Ryan is a 27 year old sales professional...

Date: Sunday 15th June 2008

Distance: 40kms (25 miles)

Location: Royston, Cottered, Watton-at-Stone, Hertford

Conditions: Mainly flat, some poor quality / non-existent footpaths

Weather: Dry, Cloudy with some some sunny spells

Participants: Pip, Nik, Wol, Gee, Lurch

And so onto our longest walk to-date as we enter the last few weeks of intensive training before the big event. Today we planned to walk from Royston back to Hertford. We also used this as an opportunity to practice the deployment of the support crew and vehicle. so the whole team were in action (including a few youngsters for good measure).

We arrived at Royston for an 8am start, the support vehicle (the Wol bus) dropping everyone off in the bus-station car-park. It was quite nice to leave half our stuff in the car and contend with lighter ruck-sacks, however Lurch was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of being separated from his sandwiches for 3 hours...

Anyway, off we set, up the hill to the hospital and then hitting the footpaths of the Chain Walks. Once again, some new accessories were being aired, my Buff being a classic addition to the Wol-wear collection (an item which I believe other members of the team secretly admired, but were afraid to admit). Anyway, it helped pass a few minutes, as I demonstrated its various uses...

The going was pretty easy to start off with and the time of the first meeting with the support crew never seemed in doubt, however, the poor quality of some of the footpaths, the non-existent re-instatement of paths across fields, and locked gates had a detrimental effect on our pace and after cheerily phoning through some requests for additional snack items, we then had to sheepishly admit to being nearly half an hour behind time - a great test for the adaptability (and patience) of the support crew...

It was definitely a case of "more haste, less speed" as I became the first official faller of our trailwalker challenge. When climbing over one of the locked gates, my foot slipped off the metal bar and in an instinctive manoeuvre to avoid crushing my crown jewels, I rather un-gracefully tumbled over - thankfully into long clean grass - no damage done.

We eventually made our rendez-vous with the support-crew and tucked into our supplies. The creative talents of the kiddy-winks had been put into action and had adorned the Wol-bus with various posters - fantastic. We could sense that Lurch (as chief support vehicle decorator) was feeling a little under pressure, and I did wonder for a moment how good a job he'd be able to do in the rather restrictive Pink Panther suit he'd be wearing on the day...

Anyway. after a decent break (and being chivvied along by an officious pub employee who wanted us out of their car park - not as though they were open or anything!), we reluctantly parted company with the support crew and headed-off for another 3 hours before we'd meet-up with them again (after making some tongue-in-cheek requests for Angel Delight at the next stop). This section was bit more on track as regards predicted pace, but still threw up some challanges, especially when we encountered the quagmire on the Roman Road near Moor Green. This proved to be rather tricky and we all got quite muddy - some taking on water in their boots, which could have been the cause of some foot-discomfort later...

We passed the time by chatting, eating lots of sweets and also "helping" Pip with some ideas for a presentation that he had to finish preparing for Monday - not sure we helped much, but it provided some entertainment, drew a cracking Lee "that's what I'm talking about" McQueen impersonation out of Pip and helped pass the time - that, along with providing Lurch with a ridiculous "rider" of food items for the big day (including Earl Grey in china cups and cream teas - the scones freshly baked in a travel oven).

So, nearly 7 hours after starting we had our second meeting with the support crew, had a quick break (which included Angel Delight!) and steeled ourselves for the final couple of hours. Eldest son joined us for the final leg (seemed a nice gesture, given it was Father's Day, but then realised he was meant to be at home, revising). Through Watton to Stapleford where we hit very familiar ground and realised we weren't too far away now. The usual last half-hour psychological melt-down kicked in, legs started getting a bit cranky and the feet were getting sore, but eventually the pub-sign was in sight, and 9 hours after starting out, we were slumped in the beer garden, kicking off out boots and knocking back a cold lager.

I think most of us are experiencing some stiffness, blisters, etc today, but it was a great effort and achievement by the whole team - well done to Gee for route-planning and map-reading. Big thanks to the support crew, and to Lurch for the lollies. Also, extreme gratitude to the other halves and kids for letting the Dads disappear for most of Fathers' Day.

Wol.