The Inquest....

A full 6 weeks after the event, I can finally put the metaphorical pen to paper and complete the last blog.  Why has it taken so long?  Well, other more mundane things have got in the way like work, holidays etc etc but perhaps it has taken this long because it took us a while to actually come to terms with what we went through and what we have achieved.  I also wanted to wait to do the final blog until we had 99% of our fundraising money paid in so that I could announce the final total, but more of that later.

So how did the walk go, you ask?  Bloody hard work we would all immediately reply.  Quotes such as "the worst conditions EVER" from the Oxfam team just don't come close to describing what we had to contend with.  I have never experienced mud like it and never want to again, however, that said, the whole experience was definitely one to remember and not just because of the horrendous conditions.

We still find ourselves now in work reminiscing about what happened at various stages, the funny moments, the desolate moments, the moments of sheer, unbelievable denial that there were still many more kms to do!

To a woman we would all say that it was a very emotional experience.  Some of us would recommend it, others wouldn't but having taken part and (for 3 out of 4) completed the challenge, it is almost certainly an achievement that will be talked about for many years to come.

And so the fundraising total.....having pledged £1500 as a team, our current total stands at a phenomenal £2680.00 !!!!!!   It has been heart-warming to see how so many friends, family and colleagues have got behind us and given their hard-earned cash towards the cause.  There is still the small matter of how much matched funding we can get from M&S but unfortunately the decision will come too late for the official fundraising leadership board, but what the hell, we will know what we raised and Oxfam will benefit from it and that was the whole point of doing this mad thing in the first place.

The final word has to go to our AMAZING support crew - the 4 husbands - who were there through thick & thin, rain & more rain to keep us going to the end.  They, no doubt, endured more than their fair share of grumpiness, they tended to our feet, helped us change our clothes, fed & watered us and more than anything else gave us their open arms and warm hugs just when we needed it most.  Roger, Brian, Billy & Keith, we couldn't have done it without you - thanks xxxx

And so, just to prove we were all there, here is the picture of  Trailwalker Team M&S Coliseum and Support Crew, quite rightly all together on the winners podium.  Here's to the next challenge.....

FUNDRAISING GLORY!

Today brought our final fundraising push to reach that all important pledged target of £1500.00. 

Once again we had arranged to do a stint of bag packing in our store, M&S Coliseum Simply Foods in Ellesmere Port.  The whole team, plus some extra pairs of hands, were mobilised, dressed in team t-shirts with team collecting buckets poised for action.

Two and a half hours later we began the counting and raised......(queue drum roll).....£172.00!!!!

We are therefore thrilled to announce to the world that Team Coliseum M&S have now accumulated the grand total of £1505.50 for Oxfam.

This is, of course, the total so far.  We have yet to pay in the sponsorship money being gathered from the teams' friends and relatives, plus we have funds to bank from a treasure map, a £250 donation from one of the team members husband's employer (how very kind of them) and, hopefully, some matched funding from our own wonderful employer, Marks & Spencer.

What an achievement.  I, for one, wanted our Virgin Money barometer to have hit the target before we even set foot on the South Downs Way and I can't wait to actually see it when I have paid in this latest money on Monday.  I think it will be photographed and framed...a copy for each of us.

Special thanks to Linda and Ellie for their helping hands today and even more special thanks to the M&S customers who threw their money into our buckets.

So very proud of our Team, I feel quite emotional!  God knows how I will feel when we have actually done the bloomin' walk!  Suspect there might be a few tears.

Last Minute Prep & Info Overload

Strange things are happening amongst Team Coliseum M&S!  Members who, until now, have not wanted too much information about the event, are suddenly hungry - indeed, ravenous - for any titbit of info they can find!

On breaks together at work we talk solely about Trailwalker.  In our texts to each other, there is no other topic and we delight in sharing any new piece of "knowledge" gleaned from any source, even if it is about blisters, chafing or other similar unsavoury subjects!  (On that note, its been agreed, what is witnessed on the walk, stays on the walk!!!  A very sensible ground rule, we think!)

Last minute prep is being stepped up - I personally have never bought so many socks in so short a period of time in my whole life!  We've become obsessed with having between us every possible combination of painkillers, energy drinks and snacking items, not to mention the variety of kit we now possess.  Scary really thinking back just a short 6 months when the chosen form of weekend attire couldn't have been further from the current waterproof trousers, wicking base layers and 1000 mile socks.

