The Monwalk I’d been planning and training for for so long was just hours away and my nerves were beginning to kick in. Mostly, they were about the journey, the details. Then there were all the final preparations…
10 May 2013
Countdown to the Moonwalk. We are now in hours rather than days and I will admit to being rather nervous. These are not nerves about whether I can do it or not, I know I can, they are nerves about getting up there, the hotel, meeting up with everyone, getting into Moonwalk City on time, hanging around until the start, being tired before I begin, finding somewhere to pee when I’m going round, the cold, the rain, finding Commando at the end, getting back to the hotel…. Blah, blah, blah. Walking is so much easier when you just go out the door and start off, plod, plod, plod mile after mile until its done and you walk back in the door and kick off your walking shoes.
So today will be mainly about not over thinking it all and getting everything together. This time I will not forget my socks! This time I will not get there so early. This time I will pee in bushes. This time… who knows? There are sure to be things I haven’t thought of, there will be problems, I am bound to forget something. Commando says he loves all the pre race stuff, the standing around at the start watching everyone prepare. Me, not so much. Like I said, I’d rather just get on and do it, preferably all on my own with my quiet thoughts and my camera. Does that make me a miserable loner? Probably.
Alex, my sister, left home and got married when I was three. It wasn’t like we played together anyway because she was so much older. So I was raised as an only child to all intents and purposes. I was always very good at amusing myself. Drawing, reading, writing stories, making up fantasy worlds, fairies in the garden made of fallen fuschia flowers. Of course I had friends, other children in The Crescent and at school. It’s not as if I don’t like people, I do, I still have lots of friends, but I still like my own company. Crowds frighten me. If that’s odd then I’m odd ok?
The plan for today was mainly resting and gathering strength for the task ahead. Of course there were still things to be done. For a start the bathroom wasn’t going to clean itself, if someone out there would just invent a self cleaning bathroom they’d make a forturne and save me lots of time. Then there was the shopping, no huge heavy bags today though because this is one weekend I will most definitely not be cooking for the week ahead. We can live out of the freezer with some supermarket meals thrown in. Of course they will be healthy supermarket meals but not nearly as good as home cooked with fresh ingredients. I’m sure one week won’t kill us.
The butcher wished me luck for the Moonwalk and then asked if there were lots of men lining the route to gawk. The answer to that one is, probably, not that I really noticed last time apart from the ones on the mezzanine at Marylebone Station when we were having our photos taken. Maybe he was thinking of going up there himself.
Walking back with two light bags for a change I saw the first hydrangea flowers in the MP’s garden, green at the moment but they will soon colour up and, in the winter, the dried petals will skeletonise and make me think of old lace again. I spotted some ground ivy growing on the high old wall of the doctor’s house amongst all the moss and lichen. Festooned with spider webs it looked as if they’d been put there purposely. Further along, white lilac is in flower, not as fragrant as my own purple lilac but still lovely nonetheless. Then back at home I checked my lilac and, sure enough, the buds that looked so much like bunches of dark grapes a few days ago, have begun to open into scented four petaled flowers. The first welsh poppies are out now too the bright petals still wrinkled from being packed inside the bud look like creased silk. Ants are still crawling all over the peony buds, I really have no idea what they find so fascinating but the red petals are showing now so it won’t be long before they open.
Really I should have stayed out in the garden and done some work. After all there is still bark to spread and shrubs to clip. I can’t afford to wear myself out today though or pick up any injuries so all that will have to wait. Maybe Monday I’ll feel like getting out there, then again, maybe not.
After a spot of lunch, the crustless quiche CJ didn’t eat last night, I gathered together my things for tomorrow. This time there will be no forgetting my socks, they’re already in my bag, two pairs just in case. Commando leant me his safety pins to pin my race number on my skirt.
“Why are you pinning it on your skirt?” he asked. “Wouldn’t it be better…” he gestured towards his chest then the obvious dawned, I won’t be wearing a t-shirt.
My trainers have been laced with the reflective, glow in the dark, pink laces. Those will be the first thing to go after the race I can tell you, there is no way on earth I’d be seen dead with those under normal circumstances. Lets face it I wouldn’t be seen out in my bra a puffy lace skirt and a million sequin stars either but this is the Moonwalk when all those things are de rigeur. Right at the last minute I remembered the glow sticks. Where the devil had I put them? There was a bit of running around and fumbling in cupboards but, in the end I found them without too much trouble. Still I have a nagging feeling I’ve forgotten something but whatever it is I’ll have to do without it.
The weather forecast for tomorrow night and the early hours of Sunday morning in London is for rain! That I could really do without. This time last week the forecast was for Sun, now it’s changed. Just for once I’d have liked not to get rained on, on a walk. Honestly, I feel as if I’m in danger of acid rain erosion. Good job I have the waterproof, windproof jacket really. Yes, I know I’m supposed to be walking in my bra and I will, but if it really pours down, that jacket is coming out of the bag for sure. The see through plastic poncho thing Walk the Walk supply is really not all that great at keeping you dry even if it does mean you can still see the bra. Last time I felt like a turkey in a feather and sequin encrusted bra, wrapped in cling film and waiting for Christmas. It was not a good look. Plus it made me all clammy.
So there we are, the last training walk has been walked, now there are just twenty six point two miles to go to the finish line. Since November, when I started all this, I’ve walked six hundred and ninety one miles. By the early hours of Sunday morning that will be seven hundred and sixteen point two! That is fiurther than walking from my house to John O’Groats, a whole half marathon further in fact! Imagine that, or more than half way to Marrakech, I know which one I’d rather be walking towards and it’s slightly warmer than here.
Tomorrow morning there will be a drive up to the Travel Inn with a stop off on the way to have a big high carb lunch. Not often I can eat a guilt free big bad lunch so I’m actually looking forward to that bit. We will check into the hotel and I’ll try to get some sleep if I can while Commando watches the FA Cup on TV. In all probability I won’t sleep and I’ll end up half watching the footie. Manchester City v Wigan, I guess I should be rooting for Wigan as the underdogs but I have a sneaking admiration for Man City, always the weedy little brother in a city where Man U the big bully brother rules the roost. I’d actually quite like to watch it. I probably will.
Then there will be a bit of a meeting of the WLR girls before we all trot off to Batersea Power Station and the long queue to get into Moonwalk City. That is where Commando will leave me and go back to a nice warm hotel bed. Jealous? You bet I am. At three in the morning when I still have ten or more miles left to walk, I will be thinking about that bed and really wishing I was in it.
Tomorrow I will probably be somewhere in London wandering around in my bra. Wish me luck and I’ll see you afterwards.