Jobs a good un

24 hours 11 mins

Morning has broken

10k to go mr's are shattered but not yet done

Night stalkers

Be afraid ramblers are in night mode. 3 of up are not sacred of the dark but the alan quatermass experience will see us through. This is the leg where beeding gets its come-uppance.

When in brighton

Over half way and still juice in the bank. The ban obviously affecting pip. Even lurch looking like am attractive proposition. Perhaps time for some water

Amberling up the hill

Any trepidation about amberley hill has been put to bed and smashed to pieces. Beeding hill you will go the same way with a cup of cocoa and a packet of rich tea

Gareth please..

Under the stresses and strains of walking 100k gee finds time for a cheap gag. 1 3rd distance and going strong

From to eternity

Almost 6 hours in. Not fighting yet but niks bag squeaking annoying gee.

The only way is up

First hill nailed

Its starting

After a mixed night kip ready for the off. Smash it to pieces. G.I.T.

We're jammin'

Starting as we mean to go on, we could have walked there quicker

We're jammin'

Live update. Starting as we mean to go on, we could have walked this quicker............

Final word from the Team Leader...

3 days to go until the fun(!) begins. It's been a long journey but the end is in sight. There have been many up's and down's but we are still in one piece (just about) and are ready to take on the big 100.

I'm going to take this opportunity to wish my team the best of luck and also a big thank you to them for following the training schedule without too much moaning . I promise you all those early starts will be worth it in the long run. I didn't think my training schedule was too grueling however I have been given some unflattering nicknames; Mrs. Pol Pot, and even Mein Fuehrer! All I can say is somebody's got to keep you all in line otherwise most of the 3 months training would have taken place in the Black Horse. (We can save that for next year's challenge: Glastonbury Festival)

A special thank you to the support crew who will be there at the weekend to water, feed us and boost our flagging spirits. Without you all this would not be possible.

And last but not least, everyone who donated their hard earned cash. The £6K target is looking promising and will give us the motivation to keep on pushing to the finishing line...

Get some rest fellow Midnight Ramblers, I think we are going to need it!

Nik

If we're not ready now, then we never will be...

Date: Sat 12th July
Distance: 11 kms
Location: Hertford, Chapmore End, Stapleford, Waterford
Conditions: OK
Weather: Dry and bright
Participants: Wol, Lurch, Pip, Gee

So, the final official training walk before the big day. The last couple of weeks have seen us cut-back on our training (tapering, I think is the correct term for all those serious atheletes out there), and so today's walk was just a quick 10kms or so on pretty easy and familiar terrain.

After rendezvouz at NRA, we headed off up to Bengeo, then across the fields to Chapmore End and then down to Stapleford. Then we wound our way back along the river and through Waterford marshes before completing the loop back to where we started from.

Any suggestions to extend the walk were vehemently opposed by Gee, who thought (at the time obviously) it'd be a good idea to get leathered on Friday night and stay out until the early hours. At least he knows for sure now, that Sambuca is not a great addition to pre-walk preparations, and he's vowed to lay off the grog this coming Friday...

The general feeling is that we've done as much training as time would allow and although next Saturday is quite possibly going to be a living nightmare, we feel pretty prepared and reasonably confident that we're going into the race in good shape.

Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone that's helped us get this far, to those that have sponsored us, and to those that have had to put up with other-halves disappearing for hours on end.

I've kept track of how many training walks I've done, and assuming that we've all done pretty much the same, I reckon we've covered about 3400 km between us, since we started in Feb.

So, bring on the Trailwalker, the six are one, and the Ramblers are ready to rumble!

Wol.

Water, water, everywhere...

Date: Sun 6th July

Distance: 17.6 kms (10.9 miles)

Location: Hertford, Bengeo, Waterford, Stapleford

Conditions: OK

Weather: Very wet

Participants: Wol

What started out as a very wet day, ended the same. After spending 6 hours in the rain watching one of my sons play in a football tournament, I had some brief respite at home watching the end of the grand prix (nice one Lewis), although I couldn't get away from the wet stuff as it was chucking it down most of the time at Silverstone.

Water in a different format was the next stop - the kid's club championship down at the swimming pool. After watching them race, I wasn't really in the mood for a walk - 7pm on a drizzly Sunday evening - but with less than 2 weeks to go before the big event, I felt the urge to stick to the training plan and get some walking done.

Rather un-imaginitively, I headed off to familiar territory with the objective of just completing the necessary 3 hour walk. I needed to deliver a birthday card so headed from the pool, up Port Hill and wound my way through the streets of Bengeo until I arrived at the top, near Sacombe Road. By now the rain was quite heavy and was already regretting my decision, but pressed on anyway, across the fields to the quarry and to Bullsmill - picking up the riverside path to Stapleford Church and then through to Home Farm and Wooodhall Park where it joins the A119. For a split second I considered going on to Watton-at-Stone, but quickly dismissed this idea as it was still raining and I knew I'd gone far enough away from home to meet the 3 hour requirement.

Homeward bound was particularly un-inspiring, walking along the footpath next to the main road, back through Stapleford and Waterford, picking up Molewood Road to take me back through Hertford town and home.

No stops, no snacks, no water (other than that falling out of the sky), no stretching - terrible preparation and execution of a walk. but at least it got done. Not one to remember...

Wol.

3 hours - is that all we get...

Sat 5th July 2008

When we spoke last week about the walking being so dull, we didn't think Gee would end up sticking pins in his eyes, but more about that later.......

This Saturday Gee and Pip re-lived one of our earlier yomps around Bramfield and Tewin as we toned down our training ready for the big event. Mrs R was at work and the Wols were family training on Sunday so the two of us met at 8.00 am to discuss our heads. Friday had seen us gather for a team meeting at the Black Horse (still to get official recognition as our corporate sponsors). A nice gentle evening I thought but woke up to find the mother of all headaches - top tip no.1 - don't run 10k then go directly to the pub. Gee was similarly disposed but his top tip no.2 was don't tuck into the Grolsch before important meetings!

Still off we went for a blood pumping and head banging ascent before the leveling off of good old East Herts. This time rather than carry half the fields on our boots we found that the Oil Seed Rape had gone over to mask our trails making us once again curse this pointless crop so disliked by Gordon B - who needs this biodiesel anyways... Having cleared this hurdle things picked up and we stormed around 18k in just over 3 hours. The key difference to last time being we were not remotely out of breath compared to 3 months ago when we were blowing out of every orifice.

Nothing much else to report apart from Gee clearly proving that Cows do not lie down when it rains as we passed 5 that were standing when it was lashing down for which he berated them like some mad man - either that or 3 hours with me is more than enough.

More exciting things were to come along in the afternoon - firstly after lots of fretting, Maureen the Triumph Stag passed her first MOT with me with flying colours - 32 year old British Leyland engineering - fantastic! Secondly, back to Gee - during our 3 hours he failed to mention that he was off to have a pin stuck in his eye. It was only when he was in Potters Bar and realised the forementioned procedure would render him unable to drive that he remembered that perhaps he could do with a lift. Still while he was waiting he read the Trailwalker bumph pack several times over so we are feeling fully briefed and ready for the challenge - bring it on....

Pip.