Distance -13.8kms (8.6 miles). Slightly up then down and down. Total distance covered - 90.2kms (56 miles). Arrival time 10:45. Total time taken 28 hours 45 minutes. Hours since sleep 31 hours.
The team leader's experience - we knew we had to keep going as we'd been told checkpoint 9 closed at 11.00am and we were so close now. My feet and blisters were having other ideas and I began to struggle. I reverted to pain killers and any motivational technique I could think of, but I seemed to be getting slower and slower and the path seemed never ending. Even talking to our new friends didn't help. I begged Alison to go on, as I felt at this point it was better for one of our team to finish than none of us, but she wouldn't leave me! Looking back she was using reverse psychology and I couldn't let someone else down.
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| Alison on the way to CP9 |
walk, retrieved my cassette player, which thankfully still worked as it hadn't been waterproofed and cranked the music up, losing myself in Queen!! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS, etc etc and I flew along. I don't know what was going through Alison's head as she emerged from that bush, but when I finally stopped and waited all she said was "oh my knee hurts!" I also received a very special text from Aly at this point, which made me very emotional, and this also helped to spur me on. We both had ups and downs until we eventually spied Michelle at the top of the hill leading to checkpoint 9.
Climbing the hill to where the car was, I really appreciated Michelle linking arms with me, feeling another human being next to me. Alison with having problems with her knee and found it to difficult to walk without poles and Michelle at this point valued her toes! At this checkpoint I completely changed clothes and Michelle padded my feet. I put on trainers and Alison put on a knee support. On visiting the portoloos I took an age, but that was due to the wind whistling up the bowl and cooling my bum! The people waiting when I emerged didn't seem too pleased. This was the last checkpoint that support could meet us and we needed to be at checkpoint 10 before 2.00 pm. Michelle was very conscious of this and soon had us on our way.
Alison's tale - the walk to checkpoint 9 was the most gruelling part of the walk. Helen's feet were really hurting her, we'd lost two of our team and also lost the two ' Ladybirds Are Go' who we had befriended on the walk. Soon after checkpoint 8 there came a wave of panic, transported by the people behind us who raced by, even though some were hobbling and visibly exhausted. They had been told at the last checkpoint that they had 'better get a move on ' if they wanted to finish as the next checkpoint closed at 11am. A tight three hour deadline for some utterly weary people!
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| Helen and Alison reach CP9 |
Helen was really low now and fearing the worst. Some painkillers and a few strong words to motivate and inspire seemed to get her going again. But that stretch of land was just haunting. We pressed on and were overtaking people who were clearly struggling. Some were hobbling very badly and others' legs had seized up and were so stiff. There was a man almost doing pigeon steps such was his pain. Yet time was running out for everyone and for many dreams were dying. Faces showed such concentration and on some determination was giving way to resignation and defeat. They had been walking 24 to 26 hours with one goal - to finish. Yet it was on this downland, just before , that they had to give up the battle and realise that they just weren't going to make it on time. The desperation and subsequent despair hung in the air. A heavy cloud. That field was haunting... We left that field and those people behind with a grim ghostly feel.
On stage 9, with the wind howling and blowing around me I telephoned Sonia and bellowed down the phone my words one slow syllable at a time trying to make myself heard above the gusts of wind. We desperately needed blister care. Helen would need her feet patched up with compeed at the next checkpoint and it would have to be really quick as time was running out. We were desperately short of time and were racing
against the clock.
When our support crew met us just before checkpoint 9 I walked up with Sonia telling her what I'd seen on that stretch and I was so choked, I was crying. I couldn't bear to know that people who had given their all would be turned away at the next registration point. Our support crew were fantastic. When you've walked 24 hours and even less your ability to think coherently vanishes. You become disorientated to time. And it was our support crew who communicated the sense of urgency we needed if we were to get there. They also did it early enough so that we had time to recover a bit of lost time which stood us in good stead for those last torturous stages.
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checkpoint 6 as we began to fall even further behind. All four of the support crew pushed us and cajoled us to get moving and not hang about. They got us what we needed promptly and efficiently. They were the backbone of the whole mission. We did the physical work but but they did the calculations, the concentration and the worrying for us. What a team!
And at the checkpoint as I was about to head off for the loo it was Michelle's quick thinking that saved the day when she insisted we register at the checkpoint first. It was 10.45 am - another 15 minutes and we would have been 'out of the race'. So to register as quickly as possible was everything.
Stage 10 - checkpoint 9 (Kingston Hollow) to checkpoint 10 (Woodingdean)
Distance - 4kms (2.5 miles). Total distance covered 94.2 kms (58.5 miles).
Arrival time 12:15. Total time taken - 30 hours 49 minutes. Hours since sleep - 33
The team leader's experience - before climbing yet another hill we came across a girl who was hobbling really badly having got shin splints. Even though Alison was having problems with her knee, she gave one of her poles away to help this girl, saying to me 'even if I have to buy Di new poles it was worth it' (at the finish a gurkha handed Alison her pole back).
The walk to the final checkpoint was so much easier, although it still kept raining. Climbing the hill and reaching the top where we'd had our picture taken on the training walk, I was frightened of being lost over the edge. On reflection I wish I'd worn trainers earlier. This is the point where I began to relax and enjoy the walk. We finally got to the checkpoint at 12.15 and for the first time I felt hungry. I had two cups of delicious soup and a cheese roll that I'd made on Thursday and had been carrying the whole time! Unfortunately, for Alison it was chicken soup so she had squash. The Gurkhas we met here were so helpful, polite and friendly and told us we had about an hour and a half of walking left to do.
View from the crew - none of us could meet them at this checkpoint. So waiting for news was a bit like that moment in Apollo 13 when the staff at Houston are waiting to hear from the team after their re-entry. Aly, Heather, Margaret and Craig were back at base camp - for the first time in 30 or more hours getting some rest, while Sonia and Michelle were on their way to the finish line at Brighton Racecourse. Then came the phone call from Michelle to say they were on the final stage and we all climbed into the now nearly empty back-up car and were off. We all met up at the finish and got much needed hot drinks in the garden centre cafe at the racecourse. This first time we'd had a comfy seat in the warm for many hours.
