Triumphant Trail Marathon: 27.05 Miles!! 💪🏼 🧡

Blindman Trail Marathon: 24/04/2022…

Hi all! Whilst sitting here typing in this body of pain, and before i thank all of you amazingly kind and generous people…I just wanted to reassure you that i wasn’t cheating (in case you were wondering why there were 2 people in Sarah’s photos), even though my friend Dan (his friend has MS and he wanted to challenge himself and do it for her too) joined me on the marathon. He kindly walked slightly behind me and let the blindman lead…Both me and my lovely wife Sarah were so thankful to have him join me, not only as the medic if i collapsed, lol…But he had never done anything like this before but wanted to really push himself (he’ll regret that, lol! 💪🏼 🤣  

The Trail Marathon Preperations…☕ 

Waking up at 7am which left me plenty of time to get me and my backpack ready for the start. My lovely wife Sarah had made me another esprsso (wow they’re tasty) and i had my bottle of water, Lucozade sport and 12 hob nobs, so now we just wondered if Dan would turn up. As you know i’ve done 7 months training completely on my own, so i was a little worried if i could do this as i’d never walked (never mind talked) to anyone else whilst focusing so hard. Dan then turned up bang on time with his backpack of goodies so we were ready to do this. Dan has not trained at all for this or ever even seen the trail yet either so he had no idea where he was going…Well let the blindman step up and lead him, lol! 🤣 

The Plan…🤔 

Our plan was to walk 5 laps (half marathon) then come home for a toilet stop (thanks water tablets for making this challenge even harder), quick espresso and flapjack whilst not sitting down and seizing up, then after a maximum of 10 minutes get back out and finish the next 5 laps…Sounds great on paper, lol! 🤣 During my longest walk in training i came back home for this same stop and it worked, so how hard can it be?! 🤣 

Let the trail marathon begin…💪🏼 

If you’ve been following my training progress over the last 7 months, you’ll know that all i’m asking for today is lots of clouds and grey everywhere…It wasn’t!! 🤣

The 10 mile mark: Our 1st milestone…💪🏼 

Our 1st milestone was to get to 10 miles (double figures) as this seemed more serious mileage, and it’d be a good indicator point to check how things are going?! We both were doing remarkably well and Dan liked the trail so far…Although those few inclines were starting to get on our nerves, lol! 🤣 

Even though the sun was drilling it’s way through my eyes and into my brain, the good thing about it was the trail was completely dry!! I couldn’t believe it as for 7 months it’s been constantly wet and full of puddles, my feet were always sludgy and cold from deep puddles of dripping mud…But today there wasn’t a drop anywhere! 💪🏼 🙌 

The Halfway Mark…😀 ☕ 

Arriving home after dodging dog walkers, runners and crazy cyclists we were nicely on schedule. I’d been messaging Sarah after every lap to let her know i wasn’t dead, and she even took the coffee orders for half time…Wow she’s amazing! ☕ 😀 So when we arrived the lovely coffees were handed to us as we had to be quick. We were feeling surprisingly good and happy that we’d completed half and still felt this happy…Now just do the same again and it’s done…Sounded good when i said it anyway! 💪🏼 

Then we started lap 6: Let the pain begin…

“Hey what’s happening?” i said as the pain started a 360˚ motion around both of my knees, and Dan says that his feet are really hurting too. “Now i know why people do half marathons instead of full ones” i said whilst rubbing the side of my knee “I was really happy a minute ago”. 🤔 

Lap 7: Time to break out the lucozade…😰

The pain seemed to gain lots more friends as it sliced through my calves, thighs and feet as we reached the ¾ mark. Our pace was steadily dropping every mile as we started giving up on lap times and started focusing on simply finishing! Dan said “I was going to wait until lap 9 for the lucozade boost…But now is the time”. I quickly joined him and it was a nice break from just water. The smooth orange taste was like syrup and felt like one of those running gels! 😋I’m not sure about Dan but it had no effect at all, i was expecting a Popeye type boost but nothing happened! 😭 

