What a great weekend! I managed my 50 miles (51 actually!) and feel surprisingly good. Although I am a little worried about having to do four days of similar distances for the Nijmegen Marches in July.

On Saturday, in glorious sunshine, Lucy, Rosie and I strolled in shorts and t-shirts through the lovely Hampshire countryside from Goodworth Clatford up through Harewood Forest to the Test Way. St Mary Bourne was the 10 mile marker and a quick pub stop, before heading off to Hurstbourne Tarrant, Ibthorpe, Upton, and up onto the Chute Causeway. We had a few dodgy moments in and around Collingbourne Woods where Rosie and I had been lost for a number of hours on a previous excursion, but the I – Phone came to the rescue and navigated us directly to Collingbourne Ducis and our finishing post – The Shears. The very kind landlady served us much need drinks, even though it was 30 mins until opening time! We were probably 7 – 10 days too early for the best of the blue bells, but as you can see they are emerging in their masses and already very fragrant.

Sunday was predicted to be the hottest day of the year …. wrong! When John and I left Andover at 6.00am to drive to Chichester (our rendezvous point with Paula) it started tipping it down, I was very worried as I had not packed a waterproof – lesson learnt!

The South Downs Marathon was organised by the Sussex branch of the LDWA (Long Distance Walkers Association) and cost £5.00 to enter! It was well worth every penny; we were provided with drinks and biscuits at the start and two check points, lunch at the half way checkpoint and a light warm meal (beans on toast & rice pudding) at the end, what fabulous value!

Paula and I left the village hall in East Dean at 9.00am and within 5 minuets we were walking uphill, this was an early warning of things to come. A quick read through the walk notes would have confirmed this. Ten times the written directions said “proceed up hill!” and that didn’t take into account 4 of the seven sisters we had to walk or 2 other uphills that weren’t mentioned (not that I was counting!). Needless to say I can feel all those climbs and descents in my thighs this week. The other part of my body that suffered a little were my feet. For the first time in the last 12 months of walking I got blisters on my feet. These were from the Saturday walk, and although they were protected with plasters, by the 9 mile checkpoint on Sunday, they were quite uncomfortable. Paula introduced me to Compeed blister plasters, which were fantastic; they applied like a second skin, didn’t move and provided almost instant relief. I have now purchased a supply of my own – they were brilliant. The weather was very kind to us, we had a very short shower as we started, but the rest of the day was dry, although very windy on top of the Downs. Unfortunately this overcast and misty weather meant we missed most of the views which the walk is famous for…. I will just have to come back and tackle the hills again another year!

I had my first radio interview last week with Andover Sound. I came out thinking, I should have said this … and I rambled a bit there, but it was great to get some local media exposure for the Polar Race and my fundraising challenge. I was well looked after by Faye – Thank You!

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