Up bright & early to get ready to catch taxi to local train station, where a minibus is due to pick us up & take us to registration & start line. A little apprehensive as the Ridgeway map I ordered from Amazon never arrived, Kerry is far quicker than me, and I didnt want to get lost on my own! Nice sunny day but very windy. Hmm Think mileage for today is 30 miles. Lovely.
Got on minibus without problems & met John Adams (FB friend & mate of Quentin, who is also doing MdS this year). Chatted away to him. He is a pretty quick runner and should be in the runners group, not walkers but due to an admin error will be starting with us today.
Arrived at IvingHoe Beacon carpark & it seems someone has taken my number. A new one was cobbled together and I was promised a goody bag (all I really wanted was the buff) at a later stage. We walked to the top of the Beacon to the start & bliddy hell its cold & windy. Got all my coats, gloves, hat etc on, took photos & set off with Kerry. Majority in our group were actually real walkers but we set off at a nice slow pace. Within a mile we had gone wrong - missed the well sign posted path! Luckily we hadnt gone to far off course, realised the mistake only when someone shouted at us. whew! Back on track & off we went. Lovely course, good company & a pleasant pace. All good until the last 8 or so miles. Rain came down, blinking cold & endless paths of mud. To make matters harder, it was by now pitch dark. We had joined a really nice chap called Malcolm who is also a previous MdS competitor too & the 3 of us soldiered on together. Kerry remained upbeat & tried her darndest to keep me trotting. No mean feat. I was cold, wet & very tired. Found running through mud with only the narrow beam of your headlamp to follow pretty tiring to. Anyway what seemed like hours later, we arrived at the school which was to be our luxurious accomodation for the night! Floor space only in a large hall. Cold showers & very average food. Hmmm! Jannine & Jill came in not to far behind us. Jannine feeling very feverish & unwell. She decided to ring Carl who was to collect her in the morning!
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