Day One 12 November

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!

Druids Challenge - 12-14 November

Have actually been looking forward to this event. 3 marathons in 3 days (again). Must be mad! This run/walk is along the Ridgeway (Iving Hoe Beacon nr Tring to somewhere outside of Swindon!

Carl was taking me, Kerry, Tina & obviously Jannine to a hotel near Tring & Alfie was to pick us up at the end. Our original hotel was cancelled at the last minute & they checked us into their sister hotel which turned out to be extremely posh & out of our price bracket. Fantastic!

I shared with Kerry. Met Jill & Jannine in the very glamourous dining room for dinner. Had to laugh when the nouvelle cuisine sized portions arrived for 4 hungry "super athletes"!!!

A good night was had by all, of course fuelled by the 3 large glasses of wine - my typical training prep!!

Not a late night as Kerry & I had a relatively early start to join the "walkers".

Ilminster 10k - 7 November

Quite a short race for the training I have been doing, but really enjoyed it last year & I thought I would go for an official 10k PB as opposed to the club time trial. Donned my super duper fast shoes that give me aching calves aka Newtons, and drove the 30mins or so to Ilminster, picking Jean up on the way.

Bit drizzly & cold but fine nevertheless. Met Jannine at the start, but she is a bit of a racing snake, so I didnt expect to see her until the finish - and yes I was correct, off she shot!

Really enjoyed the race & pushed myself as hard as I could. Finished in 52:51 which I was dead chuffed with.

Atlantic Coastal Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 broke tipping down with rain! Around 40 competitors decided they had had enough & the rain was the last straw! We however, donned our wet weather gear, picked up the mini bus to just outside St Ives & set off. Within 30 mins the rain stopped & we had lovely weather for the rest of the day. Kerry was in an awful lot of pain from her badly blistered arch & pretty much limped her way around. Scenary amazing. Some parts of the course dangerous, but then we realised we had gone wrong. Didnt think clambering over rocks with sheer drops 20m down into the rough sea was an approved route! Due to all the recent rain, what should also have been a simple jump over a small stream, was more like cross fingers & hope you dont fall in! 3 of us used walking poles & helped each other across. Took Kerry & I absolutely ages to complete due to her foot. I dont know how she made it. Made of very tough stuff & she will certainly breeze the MdS. Hot cornish pasties at the finish line were very welcome. We even got a ride back to base in a converted hearse, complete with coffin!

Atlantic Coastal Challenge - Day 2

Coach dropped us off bright & early back at Perranporth. Kerry & I had a nice wee trot off. Kerrys foot very sore where she blistered yesterday. Took it steady & had an enjoyable day out. Once again scenary lovely. Worst part of the race was the last few miles again on the beach & around a very ugly Hayle! As our garmins said we had done just under 26.2m, Kerry even had me trotting around the holiday park to make up the marathon mileage! AAAGH...especially as we did over yesterday. Hey Ho!

Atlantic Coastal Challenge Day 1 - Oct

Another 3 marathons plus in 3 days. In fact the total for the 3 days was 81 miles.

Day 1: We started just south of Padstow & ran the coastal path to Perranporth. Really enjoyed it apart from the 2miles of beach at the end. Makes me dread the soft sand in the MdS.

Weather was OK apart from some light rain. Scenery stunning. Nowhere near as tough as the JCC. Accomodation rather good to! Holiday park in Hayle. Sharing a chalet with Kerry & Tanja. Plenty of wine. In fact we shared a couple of bottles the night before day 1.

SLaMM - 10 Sept

Our clubs very own marathon. Boy did I struggle! Ended up with a real pain up the bum for the first 5 or so miles. Heard her life history - gory bits and all. Got fed up so dived in bush for a wee to mainly get rid of her. Hurrah!!!

Caught up with Zoe, Kerry, Tina & Jannine at the halfway mark but they soon shot off again.

Jannine struggling near the monument so she got lift back to finish. Kerry & I stuck together but I was really struggling by the time we got back to Langport & had to head over the levels & back to Bowdens. Still, soldiered on & finished in: 5:27.