Reflections...

This would've been the last night of the coast 2 coast, so a suitable point to review what I did, what went well and what didn't go well...

I did, 83 miles & 16,000ft of ascent, that is a damn good weeks walking in most people's books. I did it with a full camping load, and I enjoyed it.

Apart from the "Orton incident" navigation was spot on, timings were there or there abouts, food & water worked and worked well. The gear worked, the tent is cracking, the camping mat comfy and warm and there wasn't a walker out there who had dry boots.

I got a collection of 3 blisters, all on 1 foot my left. If it had just been the heel one (the most spectacular) and the one on the toe then I'd have been very tempted to carry on. However, the one of the pad made walking very difficult and when loaded almost impossible. Never had one there again, and despite someone suggesting they're indicative of wearing stilettos I still have no idea how it got there.

Am I disappointed I'm not still out there? Yes.

This was a walk over 6 months in the planning and training for, 6 months that got beaten by blisters. However, everything else worked, my legs were fine despite the mileage and weight, my back held up well and there's no reason why without those blisters I wouldn't be finishing.

Did I raise awareness? Well, there's a bunch of walkers who know all about us, some asked intelligent questions... One asked if I was carrying a defibrillator... I chose to view that as a joke... It was at the end of a long, hard day....

So what next? 12th June is the Liverpool Tunnel 10k, based on how my foot is doing today I'll be on the starting line (well at the back of the starting pack), I'm not going to get as much training is as I hoped, but hey ho, this is the kick off for the training for the next biggie - the Liverpool Marathon.

So, I'm disappointed I'm not still out there, happy with what I achieved, and ready to get my ass in gear for the next challenge

TTFN

Paul

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