The Weekend We Walked 100km Part 1

Well, this was it. We had been in training since the beginning of the year for this one weekend. Trailwalker weekend.

The distance doesn't look too bad like this...

It started with a trip to Queen Elizabeth Country Park (QECP) on Friday night to register for the event. Support crew Jeff and Julie met Gubbs, Jo and Josh at the park and they were joined by support crew Gem and Anna.

While on route we were already discussing the conditions that would await us on the course as we had been already made aware of the news from Trailwalker HQ that due to waterlogging, the conditions of two checkpoints (CP3 & CP4) were closed to support crew vehicles.

On arrival it was clear that the car parking at QECP had also been affected by the mud with long queues to the entrance. We decided to make our way down to the QECP visitor centre tarmac car park and walk up to the field instead.

Gem makes some friends

What' the plan Jo?

The welcome tent had a white board showing that a further checkpoint (6) was also closed to support crew now also. We rushed through registration, got our tracker tags and on to get a tasty pasta meal.

Then we were given our safety briefing, proceeded by a fantastic display by the Gurkha's marching band. They played some funky tunes too! The safety briefing had too many mentions of this being a race and participants being referred to as runners... er, yeah, not bloody likely!

Then it was off home to get some much needed sleep in our own beds rather than at the wet and muddy camp site provided. Not that it made much difference though, with most of the team not getting an ideal amount of sleep due to their excitement.

Returning to QECP on Saturday morning we were there for a 8am start with the first support crew car packed to the absolute brim. Josh's girlfriend Lucy joined Gem and first support crew Jeff and Stewart to see us off. It was an emotional moment for Gem and Gubbs with Gem having to pull out with a couple of months to go, she really wanted to be doing this with us.

The team and 1/2 the support crew

We said our last goodbyes and headed into the competitor pit where we met our Twitter friends The Red Harrows and Paul from Jon, Paul, Tom & Olly for a quick chat. It was nice to meet these guys face-to-face finally after many months of sharing tips, stories and banter.

The bagpipes set us off after a motivational speech by an officer of Queens Gurkha Signals (sorry did not catch the name), with the weather looking dry for the moment.


A moment we had been looking forward to for a long time. We walked along with The Red Harrows as the crowd entered the forest.


We knew that the first stage would not be too affected by the inevitable mud due to the number of metalled roads we'd be covering. The 8am crew were a big bunch though and it took some time before we had space to gain our normal stride.

We got through to CP1 Harting in 1 hour and 49 minutes, which was spot on with our plan. Jeff & Stewart, were in charge of support for the first few checkpoints and they kept us fed up with snacks and water, parked up next to our friends the Red Harrows.

The crowd on Beacon Hill

We set off on to stage two towards Hilltop Farm, Cocking after a 15minute break and as we did a light rain started.


We headed up Beacon hill, though this time very different from training due to the swarms of other Trailwalkers climbing at the same time. In those slippy conditions one faller could have taken out most the pack of trailing walkers!


At the top the rain got harder and the rain covers went on the bags. The paths were a lot muddier here, and were a sign of things to come. A little further along we had our first comedy faller of the day, Josh. Not satisfied with one, he managed to slip on his arse a second time in a space of 15 seconds. Poor Josh.


We walked down to the checkpoint with the rain not letting up. We could see the cars all parked at the edge of the field and it looked messy. On arrival we checked-in and found all kinds of vehicles slipping around in the mud, that's if they could even get going.

Josh and Gubbs went to one driver's aid and almost immediately regretted it when a spray of mud went up into their faces! Oh well, the driver was very pleased to get out. On to Jeff & Stewart where they had made up a makeshift shelter that did a great job of keeping us out of the rain, which was now getting heavier. Thunder sounded overhead too. This wasn't what we signed up for - the distance would be enough of a challenge on it's own thank you!


We had a tasty hot meal here for lunch and waited for the worst of the rain to pass before heading out onto stage three after a 38 minute stop.

Onwards to Littleton Farm and we reached the checkpoint after 1 hour and 50 mins. A quick stop here for a stretch, cup of tea and a toilet break before heading on to meet Jeff & Stewart by the car park on Bignor Hill due to the checkpoint being closed to support crew cars.  The rain really hammered it down as we approached too.

This was the last time we'd be seeing Stewart, who had also been a victim of a mud spraying too while helping Jeff out the second check point.

Jeff would be staying though to the next checkpoint as he was going to attempt to see us at as many checkpoints as possible.

We set off to Houghton which was another checkpoint closed to support crew and we could tell why on arrival. The puddles in the field were huge and maybe some of the muddiest paths so far.

