Don't sponsor me - sponsor them - The Norfolk Coastal Path...

There a couple of similarities between the Norfolk Coastal Path and the Coast 2 Coast...

They have the word coast in...

And my luck with the weather seemed to stay set to "Wet"...

The main similarity is that walking any reasonable distance day after day has a cumulative effect on your body, its in some ways harder to walk (with a days food water and gear) 2 half marathons on consecutive days than it is to run a marathon in a day.

Day 1 - Cromer to Weybourne

A blustery, wet day... An inspired route out of Cromer, but went into interesting woodlands and pretty much the only hills of the walk... A day for testing waterproofs and finding decent tea shops in Sheringham (to drip in and drink tea!)

Day 2 - Weybourne to Stiffkey

SHINGLE!!!!!

And Sausages... It's a long story... But Cley Next the Sea wins the best named, and accurate, bus stop name - Delicatessen.

Day 3 - Skiffkey to Burnham Overy Staithe

Finishing with a long hard section on the sand, with the wind howling wasn't the easiest way of finishing the day... However, we had fortified ourselves with excellent chips at Wells:-)

Day 4 - Burnham Overy Staithe to Thornham

When the guidebook says part of today is a trudge, then its not good... However, we did see twitchers, twitching for Montague's Harriers and were bitten by some rather large flies...

Day 5 -Thornham to Hunstanton


The boardwalk carried us through most of dunes, and then the sight of the Hunstanton cliffs and the thought of a long promised fish and chip lunch drove us on!

There were no bands to welcome us in, and if they had been there they'd not have been for me - but for those who'd also done Peddar's Way or those for those this multi-day walking isn't a regular occurrence...

So don't sponsor me, sponsor them:

http://www.justgiving.com/hundredmilewalk - mad people!
http://www.justgiving.com/ploddingforpapworth - did damn good (new shoes and all)

As for me, its back to the marathon training, but the weeks isn't all work, climb, run, work, climb, run... for on Thursday is Maiden Night and the world shall rock:-D

Oh, and a special thank you for Norfolk Green - never has a week's walking been so entertained, and helped, by a team of cheerful and knowledgable bus drivers!

TTFN

Paul

Now that was a weekend:-D

Where to start...

Awareness raising?

Sleeping at the Science Museum?

Running in the heat with 25,000 of my friends?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

I'll start with the pure joy, of seeing a whole bunch of kids, kids with heart conditions and their brothers or sisters and occasional best friend firing rockets, checking out what makes us us, trying to send action man into space, watching at IMAX movie... or my favourite bit sleeping at the museum, right next to the Apollo lander... I also ended up promising the kids that my snoring kept the ninga trained giant rats at bay... (Thank you Museum Usher Person!!!!)

Also for reasons best known to themselves, the kids decided I was super-adult... Resulting in my ritual humiliation in front of a room full of people as I was presented with my prizes - a Galileo thermometer and a science museum mug! Both of which will be on my desk in the morning:-D

To use the jargon, hopefully Friday night broke down the isolation that many kids with heart conditions face. Or in my speak, at least for a while they were as normal and as special as any other kid in the museum! And if they got to see some adults with heart conditions being silly so much the better!!!

The awareness raising was a balancing act... Do we accept that we'll be criticised in some quarters and reach an estimated 5 million last edition readers, or do we take the moral high ground? The News of the World mucked up (children have been known to read this blog, that was a letter substitution code... think about it), what they did was scummy and those responsible should be prosecuted to hell and back... and what an opportunity - hopefully people will read up to page 32 and see what was put together in record time, hopefully showing the wider world what being a parent of a heart child can be like... http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/downloads/finalissue/pageflip.html

The final element - a hot British 10k, through the streets of London, past Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, Big Ben and a finish on Whitehall. With 21 others running for CHF... Was,as it always is, when running with huge group of people great fun. For me it was a cracking run,I matched my Tunnel 10k time on a day which only a few months ago I'd have not run much at all! My attempts to get more used to running in the heat seem to be working:-)

Oh, and to make it extra special an old dear friend managed to meet up at the end - and reminded me of some very good times - Thank you Hippu:-)

And now, my legs are tired, I am tired so an early night for me!

TTFN

Paul