Trailwader 2012

We were never under any kind of illusion that Trailwalker was just something you could just turn up and do. We understood it would be tough, we knew it would test us physically, and we'd been made aware that it wasn't for the weak willed. Yet with all this knowledge we still found ourselves pushed to and beyond limits we did not know we had.

All four of us were apprehensive in the week leading up to Trailwalker, more so than would probably have been normal due to the deluge that had been falling on the South Downs in the preceding days and with the forecast virtually guaranteeing varying degrees of awfully wet for the event itself. In spite of this however, we arrived, pitched camp and ate our evening meal on a surprisingly rain free day. Dare we start to believe that we'd caught a break? Before we could seriously entertain that notion, we bedded down for the night and our optimism was soon put to bed too. All through the night we were kept awake buy the rain hammering against the tents and running beneath the groundsheet. Rich's reassuring words to me that it always sounds worse inside the tent than it actually is weren't all that reassuring considering just how bad it sounded.

Woken by the call of bagpipes early on the Saturday morning, and in the absence of any rain, we made our way to the mess tent for the complimentary breakfast (a word of warning to those partaking in Trailwalker in the future, get to the mess early, the queue gets long, fast).

The mass start - 15 minutes after the mass start

The support crew had made their way down from the Shire and met us at breakfast, helped us break camp and lugged our gear to the car. Due to a general lack of impetus from all concerned however we missed our start time by about 15 minutes, though we soon caught up with the pack.

We'd agreed ahead of time (on the advice of some Trailwalker veterans) not to meet our support crew until the second checkpoint, as we cruised through checkpoint one we were feeling great, we'd caught up with the pack, we had 10k under our belts and it wasn't raining. Then it started.

Up until this point our walk had been precipitation free, though almost as if someone thought we'd had it too easy up until then, as we left CP1 the rains began.

Still looking fresh at Checkpoint 1.

 As promised there were varying levels of wet from heavy drizzle to 'ouch that's hurting my face', and by the time we hit CP2 to meet our support crew we were ready for a bit of a morale boost. On arriving it was immediately evident that this wasn't going to be any walk in the park for our support crew let alone us. The ground in the carpark (read field) was chewed up to a soup and the smell of burnt out clutches hung in the air. As we trudged along the lines of mud caked vehicles, we wondered if our crew had even made it in. To our relief, and thanks to three Gurkha powered rescues, Chris, Chris and Rachel were on hand to feed us much needed pasta, tea and cake.

One Trailwalker and three Wetwalkers

As we left the checkpoint we were informed that both checkpoints three and four would be closed to support crews, so we stocked up with extra supplies and bid our guys farewell approximately the next six hours.

We arrived at Checkpoint 5, having now covered half of the distance feeling pretty good. The situation with the ground had continued to deteriorate due to the amount of water falling from the sky and the amount of people trudging over it. So much so that we virtually slid down into the checkpoint to be met by more scenes of stranded cards and weary faces. Our support crew had declined the offer of being towed into the field by tractor and had instead opted to take up position nearby on the roadside. There were a few small blisters forming on Haley's and my feet, but Rachel taking up the role of medic and was quick to tape us up. There where whispers in the air that CP6 was completely inaccessible to support crews, so once again we packed enough to carry us on for a couple of checkpoints.


We arrived into Checkpoint 6 under the cover of darkness, just getting to the checkpoint tent took all of our concentration to not take a tumble in the ankle deep sludge which surrounded it for about 50 meters in all directions. Once inside we took a seat and realised that despite Haley's knee shooting pain up her leg every step, Chloë's twisted ankle and my blisters and chafing; there we're people in far worse condition than us. There were a lot of weary faces in that tent, we were sat next to a group of girls who were trying to coax their drawn looking teammate to eat something and whilst we were sat there a guy was rushed to hospital after having a fit (we later learned it was brought on by serious dehydration).

As we left the tent and headed on our way I received a call from Chris to say that the support crew had parked up outside a nearby pub if we needed them. This was music to our ears as we were all feeling the need for a bit of a lift. The crew sprung into action as soon as we arrived, hot drinks all round, and those that needed it had there blisters tended to.

It was a long 9k to Devil's Dyke (CP7) in the dark skating over a carpet of mud, though the provision of the hot food buy the Gurkha chefs went a way to lifting our spirits. It was another roadside  rendezvous with the support crew, with both Haley's and my blisters receiving some serious attention from 'medic' Rachel.

There was no support access to Checkpoint 8 which was made up for in part for some very enthusiastic cheering from the Oxfam volunteers.

Taking a much needed rest between CP 8 and 9.

The distance from Checkpoint 8 to Checkpoint 9 is officially 13.8km, though it can be safely said that each one of us felt it to be around five times the distance. This was the leg that really stretched us to where we'd never been before. We were exhausted physically and we were exhausted mentally. we were all hurting somewhere and we each found ourselves having to dig deep to take the next step after the one that predeeded it. Throughout the walk we'd been receiving phone calls and text messages with of words of encouragement, one from a colleague Rachel (and previous Trailwalker herself) had promised us a break in the weather and a fantastic sunrise. She wasn't wrong! You cannot underestimate the power a sunrise can have when you've been trudging through mud and sludge all night long with just the dull glow of distant head torches for scenery. 

The 'as promised' impressive sunrise

We finally dragged ourselves up the hills and into Checkpoint 9, sank into chairs, and stared up at the last big climb between us and Brighton. We were (virtually force) fed porridge and tea by our support crew, whilst they did their best to play down how bad we no doubt looked at this point. This was the last we'd see of our trusty crew before Brighton, so we left anything we could do without and set off on our way with little more than water and a packet of ginger nuts.
With the end almost in sight we breezed though the last checkpoint, only pausing to register our timing tags. Then on we pushed to Brighton.

We picked up the pace a little in that last section, keen to cross the line and crack open the bubbly, crossing the line just the right side of 27 hours. The atmosphere and support from the gathered crowds at the finish line was absolutely fantastic, nothing can really compare to the overwelming feeling of both relief and achievent we had as we rounded the last corner and were hit with a wall of aplause. I’m supremely impressed with all the team for what we achieved over those very challenging days in July, the conditions were appalling, the consensus from those in the know was that the rain and subsequent mud put about four hours on everyone’s times. Normally Trailwalker is tough, this year it was punishing.

The finish is in sight

I think a colleague put it best when she Said "Trailwalker is a lot like childbirth, everyone will tell you how wonderful it is, but nobody ever tells you just how much it hurts" Nail on the head Emma, nail on the head.

That said Chloë is already weighing up a 2013 return, so if any of you out there are considering it, you know who to call!