Sunday was again forecast to be dry and if anything, better weather than we'd had on Saturday. I'd really caught the sun so prepared for today with suncream...it started to rain as soon as we arrived at our start line!
But let's backtrack a tad as there was a little bit of stress on my part beforehand.....Liz unfortunately had only been able to help yesterday so I successfully enrolled Pat into our support crew so that Ellen wasn't alone in the car plus would definitely help having two to pre-warn people of my arrival. Then Liz decided she'd had so much fun the day before, she wanted second helping....excellent, the A team were joining forces again!
From a bike crew perspective, I lost Debbie and Debs but gained Caro (she is so amazingly fast at running / biking, she would later admit that this was probably the slowest bike ride that she'd been on but there was no way I was running any faster than I did during today!!). Loz and Tricia were back for seconds too...bit saddle sore but as they say, no pain, no gain!
At the Westbourne meeting point I realised I'd left the most important part of my kit at home...my running shoes! Frantic call to John and they were being personally delivered to Tuckton for us to pick up on the way through. My Garmin watch had also decided that it had been traumatised yesterday and froze...wasn't able to check time or mileage and at Hythe, I was getting so panicy that Loz insisted I wear her watch!
Heard the Wave105 airing of my 2nd day at 1pm, announcing that we'd would be on our way in the next 5 minutes or so...that had been the plan but we were stuck in traffic getting into Lyndhurst.
Late arrival at The Waterloo Arms meant it was a quick visit and whip-round before shooting off through the village - Ellen, Liz and Pat had already had a quick opportunity to prep the customers and I received quite a lot of encouragement running through the High Street. My route then took me back across the New Forest to Hythe, with only ponies and cattle for company. We took a very small diversion through one car park as it was packed with VW campervans, clearly on some sort of reunion and they weren't expecting a vocal runner and 3 cyclists to be 'robbing' them off all their change! As we were now more in the realm of Wave105, we found people were more aware of Cash for Kids than Jigsaw whereas yesterday it was definitely the other way round. I was receiving encouragement from cars, whether that was beeping horns or waves / applause out the window. At one layby a family were out clapping and taking photos of us - transpired they had heard all about my efforts on Wave and wanted a photo with me...I'm a celebrity!
Into Hythe where the weather got decidedly colder : Hythe ferry company had kindly arranged complimentary tickets for us although poor Ellen thought it was a car ferry and hadn't realised she needed to drive all the way round to pick up with us again :o(
We were running slightly later than expected so having just missed the 3.10, took the opportunity for a little refreshment pit stop before running down the long wooden pier (the resident train holds the world record for the oldest pier train!) and into the waiting room out of the wind.
Once docked in Southampton it was only a short hop to our 2nd pub, The Platform Tavern. In fairness, I'd virtually written these guys off as when Tricia and I visited the previous week, it really wasn't my kind of place - loud live music and 20/30 somethings, most of whom blanked us or who were too drunk to care what we were doing. What a difference it makes to visit the same place on a different day and at a different time. Nice and quiet inside and virtually everyone was more than happy to donate. Then the bar staff gave their tips for the day and to round it off, there had been a leaving do for a guy called Ben at the Oceanography Society during the week and he had requested the excess bar tab be put in the safe for me : £76.60....awesome generosity guys!
Next obstacle to overcome was the very steep Itchen Bridge but once over that it was back down to the coast at Netley then into Queen Victoria country park. Ellen, Liz and Pat were still doing a sterling job working the crowds whether in car parks or in the park itself - all I had to do was run! By this time I was starting to get a tad concerned that we wouldn't make the last ferry in Hamble (6pm) but having negotiated the park, it was only a couple of miles into the village. Last pub for today was The Victory Inn, again very generous patrons, some of whom Tricia and I had caught the week before too!
There's quite a few pubs in Hamble and not content with just The Victory Inn, Liz and Ellen carried on with their pub crawl. I shouldn't have worried about missing the ferry : when we left Queen Victoria country park, Tricia and Caro sped on ahead to ensure the ferryman didn't leave without us...it would have been an awful long way to cross the Hamble via the roads (Caro eventually getting her 'speed' fix and Tricia able to keep up with her by engaging her electric bike sports mode!).
I sent a text to Gloria at Wave to tell her we were just about to catch the ferry. She was already at the studios awaiting our arrival and anticipated we would be there around 6.15...by the time we'd got off the ferry that gave me just 20 minutes....no way! Tricia was still pulling in the donations along the route, catching a couple of lads coming out of a local convenience store (no one was safe!).
