late breaking news

official results now through - we were 46th, based on complete teams of 4. well done us!

Trailwalker Top Gear Awards

In true Top Gear fashion, as team leader I feel it is my duty to award some (virtual) prizes to be placed on the mantlepiece beside our Trailwalker medals. I'm afraid I've taken the liberty of awarding myself a prize too :-)

The Sir Paul Stephenson PC Plod Award for perma-plodding through the pain barrier: James

The Mark Webber Award for setting a great pace before suffering minor mechanical issues: John

The Willie Carson Award for reining in the speedier of the team as others struggled to keep up: Martin

The F.Scott Fitzgerald Flapper Award for pointless nervous faffing about before the start: Michael

The Meryl Streep Supporting Cast Award for fantastic support en route and at Brighton Racecourse: the Hanscomb & Morris families

The Nedward Flanders Tolerance Award for putting up with idiotic training programmes ("I'm just popping out for a short run, dear"): the Hinchliffe & Woodham families

I can't add much to James and Martin's blog entries so I'd just like to thank everyone that has sponsored and supported us on this adventure.

Aftermath

Well, we did it - you'll have seen that from my earlier post - 20 hours 38, 61st team home, 10th vet team, job done.

James has written his usual superb account, do read it.

I'll try to live up to the event and commit to words my perspective - I will utterly fail to do it justice, of course, but if you really want to know what it's like, do it. Just train first, won't you? 

Low points

• My Blackberry not working. They don't like rain in the keyboard
• Wishing I'd brought a camera (not that it was photographic weather)
• Constantly stubbing my toes on flints down the narrow path from the gallops between CPs 8&9
• The last 5km feeling like 15....

That's about it

  

High points

• Heledd and hot soup at CP3 - taking a breather, nourishment and encouragement. The minestrone was worth a kmh on its own.
• Sam & Jack calling to say that in spite of being piss-wet through, they hadn't headed back to Hereford, as expected, but were waiting for us at CP5. Just getting that message was worth another kmh
• Oxfam cakes at CP4 - choc covered krispy cakes especially. and a hug from an Oxfam girl who must have spent all day standing in the rain, cheering.
• Sam & Jack at CP5 - surprise grub and motivation top-up
• Getting to the halfway point (CP5) in 9 hours - and the hope that we were on for a good time
• Sam & Jack again at CP7
• Emma & Bobby at CP8 with hot food and an enthusiasm injection
• The unexpected water stop between CPs 8&9 - a sudden tentful of Gurkhas in the middle of nowhere
• Smiling Gurkha faces everywhere
• The joys of a clean pair of socks - even if it does mean having to look your blisters in the eye
• Lightweight overtrousers - I am a convert
• Walking in pairs - one of us marking John to keep him in check, one of us chatting with James
• Calling Liz on James' phone, and her amazing enthusiasm 
• Being able to take the waterproofs off at last, late afternoon
• Just when the signage 'tailed off' coming out of Kingston (CP9) meeting 2 guys coming the other way who confirmed we were on the right route. phew
• Ditto between CPs 9&10 where signage stopped again and the path ran out - this time it was a team behind us who knew the way
• Gurkhas and Oxfam cheering us in at every CP - you can hear the team in front and know that you're getting close
• The Slaughter & May team - chatting about software IP and applications outsourcing passed the time!...
• ....and included "Hat Girl" who did the whole event in a Crocodile Dundee hat (and who completed the course just after us in spite of bad ankle damage - top effort!)
• T-shirt man, who did the entire event in a blue t-shirt. Neither wind nor rain could induce him to put a waterproof on, although we did see him later on with a sweatshirt on top, having slowed down. Perhaps the sweatshirt sapped his powers?
• Not stopping at CP10, but grabbing a cuppa in passing and bashing on
• Seeing the racecourse - oh you beautiful thing - rails, grass, furlong boards then floodlights and a funnel to the glorious end
• Running at the end - some nutter (James, who else?!) breaking into a run to goad us on, then the pain and miles slipping away as we realised that now, nothing, but nothing, would stop us
• Sam, Jack & Bobby at the finish, cheering along with the Gurkhas and Oxfam then the hugs and handshakes and tears and agonising climb onto a podium for medals and photos
• Curry and yet more hot, sweet tea
• Everyone being so, so gentle with us afterwards
• Getting a massage in a state of exhaustion

and then afterwards, finding out that we were 61st team home, 10th veterans team, and the only vets in front of us were serving soldiers. didn't expect that.

