Moonwalk 2009 - Walking the Walk

I awoke on the morning of 16th May with the biggest butterflies in my stomach! I felt nervy and anxious... the guidelines said to spend the morning stretching and relaxing but no time for that! I had to get on... there were kids to take and pick up on the usual saturday morning run-arounds, my bumbag to check, my 'other' bag to pack and re-pack...

Anyway, after all of that my stomach was still very unsettled and I had to forgo my lunch - I just couldn't keep it down! This wasn't good as I would need the energy later but there was nothing I could do but hope that I'd feel better by tea-time and eat something then...

The train was due to leave Selby train station at 3.42pm and as we were waiting on the platform we had a surprise send off from My brother, Ian, his wife Louise and their son Sam - who had brought us a bun each that he had made for us to eat on the train! Bless Him! That bun proved to be the starter for my appetite to return...

The train picked up more Moonwalkers at each station - easy to tell from the array of pink caps and bra T-shirts :-) We even got two mentions from the on-board announcer! Even the solitary chap sitting across the aisle wished us good luck as we got off at Kings Cross!

We got a cuppa and found ourselves a place on the station concourse, waiting for the rest of our team! The pink caps multiplied quickly as each new train arrived and the station was alive with excited chatter!!

Once we were all together we set of for the tube and the escalators were even more densly packed with pink caps! I heard a man tell his boy "Look at all the Moonwalkers" - it made me proud!

After a very welcome take-away sandwich we decided to get changed and after seeing the queue for the loos we all squashed into a disabled toilet! It was a giggle but no time to be bashful!!

And so it began... as we made our way back onto the tube to get to Hyde Park we attracted grins, stares and wolf whistles! I'm not ashamed to say I liked it!

As we got out at Hyde Park Corner there was just a sea of pink caps and fancy bras!! The chatter had reached an all time high and we were all buzzing :-)

The queue to register was huge but moved along rapidly and at last we were there - Playtex City! A huge pink Big Top with two rows of 9 turrets!! The periphery was home to an array of tents and marquees all labelled with the appropriate colours and purpose - we were yellow and therefore destined to be off first!!


As we made our way in there were official photographers waiting to take our picture, marshalls handing out space blankets and rain capes and there were even stiltwalkers welcoming us to this amazing event!

In Playtex City we found a place to call camp and dumped our bags. We creamed our feet, applied plasters in all the appropriate places and enjoyed the entertainment! There were singers and a live band and the mood was great! The costumes and bras were fantastic and some people had gone to so much trouble!! Just in front of us were a team of about 8 ladies dressed as clowns, with hula-hoop trousers and wigs and everything! We later saw them on the way around and they still had full costumes on!!

The race wasn't closed to men but they had to wear a decorated bra and join in the spirit of it all! There were some men but not many - one guy - it was his 40th birthday that day! One guy was walking for his wife... One guy was walking with his daughter... you can imagine their stories...

A hot pasta meal was provided and was actually rather good - although I must admit I couldn't manage it all! As the evening wore on we started to get restless and were really just ready to get started! At one point the queue for the loo was 30 minutes long!

They announced that there would be 17,000 of us walking and the start-time was rescheduled for 11.15pm. We listened to the talk and the explanation of why we were there and we had a minutes silence for those who could not be with us...then it was bending and stretching and ready for the off...

Then there we were - standing at the start - counting down 10, 9, 8... the rush was incredible! Fortunately the decorated bras made it easier to spot our team and we managed to weave through other walkers and try to get ahead of the crowd. Alot of us had the same idea!! London traffic was carrying on as normal and as we got to the first of many road crossings the traffic was held back by police and marshalls... horns honked and people cheered!

I took a stumble early on and then my lace came undone - I had to stop to tie it and then run to catch up with my team! We were going at a fair old pace I can tell you - it felt like more than 4mph - my maximum pace during training and a helluva walking pace at any time!!

We walked under Marble Arch, rising above us in the darkness, all that could be seen of the walkers was a swarming mass of reflective cap bands and space blankets tied to our bumbags!