We continued along the trail to meet new support team Gem and Anna waiting for us on High Titten, joined by Jeff. They had the car stereo on loud which was apparently being enjoyed by many of the other teams going by.

CP 4 makeshift shelter 

They even had time to make us a hot meal here with all that air guitar; a nice pasta meal to keep us carb-ed up.


Josh and Gubbs took the time to do their first sock change of the day, Jo and Julie having been more regular with their changes already. Apparently the stink under the shelter was something else, the boys didn't seem to think so...


Leaving this checkpoint we headed onto stage 5 knowing we were a bit behind our schedule. The conditions meant that plans had pretty much gone out the window.


It was just about finishing it now.

See Part 2 here...

A Fathers Day Yomp

This week was the big one, the longest we'd go before the Trailwalker event itself, 31 miles - half the Trailwalker distance.

We all met in Queen Elizabeth Country Park, at the start of Trailwalker, at 7:30 Sunday morning. Today we would be walking the first 5 stages of the route to Washington. We completed a 27 mile walk last week so this was only going to be another 4 miles.

Support today was led by Jeff, who was to have his first taste of the support crewing. He brought with him an abundant supply of meals, snacks, energy bars and rehydrating tablets, along with a gas canister for the cooker we weren't able to use last week because, em..., we didn't have any gas to run it on.

Gem would be riding shotgun with Jeff for the day to aid in the support, and also as it turns out provide that paparazzi feel that any good walk should have.

With feet all taped up, support car packed to the limit, and team in good spirits we headed into the country park for our first of the 31 miles. Today was Fathers day and it gave us some great weather.

We left the boundary of the country park as we discussed food for the event day and Julie informed us that her brother Keith, a Major in the Royal Marines, had been able to provide her with a number of ration packs, each with a 24 hour supply of meals and snacks, for which we are very grateful! If it can fuel an army then it's more than good enough for us! It doesn't look like we'll be going hungry on the day.


We completed the first stage in record time, arriving on Harting Down in 1 hour and 45 minutes. We obviously had fire in our bellies, and it wasn't long before Jeff was dishing out lots of other treats for our bellies while Gem was snapping profusely, in between filling camalbaks of course!

So, on to our second stage of the day towards Hilltop Farm at Cocking.  The sun was shining so the sunglasses came out and for the first time in his relatively short Hardcore Four history, Josh took off his fleece! We had been ribbing him a bit last week about how he had kept his warm fleece on while we were walking in the warmth, but he shrugged it off. First he said how he couldn't really be bothered to take it off, then the explanation was that it would help him acclimatise to the heat of July when it hits us, but we'd take a guess that the first of the two was the truth.

It was also the first time Josh had been introduced to our 'old friend' (as Julie put it), Beacon Hill. When Josh approached he said "It's not so bad, I'm going to run up it". Yeah, yeah, sure you are Josh.

Well he didn't run up it, but he didn't hold back.  He was the first member of the team to scale the height and by some distance too. We've found on these past few training hikes that once Josh gets going, it's hard to stop his rhythm! He shoots off and you have to call him back for he is in some kind of trance that enables him to go at almost superhuman speeds, usually when going up hill.

We continued on our path, steaming past the Devil's Jumps, there was no stopping for them today, we had 31 mile to eat up.

As we approached the second checkpoint at Cocking we were told by a walker heading the other way, "There are a couple in the car park that would like me to ask you to hurry up!"

We were not late by any means, we were early, again in record time, completing the second stage in a little under 2 hours and 4 minutes.

The support team, which at Cocking was bolstered by night-shift support team Tracy & Peter, had readied us a picnic! We had the blanket out for stretching, with each of our boxes at the four corners together with a camping chair each! This was the life.

We were each handed a bowl of pasta for lunch which Jeff cooked up for us on the camping stove, and we tucked in enthusiastically.

Heading off on stage three with more fire in our bellies, Josh was commenting on how much more he felt he had to give in this walk as opposed to previous walks. A sentiment that would be shared through the rest of the team. The supply of food was doing us some real good.

Stage three to Littleton Farm is is pretty short one really, and we were in the field of rapeseed at the end of the stage before we knew it. This week it appeared that someone had driven over the path we took last week. The creeping rapeseed had been pushed down so we had a better path to walk down.

We arrived at checkpoint 3 in 1 hour and 40 minutes, again a good time, almost the same as when we did the same stage last week. We were greeted with bunting on a nearby hedge (though I don't think that was the support crew's doing this time...) and the picnic set up again. However, this time Gem shouted as we went to sit down, "No, those chairs aren't for you, take away the chairs, you'll stay too long!"

