It's Saturday the 23rd July, 3 am, time to get up and prepare for our 6 am start of 'The Trailwalker', better known as the Gurkhas' Challenge. It is a pleasant stroll across the South Downs from Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Petersfield to Brighton Racecourse, a mere 100k (!). You have to walk (or run / walk in our case, or run if you are a very fit Gurkha) in a team of four. This year Julie and I had Barry and Carl for company so we felt very confident about hitting our target of going under 18 hours. In the past we hadn't managed to achieve this for a variety of reasons and thought we would give it one last shot.
Registration took place the day before and, because of our previous efforts, Julie and I were described as 'legends' and given a special blue buff to wear. See pic below as we pose in front of military vehicles parked at the campsite at Queen Elizabeth Park. An amazing operation as there were nearly 500 teams taking part.
Registration took place the day before and, because of our previous efforts, Julie and I were described as 'legends' and given a special blue buff to wear. See pic below as we pose in front of military vehicles parked at the campsite at Queen Elizabeth Park. An amazing operation as there were nearly 500 teams taking part.
Saturday was very hot. One of the warmest days of the year so far. We started well hurrying through the checkpoints, thanks to our great support team, Mike Essex. It was a strange experience, as for about the first four hours we hardly saw any other teams. This changed as faster teams with later start times caught us up. After about 20 miles it became clear that Julie was lagging behind. She confessed to feeling really sick - possible heat stroke. As she never normally suffered in this way, we persuaded her to soldier on from Houghton to Washington where, very sadly, she made the decision to stop there. She wasn't feeling any better and, in fact, getting worse. Such a shame. I had lost my legend. She was understandably very upset.
Barry took over as pace setter and off we went. You are allowed to continue in a team of three but can't win any awards. Not that we would with all the speedy military teams. We tried to run the 'downs' and definitely walk the 'ups'. I was usually the one at the back with Carl and Barry pulling me round! As you can see in the pic below (also a pic of the start with Julie).
It was lovely to see the Navesey family at Devil's Dyke. They have a very large dog called Zach. Still a puppy it seems. Mmm going to be huge. Also, here Linda too k over from Mike as Support Team, ably assisted by her mum, Judy.
Lucie (Baker) and little Holly came to meet us at Jack and Jill with gifts of chocolate brownies and flapjack. Lovely! So kind.
Barry managed to keep us moving quickly all the way to Lewes and Kingston Hollow to make the best of the fading light. It was about 9 pm when we reached checkpoint 9. It was amazing! They had created a Nepalese village which we entered under an archway to be greeted by bagpipes, bongos and clackers as if we were visiting celebrities. I couldn't stop smiling. It was fantastic and so inspiring, helping to stop the fatigue and aching limbs from taking over.
All the checkpoints and helpers were great, providing water, squash and hot drinks. One even had a huge range of sweets on offer.
The last 10k in the dark took us two hours and seemed to last forever. It was so good to finally get to the race course and walk the last few metres to the finish line. Photos were taken and we were presented with our medals and 'peace' scarves (see below). It took us 17 hours and 7 minutes. Really pleased but, Julie should have been there to share in our success. Sad about that but so happy to finish.