Loz was to comment that today had definitely been a lot hillier than yesterday and there were still a few more slow drawn out inclines for me to negotiate and once again, a couple of miles from the finish, my wheels fell off again (this time can't blame the milkshake!) - I'm sure its just because whilst I was obviously more than capable of running the distance, with the stops and fundraising, I was spending an extra couple of hours each day on the road, without putting back in the calories and energy.
After negotiating a barren industrial estate, never a better sight than the logo of Wave105 and we eventually hauled into the car park at 6.30pm.
Steve was unfortunately stuck in traffic so we piled into the studios to meet up with Gloria who plied us with lovely cups of tea and coffee and scooby snacks! Once Steve had safely arrived, we all had a final photoshoot under the Wave logo before being 'interviewed' for a Cash for Kids update that would go out next weekend.
Not entirely sure what today's mileage was but it was definitely in excess of 20. On the fundraising side, whilst we hadn't encountered the crowds of people experienced yesterday, once again the day's total far surpassed any of our predictions : £490.05 making an overall total of £1,262.60 for the event (with the previous Fridays donations). Gloria confirmed that this had been a 'major event' as far as Wave were concerned so really pleased everyone's efforts have resulted in such an amazing figure.
Ellen, Liz, Loz, Tricia, Debs, Caro, Debbie and Pat - you're all fantastic and thanks so much for giving up your precious weekend to help....definitely would have been so much less of an adventure and success without you xx
Monday 2 July 2012
One heck of a training run....part I
If you didn't realise I was crazy before...now read on and this may change your mind!
Saturday 30 June wasn't wet or windy or chilly, infact it dawned bright with a strange little yellow thing in the sky....a far cry from this dismal weather we've been having recently. Maybe this was an omen of good things to come today!?
10.30 rendezvous at Bournemouth Hospital with what would be the first of my fabulous support crew from Bournemouth Joggers : Ellen, Liz, Lauren (Loz), Tricia, Debbie and Debs. Lesley, Lisa and Carl from the Jigsaw Appeal were there together with several others they had clearly coerced into giving up an hour or so of their sunny Saturday morning, together with balloons and banners. Mock up photos of my 'start' duly completed ready to be sent off to the press and suchlike, we then transferred to the Littledown Centre for an impromptu whip-round before heading back to the hospital for the real departure.
Loz had been installed as our official photo / video taker for the adventure and was to do an incredible job of recording our adventures and post them straight back to our Facebook pages so that people could keep a track of our exploits. Wave105 were also airing the event all over the weekend.
12.00 and I was off. We made our first error of judgement just 400m later when I changed tact and followed the cycle path down by the river...how was I to know that Ellen and Liz had legged it to Iford roundabout and missed us coming through!! Oops...
Christchurch was heaving and with Liz and Ellen still waiting for us to appear at Iford, it was left to my bike crew to try to get some coins in those buckets and tins. On to Somerford where Liz and Ellen then passed me, sat on the railings near the zebra crossing waiting for my bike crew! Highcliffe gave another opportunity to catch shoppers before we hit the first pub of the day, The House Martin at Barton-on-Sea. We started to get into a routine as Liz and Ellen were able to leap-frog us and 'prep' the pub / village that we were approaching so by the time we got there the hard work had already been done and the tins were filling up nicely....great going guys :o)
Country lanes beckoned next as we headed down towards the coast to Milford-on-Sea and Keyhaven where once again Ellen and Liz had worked wonders in the car parks! No-one was safe from these two!!
Great support in Milford-on-Sea then a quick hop down to The Gun Inn at Keyhaven where I was rewarded with a round of applause when appearing round the corner - again Ellen and Liz had got there first!
It was at this point that Ellen told me off....for running too fast and not giving them sufficient time to really work the punters. At several points earlier, I'd clocked myself doing well under sub 8 minute miles...what was I trying to achieve here...a fast run or to raise as much money as possible? Slow down kid!!
