Monday 17 October 2016
Saturday 24 September 2016
The Camelot Challenge
To be honest, the Camelot half Marathon-being only 13 miles long,
wasn’t really too much of a challenge, especially since I spent the
first part of the week walking along an extremely torturous section of
the SWCP between Dartmouth and Torquay. This was easy in comparison.
Nevertheless, apart from a few fraught
moments when the maddest looking husky I’ve ever seen in my life turned
up at the start-actually frothing-at-the-mouth-mad, and who in turn set
off just about every other dog there, it was great fun taking part-once everyone had settled down, and the views were amazing!
Held annually in Sherborne, the walk itself is circular in design (which saves on the logistics of trying to bus all the competitors back to the start), and consisted of several hills, the most prominent being Cadbury Castle-which is one of the reputed sites of King Arthur’s Camelot, from which comes the name of the challenge.
On the day of the event, the sun dazzled, everyone I met was friendly, we were plied with as much cake as we could eat to keep our strength up ( obviously! ), the medal was well designed, and as a collective group we managed to raise over £2,400 for the charity Honeypot. I’m already looking forward to next year.
Held annually in Sherborne, the walk itself is circular in design (which saves on the logistics of trying to bus all the competitors back to the start), and consisted of several hills, the most prominent being Cadbury Castle-which is one of the reputed sites of King Arthur’s Camelot, from which comes the name of the challenge.
On the day of the event, the sun dazzled, everyone I met was friendly, we were plied with as much cake as we could eat to keep our strength up ( obviously! ), the medal was well designed, and as a collective group we managed to raise over £2,400 for the charity Honeypot. I’m already looking forward to next year.
Sunday 24 July 2016
"Getting by with a little help from my friends,,,"
Such a huge, surge of
emotions and memories still surfacing from yesterday. On so many levels,
the whole day proved to be inspiring-hearing everyone telling their
story as to why they were taking part, as we each walked along the
course.
Before the marathon even started, one of the organizers told us that the route was extremely challenging, and as such, we needed to look out for each other. And that’s exactly what took place throughout the day. I saw numerous examples of people helping each other to the finishing line-not least the girl ( Louise ) who helped me personally with my heat stroke, and who walked with me for the last few miles.
When we discuss how powerless we all are, when we are faced with the shock of losing somebody-taking part in events like this doesn’t of course bring our loved ones back. But, it’s about trying to do something to help-however small that is, in the face of that loss, and sometimes that’s all we need-some small measure, to help us to cope.
For me, I needed to do this, for my Grandparents who both died of cancer, so just wanted to thank everyone who helped me to do this, by either sponsoring me, or simply putting up with me boring them to death about this marathon for the last few months
Before the marathon even started, one of the organizers told us that the route was extremely challenging, and as such, we needed to look out for each other. And that’s exactly what took place throughout the day. I saw numerous examples of people helping each other to the finishing line-not least the girl ( Louise ) who helped me personally with my heat stroke, and who walked with me for the last few miles.
When we discuss how powerless we all are, when we are faced with the shock of losing somebody-taking part in events like this doesn’t of course bring our loved ones back. But, it’s about trying to do something to help-however small that is, in the face of that loss, and sometimes that’s all we need-some small measure, to help us to cope.
For me, I needed to do this, for my Grandparents who both died of cancer, so just wanted to thank everyone who helped me to do this, by either sponsoring me, or simply putting up with me boring them to death about this marathon for the last few months
Saturday 23 July 2016
Days that make a difference
I’ve been wanting to complete a marathon for quite some time, but it
had to be the right one, so after about a year of exploring different
options, I finally signed up to the Cotswold Way Mighty Hike, containing
a section of the National Trail starting from Wotton-under-Edge in
Gloucestershire where the route then follows the Cotswold Way
escarpment before finally descending to the World Heritage Site of Bath
and finishing in front of Bath’s famous Royal Crescent 26 miles later.
I had spent the previous 3 months diligently training for the event, culminating in at least two 23 mile training sessions on the final week, and was quietly confident of being successful when I arrived at the starting location on a cold, misty morning just before 7am for registration to commence. Being one of the first people to arrive I was given a yellow wristband which placed me in the first pen. After a brief warm up session involving a laughably bad attempt from me at Zumba, there was a countdown, before the ribbon holding us into the pen was pulled free and finally on Saturday 23rd July at about 8am I started out on my first ever marathon.
It was a really well organised event, with volunteers from both Action challenge and Macmillan themselves marshalling and accompanying us on the walk itself.
Despite, a worrying episode towards the end, where I was having dizzy spells, and had to sit down for nearly 40 minutes just after the 25th mile, to rehydrate and get some rest, I finished 182nd out of 376 finishers (At least 50 dropped out during the event ) with a reasonably respectable time ( given how extremely hilly the route was) of 10 hrs 43 minutes and 55 seconds, while at the same time, managed to raise a total of £332.50 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
I had spent the previous 3 months diligently training for the event, culminating in at least two 23 mile training sessions on the final week, and was quietly confident of being successful when I arrived at the starting location on a cold, misty morning just before 7am for registration to commence. Being one of the first people to arrive I was given a yellow wristband which placed me in the first pen. After a brief warm up session involving a laughably bad attempt from me at Zumba, there was a countdown, before the ribbon holding us into the pen was pulled free and finally on Saturday 23rd July at about 8am I started out on my first ever marathon.
It was a really well organised event, with volunteers from both Action challenge and Macmillan themselves marshalling and accompanying us on the walk itself.
Despite, a worrying episode towards the end, where I was having dizzy spells, and had to sit down for nearly 40 minutes just after the 25th mile, to rehydrate and get some rest, I finished 182nd out of 376 finishers (At least 50 dropped out during the event ) with a reasonably respectable time ( given how extremely hilly the route was) of 10 hrs 43 minutes and 55 seconds, while at the same time, managed to raise a total of £332.50 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
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