The morning after.

I can still walk!

This has come as a pleasant surprise after the state I was in when I got home after finishing the Cross Wales Walk yesterday. My feet do something very odd after a very long distance walk. Yes, its usually painful walking on them towards the end of a walk but not really a big issue, what would you expect? However, when i stop walking they simply seize up and it's immensely painful to walk on them. The soles of my feet just scream at me "for goodness sake just sit down and give us a break". It's nothing to do with blisters. The blisters I had after last weekend have healed and yesterday I only got one small one on the top of one big toe. I'm sure there's a medical explanation. All I know is that BY FAR the most painful part of my day yesterday was the 10 metre walk from my car to the house!

Injury wise my only problem is "shin splints" in my right shin. This is inflammation of the tissue which connects to the shin bone and it causes intense pain down the front of the shin, especially when putting weight on it and ESPECIALLY coming downhill. It's just the result of prolonged impact and stress on the lower leg and this was certainly aggravated yesterday by the fact that large parts of the route were on hard stone tracks or minor Tarmac roads. These solid surfaces just intensify the shock going through the legs and in my case the result is shin splints.

The good news is that all the pain has been worthwhile and I hope my final total will be about £650 meaning that I have raised enough for WaterAid to provide continuing access to clean water and sanitation for more than 40 people. That can change lives. So thanks to all my sponsors. If you'd still like to donate then please go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/stu_walks_for_water
You can also learn about WaterAids great work at www.wateraid.org

We finished!!!

5.33 after 13 hrs 53 minutes and 42 miles we have walked across Wales.
Many thanks to all my sponsors and my two walking partners Alastair
and Patrick. I'm going home for a warm bath!!

We've entered England!

Half a mile to the official finish line, we've walked across Wales!!

The final checkpoint, next stop the finish!

Right shin has suddenly got very painful - shinsplits :0( ice packs
here I come. feet aching but no significant blisters I think.

Checkpoint 12

34 miles done today, 70 miles of my Challenge completed, 8 miles to
go. Can you see the can of Stella Artois in the Stewards chair? "it's
a long day without a can" he said - tell me about it!

We're going that way

The finish is about 9 miles in that direction - yippee

On the final section, about 11 miles to go

Very windy up here! Thankfully not cold. Those windmills ARE
turning.........fast.

30 miles

Checkpoint 9 at the end of a 400 metre climb

Suncream on, clothes off

It's getting hot in Wales and we've done 25 of our 48 miles.
Waterproof jacket is back in the rucksack and hopefully it will stay
there.

Fun in the sun

The sun is out and we're feeeelin guuuuud. :0)

Over half way now

Checkpoint 5 at 22 miles and the sun has decided to shine.

It's checkpoint 4 at 16 miles, 9.15am

Going well so far, beautiful countryside, one very heavy rain
shower so far. Making good time at about 3.25 miles per hour, pretty
happy with that over this countryside.

Checkpoint 2

7.10 am at checkpoint 2 11 miles done

On the way to checkpoint 2

6.30am

Dawn!

And we're off, early

3.40 and we have started already. Bus arrived early at the start and
we are allowed to go instead of waiting and getting cold. :0)

Off we go!

2.40am on the bus on the way to the start.

These feet will soon be walking

Me and my feet are relaxing in front of the TV watching the US Open
Golf. In just over 3 hours it will be time to jump in the car, pick up
my two walking partners and then drive to Newtown, Powys where we'll
get on the coach to the start line at Glandyfi, near the Welsh coast.
The start is at 4.00am, just before dawn so hopefully we will soon be
walking in daylight if it's not too cloudy. I imagine we'll feel less
tired if it's not dark! I managed about an hour and a half asleep in
bed earlier this evening but it's going to be a long day ahead. I'm
predicting a finish time around 7pm tomorrow, 15 hours after the
start, allowing for a couple of stops along the way. Let's see!

Off to the pub to talk about walking :-)

Well.... not long to go now. In about 29 hours I'll be setting off in the darkness to catch the bus from the finish of the Cross Wales Walk at Newtown, Powys. The bus will take us to the start line near the coast at Glandyfi, in time for the 4am start on Saturday morning. The latest weather forecast for Saturday is "heavy showers" whatever that means - I know from bitter experience that a "heavy" shower in Wales can be HEAVY!! I'm off to the pub now for a bit of carbohydrate loading and to discuss Saturday's events with one of my walking partners for the day - Big Al - you know who you are Al, so I'll not embarrass you by identifying you, not that you'd know how to find this Blog anyway! 

Feet feeling good! :o)

Nearly home now after almost 5 miles, my first walk since Saturday and
the first test for the healing blisters. All feeling good and no signs
that the blisters are causing any problems. So, two more days to
recover and then it's a 1.30am departure from home on saturday to be
at the start of the walk near the Welsh coast for the 4am start -
groan :o(

Walking through the woods

Suddenly hit by the strong perfume of wild Honeysuckle. Amazing how
the smells change as the months go by - in May it was wild garlic so
this is a big improvement :0)

Testing the feet

Setting off on a gentle 4 or 5 miles with the dog (small black dot in
photo!) to see how the healing blisters feel. Will report back later.

