Day 4 - Swindon to Cheltenham

Another early start that I almost missed.  I'd silenced the notifications on my phone so I didn't get beeps in the middle of the night when junk e-mails arrived.  What I hadn't realised is that also silences the alarm!  The flashing of the screen did wake me but about 10 minutes late.  

The blister that developed yesterday was extremely painful as it's quite deep - in fact it woke me in the night when I rolled over and it pressed against the mattress.  So padding that was something that had to be done before I set off.  Which ate (pun intended) into my time for breakfast.  In fact Scott and I both left with breakfast in our hands sourced from Neil's wonderful supplies as the hotel didn't start serving until an hour after we wanted to be off.


Scott was really suffering from the beginning.  Overnight his left shin had swollen to double its normal size and was bright red - a worrying development as it can be an indicator of a serious problem.  We hobbled out the door at 0640 as Jez took a picture for the twitter feed.

Leaving Swindon - only just daylight

Jez had warned us that there were a couple of wet fields to cross - he wasn't kidding.  Within 15 minutes of leaving our feet were soaked.  We quickly fell behind schedule as it wasn't possible to run in the mud and Scott was struggling to run even on solid ground.  He also had a problem with the insoles of his trainers moving around and sliding out of position.

Within a few miles we were back on the Thames Path, though here the Thames looks very different from when we'd last seen it.

River Thames near Cricklade

It quickly became apparent that we were in serious calorie deficit from yesterday and suffering from lack of recovery time.  Even though the day was warming up we were both still cold and wearing hats, gloves and windproof jackets.  That was to get worse during the day with both of us suffering the dreaded "bonk" at around the 20 mile mark, even though we'd refuelled whenever we'd met Neil.  

Wild cyclamen growing along the path

With all the different problems we were barely covering 3 miles an hour at times.  That wasn't good when we had a team of people waiting to greet us at the finish who still wanted to get home in time for tea.

Jez caught us up around lunchtime, shortly before we met up with Neil.  That didn't stop us diving into Rendcombe post office for sustenance.  

Meeting Neil came just in time for me as I now had wet feet for over 6 hours.  When I came to change my socks and trainers the sole of my right foot was just beginning to turn white.  Another hour and I'd have been in serious trouble.

Jez kept us moving during the afternoon counting down the miles until we would meet the team rather than miles to the finish - good psychology there.  It seemed like a long time but suddenly we popped out onto the road and there they were a hundred yards away.  There were high fives and hugs as they took us under their wing to help us over the final three miles.  

At the supporters meeting point

We'd done it! We had run, walked, shuffled and (in Scott's case) limped all the way from London to Cheltenham.

Made it - Jez, Neil, Scott and I at the finish

Today's reasons to be cheerful:

- first female finisher of the Westminster to Cheltenham run
- oldest finisher of the Westminster to Cheltenham run 


Today's stats:

Distance: 31 miles (141 miles from Westminster)
Elevation gained:701 metres



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19/09/17 - edited to add additional photos

Day 3 - Reading to Swindon

Sadly Rachel hadn't recovered overnight and was unable to continue  today.  A huge shame as I know she was looking forward to clocking up a record distance in one day.  

The hotel didn't start serving breakfast until 0700 so we left without our morning coffee.  Fortunately I'd come prepared and brought several tins of rice pudding with me which made an acceptable alternative to porridge.  I don't think you see the best of any city in the early hours and I was glad that I had Scott running with me as we made our way from the hotel back to the Thames Path.  

We walked for about 40 minutes trying to wake up our legs and get breakfast to settle in our stomachs.  On days 1 & 2 we had been running for 25 minutes and walking for 5 minutes but that felt too much for today so we cut the runs down to 15 minutes.  It was all going well on the Thames Path as far as Pangbourne when the route suddenly left the Thames and headed over a significant hill.  From that point on we were running the level sections and downhills while walking the uphills.

We knew there was a coffee shop in Streatley but sadly we arrived before it opened.  We pressed on up the hill towards the Ridgeway and found this elephant sculpture in a garden

It wasn't long after that to our first rendezvous with Neil at the 14 mile point.  It was cold and misty by this point so we both picked up more clothes before heading up onto the Ridgeway itself.

At least the Ridgeway was well signposted.  Once we left it it was detailed navigation using the map all the way to Swindon where we arrived 12 hours 56 minutes after leaving Reading.

The day then seemed to be one long slog up hill and down - too slippy to run in many places.  Neil met us twice more on the Ridgeway then a final time about 8 miles before our destination.  He really is the unsung hero of this weekend, without him we wouldn't have got this far.  