Next stop was Lymington but first we had to negotiate the very busy main road into the town which wasn't pleasant as there was no footpath : I decided best plan of action was to run in front of the bikes rather than behind or on the opposite side of the road. Another raptuous round of applause greeted us as we arrived in the High Street, closed due to a street market...excellent crowds for Ellen and Liz to capture. Two lads in jeans and fashion trainers were apparently in awe of what I was doing and were debating whether they could run with me for the remaining 6 or 7 miles...they decided to try and ran with me to the bottom of the High Street hill before electing that this was the limits of their stamina! Suddenly craving a milk shake, Loz found me an amazing freshly made banana one - later would decide this probably wasn't the best idea I've had but right here, right now, it was delicious! Having worked the hordes of people around the marina / harbour, we then set off for the final leg to East Boldre. The wheels came off my wagon about a mile to the finish, probably around the same time that I revisited the banana milkshake idea and decided not to go down that route again! The Turfcutters Arms couldn't have been a more welcome sight and once I'd recomposed myself, enjoyed an ice cold drink in the beer garden, along with a wedding party that had already been extremely generous and dropped over £50 into our buckets.
Amazing day, fantastic crew and all the boxes were ticked.
Covered 24.5 miles and raised £543.18, way in excess of any of our guesses. Tomorrow, back out to do it all again :o)
Saturday 30 June wasn't wet or windy or chilly, infact it dawned bright with a strange little yellow thing in the sky....a far cry from this dismal weather we've been having recently. Maybe this was an omen of good things to come today!?
10.30 rendezvous at Bournemouth Hospital with what would be the first of my fabulous support crew from Bournemouth Joggers : Ellen, Liz, Lauren (Loz), Tricia, Debbie and Debs. Lesley, Lisa and Carl from the Jigsaw Appeal were there together with several others they had clearly coerced into giving up an hour or so of their sunny Saturday morning, together with balloons and banners. Mock up photos of my 'start' duly completed ready to be sent off to the press and suchlike, we then transferred to the Littledown Centre for an impromptu whip-round before heading back to the hospital for the real departure.
Loz had been installed as our official photo / video taker for the adventure and was to do an incredible job of recording our adventures and post them straight back to our Facebook pages so that people could keep a track of our exploits. Wave105 were also airing the event all over the weekend.
12.00 and I was off. We made our first error of judgement just 400m later when I changed tact and followed the cycle path down by the river...how was I to know that Ellen and Liz had legged it to Iford roundabout and missed us coming through!! Oops...
Christchurch was heaving and with Liz and Ellen still waiting for us to appear at Iford, it was left to my bike crew to try to get some coins in those buckets and tins. On to Somerford where Liz and Ellen then passed me, sat on the railings near the zebra crossing waiting for my bike crew! Highcliffe gave another opportunity to catch shoppers before we hit the first pub of the day, The House Martin at Barton-on-Sea. We started to get into a routine as Liz and Ellen were able to leap-frog us and 'prep' the pub / village that we were approaching so by the time we got there the hard work had already been done and the tins were filling up nicely....great going guys :o)
Country lanes beckoned next as we headed down towards the coast to Milford-on-Sea and Keyhaven where once again Ellen and Liz had worked wonders in the car parks! No-one was safe from these two!!
Great support in Milford-on-Sea then a quick hop down to The Gun Inn at Keyhaven where I was rewarded with a round of applause when appearing round the corner - again Ellen and Liz had got there first!
It was at this point that Ellen told me off....for running too fast and not giving them sufficient time to really work the punters. At several points earlier, I'd clocked myself doing well under sub 8 minute miles...what was I trying to achieve here...a fast run or to raise as much money as possible? Slow down kid!!
Next stop was Lymington but first we had to negotiate the very busy main road into the town which wasn't pleasant as there was no footpath : I decided best plan of action was to run in front of the bikes rather than behind or on the opposite side of the road. Another raptuous round of applause greeted us as we arrived in the High Street, closed due to a street market...excellent crowds for Ellen and Liz to capture. Two lads in jeans and fashion trainers were apparently in awe of what I was doing and were debating whether they could run with me for the remaining 6 or 7 miles...they decided to try and ran with me to the bottom of the High Street hill before electing that this was the limits of their stamina! Suddenly craving a milk shake, Loz found me an amazing freshly made banana one - later would decide this probably wasn't the best idea I've had but right here, right now, it was delicious! Having worked the hordes of people around the marina / harbour, we then set off for the final leg to East Boldre. The wheels came off my wagon about a mile to the finish, probably around the same time that I revisited the banana milkshake idea and decided not to go down that route again! The Turfcutters Arms couldn't have been a more welcome sight and once I'd recomposed myself, enjoyed an ice cold drink in the beer garden, along with a wedding party that had already been extremely generous and dropped over £50 into our buckets.
Amazing day, fantastic crew and all the boxes were ticked.
Covered 24.5 miles and raised £543.18, way in excess of any of our guesses. Tomorrow, back out to do it all again :o)
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