3 City Challenge 2010 Report: Part 2 – Off We Go!
- Jabu posing with a road sign for Peckleton, wonder why we late?
Some members of the Leicester Deaf community are waiting at the Clock Tower in Leicester with us until the clock strikes 5pm. They appreciate that we are fundraising for a cause close to them so they show their support and it gives us a huge boost. We say our goodbyes and the journey begins…
We go from the Clock Tower down High Street and we’re off jogging, heading west from the centre of Leicester out towards Leicester Forest East. It’s a sublime feeling but Jabu soon realises why I got a specifically designed running backpack as he only brings a normal rucksack and is having difficultly running with a bag that is at least twice as heavy as mine. It’s also obvious quite soon that we need more water so we quickly stop in the Sainsburys in LFE and we’re off again.
In Peckleton we stopped to get some of the 82 mini-challenges completed and we soon realised that our aim of completing 82 mini-challenges on route was doomed. I’ll explain further on.
We stopped to film the first part of the vlog we plan to do on route and we get stared at by everyone in sight, as you can imagine.
As we were coming through Kirkby Mallory, it was beginning to get dark so we stopped and put our high visibility jackets on as the country roads were getting more dangerous by the minute as the darkness came closer. By the time we were in Sutton Cheney, it was completely dark at 9.30pm.
A greasy Chinese wasn't the food of choice
As we approached Atherstone, it was around 11pm and we were hungry and aware that if we ate what little supplies we had in our bags, the journey through the night might prove difficult so we stopped at the only shop open – a Chinese takeaway! As we are both healthy compared to most, this was definitely a last resort we wasn’t keen on. Rice for me, noodles for Jabu – carbs to keep us going, but they were greasy carbs.
Onwards through Baxterley and Hurley in the dark of the night. By this time, we’d unleashed the Energiser head torch which claimed to have 8,000 hours battery life and needed it. Jabu then broke out the monster torch and I’m not kidding you it was that big I had no idea how (or why) he put in his rucksack. It was about 15 inches wide and 7 inches high, and lit the whole street for about 3 miles. It actually proved to be a lifesaver, with cars travelling at 70mph around bendy country roads in the pitch black, we flashed the super torch in the direction of the oncoming vehicles giving the impression a triple-decker tanker was coming their way and they’d pass us about 30mph carefully wondering where the hell the light came from as we’d switched the torch off by then to prevent blinding them.
Perhaps the most scariest aspect of the countryside was that every single house had 6 foot guard dogs (or wolves – we couldn’t tell) and only 3 foot fences separating us and their foaming jaws. As we passed one garden, we saw eyes at our level, heard ferocious barking and the fence (we were less than a foot from) was wobbling on the very foundations it was built on – we legged it! It was the fastest we had ran the whole 82 miles. We were at about the 30 mile mark if those animals were loose, we’d have finished the whole 82 miles sprinting. Of course, after the rush of blood to the head went… we understood that it was a strange reaction but perhaps one borne from being tired mentally and physically.
As we broke out of the rural areas, we came through Castle View and Nechells at around 5.30am in the morning. Before now, we’d only heard the wildlife and other than a few birds, seen none. Before we got to Birmingham, we must have seen at least 10 foxes all on the prowl near bins and rubbish bags.
We scheduled a meeting in Birmingham at the Bullring with a car carrying drink bottles, extra food and a change of clothes. As we got closer to the infamous Bullring, we became excited and forgot about how tired we were. We had almost reached our first checkpoint. Interestingly enough we’d probably covered more miles than we had in the whole of our training combined.
Up the hill to the statue of the bull and we’d made it! We had covered 40 miles, hit the first checkpoint and were halfway complete. Jabu had blisters covering his whole feet, but I was lucky enough to be without blisters (yet). We were both moving and feeling fine, so far so good and it was at this point we knew we were going to make it. By this time however, we were 2 and a half hours behind schedule as we arrived at Birmingham at 7.30am. We had to move faster if we wanted to hit our target of 24 hours, but having completed 40 miles already it wasn’t going to be easy.
