Well, I can now report that I have completed the moonwalk, and all I can say is, what a fantastic event. I was joined on the walk by three friends, Lisa Maxwell (a regular
attendee at the Wednesday Pilates class – Go jenny!!), and two others from work.

We arrived at the Inverleith Park at 20:30 on a typically Scottish dreary rainy evening to be greeted by the site of a giant passion pink circus tent (the Moon City) and a field of glowing orbs that would have looked at home in the 60’s TV series ‘The Prisoner’.

After we got over the shock of the tent and found our bearings it was time to drop off the bags, which meant sheepishly stripping off the outer layers to reveal the bras underneath and then ‘carefully!' stencilling each other’s walker number on out chest. 
From this point on I became known as Number 8734... I guess those orbs were there for a reason...  Anyway I’m digressing.

So, 3 hours later, after getting some food in us, listening to some truly moving stories and having a pre walk pep talk from the charities patron ‘HRH Prince Charles’ it was time for the warm up. However, as we were in the third and slowest group (long story, don’t ask) we would be leaving the moon city last and so had the privilege of doing
the full 10 minute warm up three times, as if 26.2 miles wasn’t enough!

At midnight with ponchos on, being slightly out of breath from 30 minutes hard exercise, the starting pistol was fired and we were of. Sometime later (perhaps 10-15 minutes) we crossed the starting line and with GPS diligently plotting our route we were walking.  Thankfully it had stopped raining by this point.

The first ten miles I think were the worst and best of them all.  At the back of a crowd of 10,000 people we were moving painfully slow and with the constant thought of  ‘I can walk faster than this’ it was a little frustrating (definitely the worst), however as with every cloud there was a silver lining, we has the time to speak to some wonderful people and hear their story, which along with the atmosphere of 10,000 people marching with a purpose and hundreds of people watching and cheering was simply amazing.

It’s at this point that I will admit, that at mile 13 and 0230 (when we hit the coast) I gave up and put my jacket on as it was just too cold.  I think these next few miles up to mile 18 were probably the hardest for most, the witching hour, the dark and cold really started to get to people.  I believe a lot of people really had to look reflect and inwards to remember all the reasons why they were there to keep going. A kind of hushed quiet slowly crept over the crowd.  It
was like the revered silence you get in church, I found myself almost talking in a whisper in case I disturbed it.

At 0530 and mile 18 came a most welcome sights, the sunrise, and with it brilliant blue skies that were to spell a fantastically warm day.  With the sun the spell of reflection was broken and replaced with an atmosphere and energy that’s hard to describe.  I’m sure a lot of people were thinking I’m sore and tired, but I’ve made it through the night... I can do this.

The next seven miles flew by in and by mile 22 it was warm enough for the jacket to come off and so once more the bras were on show.  I was a little concerned that with the hot sun I would end up with bra shape tan lines, but thankfully I dodged that particular bullet.

7 hours 40 minutes (not including 20 minutes for loo breaks) after starting we crossed the finish line back at the Moon City while 1000s of people cheered and clapped us along the last quarter mile, which I found left quite a lump in my throat, the thought that so many people, perfect strangers really had given up their time to say thank you and well done.

I would at this point like to thank you all for your outstanding generosity and kindness in support of this event. Between the four of us completing the walk we had a target of £1500.  As I write we are still collecting money but we are well on track to smash that target to bits with £3000 pledged so far.

So, as promised to Chris, I have included a picture of myself in a bra for the whole world to see. It really is a small price to pay for such outstanding generosity.

Thank you again.

John

Join us on the 84 mile "HADRIANS WALL WALK" on Friday 16th to Monday 19th September
2011.

Start Point - Port Carlisle.

3 x Overnight stops: Crosby on Eden, Haltwhistle and Corbridge.

Finishing at Wallsend in Newcastle.

This means approx 20 miles per day.

We are doing this in conjunction with CFM - " Helping Hand for Olivia", who sadly lost 3 limbs through meningitis - see www.cfmradio.com/olivia for more details.

Please Join us/support us on the way OR sponsor us - your help would be very much appreciated :-)

For more info contact Julie Wilson on 07773 891 512 or Mandy Carswell on 07825 514 576.