Seventh time lucky? - Our Seventh Training Walk - Part 1

This was to be our final 'long' training walk before the event in July.

A chance to see if we had learnt anything from both our previous walks and the 'tips' we had picked up from the Gurkhas in Nuneaton.

We did not intend to walk the full 100km, but to get close enough to convince each of us that we could. We would save completion of the whole course for some time on 17th July 2011.

The 'plan', as with our sixth walk, was to split the route over two days, but with a break in between, where we would rest and refuel.

I decided that I would tape my feet to see if this would save me from the the blistering that they (and I) had suffered on the last walk. I also, somewhat nervously was wearing new boots!

The intrepid foursome

Matt, Rob & I met up with Pete at the Queen Elizabeth Park just after 9am on Saturday. Our support team for the day was to be Teresa & Charlotte. We were due to 'walk' 50km. They were to 'drive' 250 km to support us!

It was back in January that we had last started a walk at the 'official' start in Queen Elizabeth Park. Then we had finished at Cocking. Today it was to be our first stop on what was to be a 50km walk.

The weather was good, although the forecast for the weekend was not. We had not yet walked in the rain, but it looked as though that 'statistic' would be broken sometime over the next two days.

We set off (at 9:10) at a steady pace - not too fast, given that we were planning to walk further than we had before....and arrived at Cocking three and a half hours & 20km later, where we met up with Teresa and Charlotte who had prepared a welcome lunch for us.

 

 

On our second training walk in January (23rd) we had taken the same to get there, but had been pleased to finish there. Today we still had another 30km to walk, but were perfectly up for it. The previous miles in our legs seemed to make the going a bit easier, as we set off again after a 40 minute break that had been much longer than we'd intended but the food, drink & company had been very good.

We then completed a further 18km in 3 hours 15 minutes, meeting up with Teresa & Charlotte again at Houghton. Here we underwent a few foot repairs, had some more food and drink & waved goodbye to Rob (who had a "prior engagement"), as Matt, Pete and I headed off on our final stage of the day.

Despite having already walked for 38km, Rackham Hill, which I have previously described as the worst on the route, didn't actually seem that bad either.

So, almost 10 hours after starting we got to Washington where Ali was waiting to take us home for some R&R, before another lengthy walk on Sunday.

Stats:
Duration: 10 hours
Distance: 50km
Walking time: 8 hours 40 minutes
Walking speed: 5.8km per hour / 3.6 miles per hour

Foot report: Taping works!

Who said "SEVEN" was a lucky number?

Well this is my 77th posting of the year, and I use it to announce that on the 7th day of this week we hope to complete our 7th "team" training walk.

Hopefully, we will be able to walk further than the 77 km that Matt, Rob & I walked on our sixth walk, but who knows?

This time we will attempt the South Downs route itself, starting at 9am on Saturday and finishing at 7pm (ish), before repeating the distance on Sunday.

It is also somewhat strange that given that when walking as a four, most of the time we do so as two pairs, (An old 'un and a young 'un, albeit in different combinations!) and that the average combined age of each pair is 77 years, 7 months, 7 weeks and 7 days!

So with so many references to the number "SEVEN!", I had thought that this was destined to be a very lucky weekend.

However, despite all previous training walks having been - as has been well documented - rain free, the forecast for this weekend is less promising.

After months of drought like conditions, rain is most definitely in the air. But how much will we get? 7 mm? 7 cm? Or...will we be in 7th Heaven again?

Find out in a few days....

Are we forever blowing bubbles?

Back in the day, there was a popular children's story that quite bizarrely included the issues of; nudity, civil disorder, deceit, vanity & profiteering.

So far removed from current children's offerings of getting a bit Tipsy with Lala (albeit that even this may help them speak Gaga later in life) this tale - 'The Emperor's New Clothes' - at least taught people of that generation that everything is not always what it seems to be!

Increasingly however, that message is being virtually forgotten as we rapidly head for a virtual world when NOTHING is what it seems!

