Walked the walk

 THAT'S THAT THEN

Another Kiltwalk completed.  Possibly my last.  Or possibly not.  It was an early start by my usual standards...

I walked with Darren, who I didn't know very well before.  We both know a lot more about each other after four hours plodding along.  

And that helped a lot.  Chatting away takes the mind of what the body is doing, or struggling to do, makes the time go quicker, and he even put up with me saying how much I was looking forward to a hot bath for most of the last half of the walk...  We didn't really have a stop, other than when forced to at road crossings, and when we picked up a banana.  He could, I suspect, have gone quicker without me, but he never hinted as much.  Good lad - treating old people with respect!

The route was a bit different from past Kiltwalks, and surprised me a couple of times.  Which was also a bonus, as I was busy taking in my surroundings rather than the aches developing in tired muscles.  I did try to take a few photos along the way.  But was so determined to keep walking that most of them were truly rubbish, so here's the best of a bad bunch.  The final pic is really awful, I know, but shows the time we were about to cross the finish line.

So  that's it done.  Many, many thanks to those who donated.  And if you'd like to join them, here's the link.  It's available for another few days.

The day before the day

 

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO...

Tomorrow I don tartan and walking boots, and head off on a bit of a trek round North Edinburgh.  Kiltwalk day has finally arrived.  I am as well prepared for it as I'm going to be, and ready to punish my body in the name of Advocard.  Not without a couple of surprises though.

I had, foolishly, assumed the route would be the same as the one in 2019.  Only in the past week did I realise that we'll be starting, as well as finishing, at BT Murrayfield, and won't be going to Musselburgh at all.  The upside of this news being that the distance is only thirteen and a bit miles now - easy, eh?

The second surprise arrived this morning.  For the first time I was due to be walking as part of a team, with a couple of the guys from the office also doing the distance.  Only to hear that one of them has managed to fall down the stairs and one ankle is considerably bigger than the other.  So now I'm walking with the youngster (well, thirty something...) so I might end up walking on my own again.  I don't want to hold him back.  

But there's always the wee hot meal to look forward to...

News of the outcome to follow tomorrow.  

Meanwhile... if you're tempted to sponsor me to help raise funds for Advocard...  Here's the link.  Every penny is welcome folks.