The fundraising target is all but reached, which is fantastic, and we still have a final bag pack scheduled at work next weekend, plus our family & close friends who are now being hounded for their promised donations.

Team walks have stopped now, just down to light individual training.  We are all going out for a "team meal" next Sunday night (8th) with our support crew too - team bonding, you know!  Very important.

So, Saturday 14th July can't come quick enough now.  "A little less conversation, a little more action".

Bring it on!

The Final Countdown

The final 4 weeks are here.  How are we all feeling....well, it depends which team member you ask and on which day.  There are varying degrees of anxiousness, varying degrees of nausea and also varying degrees of disbelief that we are actually going to go through with this challenge.  It was summed up for me personally when an associate (several years younger than me, please note) proudly told me recently that she was training to take part in an event to walk the Yorkshire 3 Peaks - 26 miles in 12 hours.  When I then told her our challenge, she simply said "Are you mad?"  And are we?  Who knows.

I am convinced we will all get so much more out of taking part in this than just completing the 100km in 30 hrs.  As a team, we went into this with dubious fitness levels between us, a half-hearted belief that we could finish and a great desire to raise a few quid for a good cause.  Its so much more now.

We've grown together as we've trained together; we've learned more about team work and more about ourselves as individuals.  We've proved that you can motivate others to give their hard earned cash to a good cause.  We've come to believe in ourselves.

The ultimate achievement will be finishing together and we all sincerely believe we can.  As one team member has said...."I will crawl across that finish line if I have to".  That's what you call dedication to the cause.

So, in the words of that famous Europe song...."Will things ever be the same again?"

Mad Dogs and English Women.....

Sunday 27th May 2012....the stage is set for our longest walk to date, 40km (25 miles) along The Wirral Way.  This is a linear path stretching from Hooton to West Kirby; very flat and picked on purpose to enable us to walk there and back to get in the mileage.
The day dawned bright and clear, the end of a long week of gorgeous weather and we were up for the challenge, despite the car temperature gauge already reading 20 degrees!

Hayley, Donna & Jane in the background - ready to go!

Along for the ride was Keith, my hubby (a member of our support crew) and also our work colleague, Linda, who had joined us recently on the Snailwalker event and seemed keen on another walk with us (mad fool).

So, with 3 pairs of legs on show, rucksacks bulging with copious amounts of liquid refreshment and sunglasses in place, we set off.

Our pace was steady and we were soon making good progress towards our designated lunch stop at Thurstaston.  The temperature was obviously rising and we were glad of some welcome shade along the way as we passed through this small wooded ravine.  As official photographer, I rarely get onto these pictures, so just to prove I was there, here is a pic of hubby & I.

As the clock ticked towards midday, the going got tougher, especially as one particular section of this pathway just seemed never ending.  Linda had left us by now, deciding that she had set our pace and now we needed to carry on by ourselves.  Thanks Linda for keeping us company for the first 4-5 miles.

Jane decided that the motivation we needed to carry on was to tell us that the cafe at Thurstaston was "just a bit further on".....great, we thought, nearly time for a short rest.  We should have known better than to listen to her....it was about another hour before we reached this point.  Lesson One - don't believe her during Trailwalker when she says we are nearly there.

A welcome bit of shade eating lunch

Ouch, Donna's poor feet!

Lunch, toilet stop and feet airing complete, we set off again for the final push to West Kirby....only about another 3 miles.....before we would have to turn round and head all the way back!  There were lots of people around at Thurstaston and we had just put this down to it being a particularly lovely day, however, we were soon to learn that we were heading straight into hundreds of other walkers taking part in a 16 mile charity walk in aid of a local hospital and we were most definitely swimming against the tide!  It felt like a walking slalom and we were very glad to reach the outskirts of West Kirby and glorious views over the Dee Estuary....

At this point we rashly decided to push on into the town in search of an ice cream....this idea was soon binned when we realised we were just adding miles to what would be an extremely long day, so we did an about turn and started the long trudge back.  At least this time we were with the flow of charity walkers still heading for the finish....and we were able to take advantage of a drinks stop set up for them along the path!  I'm sure we were all individually noting the weariness amongst them after their 16 mile trek and wondering how on earth we will look to everyone after 62 miles....eeek!

