I have officially never hurt as much as I did on Sunday !!!
There I said it and got it out the way..... now for the fun bit recalling the past few day's events...
Although it has taken until now to get some sort of recollection back, caught up in the moment or blocking it out ? not entirely sure all I know is that I keep getting flashbacks .... some good... some bad.....A LOT painful !!
but here are my memories of the day....
Team 'Lets Fight This' arrived in Manchester at approx 8.00pm then had to find our way to the start....
Went inside to see what we had to do, and to put bags etc in storage, and that all important loo stop (while they were still semi - hygenic !)
Everybody was given water and survival blankets to take with us and a helium balloon with a light in blue, pink, or white, - we actually ended up with 1 blue and 2 white so I swapped with a very manly man who had a pink one ! so we had one of each
then we waited...
Until 10.00pm (ish) and then we were off, through the streets of Manchester through a big Arch with flames out the top, then it was o-oh here we go - see you on the other side !
We reached the first pit stop reatively for another toilet stop and more water, then onwards, we then came to one of the bigger pit stops at I think 7 miles?, where there was some sort of light ceremony where (as Ive since found out) you could buy a lantern and have it lit in memory of someone these were all on the ground and spelt out SHINE - we could also pick up apples, water, or a hot drink - we all thought that it was very civilised and that wouldnt be as bad as we thought - hmm famous last words ....
Balloons were popping all over the place or getting tangled up - still attached to backpacks - funniest thing EVER was when you saw balloons sticking out of toilets OR people coming out of toilets and being pulled back because their balloon was still trapped inside.... not so funny when you are walking behind somebody and you have to keep batting their balloon out the way - I dont want to see another balloon for a VERY long time !
Then we had to contend with 30,000 people all along the pavements as none of the roads were closed, so either go slow or play chicken with the cars - most of the time we chose chicken - find a gap and go, go, go - and of course not forgetting the banter from all the pub goers !
And on we walked, and on, and on ....through various miles and pit stops till we had gone in a big circle and were back at the major pit stop again.. this is where our first strength of will power came in - we literally came to a crossroads
<- 26miles .......... 13 miles->
AGHHH it was so tempting - theyd never have known ! but no we didnt dwell on it just dont think just turn left and keep going - **but we could be home in 2hrs ** - no head down ignore the signs - keep going.
And then we were off on the road again, one of the great things we found out is that although the team had all trained, we had done it seperately never together but we all seemed to gel really well and had all seemed to have trained at similar paces and so no-one was struggling or slowing down - one thing we didnt account for was training with back packs on !
And we walked, and walked, physically we were ok we had some pains and strains but were managable, although Maz kept threatening the dawn chorus if it didnt stop - nothing worse than walking ALL night without being reminded of it by birds twittering !! - I dont think it helped mentally that we hit a really, really long road and were all exposed around the Trafford Centre and industrial factories that were all closed up just as dawn was breaking and although we were walking with others it just felt (to me) we were very isolated and in the middle of nowhere.
The toughest part mentally and physically was to come at around 21 miles though...
I had heard of the wall but thought that because we were 'only walking' it wouldnt affect us... boy was I wrong - we hit 21 miles and all 3 of us went quiet ! the pain that we had managed to keep at bay hit BIG TIME and mentally it was 'I cant do it' and all 3 of us agreed that we darent stop for the last pit stop at 23 miles or it would be so hard to get going again - all you could hear from us was ughhh, ahhhh, hmphhh as we were tring to get up and down kerbs or even taking a longer detour so we could go up the sloped bit, cars had no chance - it was a case of ' we CANT stop so you will have to ' funny - hurting- but funny..
and then for some reason we got to 24 miles and BAM we were away again final burst wouldnt say that it was a sprint or that it was a scheme from Chariots of fire- wouldnt say we picked up the pace any quicker but we mentally brought ourselves out of it and then .......TADAHHHHHH we were HOME .......WE FINISHED .......YEAY .......
we ran (or walked) the whole gamet of emotions, 21miles it was NEVER AGAIN, at the end it was THANK GOD THATS OVER... Sunday night despite having to crawl up the stairs the tweets were already flying discussing tactics for next year ... so its a DEFINATLY MAYBE... why... I dont know... suckers for punishment... and do you know what I CANT WAIT !
and just take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the SHINE TEAM they did a fantastic job and for a 1st event it couldnt have gone any better - obviously a few tweeks cant be helped but we had a BLAST thank you, thank you
The rest of us....... We walked/jogged our way around the course, cursing every branch and exposed tree root on the ground - this along with the sprints that we put on for show when we saw any family members - lol
