2.30am came round far too fast. It was still very dark, and I wasn’t sure where I was let alone what I was meant to be doing. Nijmegen hadn’t gone to bed, the 1.4 million party goers were still partying – our city centre flat had rocked with the noise all night!
John - sunrise
The sun rose about 7.00am, when most of the UK would still have been in bed. By 8.00am we had been walking 6 hours and completed over half of our distance.
It was good to get a few miles under our belt before the sun rose, once it was up it got very hot, very quickly! We soon left Nijmegen and walked out into the provinces of the Gelderland. We were well looked after with regular water, food and toilet stops; young children were out in their pjs handing out baskets of sweets (lots of liquorice, which is one of my favourites!). We were entertained by brass bands, DJ’s and blaring disco music. It helped keep the tempo of the walk! I think most of the locals were up because with all the noise, it would be impossible tyo sleep.
It was great to see the marching military groups from all over the world. They often kept us going with their marching songs. We finished the 32 odd miles in less than 9.30 hours. On the whole we are are on good form. John has a few blisters, and he ran out of energy just before the end, but nothing that a few compeeds a good supper and an early night won’t fix. Me I am still bouncing … but only day one! I have uploaded a bit more video, sorry if it’s a bit long, but I don’t have the time or energy to edit it. But it does show the atmosphere and support we got! Jo x
It was a 3.30am start … having only got to bed at 12.30am it was a very short night; on the plus our journey went like clock work, and we are now now nicely settled in the centre of Nijmegen. We are staying with Vanessa, in her lovely flat right in the city centre (the accommodation was booked through the event organisers). The flat is particularly handy as it is only 5 minutes walk from the start. This took on an even greater significance when we discovered that the rumours we had heard about early starts are true. John and I are walking 50km/day, (I know we should have selected a more achievable target of 30km or 40km). The 50km walk starts at 3.00am each day… by the end of the week we won’t know if we should be walking or sleeping!
Flower Stall
The atmosphere in Nijmegen was absolutely buzzing today. Over 40,000 people are taking part in this event. It is the largest organised walking event in the world. This is the 94th International Fours Days Marching and the organisers are pretty slick at it now! Today was admin day, and so far so good.
I’ve had a play with my newly acquired flip camera (more about that on another blog!), to try and record some of the atmosphere! I hope you can access it. Arctic-Mummy in Nijmegen – Day 1
It’s 9.00pm here. I am up in 5.30 hours. Hope to update you tomorrow. Night x
The bags are packed, the children are down in Somerset, the dog’s at his brothers …. it is very quiet in our house. Too quiet!
I am rather apprehensive, this will be the biggest test of my training to date. I have loads of miles under my belt; I have started strength training with Tommy (that has been hard, and I have discovered many new muscles), but I have not walked this far (31 miles / day), and the most I have done is 2 consecutive days of 20+ miles. And this is all on road, which will be a killer for the legs……
I will try and report in daily – depending on how much energy I have! If I only have one wish, it is for dry weather! Any support would be particularly welcome this week. As the dutch say Heb een goede week!
I couldn’t resist telling you about an article in the ‘weekend’ section of the Saturday Telegraph by Pete Wedderburn.
“Golden Retrievers are far from thick (take note Dizzy & Lindy!), and are actually among the cleverest of dogs”
The article says that much research has been carried out on the brain power of dogs by a chap called Stanley Coren. He has even written a book about it – The Intelligence of Dogs (so it must be true!) In this great bible, dogs have been ranked by their intelligence, and us ‘blonde’ golden retrievers are ranked in the top five of smart / clever / intelligent / beautiful breeds. (OK it didn’t say beautiful!) But I was a very cute puppy!
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