Saturday, 10 April 2010
pics....
So, I've bored everyone enough with details of my walks whilst training for Shine, so thought I'd share some photos I've taken on some of my walks. Living in suburbia, just half an hour on the train from London, it's easy to forget we have some lovely scenery around us and are lucky enough to have not only The Thames, but also the river Mole within easy walking distance.... just 1 week to go til Shine in Manchester, eek!
Monday, 5 April 2010
River walks, grumpiness and sore feet....
As most people know by now, in less than 2 weeks, I'll be taking part in Shine - Cancer Research UK's night time marathon walk throught the streets of Manchester. I've blogged about my reasons for taking part before, my first ever blog post in fact, so won't go into that again.... I just thought I'd share my training experiences and feelings about the event as it draws nearer.
The walk down to our local infant school is a little over a mile - a walk which I did most school days, and back, for 7 years (Now that my daughter has changed schools, our walk is slightly shorter). When I originally decided to take part in Shine, I tried to envisage how far 26 miles would be, by imagining walking to that school and back 13 times - perfectly doable, I decided, although probably extremely boring!!
I obviously didn't embark on that particular walk as a test, but decided to do training walks, building up distance over time. I wasn't particularly fit before I started training, I probably walk a couple of miles a day anyway, but that's the sum total of my exercise regime!! Some training walks I've done alone, some with my lovely friend @thornykate and some with my husband (both of whom are also doing Shine). My first longish walk (6 miles) was done with @thornykate one rainy evening and we treated ourselves to a glass of wine half way, which was rather nice :-) We've also walked along the river on sunny days, and visited our late friend Sarah at the cemetary, who is after all the inspiration for our fundraising efforts.....
Walking with my husband has been slightly more tricky, as we have 3 children, training together has involved asking my mum or mother-in-law to babysit! Our first long walk together (10 miles!) consisted of walking to our local Tesco Extra, 5 miles each way. What a miserable, dark walk - I was absolutely bursting for a wee by the time we got there, disappointed it was 'only' 5 miles and totally fed up their coffee shop wasn't open at 8pm!! In the 3 weeks that followed, we managed some shorter individual walks and two 12 mile walks, both at night, and each rewarded with a visit to the chippy half way :-) Unfortunately for my long-suffering husband, the last 3 miles or so of each of those walks involved much moaning and grumpiness from me.... but he's fairly well practised at allowing what I say to drift over his head ;-)
Anyway, our longest training walk so far - and likely to be the last long one - was 16 miles on Easter Sunday. Not a perfectly sunny day, but it stayed dry and we were glad to be walking in daylight for a change. A nice but muddy walk along the river to Kingston was nearly 10 miles.... it amazed me just how many families were out on bikes, boats, dog walking..... lovely to see! Possibly one of the most difficult things about walking for any length of time with someone you've lived with for 18 years, is what to talk about... but we managed ;-)
I have no idea, where my body is going to find the ability to add another 10 miles on to what we walked on Sunday.... I keep telling myself that the excitement and atmosphere on the night will carry us through, but that might be wishful thinking. I know some people see a walking marathon as a bit of a cop-out compared to the 'real thing' (no way on earth I could run 26 miles!), but I can tell you it's not going to be easy....
I'm very excited about travelling to Manchester for the weekend and I do think it's going to be an amazing experience, albeit one ending with sore feet! I'm really looking forward to meeting up with some of the other people I know through twitter who are also taking part, particularly @LurvlyLucy as we've been sharing training stories since we registered!!
Anyway, we've almost reached our target of £800 - and if helping to #kickcancer means sore feet for a few days, then so be it. Remember, together we will beat cancer.....
The walk down to our local infant school is a little over a mile - a walk which I did most school days, and back, for 7 years (Now that my daughter has changed schools, our walk is slightly shorter). When I originally decided to take part in Shine, I tried to envisage how far 26 miles would be, by imagining walking to that school and back 13 times - perfectly doable, I decided, although probably extremely boring!!
I obviously didn't embark on that particular walk as a test, but decided to do training walks, building up distance over time. I wasn't particularly fit before I started training, I probably walk a couple of miles a day anyway, but that's the sum total of my exercise regime!! Some training walks I've done alone, some with my lovely friend @thornykate and some with my husband (both of whom are also doing Shine). My first longish walk (6 miles) was done with @thornykate one rainy evening and we treated ourselves to a glass of wine half way, which was rather nice :-) We've also walked along the river on sunny days, and visited our late friend Sarah at the cemetary, who is after all the inspiration for our fundraising efforts.....
Walking with my husband has been slightly more tricky, as we have 3 children, training together has involved asking my mum or mother-in-law to babysit! Our first long walk together (10 miles!) consisted of walking to our local Tesco Extra, 5 miles each way. What a miserable, dark walk - I was absolutely bursting for a wee by the time we got there, disappointed it was 'only' 5 miles and totally fed up their coffee shop wasn't open at 8pm!! In the 3 weeks that followed, we managed some shorter individual walks and two 12 mile walks, both at night, and each rewarded with a visit to the chippy half way :-) Unfortunately for my long-suffering husband, the last 3 miles or so of each of those walks involved much moaning and grumpiness from me.... but he's fairly well practised at allowing what I say to drift over his head ;-)
Anyway, our longest training walk so far - and likely to be the last long one - was 16 miles on Easter Sunday. Not a perfectly sunny day, but it stayed dry and we were glad to be walking in daylight for a change. A nice but muddy walk along the river to Kingston was nearly 10 miles.... it amazed me just how many families were out on bikes, boats, dog walking..... lovely to see! Possibly one of the most difficult things about walking for any length of time with someone you've lived with for 18 years, is what to talk about... but we managed ;-)
I have no idea, where my body is going to find the ability to add another 10 miles on to what we walked on Sunday.... I keep telling myself that the excitement and atmosphere on the night will carry us through, but that might be wishful thinking. I know some people see a walking marathon as a bit of a cop-out compared to the 'real thing' (no way on earth I could run 26 miles!), but I can tell you it's not going to be easy....
I'm very excited about travelling to Manchester for the weekend and I do think it's going to be an amazing experience, albeit one ending with sore feet! I'm really looking forward to meeting up with some of the other people I know through twitter who are also taking part, particularly @LurvlyLucy as we've been sharing training stories since we registered!!
Anyway, we've almost reached our target of £800 - and if helping to #kickcancer means sore feet for a few days, then so be it. Remember, together we will beat cancer.....
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