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Tuesday, 27 May 2008

One week on .....

Well last Saturday night I gave up a night's sleep and walked 26.2 miles around the capital city of England, the city in which I live and work. I spent so much of Saturday being nervous that I was worried that I would have used up all my energy come Saturday night. A nervous tension hung in the air in my little house all day, and the FA cup final provided good dozing background noise!

We had showers, and packed up our stuff and had jacket potatoes and cheese and spaghetti. And then we left. Stephen came with us to East Croydon and then we were on our own. Except already, at East Croydon we weren't. There were other women, in pink, in hats and trainers. Going up to London with the Saturday evening party crowd. AT Victoria we poured off the train and onto buses. I felt the need to smile at every woman in sportswear or a Moonwalk hat or WtW T-Shirt. They didn't all smile back!

As we got off the bus and entered Hyde Park the enormity of it all hit. We walked half way round Hyde Park just to join the back to the Queue to get in! So we took of our T-Shirts and wrote our numbers on our fronts and our message to Mummy on our back . I stared Vaselining under my bra where it might rub. It was chilly but I couldn't tell if it was excitement or the cold. Finally walking into Playtex City - number firmly pinned to my leg - it hit me. We were doing the Moonwalk. The inside of the Tent was amazing. The number of people, the noise, the smell. WE Vaselined our feet, drank some water. Sorted out the Bum bag and put our big bags in. I forgot to put the pink nail polish in which meant I carried it for 26.2 miles! We went to the loo, we had our food - surprisingly good, we sat and listened and danced. We looked at other people's bras, and read their messages. Then it was 10 o'clock and Nina was on stage. There is a minute's silence when 15000 people hold hands and think about why they are doing this. It was emotional. That and "You'll never walk alone." I hugged my sister, I hugged the girl on my other side - she was about 14 and walking with her mum. WE did the warm up. Alice went to the Loo, again, and I was told to make my way outside. Alice wasn't there, I got panicky. Alice came back. We went outside. It was FREEZING.

We gathered at the start line, watching the clock. We were told we were leaving at 23.40 so at 23.39 and 30 seconds the count down began the 5..4..3....2....1.... we were off.....

1 comments:

Sylvia said...

Hello - hope you're recovering now. It was only a fortnight ago, and it already seems a lifetime away, or at least it seems that way to me.