The journey back to the cars seemed long.  The temperature was now in the high 20's and feet were suffering.....

These two (unlucky) walkers subsequently both lost little toe nails!!

 

Finally, we made it back to our start point, 7 and half hours, 40 km, 25 miles, several blisters, 2 outbreaks of heat rash, 1 split heel and more than a few swear words later.

Plenty of lessons learnt from this training walk and one team prayer for the actual event in July..... rain showers and sunny spells please.  Mad Dogs and English women do not cope well in the midday sun.
Thanks for reading.

Snailwalker.....Part 1

Our challenge for this week was to host our first Snailwalk for friends, family, colleagues, in fact anyone who wanted to join us.
It's difficult to know quite how long to make these sort of walks because of not knowing who will be wanting to join in, so on this occasion we opted for a fairly easy 5m walk from Parkgate (on The Wirral peninsula) - a circular route which starts by walking directly along the Dee Estuary before turning right inland, up a bit and then basically walking in the opposite direction a mile or so inland, with views once again across the Estuary to North Wales.
Crucially, this walk began and ended at a suitable local hostelry and, I'm sure that this was the real selling point for at least a couple of the willing participants!
Having pre-walked it on Thursday night, we knew that it was slightly muddy in parts but overall was a good, steady walk with some nice scenery (and lovely big houses) to look at.
So Sunday dawned bright and clear and, apart from some detours required to circumnavigate a local half marathon, we all arrived in reasonable time at the car park.  Here's our small but perfectly formed Snailwalker troop....

The walk was completed in about an hour and quarter, so not too costly on people's time and we had views like this along the way...

In a moment of extreme generosity, I offered to buy all involved a lovely ice cream when we hit the promenade again in Parkgate, but no one took me up on my offer, insisting instead on pushing on along the home stretch....to the pub!!  It would have been very rude not to go in, so we did, although it has to be said that 99% of us only had coffee - just one solitary member of the Snailwalker troop indulged in a pint of the brewery's finest ale, at just gone half eleven on a Sunday morning!  Disgusting!  You know who you are....Gareth Parry-Jones  ; )
In summary, a good time was had by all; we managed to add to the fundraising total (thank you everyone who came along for donating) and got some walking in as well - bonus.
NEXT TIME:  a full team walk taking in the whole of the Wirral Way and back again.

Everything but walking!

Its a couple of weeks since we've had a full team walk but that certainly doesn't mean that Trailwalker is forgotten!  As we concentrate on our own individual training, the fundraising and planning for the event have taken precedence just recently.  In a week's time we will be holding our Snailwalk and hope that many friends and colleagues will join us for a 5 mile saunter around the Wirral coast, finishing at a local pub....well, its a great way to encourage involvement!!  In addition, we continue to have our collecting tins out on the tills in work and the wonderful M&S customers continue to throw in anything from their loose change to the occasional note - fantastic way of adding to the team total with minimum effort.
Planning for the actual event has also come to the fore in the last couple of weeks; we have booked a Premier Inn for the night before in Petersfield and we have booked a Premier Inn for the Sunday night just 11 miles from the finish.  Needless to say, Team Coliseum won't need a bed for the Saturday night....we'll be trudging our way towards the finish line.  The support team haven't yet decided but think they will just catch some sleep in the cars, especially as none of us are heading back to Cheshire on the Sunday.  We can all recharge our batteries before heading north again on Monday.
The other piece of good news is that my hubby has managed to get a lovely new Freelander 4x4 for the whole weekend from his employers, Jaguar Land Rover!  Although we are hoping for dry conditions, at least the support team will have one vehicle that can cope with "off road" conditions, should they need it.
So time is marching on....how many weeks left till D-Day?  Oh, lets not think about that.
Just keep on Walking!

Finally....

I've managed to include some photos!
This is a picture of us (Team Coliseum M&S) in our "team t-shirts" at our bag packing event last Saturday.

And here's a couple from our walk on Moel Famau on Sunday.  This first one shows us after we have climbed the zigzag heart attack path (!).  In the picture with us is Bryan, one of our support crew members, and Jack & Harry the Border Terriers.  Oh to be a dog....they must have done double the miles we did and all they needed to keep going was a drink of water and plenty of trees to pee against!!

And this shows us as we start the descent on the other side.  A great view of the top and the lovely wide path leading down.

