We travelled by bus, tram, train & taxi and made it to our start point at Harting Down (Checkpoint 1) before 9am. Despite drizzle and thick fog at the start, this was our first team walk not to feature rainjackets and ponchos, and by early afternoon we were enjoying sunshine. After 6 hrs, we diverted to a nearby pub next to Amberley station, where the boys ambitiously gulped down 2 pints and we aired our feet while we changed our socks (much to the delight of other pub-goers I'm sure). We finally arrived at Checkpoint 5 and marched along the dual carriageway to the nearby bus-stop with about 1 minute to spare before the last bus of the day at 6.30pm - perfect timing as always!
2 of the team have now walked the entire Trailwalker course at least once, plus 1 of us has walked everything except Stage 1! We're hoping this gives us a real psychological benefit, so that even when we're flagging we know what lies ahead and that we can cope with it...
* Stage 2: 10.4 km ... 2h15m (+10 mins at checkpoint)
* Stage 3: 8.3 km ... 1h45m (+10 mins at checkpoint)
* Stage 4: 9.3 km ... 1h50m (+50 mins diversion to walk to the pub!)
* Stage 5: 12.5 km ... 2h30m
* Total 40.5 km ... 8h20m walking + 1h10m of breaks
.....And then Rich did yet another 40 on Sunday!
While a couple of us did short walks around the London parks on Sunday, Rich proved his mettle by joining another Trailwalker team on their 40km training walk from Southease to Eastbourne (including a diversion to another lovely pub of course). This was despite the heatwave, and the strain on the legs from completing our longest ever day walk on Saturday. So in a 33-hour period, Rich got 80km of walking under his belt (plus lots of train travel and a little bit of sleep). That's dedication to the cause!
Walking 40km in a day is now passé, so the only thing for us to do is to step it up again on our next team walk... but our training is now tapering off so the next team walk will be the big one...
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| Our chief navigator |
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| Matt tends to his feet, to the delight of the people at the next table |
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| Pint number 2 |
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| At the end of a long day! |