As we walked the river of ladies started to thin out and each road crossing thinned us even more! Soon our team got separated by a road crossing, four managed to cross and two of us were held back ... that would be the last we saw of them until after we finished!

The traffic was honking and waving and voices were shouting as we walked along, people on the footpath cheered and egged us on - you would never believe how many people are out and about in London in the early hours!!

We strode out past Horseguards Parage and saw the London Eye all lit up behind, Big Bens Clock Tower, the white dome of St. Pauls, it was like an eerie late night sightseeing tour...

We passed the 6 mile marker and Val pointed that we only had 20.2 miles left to do and we had done a 20 mile walk in training and so knew we could do that! We strode out and felt really good...

All kinds of folk were lining the streets - not in any great numbers but regularly and often... lads in football shirts were sitting atop a wall shouting and cheering... couples out walking would wish us luck... as we walked along the Enbankment clubbers came out from the floating nightclubs and shouted and clapped as we went by... it was amazing!

The half-moon was due to finish after 13.1 miles and we had decided to not stop for a toilet break until after they had left the route. This would mean shorter queues and hopefully less interruption to the walking. Battersea Park was therefore the first 'milestone' in my mind...

We passed along a riverbank lined with trendy restaurants and bars, all closed and in silence. The trees in the courtyards hung with bright white and blue fairy lights - beautiful and maybe left on for our occasion? Further along we saw a businessman in suit and overcoat, lingering between two colums in the shadows - waiting just to wish us luck? Or grateful for our presence - an excuse for him being there?

We reached the 10 mile marker at 2am and felt pleased with our progress ... but unfortunately my feet had other ideas as I developed blisters on my toes!! I had never had blisters whilst training!! They were very painful but I was determined not to let them slow me down - I had set myself a time of between 7-8 hours to finish and fully intended to do it!!

My bra started rubbing under my arm and got very sore - good job I had brought a small pot of vaseline in my bumbag - I resolved to apply a liberal smearing once I stopped at Battersea!!

My lack of food also began to take effect and I soon felt sick and aching - I was beginning to wonder why I had bothered with all the training - it felt like it had served no purpose at all!

By the time we reached Battersea I was at a real low... my feet were killing me, my bra was rubbing and making me really sore and to top it all I had no energy and felt really sick! I foolishly allowed myself to sit on a curb edge and almost immediately wished I hadn't!

After a few minutes rest and a welcome interaction with the vaseline I forced myself up and started moving around. I had an energy tablet - 57p a packet - bargain!!

As we set off again the marshalls offered us pieces of orange or banana - I chose banana for the energy but it was a bad choice...

I was not about to give up but couldn't believe that I was only half-way!! The only way forward was to walk through it... I forced myself into a fair pace and set off - I have to thank Val massively at this point as she kept me going and didn't allow me to wallow in self-pity!!

As the night got darker some parts of the walk were very quiet and it was in these times when it was hard not to think of the aching and the blisters! Sometimes we were all chatty and it kept the mind on track but sometimes we just walked in darkesss..

At about 3am we were walking along a residential street in Kensington. The houses were Victorian with high fronts and steps leading up to the front door. A lady was sitting on the steps of her house with a cardigan around her shoulders. She looked up as we walked by and said ‘I just wanted to stay up and thank you to you all for what you are doing – I have just finished my radiotherapy’ ... those few grateful words really hit home just why we were doing this and we were all lifted and spurred on…

As we walked through an underpass a marshall encouraged us by saying that there were firemen in uniform on the other side waiting to cheer us on... and sure enough we passed the Chelsea Fire Station and all the firemen had come out and lined up along the path in full uniform, shouting and clapping and cheering us on!!

We walked passed the home of the Chelsea pensioners, silent and in darkness in the wee small hours... the dawn came up over the Thames as we trailed along... quiet talk overtaking excited banter...

But still the cars supported us - fewer in number now but still as keen to hang out of their windows and shout and cheer! Still honking their horns at the endless line of us ... walking through the London in the dark of the night... in fancy bras ... raising money ... for Breast Cancer...

