London to Brighton 100km Trek June 2012

Not strictly related to Nutritional Therapy but definitely a 'healthy and active' challenge to have taken part in and something I'm proud of and would like to share with past and future clients - proof that you can do anything if you put your mind to it!


Thank you so much for all your support and messages of good luck & congratulations!

Here's a brief synopsis of the event itself!

Although our alarm was set for 5.40am on Saturday morning, I was wide awake by 5am and my first thought is that I wouldn't be sleeping again for another 30 hours!
Taxi arrived at 6.30 to take us to Waterloo where we boarded the 7.12 to Kempton Park Race course, spotting a few other fellow competitors en route - all looking as apprehensive as we felt!

As our train didn't arrive till 8am we had missed the first safety briefing and mass start but you could still start up till 9 am so we quickly registered, picked up water, head torches, t-shirts and emergency numbers, had quick briefing - basically follow the day glow arrows, call us if you need ANYTHING and good luck. Then we were off in the gorgeous sunshine with 100km ahead of us.

The course was divided into 10 main check points approx. 12km apart from each other with the main stop at 63km which we had planned to be at by 11.30 according to my very organised spreadsheet! The guy at the start had said to us 'the weather is due to come in at 11 so try to make main stop by then'. with this in mind we were pleased to be always 30 mins ahead of plan for most of the checkpoints.

First checkpoint went well and by then we'd caught up with the mass start, and overtaken some even! checkpoint two was where we were due to have lunch and be met by our amazing support team - well person, Susan! Found getting to this checkpoint strangely hard given the sun was out and it was only 18 miles into the event - the walking poles were being used already as my right hip was playing up. But after a sock change (v important!) and refuel and hugs of encouragement from Susan we set off from there and onto the next checkpoint which was a morale boosting 5 miles away - much nearer then the first two!

A few checkpoints later, we were doing well, no blisters or injuries, walking poles were amazing and we were boosted by the support and snacks available at every checkpoint - really no need to bring our own food after them saying we had to! we figured it must have been the volunteers bringing it all for us!

So by the time we saw susan again at checkpoint 5 we had passed the half way mark  50km done and were feeling surprisingly good - not sure if that was the pro-plus & nurofen combination but after a quick stop, sock change again a bit of attention to the feet from a paramedic (only cause I stupdily but my bare foot onto gravel and got it dirty!) we were off again equipped with extra layers and head gear for the night section. We were to be on our own from now on so said good bye and huge thanks to susan!

The next few miles were again fine, the last 5 miles before the main stop darkness set in and head torches came out and the rain started...little did we know it wasn't to stop for another 8 hours (11pm - 7am continously!). But we arrived at meal stop in good spirits at 11pm - ahead of target. we had a blissful hour here refuelling on jacket potatoes and bbq (although not amazing really) and cups of tea. We got ourselves geared up for the weather - gaiters on etc. and headed out just after midnight with another group of girls not far behind - only identifiable by the line of head torches behind us.

I have to say the next 6 hours were the toughest out of the lot. The rain set in and then the wind and the mud - trying to avoid muddy puddles every 2 metres is not fun as your pace is interrupted and you have to squeeze up against the bank to get past - it's also hard to see them with head torches until it's almost too late and you want to do everything you can to keep feet dry - despite gortex boots and gaiters they were still getting damp.

We kept our spirits up by listening to music - 1 ear phone only so we could hear each other call out if needed, now and then I gave a walking pole to matt for his sore feet and we just kept going - left, right, left right until we got to the next checkpoint - number 7 - after 2 hrs. we weren't best pleased with this checkpoint - a tiny tent, with only 3 tiny stools already occupied by tired hypothermic people, but the marshalls gave us bananas and water and after 20 mins of standing shivering and taking it in turns to sit on stools we decided to crack on - and anyway, they said it as only 5 miles and nice and flat!

Well - it wasn't 5 miles and yes it was flat but no it wasn' t nice. it was hell! We tool 2hrs 40 mins to do what was apparently 5 miles, it took us off the lovely straight Downs Link path and across a marshy field with a river running through it with a sign that said cheerfully - follow the river! Well we did, after a bit of debate with some other groups as to which way it was. Within minutes the wind had picked up in this very exposed marsh land, the grass was up to our knees and my feet were sopping wet within minutes - so much for gortex! so wet feet, wind, rain howling in from the right hand side, muddy, grassing tracks which you can't use your poles on and no idea how long it was to the next check point as it just kept going and going.. and then it was day light suddenly and the extent of where we are struck home - what looked like miles and miles ahead of us of the same terrain. A few girls made calls to the marshalls as we were undecided of which way to go, one wrong turn and then we were back on track but by this time it was 5am, our sense of humour had drained.

Somehow, somehow we made it out of the field and as we did I spotted a white tent on a road the other side of the field - check point 8! At last!! it was 5.40am when we arrived and found another small tent, no where to sit - 4 girls who had quit and were waiting to be picked up and couldn't move. The checkpoint tent kept being blown about by the wind and dumping buckets of rain water on us. This wasn't fun - we had 13 miles to go, were ahead of schedule and were about to set off when one of the event organisers arrived and said they were re-routing the others behind us so they didn't have to do the exposed bit we just did! then a group of guys arrived looking like they'd seen a ghost - and saying they couldn't believe they hadn't shut the whole event yet and surely they couldn't let anyone go on from here. After a long discussion, by which point matt and I were freezing - they eventually phoned the search and rescue team who were at checkpoint 9 (on top of a big exposed hill in front of us) and asked them to clear everyone off the hill - they were shutting the course between 8 & 9.

What with it being nearly 6am and having had no sleep matt and I were not really in any fit state to argue this decision, as much as we wanted to complete the entire course we could see that logically it was ridiculous to even attempt it and so we made the decision to take a lift to checkpoint 9 and walk the final 6 miles to the end from there (the alternative was a lift to the end which just seemed like giving up). By this point I was nearly hypothermic but a trip in a warm van for 15 mins helped and then we were dropped off at shoreham on sea and told to walk straight along seafront until we saw brighton pier and then follow the signs up to the finish.

Those first few minutes out of the van I have to say were the worst, fighting back the tears and the pain and the cold, matt and I trailed behind the other 3 girls who had taken the lift with us. Matt thought i was going to give up but I couldn't do that to him or me.. something somewhere inside of me made me speed up to get warm and in no time we had overtaken the others and were at Brighton pier within 90 mins - amazing feeling! rubbish weather! Quick photo by the pier then onto the end up a big big hill and then we were inside by 8am and it was all over!!

A little bit of an anti-climax having not been able to do the full 100km but we finished proud of ourselves having done 90km and knew we'd done our absolute best and we would have done the other section had we been allowed to so by no means defeated! A massive achievement and one that has made us both realise we could pretty much weather any storm (!) together, quite literally and that the mind is so much more powerful than the body - you can get through anything if you think positive and have a bit of fat boy slim in your ears at 4am in the morning!

Thank you again all so much for your support - we have smashed our fundraising target and currently have raised over £1100 for British Heart Foundation so are very proud.

If anyone fancies doing it next year it's going to be run as part of the new London Adventure Trilogy taking in the London to Brighton bike ride, an off-road bike ride and the trek - all done on different weekends in the summer.  we were guinea pigs this year as were were kindly told at the end and despite the fantastic organisation effort there are a few things we shall feedback on and hopefully it'll be even better next year - not that i'll be doing it!!