Trailwalker vs Housework....FIGHT!

In fact there was no fight...Trailwalker won hands down as the major activity for my precious weekend off!  Friday in work brought the drawing of the little Easter raffle we had put together to raise a bit of cash and it netted us £34 towards our total.  Saturday was planned as our first bag packing event in store - something we actively encourage other local charity causes to do and therefore an activity we knew would be well worthwhile.  What we hadn't bargained for when we picked the date was the local Derby FA Cup semi final AND the Grand National!  So, what was planned as a full day activity became a 3 hour shift which lasted until just after kick off at 12.30pm!

What a lovely surprise when we counted the cash though....we had raised nearly £200 in that short space of time!  M&S have some very generous customers.

Sunday dawned bright and clear for another team walking day to Moel Famau in North Wales - a walk first attempted by just my husband and I back in early February, and one which quickly brought home just how unfit I was at the very start of my training, so I was eager to see if I had improved and the route was to take us, once again, up the infamous "fire escape" - a 700m steep zigzag ascent towards the summit.  On the 1st occasion it took me a good 30 minutes to gasp my way up this path; this time we were up in 10 minutes flat, still quite breathless but who cares!  My fitness has obviously improved - oh how good did I feel.

We were joined on this occasion by 2 members of the support crew and 3 x 4-legged friends...Woody the Airedale, Jack & Harry the Border Terriers.  The weather was stunning and the views from the top just made the walk.  Not the longest of training walks - a mere 10 miles - however, the terrain was challenging and we all "felt the burn" at various stages.

Being back in work yesterday, we decided to empty the collection tubs we have at the tills plus the tub we have in our staff canteen and to top off an excellent weekend, we bagged another £30-odd, which means I have today been able to bank and then donate a brilliant £260 to the cause, pushing our virginmoneygiving barometer up quite considerably.

Until the next time, my friends.....

Walk, Jog, Gasp....

So here we are a couple of weeks later.  Training going well.  Personally I've decided to include in my daily training walks some interval jogging - OMG, I haven't jogged since I was about 15 at school and boy does it hurt!  But, i've been doing this now for a few weeks I can really see the difference in my fitness and recovery times - I am actually jogging up to 8 lamppost lengths now vs the 1 length when I first started!!! Progress indeed.
And what about the rest of the team.....Hayley continues to pound the fields and pavements around her home in North Wales, even walking 3-4 miles to Donna's house to then start a 15 mile training walk the other Sunday. Now that's what you call dedication.  Donna is a regular runner, so probably the fittest of us all.  Jane regularly walks during weekends with her husband, so again, doing some training.  Our next full team training walk is this Sunday (15th Apr) when we will walk to the summit of Moel Famau in North Wales, a lung-bursting 800m steep (not gradual) ascent, which almost prompted my husband to call out Prince William from RAF Valley the last time we attempted it back in early Feb.  It will be interesting to see if all the training really is paying off - watch this space.
On the fundraising front, we are having a slow but sure start.  Being M&S employees, we have been very lucky to have access to bag packing in store, which should raise a few hundred every time we do it - this Saturday sees our first bag packing event.  Also our colleagues have voted for us to be the store's nominated charity for the new financial year, which means any charity activity undertaken by the store donates its money direct to us/Oxfam - fantastic news and we are so grateful for all the support we are receiving from the Company.  Go M&S - you rock!
I'm glad I've finally got round to writing another post - The Red Harrows blog has inspired me.  Who knows, next time there might even be a few pictures!  Bye for now.

In the beginning.....

Was Anne....trying to create a Blog about our challenge that might be a little interesting to read!
What can I say - 4 ladies of a certain age attempting to walk 100km in 30hrs (alright Donna, I know we are trying to do it in less), we must be mad.
But hey, we are signed up, so we are doing it.  And our inspiration, well, there are various and numerous reasons for us all getting involved.  Some would say they were bullied into it, but we all know its a worthy challenge, even if we all regularly get cold sweats about the actual event.
Personally, I'm getting a lot out of it.  Improved fitness, getting out and about in the wonderful British countryside, spending quality time with great people, having a laugh, becoming obsessive about organisation and fundraising, writing my first blog ever (!), the list goes on and on.  Definitely a life changing experience!
So watch this space for further blogs about our endeavours.