It's not that i'm a total 'fruitcake' but........

..... when an appeal went out on facebook for a 4th member of a team for trailwalker it seemed to good an opportunity to miss.

So I am now a member of Team 'Fruitcakes' where baking seems as important as walking.

looking back.....and forward....

What a journey from the first walk of 3 miles to 63 miles in only 5 months!

As a team we have laughed, cried, screamed and hugged,
we have supported each other through personal trauma, medical injury, through hungover walks and learned to laugh when its painful (I'm thinking of those hailstones!)
spent hours talking nonsense and had more discussions about our horrible feet than was probably needed

Some thanks:
A mention of our support crew who were wonderful, and really did step up in the end, they turned up, sat in the sunshine having a BBQ, talking to pretty girls dressed as nurses and never once complained - our heros!!

Thanx to Sam with out whom we would never have left Hetton, and to the 2 medical guys who sat and patted my hands while I cried, and cried also with out whom I would never have left Hetton.

Thanks to John and Simon for their harsh words at Conistone we felt less than thankful at the time, but it was what was needed.

I'm sad that our journey is sort of over........ but excited that it will start again.........

To next year...... and to getting right all the things we got wrong.....to the weather being just right (not too hot, or to cold, no hail or snow)

To Team 'Caminata' x.x.x

I will wake the blog back up in September when we start training again!!

Looking confident at the start

Making it to the top of Pen-y-Ghent

I was ill between Malham and the bottom of Founatin Fell so we lost time in this section

Steph and Su looking like they are on holiday at check point 2.

Simons Soup got us all up and moving again!

Water Stop between check point 2 and 3

Sun Rise!

At the top of the last climb! If you think you could climb this after walking 90K - you can do Trailtrekker!

There were many times we thought we would never get here.......

phew...

Sunglasses and hairbands located!

the final countdown - 7 days to go.....

Training seems to have ground to a bit of a halt the bad weather has sent us all retreating back into the gym, and sore knees and toes still recovering from the K2B have taken priority.

Final team meeting last night, with all 4 of us there. Have got the Coms sorted with high powered radios that should give us contact 3 - 5k out of the check points. Menus are agreed. All essential kit is bought and checked.

the only elusive items are a hair band and sunglasses .......

Toenails..are over-rated anyway!

It seems my team may be literally falling to bits!

The text string below happened on Monday afternoon (when reading my responses bear in mind I was on a team building course and was at the time trying to work out how to suspend a bottle of wine 18 inches off the ground using only paper, string and balloons)

Su - my toenail is falling off, it's disgusting
me - toenails are over-rated anyway
Su - its 3 toenails now
me - can I have details (why I asked this I will never know)
Su - both big toenails are bruised and are lifting up, you can see between my toe and my nail. 1 other nail is completely black. They are very painful

Feeling a touch sympathetic I contacted Friend Brenda who has done trailwalker and lost a toenail or 2 herself - what advice did she have
"tell her to hang on to the other 7..........................."

!

3 weeks to go....team caminata take on the mighty K2B

If you're from round our way you will have undoubtedly of heard of the Keswick to Barrow challenge. If not it's an annual 65K challenge event where 3000 people of varying abilities get together and run, walk, hobble and crawl through the lake district.


When we were asked to join a team it would have been rude not too especially as it gave us chance to answer the following....

1. Training, have we done enough?
   



2. Our support crew, are they as useless as we think?

Setting off from my house at 4.30am was no fun but I guess walking while asleep is good practice. All 4 of team Caminata were out as part of a team of 10 called 'run and rumble'. Caminata Team member Fay was team leader for this event and was aiming to beat her last years time of 8 hours!! she shot off at 5.30am as soon as the official gate was open, we followed at 5.35am and the rest were out at about 5.45am.

The already tough route was made harder by driving rain and cold, we had decided to walk with all our Trailtrekker kit, but most people as support crew access is frequent were only carrying water, they were wet cold and miserable in about 5 mins!

Fay was in great form and was well ahead of her last year time until 25 miles when she began to feel unwell and she unfortunately had to retire at 35 miles.

For the rest of us we had decided to be happy with 10 -12 hours (12 - 14 is the average) and up to 30 miles we were on for 9 1/2 hours. The really bad weather set in at this point there had been heavy showers all morning with sun inbetween but on the higher ground the rain fell as hail - no fun in shorts!! and the wind had reached a gale force head wind.

We all finished in a respectable 10 hrs 45 mins 04 seconds.....

Have we done enough training - YES!

were our support crew useless - YES!

see the pics at...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80373&id=637492755&l=486d7a979d