The final blog

Well this will be the last blog before we start the walk at 8.00am Saturday morning.

Just about to finish work and try get a power hour nap in before we all meet at Katies for a pepperoni pasta feast. Its then off to Skipton to register and have a kit check and a health a saftey meeting............. im feeling tired already!

We have nearly broke the £2,000 mark on the fundraising so i just want to sign off with a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us we wont let you down

Champagne finish is around 8.00am Sunday morning if anyone wants to pop down!

Panic

Panic is starting to set in ahead of tomorrow. I found myself just wondering around the flat aimlessly this morning (more than usual). On a couple of occasions I was just staring at a small pile of walking gear and wondering whether it was enough to get me through this mammoth walk.

Yesterday I paid a visit to Blacks in Leeds and bought myself three new pairs of walking socks (of which one pair was the Wheatley endorsed XSOCKS!). Also managed to get a new water bottle and a whistle which my new kitten seems to hate, which is great cos I love things that annoy her!

It looks like the weather is set to be nice this weekend so I'm thinking sunglasses are going to be essential, plus I've found some embarrassing headgear to wear.

Just wanting to get started now, the iPod is fully charged and ready to rock out the Yorkshire Dales!

3 days to go

Have been up in Yorkshire since Saturday now, getting used to the air, doing some high-altitude walks to Morrisons for pork pies, and other necessary location-based exercises to finally prepare my legs and white blood cells for the challenge.

Must admit to being a little bit daunted, not least because everyone says it's mental and more than the a half-fit body like me can do. Worse still, I was in Blacks today and the lad said lycra shorts are an absolute no-no for long distance. I might have to pop down The Station and let the bar-man know that. He likes to be updated on these matters.

Have just received delivery on my new Air Force One trekking socks, with their anatomically shapped footbed, patented shin protectors, AirCondintioning Channel, X-Cross Bandage and Achilles Tendon reinforcement, and... AND... 99.9% pure silver is used in a terry-loop construction to guarantee the highest degree of direct skin contact and optimal moisutre permeability. making my feet breathe easier and decreasing bacterial growth. These are the socks to end all socks, the presidential socks, the socks with the silver lining. I'm bound to not get blisters now til at least 6 hours into the 30.

Have a new pair of North Face shoes to wear-in. Deemed them essential for the dry, flat day stages, especially now my achilles won't let me wear boots for more than an hour. So that's another £60 well spent. Would not like to calculate how much this has cost so far.

67 Hours and Counting

With the final countdown to the start line now upon us, last minute preparations are now a priority. All the things that have been left to the last minute are now being furiously assembled and accounted for.



Items such as:

• a complete map of the route (always a winner to have on a 100km trek),


• decent walking socks (Desert Storm X-Socks are my preferred choice, making me feel a cross between Robocop and Jason Bourne)


• purchase of Lanacane anti-chafing gel (to help prevent the dreaded "chubb rub")

With the sponsorship drive well underway, we are confident of hitting our target. Having sold the remainder of Aunty Ant's cookies to our work colleagues, we have just gained a few more pennies to help the Oxfam's cause.

The last training session for myself and Ant was on the 10th May, walking from Conistone to Skipton along the newly amended route over Malham Moor. Boy am I glad we did this part in daylight! If we were to have attempted this part at night for the first time, we would have been walking around in circles for hours (of course we would have still made it to the finish line on time - not even the four horsemen of the apocalypse could prevent us from doing that).

As we stumbled along the route, we even came across some sort of bizarre ritual massacre involving moles and barbed wire - it was a gruesome sight that will haunt me for the rest of my days, but at least I will know where the food for Checkpoint 3 will be coming from.

Since then, training walks have taken a sideline to ensure that we are all fully rested and ready for the challenge ahead. The carb loading has started and I am getting increasingly fed up with pasta (of any shape, size or flavour). Hopefully, all these carbs will have a positive impact, enabling us to continue along our route even when the going gets tough (I think the copious amounts of Red Bull, flapjacks and chocolate bars will do a better job, but we will wait and see).

Thanks to everyone for the sponsorship so far, we have managed to raise a fantastic amount of money.

It the final countdown!

Well there is just over a week to go and were up to £1324.01 for the sponsorship, RBS and SKY are hopefully contributing £800 between them so we are only £60 off our £2,200 total...Thanks to all those who have sponsored us and for those who haven't there is still time just visit http://www.justgiving.com/fourdo100k

On a more worrying note with the rain continuing to fall has anyone got a spare dingy?