Park, there stood was Pete, Dad and my main reason for putting myself through this - my Mum. She wrapped me in a big hug, and I limped off having a little cry as I went. Pete shortcut through Hyde Park and photographed our big moment - getting to 26 miles.

Crossing the finishing line was fabulous, and there were more tears shed! We had been on the move for about 8 hours and on the course for about 9. We crossed the line at 8.45 am.

Eventually, Amanda, Nicky and myself hugged each other goodbye, and I set off to meet my family, to limp to the car with them! Home, hot bath, sleep... roast dinner (thanks Pete xxx).

Next day, I woke up, and I could MOVE! More than last year that was! So 3 days later, and some early nights I feel elated for the achievement, and in good nick.


Last year I walked by myself, plugged into my ipod, and although I was amazed I did it, walking with 2 others to chat with this year, made me realise that I was quite lonely last year, and it made it more mentally challenging. Thank you Amanda and Nicky, you were very lovely and good company xx

I spoke with Marissa the next day, and she really suffered blisters, but completed the Half-Moon in 4 hours, and Tina and Lizzy walked their part in 5 hours. I have to note here, Tina had shoulder surgery 2 months ago, and walked in a sling, so well done Tina!

So if I was to do it again: 1) Definitely invest in your trainers and socks - they have ensured I did not have too many blisters or aches and pains

2) Do the training - the big walks and at least one other training walk per week.

3) If you do it by yourself, have an ipod full of cheery tunes!!

4) Make sure you have energy bars - fruit and nut does the trick!

5) And as the compare said - "Tits n Teeth girls!" Chest out and keep smiling!!

Moonwalk is here!

Well today is the day! I haven't blogged for a bit, but since I last did, I completed a 16 mile training walk and a 22 miles training walk!

The 22 miles meant I was out on the road for about 6 and a half hours, with total walking time of about 6 hours 12 mins (rest was loo stops!)

I will say the 22 miles was a bit of a challenge mentally rather than physically. I had a new ipod (my birthday pressie from Pete) but it wasn't doing things it should do - or how I thought it should, so I was having to fiddle as I walked. The weather was also grey and overcast, and I had been very luck whilst training that the weather was good before.

However, getting across the doorstep at home was brilliant, and as usual my faithfully doggies met me with a big lick and paw and my bath was running :-)

Decorating the Bra

Now this has been a bit of a journey! Walk the Walk sent me a Wonderbra this year (oh please) and a Freya bra last year, which I didn't use and stored. I decided to dye both black and see which one I may use as I felt a bit self-conscious about the Wonderbra (those who know me well, will know why!!)

One thing that has changed about modern dyes, is that they don't dye man made fabrics. Cotton, linen and viscose or mixes of. So I ended up with a rust coloured Wonderbra, and a multi-coloured Freya bra (black cups, and the rest was interesting...). I then decided to dye the Freya again with a hand dye (having used machine before..)


So here was the bra after attempt one and the kit needed to dye it. So off I went, and dyed half the bath at the same time... And the damn thing came out no different.

I had to use plastic gloves whilst handling the dye, and accidentally put it on inside out when coming back to stir it...

So basically I ended up with a black hand. Not good as I had business meeing the next day!








I then got stuck in with a needle and thread a few evening this week and sewed fur, sequins, glass buttons, ribbons and glued beads on..

Work in progress...














And finally today - glued my final beads, and here it is!!











I have also been involved in twitter quite a bit and have met some people who are also doing the full walk - Tina and Lizzie Needham are doing the half moon, so I will go into London with them.

Wish me luck! I will blog tomorrow or Monday

Claire
x

Training Progress

I haven't put my thoughts down for a bit, but inbetween blogs I have completed a 14 mile walk and a 16 mile.

My foot was playing up still so I have laid off training too heavily inbetween, but I walk on average 2 miles a day with our dogs, so up until now, have thought this sufficient whilst I nursed my foot.

However, with just over 3 weeks until the big day, I think I should tick all of the training off, just in case!

