The full enormity of the task

I was ill on Thursday. I lay in bed and didn't know where to put myself. I had thrown up at work (self induced, trying to stop the sickness I was feeling) but when I came home I felt even worse. I was blaming it on some soup I'd had for dinner which tasted funny, but apparently there was a stomach bug going around. At about 8pm I was uncontrollably sick and the only reason I didn't cancel all of the hotels I'd booked for the weekend was because I was too ill to pick up my phone.

I got up on Friday morning after (thankfully) having a fairly good sleep after the sickly episdode at 8ish. I didn't dare get out of bed at first, but apart from feeling what my mam calls "egg shelly" (like you're an egg that could easily break), I felt well enough to sit in the car long enough to get down to Cookham where our first hotel was booked. I ate small amounts throughout the day and I even managed half of a pizza at Pizza Express on the evening. The plan was.... there was no plan! If I felt too weak I would walk and not run, if I was too weak to walk I would drive to all of the aid stations to see where they were and try and have a look at the terrain for the run.

I started off with a 9 minute walk and then broke into a 6:3 run/walk along the Thames Path. It was very pretty and the weather was lovely. I particularly liked watching all of the boat crews training along the Thames and shouting orders at each other, but I particularly disliked the coaches who rode alongside them on bikes blowing whistles and not giving a shit how close they came to you as they whizzed past. The route was lovely though and I was enjoying it. My first drama came at the first lock I encountered. It took me ages to work out where to go and after asking 2 passers by I finally found out where to go. Graeme was waiting for me and gave me a banana and I was on my way. Apparently he was parked miles away and was on his way back to the car before meeting me at the next point. Once I'd left him I came to a gate which wouldn't open so I had to climb it. I doubted myself immediately as surely I wouldn't come across a locked gate if it was part of the TP? I was right to doubt myslef as about half a mile later I came across Graeme still walking back to the car and I had to do an 'about turn' and go back to where I'd come from. When I got back I immediately saw something on the map that I had originally missed, which was that I had to actually cross a bridge onto a little island before crossing back onto where I needed to go. Lesson learnt... look closer at the map. The map was in a waterproof carrier around my neck and if I needed to take my backpack off for anything the wind would blow it all over and I'd end up gagging as the cord twisted and tightened around my neck. Not good when you've just been ill, I can tell you!
Overall though, I was congratulating myself as I felt pretty good. I began to become aware of an issue with my backpack however, because it seemed such a long time until I got to see Graeme and I had nowhere to put a spare banana. I also had to keep taking it off to find my phone to find out where he was and how far away I was from him. I'm so used to shoving my phone in the back because it's there purely for emergencies, but here, I needed it closer to hand.

So, I managed the day pretty well under the circumstances. I had to sit down for 5 minutes at 15 miles and again at 23 miles because my legs felt so much more tired than they should be, however apart from getting lost a couple of times (unfortunately once you go into the towns and villages the map was pretty useless as there was no road names on it) I stuck to the 6:3 right to the end and reached 31 miles on the first day.

The second day wasn't so successful. I had less than 3 hours sleep on Saturday night due to having really bad wind pains (possibly after being ill, I don't know). It didn't affect me from a tired point of view to be honest, and I didn't feel tired at all but I did feel quite spaced out. I thought it would just be a good experience however as I will be knackered on the actual day after running through the night. I decided I would walk for at least the first hour because I knew the route was going to be difficult to navigate. I was right. Graeme walked with me for the first 20 minutes and to be honest we got completely lost. We found the aid station location and then realised we had to double back on ourselves to get back to the TP. We had to ask locals where to go and to be honest we would never have found it without their help. I am a novice when it comes to map reading but I actually think I'm quite good at it and look for landmarks/contours etc, but this was just unreadable in my honest opinion. Once on the right path, Graeme left me so he could meet me 4 miles up the road. I loved this next section as it reminded me of the Dene where I live. There were a couple of steep inclines and declines and it was very 'foresty'. I thought this would be nice on the day when I'm coming through here with Sebby (who is pacing me). There was a lovely long gentle downhill and although I walked it, I thought it would be really nice to run down during the race. I had more or less decided to mostly walk today and really take note of everything I could so it helps on the day of the race.

Just before the next lock the TP was closed due to flooding and I was forced to walk along un-named (on the map) streets again so missed meeting Graeme who was waiting at the next aid station location. All I can hope is the race organisers have good signage out if this happens in 4 weeks time! He agreed to meet me at the next place. Unfortunately once back on the correct path there was signs saying the TP was again closed due to flooding. I honestly didn't know what to do! I would find alternative footpaths on the map only to find at the end of each footpath a sign telling me to go back where I'd come from as the path was still cordoned off. In the end, after realising I was close to a main road that would get me to the next town, I ended up walking along a very busy narrow road. Graeme and I had been on the phone constantly and so he met me along this road and gave me a banana. I was relieved to get back onto the TP and find it wasn't all blocked off. There was about 4 miles where I actually DID part of the route! It was extremely muddy but beautiful scenery and I realised this was probably going to be the point where my Salomon soft mud shoes will come into their own.

As I was nearing the next village (and my next aid station location) I rang and asked Graeme to get me a Fanta Orange (which I suddenly really fancied). He was concerned he would miss me as he was standing at a point on the course that he knew I would miss because it was very inconspicuous. I said I'd be fine. I got to a main road and rang him to find out where he was and he was immediatley annoyed as I had gone past where I was supposed to. I stayed on the phone while I was redireced all the way along the village to where I was supposed to have gone. It really was inconspicuous!!! I'll now not miss that on the day though. It was just after this that we saw the TP was closed for the next 6 mile section and we gave the day up as a bad job, finishing on only 11 miles. Graemes' hip was hurting from having to walk around so far looking for things and I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere as far as running the route and didn't want to run on any more dangerous roads. So we drove to every aid station after that and worked out at what point I would come off the path to check in and how I would get back on it. It turns out a lot of the aid staions are a deviation from the path, so going down this weekend has turned out to be an invaluable experience. I have also decided to buy a Garmin Nav device which has everything I need. It has everything from a topographical point of view but also has all the road names I may need. I can plot the course and not only will it show me where I am, it will also tell everyone else where I am as friends and family can follow me throughout the race on it. It's an early birthday present from Graeme. :-)
I am also investing in a different backpack after finding a few shortcomings with the one I used this weekend. It's been a great experience. If nothing else it has made me realise the full enormity of the task in hand. I knew 100 miles was a long way, but until you actually get on the course you have no concept of how hard that actually is! I'm hoping I can have another big training weekend this weekend (just wating to see William and Shauns' view on that). I only did 42 of the 60 miles planned on the TP but after being ill, I have to be pleased I got that far.