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 with her first MoonWalk imminent, the big miles are building!
Number of miles walked so far (boots on): 337.2
Weeks til 1st MoonWalk of the year (London): 2 – Yee-hah!!
Scale of nerves and excitement for The MoonWalk London (from 1-10): 9.9!
First I have to say hello, welcome and thank you to my Walk the Walk family who have sent me such wonderful messages about these blogs. I am who I am (a song is forming in your head now) and I am not afraid to admit I have struggled with some days of training, as have many of us. BUT the sun is here and it seems to be sticking around for a while. It is still very cold (-5 this morning) but it soon warms up.
This month I have upped my training as we race towards my first challenge of The MoonWalk London on 12th May. I like to be organised and know I’m ready so I went a bit ‘off plan’ and completed my 20 mile training walk on 14th April instead of 28th April. This meant I could walk with my task master Anne Conrad once again. Anne had planned a 20 mile walk using the old and current MoonWalk route in Edinburgh. We were blessed with a wonderful day to walk and I had my first experience of being too warm.
As you will remember from past blogs Anne walks fast, very fast, but she promised to push me but not kill me. She was almost true to her word. We set out at a good pace from the first step and I was doing well for quite some time. But Anne has many gears and she upped it a little which meant I was about 5 paces behind her. It did become comical as she turned frequently to say ‘C’mon hen’ with a response of ‘I’m a coming’. And she gives you 5 seconds notice to cross the road whether there is a car coming or not. I did crack at mile 18 and we don’t talk about how long that mile took. But I was so proud at the end. 5hrs 28mins means I can once again make my 7 hour target for the MoonWalk, something I didn’t think possible until the Dublin Marathon last October.
The following weekend I had to prepare for my fundraising event on 28th April and it was London Marathon weekend. My team manager was running so I wanted to track her progress. My plan was to get up at 8am on the Sunday, complete a 15 mile walk then settle down to look for Gill and maybe spot WTW sister Suzie Trew Foster as a spectator. In a nutshell my alarm went off, I fell asleep again and woke 2 hours later, took myself downstairs and sat glued to the tele for a very long time. I consoled myself that I do not have to walk every weekend and it is a long time until November and I don’t want to fall out of love with walking.
This weekend ‘off’ from walking was just what I needed as I decided that I would mix my training up and walk in the morning before work and before I have time to find an excuse. That’s what I did all last week and I loved it. 3.5 to 4 miles every morning was great to get me ready to face a difficult week in work. I had Friday off but I got up at 6am as usual and walked 10 miles at pace then after a quick shower met with my inspiration and we completed 5 miles at a slower but good pace. I had Saturday off as I held my Soup and Sweet Fundraising event. On Sunday I borrowed my Aunt’s dog once again and we walked along the old railway line in the sunshine. Over the 7 day period I managed to notch up 64.5 miles which was amazing towards my #1000 miles total.
So I feel ready for The MoonWalk London – apart from the actual decoration of my bra! The theme is Wild West. I am trying to gain from others but creativity is not my strong point.
My next blog will be after The MoonWalk London. To my fellow Walk the Walkers, look forward to seeing you very soon and to my fellow #1000 mile walkers, keep going we are getting there together. One foot in front of the other.
• 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
