The night walk

There's a first time for everything. And none of us had done this before whether a night walk or a walk of this distance.

Houghton to Lewes (52km or 32miles)finally achieved in 12hours 15mins.

We started at midnight after securing the permission of the landlord of the George & Dragon pub Houghton. It was very warm and humid and the bugs did like the head torch beams. We set a fair pace from the start (which was checkpoint 4).

On this first section walked in the night we only slowed once to ensure we took the right fork in the tracks.

It was quite early in the walk that Stevie started to suffer an old knee injury that made the descents especially tricky and painful. The mid-trail prayer had an immediate effect and as the sun came up he was out in front with Cliff (the pacemaker).

As dawn overtook the sky however it became clear that he would not be able to complete the target distance this time. In our planning we had left a car at the beginning and end and one also at Devil's Dyke (on checkpoint 7) approx 2/3rds along this walk. That is were Stevie bowed out to preserve his knee - wrecking it this close to the event wouldn't be good.

By the end even pace-setter Cliff admitted he could not pick up the pace towards the end. I knew that the actual event would take a level of courage, grit and determination - I have been humbled and encouraged at the same time - the same being reflected by e-comments following.

I sense however a renewed determination by the team to make sure we finish, that we finish as a team of 4 and that we finish well. We are starkly aware that every training opportunity should be taken - every step will make a difference on Trailwalker 2009 -only 5 weeks away and counting.