I have previously mentioned in my post 'Is all of this really worth it?' what really matters in the world. That is, 'real' people helping other 'real' people to live their 'real' lives better.

Shortly after that posting people in the Middle East started to protest for justice and the Arab Spring movement took off.

Obviously there was absolutely no connection between the two previous paragraphs but sometimes two unconnected 'facts' are 'connected' to give the impression that something that isn't, actually IS!

Will buying an imaginary farm, looking after imaginary animals make you or anyone else a better person? And, if 280m people worldwide can be convinced that it will, will any good come of it?

For Zynga, Farmville's owners, a lot of good will come of it. They hope this second dot.com "bubble" will continue to grow, and will help to earn them the projected $9.8m that a stock Market flotation will somehow bring them.

Bubbles are by their very nature flimsy, and at some point, like all good blisters, likely to burst. Just ask any West Ham supporter! Although, to be fair, they have been blowing bubbles for years and years.

When times get hard and the only option is to sell the family silver & other treasures, how much will a "virtual" combine harvester bring on 'Cash in the Attic'?

However, all of the above can also quite fairly be labelled a load of hypocritical old "tosh". And, if that is the charge, I plead "Guilty, your Honour!"

I accept that this blog is written in the virtual world of the inter-web, to virtually no-one, and has little or no value, other than to some very kind souls who occasionally read it; smile and nod; give me a virtual pat on my (to them) virtual head, and in so doing give me the encouragement to carry on.

No different to Farmville then! Doing good is great! But from time to time, just doing something that you enjoy is sometimes worth paying for.

Now, if we could combine both those concepts in a working day....wouldn't that be great...for everyone!

Trailwalker goes on despite Harold Camping!

It is possibly fair to say that I may have been a little bit hasty this weekend. Not that I'd want anyone to think that I was in any way gullible or anything like that, but I thought that it was an opportune time (seemingly) to have a bit of a clear out. 

I had it on good authority that after 6pm on 21 May 2011, there were many things that simply would not be necessary.

So it was that I decided to throw out what had previously been valuable possessions. Share certificates; premium bonds; diaries; calendars. All went! Pending tray; To-do lists; project plans. Up in flames! Clocks; watches; timers. Smashed to smithereens!

Due to the annihilation of all time-keeping devises, it turned out that it wasn't until somewhere around 9pm that I realised that I may have "jumped" the proverbial "gun".

As far as I knew I had been acting on the instructions of an "expert" in his field, who, as far as I was aware, had only ever been proved wrong once in his entire career before.

Harold Camping's only previous small error occurred when he predicted that the world would end on 6 September 1994. If you hadn't noticed - it didn't.

Nor, as it seems, did it end on Saturday. Although, no doubt for some poor souls in the world it did. In fact given that approximately 6,000 people die every hour, somewhere in the world at 6pm on Saturday, 100 people's last brief thought may have been "Well, what do you know Harold Camping was right!". And then they died!

So it looks as though Trailwalker UK 2011, will go ahead as planned, although I now need a new stop-watch!

More good advice from the Gurkha Regiment Army medic!

As mentioned in my previous posting "Once you pop you just can't stop!" our friendly Gurkha Regiment army medic, gave us for more tips than I can actually remember, but one very interesting one related to the question of whether or not to "Pop!" any blisters that appear.

The advice was as follows:

1.  Sterilise a needle over a flame (from a match or lighter);
2. Thread the needle with some cotton - about one and a half inches in length;
3. Then pierce the bottom of the blister with the needle, passing the needle and cotton through the blister, from the bottom to the top;
4. Remove the needle, but keep the cotton/thread in place so that it protrudes from the top and bottom of the blister;
5. Place a plaster over the blister, making sure that the thread is secured above the blister by the plaster

The reason for this approach is that when the blister is first pierced by the needle, the fluid will drain out of it, but the body's natural defences will produce more fluid. The piece of cotton will ensure that any fluid that builds up will continue to drain through the hole at the bottom of the blister and down the thread.

Will it hurt? Yes? All foot blisters will hurt.

But , will it hurt as much as an untreated blister? Absolutely not!