What was I thinking!

The story so far...................

It all seemed such a great idea sitting in the pub in front of a roaring log fire in early December. All we had to do was raise some cash and go for a walk!

Now I am not the most active person in the world, in the far and distant past I was quite sporty, I was in Scotland U14 Nordic Ski Team and ran X-country for Cumbria but a knee injury, a subsequent operation and 3 children had put paid to that a long time ago.

After a bit of persuasion I managed to get Steph and Emma to join me on my quest, as we were still a team member down we just registered Jacqui and hoped that she would be speaking to us again by May - For anyone ever thinking of doing this I would recommend that you ask your team members before they receive their entry pack in the post, I can't understand it myself but apparently getting a letter thanking you for entering Trailtrekker when you have no idea what trailtrekker is, is not the best Christmas present they will ever receive!! (Oxfam sent out the entry packs rather quickly so when I came home to find mine had arrived I felt it was time to confess) so the texts went somthing like this.....

(me) Hi Jacs, I have somthing to tell you.......

No respone

(me) I think I might of accidentally entered you to walk 100km in May.....

No response

(me) Jacs?

(Duncan -Jacs Husband) errr... I'd give it 5 mins if I was you

(me) Oh...is she a bit mad?

(Duncan) errr...yes!

10 minutes later...

(jac) Accidentally? Think? you don't think you have entered me, you HAVE entered me and explain how it was accidental?

(me) I couldn't think of any one else?

(Jac) SUNRISE, I can cope with blisters, and cuts and bruises but SUNRISE that means I have to be up all night?

(Jac) Shit, Duncans got the maps out!

(me) ooo what does he think of the route?

(Jac) OK - bit of a hill in the middle?

(me) What hill

(Jac) Pen-y-gent

(me) are you going to do it then?

(jac) I'll think about it

(me) Really, fantastic our teams called Caminata

We quickly realised that this might require a bit of training and that having 1 team member in Norfolk wasn't going to be easy so when Suzanne declared that she though it sounded like an easy challenge (at 1am on NYE) we made our first team change.

On January 15th we set off on our first proper training walk - along the route from Malham - Horton and lost another team member. Jacqui who had got in to the spirit of Trailtrekker once she had stopped shaking with anger, damaged her tendon and we were back to a team of three...

This is my story on behalf of my team, Caminata (or as my Mum calls us 'the Calamities') This is for anyone who has ever wondered what would it be like to walk 100km in a day, or for all sane people who may wonder why would you walk 100km in a day.......