Only a few hours since we all got back from the MoonWalk in Edinburgh, the fourth of its kind. All ten of us accomplished our goal of walking the full Marathon. It's not a piece of cake, and most of us have feet to tell the tale.
However, as soon as the sore muscles and blistered feet have healed, we will remember the fantastic night and day, and very special atmosphere. Most importantly, we will remember that WE DID IT!
The Oban énergie fitness MoonWalkers with their medals.A huge thank you to énergie fitness Oban for sponsoring the mini-bus rental, and to Dave, our driver, for doing a great job and for putting up with ten either very chatty or very quiet ladies. It was such a relief not to have to walk more than a couple hundred metres to get back to our transport.
A big thank you also to the members of the team, especially to Sam and Sam and Gillian who organised training walks and kept us focused, but also to everyone else: Jeannie, Leslie, Caroline, Julie, Karen,
My good friend Maggi, who has been inspirational to me for undertaking this venture, sent me a lovely card, which I want to share with you.
I also want to dedicate my walk to Heidi U., Fré R., Brigitte M. and Housi B. -- good friends who have all had to battle with cancer in one way or another in just the past few years. I love you all and I hope to see you again soon. Keep well!Here are some images to jog memories of the MoonWalk 2009:
This is us, just off the minibus outside Inverleith Park in Edinburgh, where the MoonWalk started and finished.
A great acoustic welcome just inside the entrance. These ladies sounded fantastic – a great mix of Scottish traditional and Caribbean-Latin American percussion. They're Commotion, a "women's Samba drumming group" according to their website.
The huge pink tent that sheltered us held a great evening's entertainment – The Swing Cats and The Eliot Murray Band were fantastic. There was food, there were temporary tattoos, and much more. Most importantly, there were ten thousand – 10,000 – walkers and hundreds of volunteer helpers.
Almost ready to go! But not before midnight. Until then, into the tent to find out what it holds.
Near our spot, this group of three cat-bra'ed young women made an impression. There were soooo many fantastic, imaginative, quirky, funny bras -- one would have to be a professional photographer to make a compilation.
Final scene of Nina Barough's presentation of projects sponsored by the MoonWalk/Walk the Walk. For more details, please click on the title of this post.
As it happened, we walked on the night of the Summer Solstice, with a very nearly New Moon, so these gorgeous moon lights were especially welcome even though the night never really did get completely dark.
You had to be patient: at times, the lines for the dozens of loos seemed endless.
We went through the gate at 12:25am. Took the last group almost half an hour from the tent to the gate.
About one mile into the walk. And this is the only photo of the actual walk. When I wanted to take a photo of the wonderful view at the half-way post, I realised that my camera had gone, and all the above photos with it.A huge thank you to Steve, the helper in orange, who was on the spot to take details, and who happened to be there at the end of my walk when, exhausted and sore-footed, I asked him to run round in search of what must be my favourite toy. It felt like a small miracle that he should have been there, and that someone handed the camera in. I think, that half-way point was both the highest and lowest point in my walk.
Another one was when, wanting to check the time, I pulled out my mobile phone and dropped it. When I picked it up, the touch-pad had come loose and it looked as though the phone was broken. But the next day, after the walk, I managed to reassemble it and it works!
So, today has been an excellent day.
Mission accomplished and safely back in Oban.
The medal, front and back.
A photo to remind me of a few great moments. And now, I'm off to take care of those blistered feet. Tata for now. I look forward to receiving your comments.
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