To read Part 3 of this report, click here.
- Jabu posing with a road sign for Peckleton, wonder why we late?
Some members of the Leicester Deaf community are waiting at the Clock Tower in Leicester with us until the clock strikes 5pm. They appreciate that we are fundraising for a cause close to them so they show their support and it gives us a huge boost. We say our goodbyes and the journey begins…
We go from the Clock Tower down High Street and we’re off jogging, heading west from the centre of Leicester out towards Leicester Forest East. It’s a sublime feeling but Jabu soon realises why I got a specifically designed running backpack as he only brings a normal rucksack and is having difficultly running with a bag that is at least twice as heavy as mine. It’s also obvious quite soon that we need more water so we quickly stop in the Sainsburys in LFE and we’re off again.
In Peckleton we stopped to get some of the 82 mini-challenges completed and we soon realised that our aim of completing 82 mini-challenges on route was doomed. I’ll explain further on.
We stopped to film the first part of the vlog we plan to do on route and we get stared at by everyone in sight, as you can imagine.
As we were coming through Kirkby Mallory, it was beginning to get dark so we stopped and put our high visibility jackets on as the country roads were getting more dangerous by the minute as the darkness came closer. By the time we were in Sutton Cheney, it was completely dark at 9.30pm.
A greasy Chinese wasn't the food of choice
As we approached Atherstone, it was around 11pm and we were hungry and aware that if we ate what little supplies we had in our bags, the journey through the night might prove difficult so we stopped at the only shop open – a Chinese takeaway! As we are both healthy compared to most, this was definitely a last resort we wasn’t keen on. Rice for me, noodles for Jabu – carbs to keep us going, but they were greasy carbs.
Onwards through Baxterley and Hurley in the dark of the night. By this time, we’d unleashed the Energiser head torch which claimed to have 8,000 hours battery life and needed it. Jabu then broke out the monster torch and I’m not kidding you it was that big I had no idea how (or why) he put in his rucksack. It was about 15 inches wide and 7 inches high, and lit the whole street for about 3 miles. It actually proved to be a lifesaver, with cars travelling at 70mph around bendy country roads in the pitch black, we flashed the super torch in the direction of the oncoming vehicles giving the impression a triple-decker tanker was coming their way and they’d pass us about 30mph carefully wondering where the hell the light came from as we’d switched the torch off by then to prevent blinding them.
Perhaps the most scariest aspect of the countryside was that every single house had 6 foot guard dogs (or wolves – we couldn’t tell) and only 3 foot fences separating us and their foaming jaws. As we passed one garden, we saw eyes at our level, heard ferocious barking and the fence (we were less than a foot from) was wobbling on the very foundations it was built on – we legged it! It was the fastest we had ran the whole 82 miles. We were at about the 30 mile mark if those animals were loose, we’d have finished the whole 82 miles sprinting. Of course, after the rush of blood to the head went… we understood that it was a strange reaction but perhaps one borne from being tired mentally and physically.
As we broke out of the rural areas, we came through Castle View and Nechells at around 5.30am in the morning. Before now, we’d only heard the wildlife and other than a few birds, seen none. Before we got to Birmingham, we must have seen at least 10 foxes all on the prowl near bins and rubbish bags.
We scheduled a meeting in Birmingham at the Bullring with a car carrying drink bottles, extra food and a change of clothes. As we got closer to the infamous Bullring, we became excited and forgot about how tired we were. We had almost reached our first checkpoint. Interestingly enough we’d probably covered more miles than we had in the whole of our training combined.
Up the hill to the statue of the bull and we’d made it! We had covered 40 miles, hit the first checkpoint and were halfway complete. Jabu had blisters covering his whole feet, but I was lucky enough to be without blisters (yet). We were both moving and feeling fine, so far so good and it was at this point we knew we were going to make it. By this time however, we were 2 and a half hours behind schedule as we arrived at Birmingham at 7.30am. We had to move faster if we wanted to hit our target of 24 hours, but having completed 40 miles already it wasn’t going to be easy.
To read Part 3 of this report, click here.
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