Sponsored 10 Mile Walk, Done and Dusted!
Sponsored 10 Mile Walk for East Lancs Hospice, complete!
About 6 weeks ago I decided to raise money for the East Lancs Hospice, a very worthy cause. The hospice needs to raise £3m a year to keep going and so anything that I could to help, however little, would be worthwhile. The next event was a sponsored 10 mile walk and I signed up for it.
There are some friends who thought that I was joking when I told them. After all, I was a smoker, liked a drink and did not do a lot of walking. I did go into training, I walked to the pub a couple of times, did a couple of 5 mile walks. Walking to and from the pub was fine but the 5 mile walks were not. My knees are not good and after each walk they hurt.
So I approached this sponsored 10 mile walk with some trepidation today. I was buoyed by the fact that some 200 other people were there. Diane had noticed that there were 10 pubs on the route and suggested that I saw the number of pubs before seeing the number of miles. Cheek!
The day was well organised and just 10 minutes late ( the Mayoress of the Ribble Valley needed her photo op and to make an inaudible speech) and we were off. I was towards the back of this motley group of the old and young (some very old and some pretty young) and a very motley group of dogs, big, small, well groomed and some not so well groomed.
As the walk went on I moved up towards the front, not because I was walking quickly, just that everyone with dogs had at some point to stop to search for their doggy poop bags and the others were strolling. Anyway after 5 miles I did not dive into one of the official pubs, as everyone else seem to. That was not because I did not want to, you understand, rather I know that if I sit down my knee would not like the straighten again and would protest, vigorously.
So I walked on, and on, and on. The second 5 miles was definitely longer than the first 5 miles. I covered the first 5 in one and a half hours, much to my surprise. The pace seemed to suit my knee which was behaving itself and not hurting too much.
The beautiful countryside helped divert my mind from my knee but even that began to lose its effect as I began willing the last signpost, and home, to come into sight. After what seemed and age I arrived at the destination. 10 miles in 3 hours 5 minutes, very respectable. My decision not to stop after 5 miles was proved to be the right one because as soon as I sat down at the end of the walk (pint in hand) my knee seized up and started to throb. To be honest, it did not, does not, hurt as much as I expected and as I sit here I can easily see myself doing this sponsored 10 mile walk for East Lancs Hopsice again next year!
However,there is no need to wait until next year to give money to this great cause, just follow this link to my Just Giving page. You know it is the right thing to do!
Phil’s British Heart Foundation Donation – you know it makes sense
2 Comments
Well done again Phil, and so saintly not stopping at any pubs – yes I admit I was suspicious of your motives but proved wrong (not for the first time!). What to do next – how do you fancy parachuting or bungee jump perhaps 🙂 ha, maybe not then…
Hi Phil, This made us chuckle, it was a good read! Thanks for supporting our first #elhpubwalk and we do hope you join us next year. Thanks for raising £262 to date. This really will help to make a difference to our patients. Well done!