Thetime had finally come, and last night we did the midnight walk for the Martlets Hospice here in Brighton and Hove. We set off towards the front of the 1500 or so people doing the walk with some glowing ears on which another walkee had donated to us 🙂 but went at our pace so were soon overtaken by the faster people. Not that we minded – we knew that we would need to do a steady pace of around 3.25mph in order to finish in the sort of time that we wanted to (between 4 hrs and 4.5 hrs).
The route was a lot better than the first time I did the walk and we didn’t have to walk across the racecourse in the dark! The route took us first down bear road, which is quite steep so I was glad we were going down it! There were quite a lot of marshals and security people about, so despite the time of night we felt quite safe even when at times we were walking pretty much by ourselves, and there were always people to tell us where we needed to go next. Neither of us had taken coats as the weather forecast was dry for the entire time, and in actual fact with our walk t-shirts as well we were actually too hot!
The first part of the route took us mainly along Old Shoreham Road, ending with a stop at the Martlets Hospice centre in Hove. Here there were loos (very welcome!) and a snack and some water, and we also had to reregister so that they knew everyone had made it successfully there. Anybody who was only doing the shorter 6 mile version of the walk at this point were able to take a bus back to the racecourse. According to my iPhone app though we were under 5 miles round! Not sure if they’d changed the length of the shorter walk, or whether they were dropped off at some point to walk the final mile or so but it did seem a bit strange! We had said to ourselves that if by the time we got to that point we were struggling for any reason we would stop but we were still fine so carried on.
Turning onto Boundary Road in Hove it was noticeable that the wind had really picked up, and in fact had to rescue our ‘ears’ several times as the wind tried to blow them off! As we got towards Hove Lagoon we were half way round, and my feet were starting to get a little sore but we pushed on. The long walk along the seafront took us past the clubs as they were starting to wind down a bit which is always interesting as the clubbers are very bemused by these weird groups of women most wearing the same T-Shirt and flashing ears or costumes going past! At least this time I wasn’t accosted by anyone asking what I was doing and why! There were again a fair number of stewards and security about (the security included a couple of 4×4 cars and at least one motorbike and someone on a bike) and they were also making sure that everyone had enough water, though we’d taken some of our own with us so didn’t need.
I’d started to struggle a bit coming along the seafront, with pains in my feet and feeling a bit queasy but I put that down to the aftereffects of my various recent ailments and also doing strenuous exercise at a time when my body just wanted to go to bed! Once past the Palace Pier, we started the long uphill slog along Marine Parade towards the Marina and I started to struggle again so our pace slowed a bit. Gemma was very encouraging and kept me drinking and motivated and we were soon on Wilson Avenue and heading up towards the final part of the route to the racecourse. However, I really started to struggle at this point as the whilst not as steep as Bear Road it was certainly steeper than I wanted to deal with at that point! My feet were sore, but I tried to push on through it which turned out to be a mistake as all of a sudden I felt dizzy, faint and quite sick so had to stop – my body was telling me that enough was enough at that point. We were only 2 miles from the end, so I was determined that we were going to complete the course! After sitting down for a few minutes, and taking a drink or two the feeling past and I was able to slowly get going. I just HAVE to listen to my body in those situations, and I probably hadn’t drunk quite enough water so it made me stop!
We were quite slow, so were overtaken by a few people but steadily we got closer and closer to the finish though it did seem like it was never going to come – always one more slope, always one more corner! Eventually we could see the car park, and the gate, and then WE WERE THERE! It had taken us 4 hours 20 min so even with the various loo stops we’d taken and having to stop so I could recover we were still in our estimated time frame – what a result!! We picked up our medal, then went and got a drink and brioche to recover a little before we drove home. We were home by 5am sore, tired, not feeling 100% but very very satisfied that we’d made it to the end and raised over £400 for the hospice.
Well done to all those who took part, and for those that organised and helped make the event so successful and safe. I hope lots of money was raised for this excellent cause! Now roll on the London Marathon….