By 20 miles the walking was slower and Val and I each had our own demons to face! Val was beginning to develop shin splints - painful cramp in the legs! It makes my blisters sound petty but the pain was dreadful and sometimes it was really hard to raise a smile for the marshalls and the public - who were there at every crossing cheering and clapping and keeping us going!

By 23 and 24 miles we were walking along the Mall and back towards Hyde Park - and by this point we were really slow and felt certain someone was playing silly buggars with the mile markers as they were taking soooo long to come up... we were positive someone had stolen the one for 25 miles! Hyde Park wasn't quite the end and as we walked along the path one of my blisters finally burst - the pain was excruciating and I almost cried! I had been fighting back tears for so long, the pain and the aching and the emotion of the walk was all too much! I was determined not to cry as I knew if I started then I wouldn't stop!

John had told me that i could ring him anytime I wanted throughout the night but I had forced myself to keep my phone in my bag - if I rang him I would find myself admitting the pain and that would diminish my resolve...

Eventually the finish line came into sight and the path was lined on both sides with family and friends of walkers... everyone clapping and cheering... the tears were so hard to keep back but I was determined not to cry yet!

And then there we were ... the finish line, receiving our medal, posing for photographs, I was desperate not to be crying on the medal photo...

We'd done it! We finished in 8 hours and 4 minutes... outside the time I'd set myself but not by much! The tears flowed! It all hurt so much! I was physically and emotionally drained!

Sniffling I agreed to hobble as far as a white van displaying a sign for the 'Well Hung Meat Company' manned by young men (yes - the pain didn't affect my vision!) and we managed to get a cup of tea and then move just far enough from the queue to lay out a space blanket and drop onto it!

The tea was too hot so I steadied my nerves and pulled out my phone... there were text messages from Emily 'keep going Mum, I love you' at 4.50am, from John 'You can do it, keep going' ... I rang home ... and the tears flowed again!

John agreed to let everyone know that I'd finished as my swollen fingers just wouldn't work well enough to text everyone and my composure wasn't good enough to call them...

We allowed ourselves to sit awhile and Fiona, Sarah, Janet and Nicky came to find us! They had finished in about 6hrs 30 minutes - a fantastic time! We sat and talked and had photos taken and I resigned myself never to walk a marathon again!


The bags needed to be claimed from the bag store and so we hobbled over and then made our way, very slowly away from Hyde Park...

As we hobbled out of Hyde Park to catch the tube back there was still a steady flow of ladies coming in through the gate – it had been such a hard place to be for us at that point and so we egged them on and gave encouragement…

Once again the tube journey was dominated by pink caps and once again we had to make do with the station floor to drink our cups of tea! Fiona and the others caught their train before us and Val and I were lucky enough to grab a seat on a bench - I felt really bad as an old lady came up needing to sit down but as I got up a few minutes later to find our train she gave me such a look of pity - I felt vindicated!

Out train finally arrived at 10.35am and we got seats, settling in didn't take long - it was the first proper sit-down we'd had since getting off the train at 6.45pm the previous evening! Val put her head against the window and I'm sure she was asleep before we left the station!

The journey was quick and we were soon pulling back into Selby Station - we must have looked a state - I still had my space blanket tied around my waist like some kind of long skirt! I could barely walk and I winced with every step!

We were met at the station by John and Isaac carrying a bunch of flowers for each of us! Hugs and kisses all round - Val even got a hug from Isaac - a VERY rare event!!

Needless to say home was very welcome and a hot bath was waiting! Bed followed and a few hours restful sleep!

And now I'm back!

The MoonWalk was incredibly hard but the highs were high and the lows were low - I'm so glad I was there! It was amazing! So many women, all ages, all shapes and sizes, so many costumes, so much energy and such high spirits!!

The firemen cheering us on in the darkness, the clubbers who came out to shout, the guys (and girls!) hanging out of their cars cheering and honking their horns, the cameraderie, the achievement and the tears ... it was all a part of the Moonwalk!