Reasons to be cheerful:

Longest distance covered in one day
Longest distance covered in one week
Fresh dry socks after 30 miles - bliss

Reasons to worry:

My knees are very sore
I have a large blister on my left foot - where my foot was pinched between my trainer insole and the side of the shoe.  Hopefully a change of shoes tomorrow will help

Today's stats:

Distance: 47 miles. (110.4 miles from Westminster)
Elevation gained: 809 metres

Day 2 - Slough to Reading

Not such an early start today although we hit the trail at 0800

Neil (our support crew), Rachel, Scott and I at Slough

The route took us down through Eton and past the famous school

Eton

From there we joined our old friend the Thames Path again.  Pleasant running by the river, it wasn't long until we reached Maidenhead.

We met Neil just past Maidenhead at about the 11 mile mark.  He'd brought us a veritable smorgasbord of goodies which went down very well at this point

Refuelled we pressed on along the Thames Path.  It was at this point we came up with the idea of a where's the nearest loo app.  Obviously the idea for this was spurred by the need of one of the team to answer a call of nature and not a loo in sight.

Diversion around a building site

It was just after the diversion that Rachel started to feel poorly so we stopped by the river for 20 minutes while she ate some food, then carried on walking steadily - any progress being better than no progress - and hoping that she would soon recover.

2 hours later, and with us still walking, we were caught up by Jez who is a much faster runner and had taken the luxury of catching up on a couple of You Tube videos before leaving Slough

River Thames

Another hour later and we found these characters - I think we all felt a bit like they looked

Shortly after this we met Neil for the second time just north of Henley on Thames and re-stocked on water and boiled potatoes for the last 10 miles into Reading.  Rachel decided to keep on walking while Jez, Scott and I ran on ahead.

It's been a challenging day as we've been on our feet for 9 hours.  Time now for more food and another early night.  Tomorrow is the longest day at 47 miles and I don't think any of us are feeling that confident about it.

Today's stats: Total Distance:  35 miles. (63.4 miles from Westminster)
Total ascent:  165 metres 

19/09/17 - edited to correct image orientations

2 weeks to go

2 weeks, a fortnight, 14 days - whatever you want to call it the time for setting off is coming ever closer.  

When this run was first suggested back in November last year my feelings were "ok let's give it a go and see if I can handle the volume of training, I can always drop out later".  Training over the winter was hard - cold, wet and dark aren't great conditions.  It was difficult to get the mileage in and I thought of dropping out at least once a week.

Our original plan was to do the run in April but by February it was clear that some of the team were struggling with injuries.  So we decided to postpone it until the autumn. Once the pressure was off running was fun again.  The thought of dropping out later slid away as the miles piled up over the summer.  

We got together as a team to run for eight hours.  That was hard, very hard, as we suffered on one of the hottest days of the year.  At the end of the day we'd raised almost £1400 for the mental health charity, Mind.

Now there's only a few more runs to do before the off.  I've either done enough training or I haven't.  If it's the latter there's very little I can do about it in the next two weeks.


No running today - a rest day

Team Work

No running today but a swim at the leisure centre.  As is often the case I was the only swimmer.  

I'm often running on my own too.  Occasionally I'll bump into someone I know along the route and we'll run along for a few miles together and catch up on each other's news.  It's very pleasant and makes a nice change, but teamwork well that's not something that most people would associate with running.  After all the whole purpose of a race is to come first (for elite athletes anyway, often I'm happy just to finish without picking up an injury.)

But as the distances increase teamwork becomes a bigger part of the equation.  If someone stops other runners will ask if they are ok - that's teamwork.  They might run along with someone who is struggling offering them words of encouragement - teamwork.  At park run events there will be a little group of people waiting to high five the tail enders - teamwork.  There are many cases of runners sacrificing their own finishing times to help another runner across the line - remember Alistair Brownlee foregoing a win to help his exhausted brother across the line? - teamwork again.

Running 138 miles in four days is going to take some teamwork too.  Barring injuries or illnesses there will be six of us taking part plus our very important "man with a van", who will transport our bags between overnight stops and meet us along the way with food and water.  Most of the time we won't run as a group of six as everyone's pace is different.  Instead we plan to stagger our start times in the morning so that the slower people (me!*) set off first and we are caught up as the day progresses by the faster runners.  That way the stronger runners can encourage anyone who's struggling making sure everyone gets the best chance to complete the run.

At some point in the 138 miles we will all have moments when we feel we can't run another inch never mind another five miles, the why did I think I could do this moments.  They're the moments that teamwork will get us through.  Then in the evening we can gather briefly to share the triumphs and disasters of the day and make sure everyone is there on the start line again the next morning.


*there's actually a bit of competition between us prove who is the slowest runner

Distance swam: 1000m