10/07/2012 - Preparing for "The Big One"

Following the elation of completing the Sandstone Trail and getting a small taste of just what we've taken on with Trailwalker we thought we would update on our preparation for "The Big One".

After managing to stay relatively injury free through training, we've managed to pick up a few niggles. We put this now down to now being such finely tuned athletes after all this training. After suffering pain in the hip that wouldn't go away after the Sandstone Trail, Mark went to see a Physio who diagnosed an issue with a tendon relating to the 'Glute Max' (basically a muscle in the left side of his backside). Stretches and strengthening exercises have been prescribed three times a day as well as physio sessions to try and ease the problem. At the suggestion of walking 100km, the Physio shrugged, shook his head and told him "We'll tape you up but be under no illusion - it's going to hurt". Great - painkillers it is then.

Lee on the other hand has gone downhill since completing the 55km walk and his recurring knee issue has come back on top of which he seems to be getting some sort of cold/flu/bubonic plague so will be readily identifiable by the sign "Unclean" hanging round his neck and his little bell so all can avoid him on the trail - it is only 100m we can be apart isn't it?

Polly is still recovering from blisters and ankle issues and has been practising with zinc-oxide tape with success (though some of the early attempts were somewhat amusing). Only Martin, (the oldest member of the quartet) is injury free, either that or he's just not moaning about the injuries he does have like the rest of us.

We arranged a meet up at The Pheasant the following Sunday after the last walk with full Support Team to have a 'post-mortem' on what worked well, what didn't and what we needed. We've decided to run with three support members, one vehicle for support and one in reserve with stock to be parked/abandoned along the route. This was mainly because the Support Crew don't want to miss any of the action and they feel they can cat nap if they need to when they get tired. We'll probably find out how good this strategy is when we arrive at Checkpoint 7 to find they're all asleep in a lay-by somewhere.

That should do us for Checkpoint 1 then.....

In terms of team actions, Kate was tasked with supplies having collated the team's wish list of goodies and went shopping (something which she has a particular talent for) and came home with an impressive haul of Lucozade, peanuts, Mars, Snickers, Dairy Milk, Curly-Wurlys, tea, coffee, Soreen, soup, plastic cups/plates, Champagne and a bucket - most of which is just for Martin. Simon as Support Team leader has been digesting the Trailwalker info and planning the logistics as well as organising the team T-Shirts (red of course). Mark has programmed each stage into the trusty Garmin that has seen us through all our training walks so far and worked out the team timings for each stage so the Support Team have some sort of idea where they need to be and when.

Sorry, really should've got the brakes checked....

The final bits of kit have been purchased and assembled including a Mobile Field Command Centre (gazebo) to allow the Support Team some dry space at the back of the car and the walkers to shelter during breaks at each Checkpoint. A trial packing of the car has been undertaken to ensure we can get the three support crew members, team clothes boxes, food boxes, gazebo, four folding chairs, folding table, cool box, water containers and all the other bits and pieces in.

When I said "Less than 100m apart....."

In between all of this shopping, tapering, organising, we did manage to take a break and enjoy a bit of rest and relaxation at the British Grand Prix on Sunday. 

Though we did mis-read the itinerary and thought we were down to do some sort of display, but apparently there's some air display team called the Red Arrows - what a coincidence! They weren't bad either.

OK...new game - Spot The Red Harrow

So all that remains really is the weather, which isn't looking too good. The rain just doesn't seem to want to stop at the moment. Just about every Trailwalker team must be logging into the Met Office but as it stands, it looks like Friday will be very wet, Saturday will be drizzle and showers all day into the evening before clearing up overnight and into Sunday morning. With 800 walkers off before we hit the trail, it's likely sections of the trail are going to get muddy and churned up before we even get there. Not what we all hoped for but at least we've trained in these conditions so know what to expect. Hopefully we'll see a welcoming sunrise as we head towards Brighton on Sunday morning.

On a more positive note, we've had a string of donations of late and as of today, we've gone through the £4,000 milestone with a total that now sits at £4,207.14. We had hoped to get past the £4,000 level before the event and this has given us a massive morale boost as we never imagined we'd raise this much!

We would like to thank, David Hall-Matthews, Hannah Jones, Pearl Engineering Services, Polly's Dad, Mette, Shelly Margolan, Margaret Yorke, Peter and Melanie Yorke, Tracey Statham, Mark Smith, Helene, Lucy Hopkins, Stuart McAnulla, Audrey, Eleanor Walker, Tim Noden, Audrey, Derek Edyvane, Lucy Webber, Jonathan Dean, Julia Harper, MGL Demolition, Andreas, pukeko, Hetta, Gordon Crawford, Andy Porter, Kevin Theobold, Chris Haslam (again!), Fellow Trailwalker Team Jon Paul Tom and Olly, Paul C, Martin's Mum and Dad, Jayne, D. Morgan PLC and our Anonymous sponsors for getting us through this major milestone - we can't thank you enough!

For anyone wishing to follow our progress on the day, we are off at 8am on Saturday morning and Oxfam have a live blog running and you can follow our progress as we pass through the Checkpoints. Alternatively, we will have our Satellite tracker with us which you can see on this web link and it should update every 10-20minutes as we walk along the trail. Please also feel free to follow us on Twitter and tweet us some encouragement which our Support Team will relay to us (if we can't pick it up directly).

Bring on Brighton!