A lone piper from the Gurkha Band played 'Scotland the Brave' as the walkers set off into the unknown.
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| At the start line |
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| Alison getting ready for a sprint start |
Stage 1 - start (Queen Elizabeth Country Park) to Checkpoint 1 (Harting Down)
Distance - 9.6 kms (6 miles) most of it going up and all of it wet and windy. Arrival at Checkpoint 1 - 08:01.
Time taken 2 hours and 1 minute. Ahead of schedule at this point. Time since sleep - 4 hours
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| Alison and Helen at Checkpoint 1 |
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| Looking back from Beacon Hill |
At checkpoint 1 our support was on standby to come if requested, but it was only once we'd arrived that we wished we had! With nowhere to shelter the mood was miserable. Aly was jigging about to keep warm, Alison was amusing us in her gnome outfit and Heather was being patched up in the first aid tent. But after getting a drink and pulling up our socks we were ready to move on. We left checkpoint 1 20 minutes after arrival.
View from the crew - while our team of walkers were slogging up the Downs in the wet, we were sitting in a warm, dry coffee shop in Petersfield (CP1 wasn't a scheduled stop for us). And we said, 'if it's only drizzling up there like it is down here, they'll be OK.' Unfortunately it wasn't. After coffee Michelle and Sonia set off to meet the team at checkpoint 2 while Craig and Margaret headed back to base camp to rest up for their night shift. The best laid plans....
Stage 2 - Checkpoint 1 to Checkpoint 2 (Hilltop Farm)
Distance from CP1 - 10.4 kms (6.5 miles) still wet and windy. Total distance covered 20kms (12.5 miles)
Arrival at Checkpoint 2 10:50. Time taken from CP1 2 hours 50 minutes (including break at CP1)
Total time taken - 4 hours 51 minutes. Time since sleep - 6 hours 51 minutes
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| Heather, Aly, Alison and Helen at Checkpoint 2. Alison's rainwear - poncho and shower cap - proved very popular with other participants |
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| Sonia makes Aly a bacon roll |
bags.
On nearing checkpoint 2 our mood lifted as we looked forward to a complete change of clothes. As the others queued for the toilets, I wandered up the line of cars to find Michelle and Sonia. My heart sank when I saw the tent hadn't been erected. Michelle was so apologetic, saying they'd queued for one and a half hours to get on to the site and there was no room to put it up. I felt like shouting "BUT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'VE BEEN THROUGH", but deep down understood their problems as often the case in life. Some harsh words said in haste and with frustration can change the course of everything.
I knew I needed to change my waterproofs and top so lifted the boot to find dry stuff, but on doing so saw that most things were wet and I could've cried. But what was the point, I just needed to get on with it. I wasn't looking forward to the others finding out as I could imagine what was going to happen but Aly blended into the bushes and changed, while Alison and Heather did their own thing. After soggy weetabix had been eaten, I tried to get the team moving but to no avail. I had a quiet word with Michelle to say I thought I would losethe team if the tent wasn't up at the next checkpoint. After what seemed like an age we set off again but not before Michelle pushed a bacon roll my way.
During the walk to the next checkpoint Aly and I came up with the brainwave to ring Margaret and Craig to see if they could find a laundrette to dry some of our clothes. We hoped we wouldn't wake them up; little did we know they hadn't been to sleep!
Alison's tale - stage 2 wasn't particularly memorable for me. The biggest problem I had was trying to have a wee when you have a continual trail of walkers behind you. It will make stopping for a wee on a normal walk the easiest thing ever! Heather acted as look out for me as I dodged behind a bush. She counted down the seconds I had before people caught up. And there weren't many! Rejoining the path from behind a bush whilst still adjusting your knickers and trousers was not an unfamiliar sight.
Heather and I later devised a quick back to back 'I'll tell you when I'm finished and you can look round again' system. In fact by stages 3 and 4 as we diverted briefly from the path other walkers gaily taunted 'we know where you're going'. Still a little dignity left then, but overnight we were just stopping by the side of the path on the dark hoping no one would turn their heads (and headlights) towards us and expose us in our glory!
By the early part of stage 9 with time so short we just dived in to a bush, pulled clothing down and got on with it. People really didn't bat an eyelid. In fact I think I joked that even if Bruce Springsteen himself appeared in the field I wouldn't show enthusiasm or interest.
Meeting up with the support crew for the first time at checkpoint 2 was supposed to be a morale booster, but with the rain still chucking it down it proved to be a big disappointment. I'd had visions of us being greeted by our support crew who were well prepared and had it all under control. But the reality was that they'd been queuing for over an hour to get into the field. The first disappointment was having to queue for the loos. With time at checkpoints being so short wasting time hanging around at portaloos wasn't fun. The second problem I had was finding the support car and my team. All the cars looked the same. I looked for the tent but couldn't see it. I walked up and down trying to locate Michelle's directions of being three quarters of the way up. I rang her and asked her to stand out in the middle bit. She appeared briefly, waving. Then she disappeared again and I couldn't see her. I began to feel slightly panicky. With 15 minutess on average for each checkpoint and 15 already spent finding the car before changing my clothes and eating an egg roll it really was not going smoothly. I thought the team would get annoyed at me for slowing them down. Luckily when I found them they were all in the same state of mind I was- not able to hurry!
The support crew in the space next to us had already waved their team off. As there hadn't been enough space for Michelle and Sonia to get our tent up or chairs out to sit on, they kindly offered to let us change in the back of their minibus. I changed my bottom half this time as due to the multi-coloured kagoul I was pretty dry on top. It was a real struggle taking my wet clothes off especially without showing my bare bottom off through the window! Then I couldn't get the inner lining of my sock to go straight. A huge lump of sock on my toe would be a very bad idea and the quickest way to a blister.
Five times I took the sock off and put it back on before it went on right. You feel time ticking away and it feels desperate. There is so much that needs to be done at checkpoints and so little time. Even in good weather it's a challenge but in sodden clothes and boots it's a nightmare!
Nobody hurried us at the checkpoint. I don't think we could have taken even the slightest gentle reminder! We just did what we needed to and started on our way again. I had put my shower cap on. Again it had been a last minute item packed but oh so useful in keeping my hair dryish and also good for making people laugh!
The mud on that next stage was so slippery. We tramped and trudged on slipping and sliding as we went. Helen had had a couple of falls and her glasses were so wet that she just couldn't see!
View from the crew
It had been five hours since we'd seen the walkers and in all that time, and for some hours before, it had rained and rained and rained. And that made this a total pig of a checkpoint. We had been warned it would be muddy and slippery but that went no way towards preparing us for the quagmire that was checkpoint 2. It took Michelle and Sonia an hour and a half to get on to the field (and our thanks to the Gurkha that pushed them out of the mud) and then there was no room to put a tent up. Clearly the walkers weren't happy but we could only do the possible. It was at this checkpoint that Sonia discovered that cooking bacon in the rain is not one of her favourite things. She was still shuddering at the memory on Monday morning.
Meanwhile Margaret and Craig had arrived back at base camp to find that the tent was about to blow away. Trying to peg a tent down in strong winds and pouring rain is not easy - they double pegged all the guy ropes to try and make sure it couldn't go anywhere. Then they sat in the tent getting paranoid about every movement of the canvas in the wind. And then the phone rang....