• Calling each other over the weekend and monday to compare injuries 
• James' blog in which he manages to nail it every time. Bastard.

There was one thing I really hadn't foreseen, let alone planned for. I've done similar distances before, usually wearing green, and they've all been about something other than the walk itself. In any case, completion was expected, a forgone conclusion. The task was the assault at the end, not the tab.

I did the Bogle Stroll, much the same distance, but my team jacked it in at the 40 mile point due to injury and I finished on my own. So I completely missed the thing that floored me at the racecourse.

I was totally unprepared for the overwhelming emotion that kicked in when we broke into a run. That simple act was, for me, the defining moment when we'd nailed it. All the way through, you think, you hope that you'll complete the task, and certainty increases with mileage, but it's never 100%. 

When James started to run, I knew, with absolute certainty, that we'd get there. That we'd get wherever we needed to get to. In that moment we were absolutely unstoppable, running together, pain left behind in the wind as the four machines crunched out the last six hundred metres or so to the end, to success and the joy and relief and, and, and

 

and sitting here on tuesday night, 60 hours later, I can just about recall the memory of that feeling without welling up. At the moment of victory, having beaten the weather and the distance and the sheer bloody hardness of the event, having accepted the pain for so long and beaten it too, why am I overcome by the simple act of walking a bloody long way?

 

It was more than a long sought-after objective achieved. No doubt a part was proving to myself that I am still the man I think I am - but I didn't have that reaction when I was on my own. 

 

It has to be the team - these three relative strangers I now call my friends, for whom I would now do anything. We'll get back to a state of healthy banter no doubt, but for these few post-op recovery days I'll take the risk of voicing my view of what's going on here. When we started running it wasn't the end I was celebrating. It was these three guys, and the bond of shared experience, shared pain and unbelievable respect I have for them, for us.  

Epilogue

What's next? Well probably not Trailwalker again - been there, done that, got the lower leg injuries to prove it. 

It seems a waste not to get the team together again though - good buddies are hard to come by - but maybe something with less impact - cycling has been mooted. 

 

Bike ride des sable anyone?

Trailwalker Stats

I was browsing around on the Trailwalker Facebook page and stumbled across the official Trailwalker 2011 stats....

• Number started: 2046
• Teams started: 521
• Complete teams of 4 finished: 276 (53%)
• Teams finished including incomplete: 482 (93%)
• Teams of four finished in 30 hours: 272 (52%)
• Teams retired: 43 (8%)
• Individual retirees: 392 (19%)

I'm still amazed and delighted at the performance of my daft team mates and their "never say ouch, my feet hurt" attitude. Fantastic to be part of the 52% that completed the event as a full team.

My blisters are mending so I'm seriously considering going for a short run tomorrow. By "short", I really do mean short - 5k, rather than 100k!

we did it!

20 hrs 38 according to the website, all hurting, all exhausted, all absolutely elated. Running the last km down Brighton racecourse side by side will live with me for a long time.

Full report to follow when I've got some energy...

you've done it!

well you've done your bit, for which many many thanks. ie raised £2,152 as at Tuesday morning, 12th July. You have no idea how good it feels to have hit one objective before we've even started.

now all that remains is for us to do our bit.....

where has all the time gone?

It seems only the day before yesterday that Michael was calling me to ask if I'd do Trailwalker with him, and did I know anyone else daft enough to make a team of 4?

Now it's only one week to go before we assemble at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park ready for a 6AM blast-off on Saturday 16th.

Just 100km then stands between us and our goal, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the finish line at Brighton racecourse.

I don't doubt that there's a fair amount of pain to go through first, of course, although there are a few things that will keep us going:

• there's the 490 km that I've covered in training since mid-February (and I don't doubt that my team-mates have put in more!)

• we've got a great team - the 4 run/walkers plus our support crew -  who have bonded very well over recent months, in spite of limited time together

• And most importantly there's the support - both sponsorship and encouragement - that all of you have given. You've now raised  £1,922 with every chance of hitting the £2,000 target before we start.

So huge thanks to everyone, especially the anonymous givers who we haven't been able to thank personally.

I'm intending to tweet (battery and coverage permitting) so you can follow our progress. Updates will probably be about which checkpoint we're arriving at and of course a stream of updates on injuries sustained to date.
If you really want to follow us my twitter id is Martw00 - and of course encouragement via twitter in return will be much appreciated, especially in the small hours!

Thanks for reading, for support, for donations.

Post-event update to follow, meantime we've got some work to do....