It was like Jim Bowen on Bullseye showing us what we could have won... the chairs were out for the waiting support team apparently. Oh well.

We again stretched and stocked up on food, water and treats, taking some for the road this time to save time at the checkpoint.

We headed out on to stage four towards Houghton and Julie supplied us all with an energy shot drink that we would take together later on this stage to give us that boost we'd need. Josh didn't read the script though and downed it before he had even left the checkpoint. He's still new bless him.

It did provide the rest of the team with some entertainment shortly after setting off again though as Josh was saying how much he was "more aware of everything", and how his aches had vanished.

Julie, what's in those shots?? Did you get them from a special pharmacist?

Anyway the rest of the team took theirs a little later and the conversation moved on to our favourite 70s and 80s TV shows, with Josh and Julie trading quotes.

We were at the next checkpoint and arrived after 2 hours and 23 minutes of walking. This wasn't the proper Trailwalker checkpoint, but a little higher up the route at a convenient stop of the support team.

It was also our second cooked meal of the day, with sausages and beans! Yum... who wouldn't like beans..?? Well Jo apparently, as she had another pasta meal instead. Jeff was offering all kinds of treats again and Gubbs had a second helping of sausages and beans, a move he would shortly regret when we commenced the walking again.

After leaving this checkpoint Gem would head off with Peter & Tracy to show them the checkpoints that they'd be responsible for on the day, meeting everyone at the end in Washington.

We started stage five with the sun beating down our our backs, as the food sloshed around in Gubbs' stomach.

That sun soon faded as a thin veil of cloud formed. Julie commented on how much she enjoyed being on the top of these hills at this kind of time, early evening. The number of people dwindles and its time you can enjoy the scenery, etc. in quiet.

The aches on the feet were intensifying now. We were all feeling great, apart from that though. Much better than the week before, even Gubbs was agreeing now his dinner had gone down a bit.

When we came into the car park at Washington we were greeted to cheers, music and medals thanks to our support team!

That was it, 31 miles done. We were very happy with ourselves. We felt we had more to give, and we did it well within the 12 and a half hours time we had set ourselves. Total time including breaks was 11 hours and 16 minutes.

Walking On, Walking On Broken Sunglasses

The Hardcore Four with added sun.

We were given the good news this week that we had reached 19th in the top 20 teams on the Trailwalker fundraising leaderboard. There are well over 500 teams competing so we were really pleased to see our name up there.

We'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us, or played in our pub quiz, you are all great people!

If you haven't sponsored us but would like to, there is still time. You can reach our fundraising page using the button on the top right of the web page (not shown on mobile), or you can use this link.

This week we planned to hike between checkpoint 2 (Hilltop Farm) and checkpoint 6 (Botolphs). Support team Gem & Anna were going to look after us for the second time, on the three checkpoints in between. So we all met in Cocking Hill car park at 8am.

Opps, those sunglasses won't last long.

The sun was out and so everyone decided to get their sunglasses on as we were getting ready. Unfortunately for Gubbs he found that his sunglasses had broken with one of the arms missing. Cue a walk with unprotected eyes squinting all day - great!

We set off on the way to Littleton Farm on stage three and the discussion turned to breakfast. Julie had the best breakfast for long lasting energy of the team; a banana and porridge. Gubbs had a bowl of bran flakes, Josh had a bowl of THREE Weetabix, and Jo had Belvita Breakfast biscuits, which the rest of us all suggested was not enough for a walking breakfast!

Erm...where's the path?

While we walked along we spotted a number of marathon mile markers and arrows pointing towards the start of our journey. We hadn't seen any runners yet so we presumed that the race may not have started yet. As we neared the end we had a call from Gem to say they had gathered a crowd to clap us in to the checkpoint! The checkpoint on the day, which is a field usually closed to cars, was open for a marathon relay checkpoint.

Prior to getting there we had to cross a field of rapeseed though and this is where the path closed in on us.

Ready for a run Anna?

The weather, although sunny and very clear, was also very windy in the exposed sections of the course.  We spotted a downed tree on the route and we were worried we may fly off in some gusts of wind.

At the checkpoint Gem and Anna were telling us that they started stretching when people were looking at them wondering where their runner is!

We set off on stage four towards Houghton, where instead of meeting Gem & Anna at the checkpoint we'd meet them nearer Amberley for a rest up on the edge of a field.

Do they know something we don't??