Starting preparation for the next 42 miles

After a nice relaxing Sunday, tonight has been a mixture of blister treatment and plotting the route for Saturday. Having consulted various sports injury websites for advice on rapid recovery from foot blisters I decided to "pop" the two small ones on my toes. I've got one under the middle toe on my right foot and another under the little toe on my left foot. So, armed with a needle, sterilised on the gas cooker flame they were popped, drained, given a smear of antiseptic cream and dressed with blister plasters. I've decided not to post photos!!!

Also managed to plot the route on a 1:50000 scale OS map on the computer and transferred the route to the iPhone. Also plotted it on my good old fashioned paper maps - never a good idea to rely too much on technology. As I know only too well, Welsh rain and iPhones don't mix!

Think I'll probably rest tomorrow evening again but will probably try out the feet with a few miles on Wednesday.

Elton on stage

What a pro'. Awesome, he's still got it!

Relaxing after the first 36 miles!

After a lazy day resting sore feet and checking for more damage it's
time to enjoy Elton John, live at Shrewsbury Town FCs stadium! It's
been pouring with rain all day but now it's dried up and looks like
being a great evening :0).

Summit 6, the finish!

On Titterstone Clee Hill at 6.02 ten hours 47 minutes for 36 miles on
the Shropshire Six Summits Challenge. Only 42 miles to go next week on
the Cross Wales Walk. Please donate whatever you can to WaterAid at
www.virginmoneygiving.com/stu_walks_for_water

Brown Clee

Number 5 at 3.45 :0)

Summit number 5!

On top of Brown Clee hill at 3.45 only
7 miles to go to the finish. Yippee!

Summit 4!

Caer Caradoc summit 4 at12.05 16.5 miles done, 19.5 and 2 summits to go!

Number 3

10.20 Summit 3, top of the Long Mynd!

8.52 2nd summit

8.52 on top of The Stipperstones!

1 summit done!

07.25 on top of Corndon Hill ;0)

It's June and it's snowing!?

I took this photo while on my way to park my car at the end of
tomorrow's walk. When I left home the temperature was 16C but dropped
to 4.5C in the middle of this storm. The roads were flooded and
completely white in some places. It was a bizarre sight to see on the
10th of June! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day - off to sleep
now :0)

I survived football without any broken legs!

Less than 36 hours to go and Ive managed to play our usual Thursday
night game of football without getting injured!

Weather forecast is changing every few hours but Im hopeful that we MAY
stay dry on Saturday.

Preparing the maps for the 6 Summits

Spent a couple of hours tonight plotting the route on the computer using the route description provided by the organisers. Then transferred it to the iPhone and sent a copy of the data to my walking partner for his GPS. Hopefully between us we shouldnt get lost. The main thing on these long distance events is to avoid walking further than you have to by making stupid navigational errors. The first 16 miles are on familiar territory where we have walked many times but the last 20 miles are new for both of us, including two new hills, Brown Clee and Titterstone Clee.

I've also just realised that I'll need to leave home about 5am on Saturday morning to park my car at the finish and take the organised transport to the start line for the 7.15am start :0( Early to bed on Friday!

A beautiful evening - a 5 mile walk

Thankfully the weather stayed fine and I was able to do a quick 5 mile walk up and over Earls Hill, Shropshire. Almost tripped over a badger which crashed out of the forest right in front of me! I think it got a bigger fright than I did! 

Back home, need to get some training walks done this week!

Driving home from Scotland this afternoon passing the Lake District I was sorry I couldnt stop and climb a few peaks while I was there. I'll need to do a few gentle 5 mile evening walks this week as final preparation for the Shropshire 6 Summits next weekend. It's amazing how quickly June 11th has crept up on me. Just hoping that my general fitness level will be enough to get me through as there's not been a lot of opportunity to do any long distance practice. Since a 26 mile walk, The South Shropshire Circular in March, the only other long distance walk was 29 miles with friend in the mid Wales hills 2 weeks ago finishing with a rain swept climb of Cadair Idris in a wind gusting to about 80mph. Let's hope June 11th and 18th offer better weather!

Managed a walk around Glasgow city centre, via the excellent Tiso
outdoor shop. :0)

Not sure if I'll be able to train this weekend. Off to Glasgow to see
my mum and dad so it will have to be a long walk around the local park
on Saturday afternoon. Weather here in Shropshire is fantastic this
morning and I'm stuck in my office but at least I have a great view as
I hope you can see!

Finally my blog is up and running!

Well they dion't make it easy to link a blog to my fundraising site but I finally figured it out. So, now I can bore you rigid with lots of details of my training and preparation as well as (hopefully) some pictures and updates during my BIG walks which start on June 11th.

Thanks so much to those of you who have donated so far - less than 24 hours since I started fundraising and my total is over £200 already.

Figuring out my Blogspot site!

If I ever get this blog figured out then I'll be posting updates on my training and the walks!

Training tonight

Off on a training walk tonight followed by a debrief in the pub - won't be drinking water on this occasion, at least not after the walk!