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Moonwalk 2
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Anyone fancy a barbeque in the park after, Reindeer steak on the menu.
Do we need a humane Killer or can I just battter him to death........
Look forward to seeing you at platform 4 as agreed.
Sounds like the 39 steps!
I'm just back from my holiday! Soooo looking forward to tonight and meeting you all. My neighbour has done my bra for me and a little matching purple tutu!! Looks fab!
Hope to see you all, if not, HAVE A GREAT TIME and will see some of you tomorrow at Hogsmill.
It was as painful as my first marathon and still is so.
Having run 20 odd marathons I was one of rhe smart a**e brigade who decided that if I could run 26.2 then power walking it would be a piece of p**s.
Oh boy how wrong I was.
I was going resonably well (i.e. Still upright) at 16 miles then got a blister and the wheels came off.
Ive walked long distances before, Ive walked at the end of marathons before but nothing prepares ypou for this.
You have been using different muscles to those you use running and without the training it soon shows.
The only way you can train to power walk 26 miles is to go out there and do it, and I hadnt.
The last 8/9 miles were purgatory trying to force one leg in front of the other and knowing you.ve got at least 2 more hours of this.
On a positive note apart from a little logistical glitch at the start it was immaculately organised, marshalled, supplied.
Well done to all who took part in the Full or the half you have my undying respect........
sorry to hear that was painful....
A BIG WELL DONE for doing it and have a BIG VIRTUAL HUG.
I told not to carry too much in your bra...LOL
Well Done
Had a quick chat with the reindeer who was at josie's .
Everybody finished I think but not that many were up for Hogsmill after that apart from V.RAP
Just think back already how tough it was but you did it, you overcame the challenge and did it. You should be a very proud Plum!
V'rap, HelenW and Womble all made it to the Hogmill. V'rap obviously benefited from her 26.2 mile warm up and stormed home in around 43mins. Helen and Womble were a bit slower but then, Womble did come 6th in the Moonwalk in 5.32 or so and was suffering with majorly sore toes.
I'd agree with Plummy about the event, except no blisters for me.
The start area was rather frantic, particularly in the marquees where there were too many people, and we kept losing each other. We eventually got our pre-packaged organic veggie pasta stuff, which was actually pretty tasty, plus the nicest flapjack I'd ever tasted. We went through the usual pre-event routine of dumping off bags, visiting the toilets etc, and eventually we were ready to start. This was frustratingly slow. The exit to the park was narrow compared to the stream of runners, but opened out fairly quickly afterwards. We quickly settled into a routine of chatting about general forum stuff, laughing like drains, and generally having a good time. I was getting cold by this time, as a cold wind was blowing and my midrift was exposed save for several strings of gold sequins. Mr Creosote wasn't taking part but was accompanying Pingu, and he rushed back to the park to get me a transparent mac thing which kept the wind off nicely. Phew!
After a couple of miles I decided to join the breakaway group and left Benz, Running Duck and Evil Pixie to walk with Bune and Fraggle. Vrap and Helen Wheels had left us for dead.
The walk follows a course along the paths by the river, which get very narrow in places, and there were lots of bottlenecks. The first few miles were frustratingly slow, particularly going up onto Tower Bridge. It took over an hour to do three miles, and my anticipated finishing time of 6.5 hours looked a folorn hope. We got a phone call from the EP group who were about ten minutes behind us.
Bune and Frags stopped for a loo break at about 6 miles, which meant hanging around for about 20 minutes. We then headed down onto the embankment on the bit of the course that runs close to the London marathon route (miles 23 onwards). I got a call from Helen at that point to say that they were stuck in a loo queue at 8 miles, and if we were quick we would meet up with them, which sure enough we did. We set off, trying to estimate how far Benzy and co were behind us, and discussing whether we should wait, when suddenly up ahead we caught sight of a pair of pink fishnets. That can't be EP, we thought, but then I caught sight of a Purple outfit like RD had been wearing, closely followed by a Benz lookalike. We put on a spurt to catch up, and realised as we got closer that somehow Benz and co had got ahead of us.
Past this point the walkers were more spread out, and we entered the less well known streets of London. There were less non participants about too, so we got less cheers although the marshalls were great. We had descended into a rather tired looking crocodile of walkers, heads down and without much singing or cheering. It wasn't quite the carnival atmosphere I had hoped for.
The route wends its way back and forth through the streets of Kensington, and how we managed to avoid colliding with another stream of walkers going in another direction is beyond me! Good planning. I suppose. The miles rolled by, although it did seem frustratingly slow - taking 18 minutes instead of the 7 or 8 I was more used to from running!
Around mile 17 we got a call from Frags to tell us that she'd had to drop out through injury, and Bune (who'd turned up to support but had got roped in) was also dropping out. We ploughed on, feeling extremely tired as we walked through Hyde Park. More zigzags backwards and forwards around Traffy Square, and through the sidestreets, until eventually we nearing home. Frags rung up saying what drinks did we want, and we placed our drinks order for the finish!
Everyone's mood lifted as the final few miles rolled into view, and before we knew it we were back into Battersea Park and across the finish line. We posed for pictures, collected our medals, and then got our bags.
Not the most satisfying event in terms of atmosphere, which was one of the reasons I did it (to get a good atmosphere) but still an interesting experience. To spend over seven hours on your feet isn't easy, regardless of speed, although I was pleased to say I managed a negative split - 3:55 for the first half, 3:20 for the second :-)
After that we headed back to Josie Jump's for some excellent and most welcome hospitality, plus of course the Hogsmill 5 miler! I skipped on this on account of the fact that it's a women's only race. The others were trying to persuade me to run it in my Moonwalk costumer (purple tutu and bra), in the hope that this would escape the eagle eye of the marshalls and they'd mistake me for a woman.
More on that elsewhere!
Thanks to all for helping get me through what was a long night, and especially to JJ for hosting us and driving :-)
The marshalls were doing their best to help, yelling "mind the bollards" etc. Unfortunately on seeign them indicate a group of bollards about ten yards ahead, I took my eye off what was just in front of me to focus on said bollards, upon which I promptly walked into the bollard that was one yard in front of me! It got me right between the legs, and I hobbled along for a bit in excurciating pain!