In this section we came into contact with a number of the marathon runners. Many friendly folk who were saying/shouting/wheezing 'Morning' to us as we walked by. With so many running past Gubbs mentioned that he was reminded of a Monty Python scene.

We left the runners at the Roman Villa path and carried on towards Houghton, with Josh informing us all that today he was wearing his thermals rather than the PJ bottoms of last week, under his hiking trousers, after a rummage in the loft. We wouldn't want him feeling too comfy in the later stages of Trailwalker.

We met Gem & Anna for lunch where a variety of foods came out and so did Gem & Anna's nice and refreshing slices of orange, as well as some chocolate fingers! What a treat!

After a 25 minute break, with the support team shouting at us with every 5 minutes that had passed, we got up and set off again on to stage 5 to Washington.

We had the full force of the wind up at the top of the hills as we were at maximum exposure, but the views were clear and great.

Towards the end of the stage you reach a fork where you can carry straight on towards the A24 or go off towards the left which will take you to Washington avoiding the A24. The team had not walked this section before with Gubbs walking it with Gem and fellow support team members Tracy & Peter back in February, and Jo & Julie with Support Crew Jeff in April, so there was some debate over the correct path here as in the instructions it says to avoid the A24. We headed straight though as the checkpoint is just prior to the A24 so we believe the instruction is to stop people skipping the checkpoint and taking a short cut.

Today though, to add to the confusion, we did cross the A24 to the small car park where Gem & Anna were waiting, as we walked up to the car park they put on the car stereo with some selected tunes for the team.

Our top support team for the day

As we bopped our heads along to Tom Jones and Michael Jackson we were also offered a surprise treat by the support team, YumYums and Almond Twists from a bakery they had visited earlier in the day.

Morale was high and one stage to go for the day!

We crossed the A24 again back towards the checkpoint and followed the path to the posh boarding school mentioned in last week's blog.

We climbed the path to Chanctonbury Hill which seemed to last forever on this day and when we reached the top the wind was up again as we actually had to fight it to stay in a straight line. Luckily for most of the way it was behind us.

By Chanctonbury Ring we spotted a bike pannier sitting on the path. We weren't too surprised that it's owner hadn't notice it fall off as the wind would shield any noise. A little further along the path we saw a cyclist on the path coming towards us with one pannier...a-ha...

He asked us if we saw his missing pannier and of course we pointed him towards it for which he was very grateful and we were pleased to see it reunited with it's owner!

Lambs-a-leaping

The path also takes you past some fields with grazing sheep and we noticed that some of the lambs were a-leaping around. We stopped a moment for a chuckle as they jumped over one another which was very amusing. Unfortunately we did not get a photo of such behaviour, rather just of them eyeing each other up very much like a pole vaulter prior to their vault...

We walked on past the pigs of last week and the whole team found their bladders weakening by the minute! We presume it must be all the fluid taken on throughout the day. We wonder how we'll be after another 15/16 hours!

That last section seemed to take ages and we were a fair bit slower than the same stage last week, although that was the first stage of the training last week to be fair.

We completed the 27 mile walk in 10 hours and 13 minutes.

The car back to Cocking was one full of sneezing and sniffing though as the whole team, apart from a luckily (for him!) immune Gubbs, had fits of hay fever! Must remember to take the anti-histamines earlier in the day next time!

Gem's Totally Sole-less

Welcome to Spring! The weather over the last week has been fantastic and the story was very much the same Sunday. This week the team had planned a walk in the afternoon due to Gubbs' running commitments in the morning. It was going to be a one way adventure through stage 3 and 4 of the Trailwalker course.

Gubbs in the Eastleigh 10k in the morning*

The morning started off with Gubbs lining up for the Eastleigh 10k alongside Iwan Thomas (when we say lined up, he was also in the same crowd of 2,500 runners). Gem, Jo and support team members Stewart, Peter & Tracy all turned up to provide Gubbs with some support from the sides, which I'm sure they would argue was just as much effort as the running given the shouting, waving and clapping involved. Gubbs would argue different...

After a decent run in the strengthening heat of the morning's sun there was time for a quick shower and lunch before meeting Julie at Houghton Viewing Point at the top of Houghton hill, from which we would leave one car, and drive to checkpoint 3, Cocking.

For future reference, while attempting to get instructions on how to get to Houghton Viewing Point, be careful what web sites you access on your work computer from the Google search listings. For one of the top options, which was accidentally selected, highlighted that this viewing point is also a hotspot for gay cruising. With work laptop browser history deleted, we met Julie at 2pm, who then drove us through the windy country roads back to Cocking.