Walk the Walk over the last week has distributed the packs we all get, including the bra to be decorated. They, in their wisdom, have sent me a Wonderbra.

Now, those of you who know me well, know I don't really have a need to enhance my assets any more. (A bit of uplift maybe, but still..) Even when they were launched when I was in my 20's, I was quite blessed with charms, and didn't possess one. My flatmate at college, never went out without hers!! Mind you, with hindsight, her hit rate was better....

Walk the Walk, send me a lovely Freya bra last year, but I opted to decorate one of my own. (See the picture for Mum's handiwork) However, I have stored the Freya bra, and thanks to the gods of stomach bugs, I have lost a bit of weight recently, and have decided perhaps I will dye and use that one.

I think the theme this year is Strictly Come Dancing. I feel feathers coming on...

Gotta have faith in your footwear - Training Diary #2

After a week of feeling very sorry for myself and being, to be frank, extremely unwell, I was beginning to doubt whether 26 miles in 6 weeks was a reality.

To cheer myself up between feeling nauseous and trying to absorb water, I had to invest in some new trainers for the big event.  Last year, I bought a fab pair of Asics trainers, that cost an arm and a leg, and I swear they carried me around the Moonwalk course.

However, these high tech beasties were fantastic, but the gel does wear down in them, and I was starting to feel a bit of strain on my muscles and joints on the longer walks this year.

In Windsor, there is a brilliant little chain of shops called Swim, Bike, Run (does exactly what is says on the tin - Swimming, Bikes and Bike Gear, and top Running Gear) so I went down for a chat, and they showed me the updated version of last years trainers (with the updated price - £130!!)  So the chap fitted them for me, pointed out how the laces are shaped to help your bone structure in your foot, and showed me a new way of tying them!

I then tested them out on a couple of 2 miles walks with the dogs, and I seemed to bounce along nicely, especially with my dri fit socks as well.

So today was the tester.  I aimed to walk up to 12 miles - a test for the trainers, and for me, as after last weeks bug, yesterday was the only day I had managed 3 square meals, without feeling awful afterwards.

On my first stretch along the river, I bumped into my friend Matt, who was on lock duty.  He offered me a cup of tea, which I turned down as I was early into my walk.  I was to regret that later.  After a quick catch up, me and my new trainers bounced upon our way.

The lesson to learn today was that I should have brought a bit of change out for extra water and stashed a chocolate bar in my jacket.  I kept going for 9 miles and then slowed.  My legs had given up the juice and whilst I probably could have forced myself home, I listened to my body, decided I was too dehydrated, and phoned for my lift.

All in all, I am very happy with my trainers, only one small blister, and not too many aches!

Must remember to equip myself to get more water next week!

WTW Training Diary #1

According to the Full Marathon Training plan, this week I should aim to:

Sunday: Relax and Stretch
Monday: Any other Activity
Tuesday: 4 miles (increase exertion)
Wednesday: Any other activity
Thursday: 6 miles - intervals
Friday: Relax and Stretch
Saturday: 12 miles - distance and speed.

Thanks to the recent plague of bugs going about, and the bad weather at the weekend, my actual diary looks like this:

Sunday: Godmother at Christening - followed by 3 course meal with obligatory pudding at the end.
Monday: 10 mile walk (should have done previous Saturday) Very good time. Followed by Sports Massage, Followed by pub dinner.
Tuesday: Entire day being very ill with stomach bug. Lay in bed when I could, and tried to drink water.
Wednesday: Too weak to even celebrate the 4lbs weighloss! Went to school play though and laughed my head off. (Secret Diary of Adrian Mole)
Thursday: Swept patio and had to sit down for an hour. Starting to panic over training!!

I intend to try and walk tomorrow and complete the assigned 12 miles on Sat, but it seems a long way off!

The reason I am doing the walk is mainly because my Mum had Breast Cancer 2 years ago, and some friends in their 30's have also had it.

The diary is intended to keep me going for the next few weeks! And also when I hit lower motivation, I can read back on it.

If you are a moonwalker too and want to share your experiences, feel free to post!