Mad Cantabz

9/5/07: Well, thank goodness that's over!  Unsurprisingly lived up to the worst (and best) expectations - some of us still wake up in a cold sweat at 3 in the morning thinking we still have 27km to go in the never-ending night on crippled feet and knees .... The past few weeks of recovery have however brought a level of reflection that make it possible to appreciate the great things - the fantastic views (during the brief daylight hours), the amazing spectacle of the procession of headlights twinkling for miles in the night, the hotpools afterwards, our dedicated support crew (the real heroes of the piece - offering more moral support, hot soup, unstinting humour and dry socks than we could have imagined) and of course the great achievement of our on-going fundraising - still trickling in steadily from so many supporters - thank you all.

First time novices - from diverse backgrounds of tramping, marathon running and gym bunnies.  The team has found a new cohesiveness following its first full day training walk last weekend, upon the hottest day of the year.  Despite adequate warning about the trailfinding (or otherwise) abilities of the glorious leader, the decision was made to naively and bravely follow her on a cross country 40k mission, braving the previously unexplored terrors of cows, gorse thickets, vertical drop offs, cow pats, swamps and various combinations of the above.  For some unexplained reason noone bludgeoned the leader at any point or dropped her off the nearest cliff - possibly because she had the only map. 

On a positive note, we know all know exactly where our blisters are going to form, and have acquired walking poles - whether to combat the effect of old age on the knees, or to beat off the hordes of evil cows is a moot point.  The joys continue as our nightly rambles turn into walking in the dark practice - possibly will be less hilarious once we all beg, borrow or steal head torches, which may lessen the plunging off the edge of the path and bizarre dances to avoid unexpected sheep droppings.

 Update 26/3: So many joys.  A productive couple of weeks on the monetary front, underpinned be some sterling work on the cheese roll and baking front - good work chefs.  Just to drag us back to earth, the mighty leader decided we were having far too much fun making money, and had to go for another proper training walk.  15 hours later decided that perhaps it was time to look at the scale on the map.....ah well, all good exercise. Life of mighty leader only spared because none of the long suffering team were able to summon up the evergy to do more than grimly hobble back to the cars.  Excellent night training practise - good thing we all had to get up the next morning early - 1 to work and 3 to do the City to Surf challenge - strangely precluded from running it by horrific injuries - how Shaye manages to get such large blisters on such small feet is a mystery to all of us.

We felt the need to celebrate these 62k by rushing (in a sort of funny uncoordinated hobbling way) off to each get bottles of meths.  Large ones.  Our story is that it's to harden up our feet, and we're sticking to the story - wonder how we'll be celebrating the whole 100k.  Surprisingly joints, muscles and motivation not too bad - now if only Oxfam got a percentage of the nurofen and glucosamine sales.......

Fundraising summary for this team

We have achieved 92% of our target.

Team fundraising:

Team Photos:

Team details

OTW07_387

Leader: Janet Crofts
Member B: Shaye Teika
Member C: Nicola Skelton
Member D: Neil Teika
Supporter: Mary Reed
Supporter: Mark Smith
Supporter: Julie Guy

Target time:
Steadfast = 30-36 hours