Gem & Gubbs have walked Stage Three in the snow back in early February, and so although it was the same route, it was good to see it looking a little more like it will in July.  For Jo & Julie this was a first time of seeing this part of the route. The course starts by going up a decent sized incline but when at the top it levels out and although there are some ups and downs they are quite gentle.

With the sun beating down on us at the beginning it was good to get in the shady woodland which stayed with us, at least one the right side (South), for most of this first section. For July this would be a good stage if you get a sudden urge for a 'tinkle'.

Rapeseed field at the end of Stage 3

We reached the end of Stage 3 walking through a field of rapeseed, which will turn to a field of yellow in the summer. Further on through that we reached a grassy field which will become a check point in a little under four months time. Here we took some time to stretch, take in the scenery and most importantly eat some of Julie's now famous flapjack.

Once we started again we descended down the hill to the busy road which we crossed to the path opposite. On entering this path we were met with a foul smell which stopped us mid conversation. This wasn't a pleasant experience. It looked like there was a trench filled of all kinds of nasty smelling things with a sign on the fence saying "Warning: Keep Out". Don't you worry we made our way away from there as fast as we could, up a new incline.

Something we have found on our training walks so far on the South Downs is that each stage has it's own character, and Stage 4 was again different to Stage 3.  This was more open and also threw in a few more ups and downs. This stage also had more loose chalky tracks which were not the nicest underfoot.

That's a funny way to hold your poles Gem

It was along this stage that Gem realised that she hadn't put the inner soles back in her boots! To explain; when buying new boots a couple of weeks ago she also brought a pair of Superfeet Green Innersoles which she decided were so good she would wear them in every pair of shoes she wears. So at this point of the walk she remembered that these innersoles were back home in her every day shoes... oops... She will not be making the same mistake again as these paths were uneven to say the least.

Gem was navigating today. After her boast in the team profiles released last week about keeping the team on track, it was realised she hadn't actually done much of the map reading. She did a good job considering we didn't end up getting lost. Maybe some of this may be down to Jo exercising her new act of measuring distances in her stride as we walked step by step. As an example; when we were told through the instructions that a important branch in the path was 150 metres away she measured this by counting her steps which she adjudged to be a metre. We witnessed the birth of the Nugent Strider Measurement (NSM).  However, on the one occasion it was unleashed it turned out to be 30 metres off so it was given up fairly quickly.

Old Roman sign and modern white car

Part of Stage 4 covers an area which housed a Roman villa back in Roman times (it's just a guess). So when walking along here, archaeology enthusiast Julie had a keen eye out for Roman pottery. So naturally we were excited when Julie exclaimed an excited "Check this out!" after picking up an item from the floor.

...Unfortunately, to our disappointment, on this occasion it was a piece of pottery coloured plastic.

There is that saying, "every cloud has a silver lining". For us yesterday losing an hour sleep moving to Summer Time, meant gaining an hour sun at the end of the day, and this was well needed towards the end of our walk. As we made our way down towards Houghton and checkpoint 4 the ever lowering sun give a chillier feel while also providing some dramatic light against Amberley and hills on which we could see the pathways which we would take on stage five. But that wasn't for today and we worked our way back up a different incline towards the car park looking out for any cruising gentlemen.

Getting darker

We finished our walk at 7:15pm walking a total of 11.75 miles in 4 hours and 27 minutes.

As we drove back to drop Julie at her car in Cocking we were given every chance to run down a pheasant as these birds seemed to have some kind of a death wish. It was officially Pheasant Hour, so many of them wondering the roads you would be forgiven for thinking they had their own Trailwalker. In an attempt to move them on Gubbs resorted to some strobe light flashing of the headlights which did absolutely nothing but add a disco effect to their evening stroll. 

So that was our Sunday. We hope you enjoyed the read, but before you go, there is just one more thing for us to tell you...

The Hardcore Four Trailwalker Pub Quiz is open for bookings!

The details are as follows:

Date: Sunday 27th May 2012

Time: 4:00 pm 

Location: The Queen's Head, Fisher's Pond, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO50 7HF

Entry Fee: £5 per person (Teams of 5 please)

Prize: £50 in cash!

Please get in contact through our media outlets (Twitter or Facebook) or if you do not have either accounts please try our newly created email address: HardcoreFour2012@gmail.com

Or if you know any of the team members well - send us a text or give us a call and we'll book you in.

Please be aware there is limited space so get in touch as soon as you can!

*Picture courtesy of Paul Hammond of Eastleigh Running Club (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hammy8241/sets/72157629303445152/)