No wonder my feet hurt!

Just done a tally of February's training and I've walked 125.5 miles this month (272,930 steps according to my pedometer). My big toe nails are turning black, my trainers are falling apart and I've already had to order replacement sock liners. Still, all this exercise means I get to eat more cake and chocolate so it's not all bad!

Mullion to Marazion

The team walked from Mullion to Marazion yesterday, covering the 18 miles in a fraction under 7 hours. There were some fairly steep climbs to contend with and the weather was mild enough to make us strip coats and fleeces off soon after starting. We didn't take nearly enough drink with us but our wonderful support crew leader was waiting for us at Marazion with a bag of bottled drinks and chocolate bars and we'll know to carry more next time.

Fundraising leaderboard

Just received fantastic news. Gould Electronics are currently at the top of Trailwalker's fundraising leader board. Amazing!

Team training

I've still got to plan our route but we're thinking of walking from Mullion to Penzance on Sunday. We're aiming to walk approximately 18 miles this time and it will be the furthest distance we've attempted yet. Mum's blisters have fortunately healed well (all thanks to regular treatment with surgical spirit!) and the weather forecast looks good.

There's now just two weeks to go until our fundraising afternoon tea and I'm starting to feel a bit nervous. I'm worried that we'll either find ourselves inundated with hungry people or no one will turn up and everyone's hard work will be wasted. I hadn't even thought about details such as crockery and cutlery until a few days ago so I think that it might be a good idea to spend tomorrow planning.

That's my weekend sorted!

Weekend off

I stayed at the Driftwood Hotel with family this weekend and intended to take a couple of days off training. I couldn't resist a 5 mile walk along the coast path however and enjoyed a brisk stroll to Portscatho and back before lunch on Saturday.

Blisters

This evening's training walk has been cancelled due to injury. Mum has blisters the size of dinner plates on her heels after our walk home from the office on Tuesday and she's had to come to work wearing open-toes sandals today. Still, at least we've learned a couple of things from the incident; never wear new trainers on a 6.5 mile walk, and don't trust the claim that you can walk a thousand miles in a pair of socks without developing blisters!

The donations keep coming

A big thank you to Co Star Electronic Components and Entel UK Limited for their donations this morning. It's the generosity of people like you that keeps us going when the training gets tough!

Perranporth to Portreath

Mum and I walked the coast path from Perranporth to Portreath yesterday and support crew leader (and hubby) Dave picked us up at Tehidy Woods nearly 6 and a half hours later. We had hoped to walk a little further and for longer than last weekend but this leg of the coast path was much more difficult than the Godrevy to Portreath section we last walked. We had a number of reasonably challenging ascents and descents to contend with and both experienced knee pain in the final couple of miles. My right knee was hurting so badly by the time we reached Portreath that I had to walk backwards down the hill a couple of times to ease the pain! Not sure what the locals made of me

New flyer unveiled

A special thank you to Phil Taylor for donating his time to our Trailwalker cause and working on our website, fundraising page and afternoon tea flyers. He's done an amazing job and I can't imagine anyone being able to resist a cupcake or two after seeing this!

Another thank you

A massive thank you to Matt from Hesketh Press http://www.heskethpress.com/ for agreeing to print, free of charge, posters and flyers for our fundraising afternoon tea. Now all I have do to is sweet talk our youngest member of staff into traipsing around Camborne next week to distribute them!

Thanks

A big thank you to Anthony Brown of local courier company Lamorna Express Ltd and to Morgan Jones from PMR radio case manufacturer Peter Jones (ILG) Ltd for their generous donations. I spent a couple of minutes yesterday sending out a few begging emails to our suppliers and it paid off.

Our longest walk yet

Mum and I intended to walk for four hours on Saturday but we got a little lost along the way and had to call our support crew leader for directions . It rained constantly which made much of our route slippery and at times difficult to negotiate and by the end of our walk we were soaked through to the skin. Our walking poles proved invaluable and I'm convinced I would have fallen several times if I didn't have mine with me. In the end it took us just over six hours to walk from Tehidy Park to Godrevy Point and then along the coast path to Portreath but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and we're both surprisingly pain-free this morning. I invested in some new waterproof clothing yesterday, a waterproof lining for my backpack (everything inside my bag got soaked on Saturday) and a compass (for those tricky moments when the GPS device lets you down). My purse is considerable lighter than it was at the beginning of the weekend but hopefully I'll be better prepared for the next training session.

Get out the thermals

Mum and I are planning to undertake a four hour training walk (our longest yet) on Saturday and hope to walk from Camborne to Godrevy point and back via Tehidy woods and Portreath. The weather forecast this morning appears to indicate that we might be faced with some rather inhospitable conditions, possibly even snow, so it could be a challenging trek. Perhaps if it snowed enough Mum's faithful pooches Harvey and Riley could be convinced to pretend to be huskies for a day!