Post Run/Walk/Hobble Update:

Well, it all started so well! I was at the start location before 3am, as planned, on about 2 hours sleep and made very good time as far as St Catherine (17.6Km, 10.6 miles), keeping up a sustainable pace. However, my feet had other plans. Using my regular running shoes, which have never been a problem before, I'd already developed one blister by the 1st stop, 1h 15m and 7.8 miles in. Even as I patched them up with plasters, I got more, they got bigger, and by the end of Stage 7 at Greve de Lecq - a full marathon's length from the start - I was a full hour behind schedule (7h rather than 6h). As the paths got worse along the north coast, and the inclines more demanding (there are more steps on the coast path than there are in the Empire State Building, I was told by a fellow runner/walker), I got slower. Towards the end- the last 9 miles or so I was in quite a lot of pain and had slowed to a hobble. There were many people pulling out at this stage, and I saw lots of folks limping away. I pressed on and eventually crossed the finish line in 15h and 45m; just about an average 3Mph for the whole walk rather than my target 4.37Mph. Afterwards I had a pizza and made a point of walking past the finish line again to go and pick up my bike at the start, to truly say I'd walked the whole coast. I was kindly offered a lift but I was determined. I had agreed to a lift back to the camp site though and it was a good thing that I had; when I got to the bike I discovered the front tyre was flat and -oddly- the locks were rather stiff... It was only later that I discovered the pump which had been left with the bike had been sabotaged that I suspected the locks had been glued. A rather sad end to a long day. BUT! I made it. A large number who start the walk don't finish it, and I was within the first 1/3 of people 'home' as number four-hundred and something. 20? I'll have to check the video I took - which I'll upload to YouTube.com in due course.

I want to add my sincere thanks to everyone who sponsored me for the British Heart Foundation; you were on my mind as I jogged past lighthouses in the dark, paused for a bun as the sun came up, half-ran, half-walked through early morning mist and drizzle, clambered over rocks and yomped up steps, scurrying along sea-wall tops and looked out over endless (why didn't they end?!) bays in the boiling sun (I think it got close to 30 degrees) as my legs slowly turned to lead and the shooting pains from my feet got steadily more aggressive. And I thought about you as I found the energy to jog (slowly) across the finish line after nearly an hour walking on soft sand to cut a long corner at low tide (it's the official route!). Thank you for keeping me motivated and focused as my target time came and went and the ambition became finishing, not finishing especially quickly!

Paul