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I apologise for the long post but my walk was long, please take a few minutes to read this and see what I went through for sick babies and children I wanted to help. A couple of years ago I agreed (whilst slightly worse for wear) to walk to each branch in I my old area in the South and South East London area a total of 60 miles but also agreed to complete it within 24 hours. Then I quickly did the maths, average 4 miles per hour (that's my average on road walks) so that equals 15 hours not allowing for breaks....easy!!!!! After I sobered up I organised the Just Giving page and a date but due to unforeseen circumstances totally out of my control I had to cancel. So I reorganised it for another charity and that had to be cancelled as well. So I decided to take control and choose my own charity and I had just moved to Uckfield. Without any doubt it had to be a children's charity and preferably looking after sick children and again preferably in Sussex. The charity that ticked all the boxes was ROCKINGHORSE Making life better for sick children in Sussex
THE OFFICIAL FUNDRAISING ARM OF THE ROYAL ALEXANDRA CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
I then set the date, I booked a weeks holiday and thought if I did it on the Tuesday it wouldn't affect my trip to Margate I make to see my Mum every weekend. So it was set 19th July. I did a fair amount of training about 100 miles a month, doesn't sound a lot but that's all I could do with a very busy job. Anyway in the run up I started to see the weather forecast that this was going to be the hottest day of the year and it was!!
I went to bed pretty early for me (10pm) the night before but was tossing and turning due to the heat and worry of failure. Anyway I got up at 3.30am and had my 2 shredded wheat and by the time I got going it was 4.11am, so obviously I had until 4.11am the following day to do the whole 60 miles. Initially I had planned to stay out and get a load of miles done before the sun got really hot. Even though I started off in the dark. I knew I was going to be in trouble later as I was soaked in sweat by 5.30am and the sun wasn't even hot yet. I had bought 2 pairs of 1000 mile socks and a pair of walking boots but again I could sense trouble as I had blisters forming after about 10 miles. I got back to base after 9.7miles in just over 2 and a half hours which equates to 3.7 miles per hour, under my target and all of which was pretty cool as the sun doesn't start to warm up until about 10am. I had some sausage rolls quickly and got back out there before the sun baked me. The 2nd leg of 11.54 miles took just over 3 and half hours. I was totally whacked out and I remember thinking I hadn't even completed the distance of a marathon and when I did in another 5 miles I had another marathon PLUS another 8 miles. My blisters had got worse so I changed my insoles for gel type and after stuffing a tin of baked beans on toast down I set off again. The 3rd leg 9.13 miles took just under 3 hours which meant I had slowed down to just over 3 miles an hour. At each pit stop I was drinking an enormous amount of water but still felt really thirsty a mile up the road. Anyway the 4th leg 15.19 miles and the exhaustion had set in, I had been sweating bucket loads all day, I had sores all over my body from sweat rashes, my groin area had cuts to the top of legs where pants and shorts were rubbing, my feet were in bits not only did I have 3 or 4 blisters on each foot but the bones had had enough, my legs were screaming with pain especially my calves walking downhill was much more painful than flat or uphill, my head was sunburnt (I hated wearing a hat) but at least now the sun has disappeared. However I still had about 15 miles to do and my friend pleaded with me to stop but I said I can't I keep seeing the pictures of the kids with tubes in my head. I hadn't thought that I would be doing much of the walk in the dark because if it had taken me 15 hours I would have finished the whole lot at about 7pm and it doesn't get dark until 9pm. I did the maths and I knew at the slower pace was going to take about 5 hours. Believe me, I don't know how I got back up on my feet. Every single step, I mean every single step was painful. Anyway my idea was to walk on pavements with street lights but I soon found there was a lack of them. I remember at about 11.30pm there was some lads taking the mickey out of me due to the way I was dressed. T shirt, shorts, big waist bag with collection tin and big water bottle attached, and walking boots. I thought to myself if they started I was so weak I couldn't do a thing. At about half past midnight I came back in to drop off my waist bag because it was rubbing and my friend had thought I had finished but I said I have got another hour and a half to go yet! Again I forced myself up and got going. Eventually I finished at just gone 2am and could hardly walk to bed. I had finished with 2 hours to spare!! The whole journey registered a total of 129857 steps and also for those of you who thought I would have chosen a flat course... No I didn't.... It also registered that I had gained over 4000ft in height over the 60 miles so it was pretty hilly as well. It is now Friday and I have still got a headache from hell, my feet are torn to shreds, my legs are aching so much I still can hardly walk, my chest feels like I've just smoked a hundred fags and most of my bones feel like they are going to break.
At the time of writing I have raised £380 which is above the official target but I was hoping to get to at least £600 which is £10 per mile. My biggest disappointment is that this is made up of only 20 sponsors please if you can afford it please donate anything you can afford, 10 p per mile is £6.00 not much more than a pint of beer, if you can't afford anything don't worry, thanks to all of you for reading this my friend 🤕.
If you need the link follow me again and I will post it again or try
www.justgiving.com/David-Piotrowski1
IF YOU HAVE ALREADY DONATED THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!