A shock and some post event musings

Firstly I had a bit of a shock last night. Was watching the documentary about Prince Harry and the wounded soldiers that climbed Mount Everest on UTV (N. Ireland equivalent of ITV). There, talking out of the telly to me was Karl from Dudley, the bloke I've been running about the same pace as for the last 4 days :-0 :-0 :-0 :-0

http://www.itv.com/news/2012-08-27/prince-harry-hails-wounded-soldiers-after-everest-bid/

and

http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/

Totally amazing. I had no idea. I am going to watch it properly later if I can find it on catch-up as to be honest I was dozing until that point but it made me sit upright in bed with my eyes open like saucers.

After that it took me a while to drift off, and although I got a good night’s sleep, I think my brain is still in the "get up at 7am to run a marathon" mode. 7.30am I was sitting upright in bed thinking that my lie in hadn't gone too well, and then turned on the TV to see Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly sitting on a settee. Help.Meeeeeeee.

That was my incentive to get down to breakfast - and you know what, my legs worked. Not only do they work but this morning they felt pretty good. Could I have got up this morning and done marathon #5? Yes I think I could. I could even do STAIRS!!! No niggles, my previously sore bits of toenail have settled down, and I feel fine. I keep having to drink lots of water though because at the moment (It was warm in Derry and warm in Birmingham) I feel a bit dehydrated all the time. Like having a constant hangover without having been drunk.

I got stopped and searched at Derry City Airport (just a pat down and bag search, no rubber gloves etc) because the bloke on security x-rayed my rucksack and went: "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!!" when he saw the lumps of metal that were my medals. LOL. I was like: "Yeah I've basically run around the Inishowen 100 mile route over the last 4 days to get those". The woman doing the searching was open mouthed in amazement. I'm surprised I didn't get properly drug searched because they must have thought I was on something.

Now I go from running bore to just plain bore for a bit as I've been told by Mr Gobi Dark Lord Esq. to have a week off. I will do it of course, but UGH.

Hoping some "action" photos will appear soon, but in the meantime here is a lovely one of the survivors:

Those on the front row had the added pain of having to kneel down.

Also one of the lovely ladies running Eilish was interviewed as part of the event / for her charity. She gives her views on it and also it shows off some of the aspects of the courses (although the footage conveniently misses out all of the really "wee" hills):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ONlw0MJ3tQ&feature=player_embedded

I feel twitchy already. Still it's good to have time to do things like cleaning the oven right?