Training Walk No. 1

At 5am this morning the wind and rain was lashing at our bedroom window and the thought of having to walk for 4 hours across the South Downs was not overly appealing.

However, a matter of hours later, the rain had gone, the sun had come out and this was to be one of the nicest mornings - weather wise - that we had had in months.

The 'plan' was simple.

Walk for two hours in one direction (this felt rather strange as it was part of the Trailwalker route, but in reverse) and then turn round and walk for another two hours in the opposite direction, starting and finishing at a pub in the small West Sussex village of Cocking, where we had ordered Sunday lunch!

Whilst the plan WAS simple, its execution WASN'T!

Having missed a right turn on the route we added an additional mile to our total making us late for lunch by about 20 minutes. So as it happened, we started at Cocking, ended at Cocking and made a pretty good job of 'Cocking it up' in the middle.

So, we were nothing if not consistent!!

As for the walk itself, it was pretty sloppy underfoot, leading late in the walk to the one and only 'comedy fall' of the day, courtesy of Pete, which to be perfectly honest has always previously been my role.

(In 2011 barely a training walk went by without me having at least one fall, in addition to me also managing to fall off the podium after having been presented with our medals shortly after completing the walk itself!)

Today's stats - 14 miles in 4 hours 18mins, a pace which if maintained on the walk itself would result in a time of 19 hours and 20 mins...if we didn't stop at all!