Three months on...

Wow. Another month has gone by. And what a month. Highs, lows, busy times, quiet times. They've all been there. And then today, as I prepared to write this post, I got a fantastic email.

Ages ago, I filled in a survey for Mapumental, and of course totally forgot about it. But apparently there was a prize draw attached to this one, and my name was drawn to win a £50 donation to the charity of my choice. Guess which one I chose... That makes £1682 for the June Hancock Mesothelioma Fund. Hurrah!

A couple of weeks ago my husband David and I took a weekend out to go back to my hometown for a visit. We had a particularly good day out with my Mum and Gran, driving through the nearby countryside and visiting places I hadn't seen in years. On Sunday we also had a little wander over to Southampton Common where this lovely chap posed for me and showed off his fabulous feet.


I haven't really talked about coots and their place in the relationship with Dad. Perhaps I'll leave that for another time
As often happens, the childhood photos made a brief appearance. While David amused himself by threatening to make pictures of me on a potty in the woods public, I was a little more taken with this one.

Two months on...

The walk feels like such a long time ago. My legs are now pretty much back to normal, the joint pain I was having last month has gone, and the only thing that seems to keep the whole adventure real is the map on the kitchen wall that I still haven't had the heart to take down.

In the last month since I wrote here I have taken part in a flamenco performance, continued singing pop songs in choir and been rather busy at work. In short, life has gone on. In the last month there has also been a Fathers' Day.

I don't think I ever celebrated Fathers' Day when dad was alive. I think he had the same opinion of it as the one he held for Valentine's Day: another hollow opportunity for consumerism. Or at least that's how he presented it - I'm sure he'd actually quite like to have had a shoddily made card from me of course and maybe I should have made one for him. Ah well. The opportunity has gone now.

Anyway, here's a little photo I found which must have been taken when I was maybe 13 or 14. It shows us during a day out to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. This is how I remember time with Dad.

One month on...

I'm now one whole month on from the start of my epic walk.

Since then I've started feeling like I've got twice the time in the week than I had when training. Which is awesome.

So, what have I been doing with all that perceived extra time? Not walking too much actually, thanks to a knee that's still a bit sore. But I've been back up and dancing, and I started singing in a choir for the first time in a decade. I've never had more varied things to interest me.

That said, I have started missing the routine of the training a bit and I sometimes find myself wistfully looking out of the train window at the parks I used to walk through. And just as soon as my knee is back to normal, I'm getting back out there.

David bought me a guide to walking the LOOP for my birthday so I think that will be our project over the summer. Not in one go this time though. It's 152 miles...

One week on...

I've spent the last week reflecting on the walk, flopping around my house and waiting for my ankles to fix themselves. It's only now just starting to sink in that the last year of training has finished and that I'll now have hours of extra time week - my brain's coming up with some great ideas of how to fill that, but perhaps for now I'll just devote the time to sitting.

I've collected most of the photos that my friends took during the walk into one set on my Flickr, which you can now watch as one mammoth slideshow of the full 27 hours 11 minutes (it doesn't take quite that long to view!) Watch below, or go to the set page. Enjoy!

I do this so you don't have to

Those of you who saw the picture of my leg I posted yesterday will know that I've had some trouble with swollen ankles and shins following the walk. Yesterday my left foot started swelling up too.

This morning I woke up and nothing had improved, so I made an appointment with my doctor.

I've just come back from that appointment and the verdict is that I have Compartment Syndrome. Apparently that's when the muscles swell to more than the sheath around them can contain. I've been told to rest up for a week, and I'm to go back to my doctor on Monday (er, Happy Birthday to me) to check how it's going.

Still not regretting the walk - I really truly loved it - and rather pleased that I had the foresight to take the next week off work. Not quite the holiday I had planned though!

It's over.

Hello everyone! It's Katy here! I hope my husband has been keeping you entertained in my absence.

So, that walk then. It was quite long, wasn't it? I have to say that it didn't feel as long as it was though.

Sure there were moments when I felt really incredibly down, but every time I did there was someone there to cheer me up and get me going again. Even my incredibly painful ankles (which started hurting just a few hours in) couldn't stop me, and once dawn broke there was no doubt in my mind that I would cross the finishing line. OK, not in the 24 hours I had hoped for but after 27 hours and 11 minutes of non-stop walking.

Once home I survived for a few hours of my celebration party before falling asleep on the sofa and having to be led upstairs to bed at 6.45pm. I had an awesome 14 hours of sleep, but am starting to feel nappish all over again now.

Here are a few photos from the end. I think there are some more floating around out there, so there might be a couple more picture posts to come.

I crossed the finishing line at Woolwich, 27 hours and 11 minutes after setting off.


This is what more than a day on your feet will do to your ankles -
they are so swollen that they have bruised themselves.

I want to say special thanks to all of my lovely walk volunteers: Clairey, Ollie, Mel, Filiz, Jo, Emma, Ed, Ewan, Linzi, Edd, Carla, Michael, Lizzy, Dani, Pippa, Bec, George and Paul. Without you guys cheering me on I know that I could not have completed even half of it.

I also want to say an extra special thank you to my Mum and my fantastic husband David. They both provided wonderful support running up to and during the walk, and for David that's now extended to bringing me cups of tea while I rest my swollen legs.

Thank you, thank you everyone.

Photos

Here are some photos of Kate + entourage from Highgate onwards:




In Queens Wood near Highgate


Less than 17 miles to go!


Sprite on the Parkland Walk


Katy, relaxed


The gang at Stoke Newington

David
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