Did I want to be sat on the floor in Hyde Park eating pasta with 15,000 other people - NO
Did I want to queue 20 deep for the toilet - NO
Did I want to listen to very loud music - NO
Did I want to walk 26.2 miles during the night of 19 May - NO, NO, NO
Jeff and I returned from a relaxing cruise in the Med on Friday 18 May and I was off up to London early Saturday morning for the 2007 Moonwalk, and before I knew it there I was again with all the above thoughts going through my head, promising myself it will be my last year. As usual the worse part is the waiting for the 'off' and I was lucky this year to be in the first group to go at 11pm, as I shuffled along in the slow walk to the start line, it actually took me 4 minutes to get there , I really had doubts that I would be able to complete as I had done so little training during what has been a manic last six months and then before I knew it we were off and I was striding out along the streets of London once again, though the route was a little different this year it felt wonderful to be seeing all the old familiar sites of the 'Moonwalk', the weather was perfect, a little chilly, though you soon warm up and it was a bright clear night.
This year I was walking on my own, something I had consciously decided I wanted to do way back when I applied in October 2006 as I felt I could set my own pace, though in reality you are not on your own, there are 15,000 other 'Moon Walkers' with you, all who have in someway been affected by breast cancer in their lives and it still never fails to move me when you see so many people walking in memory of lost loved ones.
I rang Jeff just before 3.30am to say I had gone through the 18 miles marker and would be passing the hotel soon, bless him, he got up to take my photo and he tells me that he had no sooner laid down on the hotel bed and I was ringing again to say I had passed 22 miles and would soon be at the finish line and indeed this year was my best ever time in 6hrs 54 minutes.
This year's memorable moment was the very inebriated young man who was a passenger in a car that was caught in slow moving traffic and could not believe his eyes at so many women walking along in their 'bras' when it was explained to him that we were walking for a breast cancer charity he gave the young woman behind me £50.00, I am not sure, when he sobered up the next day, whether he thought he had been dreaming and that he was somewhat lighter in his wallet than expected.
Last year, saw the opening of the new Bristol Cancer Centre, funded solely by monies from 'Walk the Walk' and the charity continues to provide much needed funds for research into breast cancer, so I am hugely grateful for those of you who have sponsored me again this year, thank you and I am expecting the amount raised to exceed £500.00
June is Churchwarden at St. Andrew's, Taunton.