Lap 8: What another 2 more laps…😰

With no boost from either the Lucozade, the hob nobs or the stupendous flapjack at half time…I knew this is all the energy i was going to have. The inclines felt like mountains and each bump and dip started to smash my knees and pop my hips out…It felt like i needed a really tight belt around my hips just to keep them from flying out as both legs fell off! Other than this i was fine, lol! 🤣 

Lap 9: Just don’t stop…💪🏼 

As we started lap 9 and entered my new personal best distance with every step, i knew i just had to hang on in there somehow. The constant sun had completely fried my brain so talking was at a minimum as both of us were just trying to get around this beautiful but punishing trail…I used to enjoy walking around here, lol! 🤣 “Hey what are you doing?” i said to my legs as they were slowing right down to stop “Don’t even think about stopping, it’s not you that needs to stop it’s MS that got to stop” i continued quietly telling myself, thankfully i managed to carry on dragging them! 💪🏼 🧡

Lap 10: Yay Sarah’s Here…!! 😀 

“Wow you’re full of beans” i said to Sarah as she was zipping around us full of energy, as me and Dan were like 2 zombies shuffling along. I’m so pleased she was as all of these photo memories were by Sarah as she joined us on lap 4 & 10, thank you so much my lovely for these great memories. “Smile and wave your arms around” Sarah shouts as i try and remove my painful agony face that was permanently set…And my arms were just hanging there like floppy dead things, so how she managed to capture us looking like we’re enjoying ourselves is simply fantastic, lol! 🤣 

Then the 26.2 Mile ANNOUNCEMENT…🙌 

I love this photo as it shows me and Dan expressing relief that all of this pain is finally over, jubilation that we’d actually completed a whole marathon…But also the realisation that we’re still on the trail and nearly a mile away from home with no chance of teleportation!!!! 😨 🤣 

Getting back home was a mixture of emotions. Yay we’d completed the marathon which was unbelievable, yet we still had the agonising walk back home. Once we reached our lane Dan even took his trainers off as his feet were beyond hurting…Is 27.05 miles classed as an ultra marathon or is that pushing it a little?! 🤔Once we did make it back home and we actually stopped, the tidal wave of tiredness hit us and we didn’t know how long we had before our bones and muscles seized up completely?! 🤔 

The Sparkling Celebration…🥂🍾

As we finally got the chance to take off our backpacks and me and Dan were attempting a stretch or two…My lovely wife Sarah had popped the cork on a bottle of Prosecco and was pouring a couple of glasses for us, she’d planned all of this without us knowing and wanted us to pose for the finishing shot. We couldn’t drink it unfortunately as we were just too tired. 😰Also Dan still had to drive home and knew if he didn’t leave quickly he’d be completely seized up!! 💪🏼 😀 

The Recovery BARBECUE Sizzler…🍕

Once Dan had messaged to say he’d arrived home safely, it was time to order the post marathon pizza! I decided to choose this 18″ beast as it had chicken, onion and mixed peppers (healthy option, lol) and a cheese stuffed crust!! 😋 Now i just need to walk another marathon to burn it off! 🤣 

Thank you…🧡

It’s already taken me 2 days to put this post together whilst still in pain, so i want to thank you properly in another post when i’m fully recovered…But all of your cheering, encouraging comments and generosity have helped carry me through the hardest thing i’ve ever done! Thanks for how you’ve all made me feel throughout this challenge and the 7 months of training!! 😀 

The Final Trail Marathon Stats…

In memory of my beautiful mum who passed away from progressive MS. 🧡 

It’s still not too late to donate…🧡

If you’re reading this and would love to be a part of this challenge and cause…My fundraising page is still open for a few months. Please click the donate button below and join the fight to help STOP MS!💪🏼 🧡