This week has been very productive. Lots happening with my 2014 adventure, everything slowly moving in the right direction. Organising such a large challenge involves a huge amount of planning in terms of distances to cover each day, accommodation, where to get water, vehicle support, security support, sponsorship and also having found the cause we want to raise awareness for, its finding the right charity that can help make everything happen.
Training this week has gone well although on my first long run of the week I decided that I needed to hone my map reading skills. I marked up my route and set off from the house with map in hand (couldn’t find my map case). About a mile down the lane I couldn’t remember whether I had locked the back door or not so ran back to the house to discover that I had in fact locked the door – plonker – so off I went again, take two.
Everything was going well, I reached the village of Pluckley (the most haunted village in Kent) and managed to map read my way to the Greensands Way. The views were stunning and the sun was shining but running through fields I did appear to attract the attention of a lot of sheep who were under the impression I had food – either that or they were so hungry they would eat anything, I legged it.
Having left the sheep behind I continued on my map reading journey but somehow ended up going the wrong way and how ever hard I tried to get my surroundings to match the map it just wasn’t going to happen. Stupidly I had left my compass at home on the hall table. Eventually I found myself back in Pluckley having done a lovely 4 mile loop. Boy did I feel silly so take three, which meant going through the sheep again!
The remainder of the trip went well, I didn’t get lost and knew exactly where I was on my map – result! Although I have a lot to learn before The Spine next year. Getting lost on the Pennine Way isn’t something I want to do too often.
Exciting news this week is my World Record Certificate has arrived from Guinness World Records it was lovely to finally see it and believe that it was real, sounds daft I know but although they had told me it had been confirmed I felt better once I saw it in writing. I’m very happy, a touch proud and really looking forward to celebrating with my crew and partners in Dublin at the end of the month.
Have a marvellous weekend.
Happy Training
