Gillian Beveridge is a prolific MoonWalker – having completed seven of the night-marathons run by #walk1000miles' charity partner Walk the Walk. This is her first year doing for her 1000 miles too – and so far it's going in fits and starts...
I’ll start with the stats so far!
Number of miles walked so far (boots on): 69.5.
Weeks until 1st MoonWalk of the year (London): 13
Number of days the temperature has been above 0 degrees Celcius: 2!
Now I’d like to explain why I started MoonWalking. My life changed 5 years ago when my friend asked me to do the 2014 MoonWalk Scotland for breast cancer charity Walk the Walk. It involved walking a marathon through the streets of Edinburgh, starting at midnight in a bra. I hadn’t walked that far since I was a child and never in my bra!
But I did it, loved it and the next year did it without my friend as she was unwell. In 2016, I did it with another friend, but afterwards I wanted to do something more than just The MoonWalk Scotland. So I signed up in 2017 for the 3 Land Challenge with Walk the Walk. This is 3 MoonWalk Marathons in 5 weeks (London in May, then Scotland and Iceland in June, just one week apart). The people I met through Walk the Walk inspired me to walk the 50km Thames Path Challenge that September, then walk the Dublin Marathon in October.
So how was I going to top that this year? Well I signed up for the 3 Land Challenge again and am booked for Disneyland Paris, while saving for the New York marathon in November.
Disney and New York are timed events so I want to push myself to walk faster. Enter my Walk the Walk family to help with that. On Saturday 27th January I got up at 5.45am and drove to Edinburgh to take part in my first Park Run with my friend and task master Anne Conrad. She made me walk the fastest I’ve ever done for the full 5km. She kept telling me ‘pull the rope’ and ‘stop polishing my boobs’ in relation to how I held my arms. After a breather & some breakfast we then walked another 12.6 miles at a slower but brisk pace with an ice cream on the middle. This was a fantastic boost for me and I have agreed to do more Park Runs.
The weather continues to be cold, snow and icy, so I’m still not getting a good walk. Also, I’ve not been very well over the last 2 weeks so motivation again dropped.
It's been cold where I live recently – really cold!
But after work on Friday 9th February I drove 392 miles to visit another of my Walk the Walk sisters Kath Knapper in Cheadle, Staffordshire. Kath is another seasoned walker and inspiring person. We have walked together a few times and we always have fun regardless of weather.
We agreed we would walk a marathon over Saturday and Sunday. I like to do more on day one where possible, so we headed out on Saturday in the rain with the intention of completing at least 16 miles. With a few coffee stops we managed 20 miles through the rain. We knew the weather for Sunday was not good so we decided that 6.2 miles would be enough. And thankfully we did it. It was actually snowing. I did not expect that in Stoke on Trent. We carried on through the sleet and hail to conquer our goal of a marathon. We were so proud of ourselves on Sunday afternoon, as we watched the snow continue, while we sat in the warmth of her house. So now we are both motivated for The MoonWalk London and the other challenges of the year.
For my fellow #1000milers in 2018, it’s ok to not meet the walking targets as yet. You have 12 months, the nights are getting lighter, weather getting warmer and we all have a life outside of walking. Keep your chin up and we’ll connect again in a few weeks!
• Want to turbocharge your 1000 miles and have a night to remember forever? Sign up to do a a MoonWalk.
• Doing a MoonWalk and want to make your achievement and fitness gains last all year? Sign up for #walk1000miles
