The Weekend We Walked 100km Part 3

...continued from Part 2 (if you haven't read Part 2 yet, check it out here).

Off on our way out of CP9

We said our good byes to everyone for now and headed up the hill from Kingston. To keep themselves going, Julie and Jo came over all philosophical and tried to think of some inspirational quotes to keep the team going forwards.  Julie decided that our moto should now be...

'Pain is only temporary, but the achievement lasts forever'.


They shouted this back to the boys to give them an extra incentive to carry on up the big hill. Then disaster struck... Josh's other knee (the right one) gave way. He was swearing at himself. Not now, why now...

There were no more support crew checkpoints to pull out (though I doubt it even crossed his mind), and there was no way he'd turn back. It was just a case of getting through it.

Jo and Julie were in fine form (i.e. just had to keep powering on otherwise they would collapse in a heap and give up!) and were laying down some decent pace in front of Gubbs and Josh. They were getting cold when stopping so they headed on to a point where they had some shelter from the wind while they waited for the boys to catch up.

Once we were at the top of the hill we knew the worst of the stage was over and we made a good time into checkpoint 10 where we were met with a group of cheering Gurkhas supplying squash and crisps!

Josh spotted an ambulance and so went over to get his other knee bandaged up. When he returned the team downed their last energy shot of the day with a chaser of mini eggs supplied by Julie and set out on the very last stage of Trailwalker UK 2012... up another hill...

We took it nice and slow, Josh's knees allowed him to only have one gear now, but that was fine, we were going to make it to the finish before the 4pm cut off we had been warned about at the previous checkpoint.

Nearly there...

We met a couple of teams on the way in, one - the Walkie Talkies had knee injuries also so while Gubbs was Ice spraying Josh he offered it around the group. It turned out that one of this team went to school with Gem, small world ay!

At the car park at the end of the footpath part of the stage, Jo and Julie came across the sorry sight of two members of another team lying on the floor in agony.  They managed to get themselves to their feet again, but were bent in two with the pain in their knees and feet.  Jo offered them some of her pain killers, but they said they were already topped up to the max.  Julie overheard one of them mention that they wish they had brought walking poles with them.  The sight of two grown men, in agony, staggering hand in hand towards the final stage of this epic adventure brought tears to her eyes.  Julie asked the guy with no poles if he'd like to borrow one of hers to the finish.  His face lit up like a beacon and he gratefully accepted.  Jo and Julie gave guys some encouraging words and told them that they only had around another 20 minutes to walk until they reached the finish.  We didn't find out the name of this team, but we were very pleased to see them hobble across the finish line behind us a little while later.

Victory is ours!

We reached the start of the race course to much delight. This was now a time of getting the job done. As we came closer the emotion was high. Josh had a final spurt of energy to get himself closer to that finish line, which took the rest of us all by surprise. The 500m to the finish line sign had to be the best sight we had ever seen in our lives!! The bagpipes started up and so did the tears in the eyes. Jo was pleased to see that her father-in-law and his wife had made a suprise journey and were waiting at the finish line along with the rest of the support crew, friends and family

We made the line and fell into loved ones embraces. There wasn't a dry eye at that finish line.

The job was done, we had walked 100km and all we needed to do now was to walk up two steps to have some pictures taken. I think we could just about manage that!

Our finish time was 31 hours and 26 minutes. Just a shade over the 30 hours originally set, but we didn't care, it was about finishing the challenge. We didn't sleep or anything! All those hours were for walking. Minus the 4.5 hours that were spent at the checkpoints altogether, so 26 hours and 56 minutes of walking. Wow.

Julie & Jo sign the support crew up for next year.

Lots of hugs given around, popped opened a bottle of champers and then there was just one last thing to do... Eat some Gurkha curry!! Best part of the day by far! That's when we met the Blister Sisters who had come in just after us. Another team we had met prior to the event via twitter. Such a sociable event this! Then it was home to our beds via our baths.

So that's it. The last walk of the Hardcore Four that you, the reader, will have to endure.

Team with support crew
minus night support Tracy & Peter

If you have been a regular reader, thank you for sticking with us. If you are a sponsor, thank you for sponsoring, your donations have made this easier to do, believe it or not! It also goes to a great cause don't forget. Additional thanks need to go to the people who called, messaged, text and tweeted us throughout the event - that really helped, thank you.

Also thank you to Oxfam, the Gurkha Welfare Trust, the Queen's Gurkha Signals and the volunteers who made the event what it was.

But biggest thanks go to our long suffering support crew! Without you guys we would not have been able to complete it... and we would have also needed bigger backpacks.