Run Dobie Run :: London to Scotland - August 2009

Day 1 started late; I had not made my preparations as I should, but got to my starting point for around 7 to leave shortly afterwards. A large crowd of at least 5 turned up to see me off in some lovely sunshine.

Heading out from Harpenden towards Luton was fine until I hit the infamous Lower Luton Road; barely enough room to swing a cat, let alone me and two lanes of traffic. This unahppy partnership resulted in car horns, waves of anger and much hiding behind trees from me. What would of normally taken me around an hour, ended up taking me over an hour and a half.

After eventually arriving in Luton, David and I went fundraising in the Arndale Centre, hoping to charm unwitting passers by in to giving us their money. Whilst many would argue that the charm did not work, we did manage to raise £35, which was a good start. We then headed back to the camper, where I made us all a lovely chicken salad lunch to prepare us all for the afternoon.

I started running again at 2, heading towards Barton-Le-Clay. The run was fairly uneventful, making fairly good time getting there. On arrival, we set about finding somewhere to hang around and make some time for some food, to repenish my reserves. After speaking to the manager of the local Co-Operative, CVS managed to get us a space in out car park, where we would sort out some food, have a nap and then do some more fundraising. We raised another £35- super, some local children (on finding out I was famous) petitioned me to sort out the lack of local skate park and I did a live interview on Three Counties Radio; a good afternoon!

The final leg of the journey took me from Barton-Le-Clay to Wilsden where we parked overnight. The first night in the camper was good and comfortable, although I woke up really stiff and with a bit of an injury……..in to day two:

The first 10k of the day was walked almost exclusively as I had some serious pain in my foot, which was a worry. Couple that with the fact that the A6 is not the nicest of roads for runners - especially when their are lots of roadworks - and the day had not started so well. After reaching Bedford, I downed some painkillers, ate as much as I could (no change there) and sent CVS and David off to do some fundraising whilst I slept a bit. They managed to raise over £30 again which was great, taking our overall tally to £110, a good start.

After resting up and through the effects of the painkillers, I managed to run the next 12k with the help of David. We set a good time through some pretty tricky roads and dual-carriageways and finished up in Sharnbrook (still on the darn A6!) for some refreshments, a rest and to make preparations for dinner. The refreshments went well, the rest was lovely and David assures us that dinner would have been fantastic. Sadly we did not find out again as the gas refused to work for the second night running. Instead of a lovely chicken and pasta dinner, we had a bit of a spread; crackers, pate, cheese, salad and cake! You would not find that in the Journal of Healthy Eating for Runners Running to Scotland (It does exist!) but it certainly did the job.

I managed the final 11k in a little over an hour and ended up in Higham Ferrers about 10 miles shy of Kettering where I write this blog. David has kindly lent me Harry Potter for the evening and he also managed to get the gas to work so that I could have a cup of tea - good man! Night!