Another fab MoonWalk....
I woke up late, Lee had let me sleep in, but as soon as I was awake I felt VERY awake, and very excited. The costumes were finished, my bag was even packed, the big event was here. Had we done enough training? Would the weather hold? Didn't matter either way, tonight we were going to wear our costumes with pride and join the 15,000 other bra-clad women as we all pounded the streets of London.
Kirsty came over and we all went out for a spot of lunch as an attempt to 'carb-load'. We both had a very nice, and somewhat garlicky, pasta. Chatted away, spoke to Caz, and generally continued to get excited. Home and a little sleep before kick-off.
Slept for far too long, and Kirsty was at the door when I woke up. We both became a flurry of activity as we got ready, did we need plasters? What about spare contact lenses? Oh help! Is that the time?? Needless to say we missed out intended train, to Carolyn's annoyance. 'You mean I've got to hang around for half-an-hour looking like a porn star....?'.....
As soon as we got to Victoria Station we began to see dozens of pink-capped ladies in varying degrees of undress, so, not to be outdone we headed straight to the toilets to don our costumes. Of course Lynda Carter simply had to spin on the spot, she didn't have to grapple with safety pins and elasticated tiaras, trying to decide if she should wear her cape 'in' or 'out' of her jacket. Ten minutes later we were ready, looking and feeling the business. On to the tube....
By now we were blending in nicely with our fellow MoonWalkers, and feeling less and less self conscious by the minute. The whole tube was full of pink fluff, sequins, feathers and ribbons. But we really stood out in our gold lamé and red satin!
By the time we got to Hyde Park we had joined hundreds of others, and the air was buzzing. Through the gate and into Playtex Village, it was definitely busier than last year.
Now for the boring bit, the long wait for the start. We suddenly realised that we were in the pink group, the last group to set off and due to leave at midnight. Began to regret specifying a completion time of 8 hours, we agreed we should have overestimated and aimed to be part of one of the groups with an earlier start time. Oh well, something to remember for next year!
So, we ate, wandered, listened to the entertainment (Marcella Detroit , don’t you know!), had a massage....bumped into another group of Wonder Women(!) and did some half-hearted warm-up exercises, which consisted mainly of bouncing up and down trying to follow the routine before giving up and free styling in a fit of giggles. I do believe that we all made it into the Guinness Book of Records for the Largest Simultaneous Stretch! Finally it was time to go so we all made our way to the starting line for the off.
It took a good 5 minutes to get over the start line once we had set off, there were so many of us! Six miles in and we were still shuffling along, diving into any available spaces, following the trail of pink feathers strewn along the route. Felt very happy with our choice of costumes as they did get lots of very positive comments! After 11 miles we were still plodding along so decided to have a toilet stop. We queued for about 30 minutes and my queue wasn't moving so at this stage I agreed to meet up with the others at the next toilet stop and I set off on my own. It was 3.30am and I needed a bit of a boost so I put my MP3 player on, found some nice and loud Fatboy Slim and set off again at speed. Got to Battersea Park (mile 13) just before 4am, dived behind the nearest tree (when you gotta go, you gotta go!) and waited for the others while I watched the sun come up.
For the next few miles we all put our music on and ignored each other somewhat. By mile 19 we were tired and aching. Kirsty nearly gave up at this stage, her knee had gone and every time we saw a bra waggon we asked her if she wanted to quit. By mile 21 she had bravely made up her mind to carry on no matter what.
As we got back to Buckingham Palace the sun was blazing and we'd lost track of the miles slightly, was it 22 or 23? The end was in sight, thankfully, and we pressed on to the finish line, crossing it at 8:20am.
We flopped down under the shade of a big tree, got changed, ate a bit, cracked open the pink champers.....relaxed and basked in the glow of our achievement. Acute tiredness began to set in, and combined with alcohol...well, by the time we got back to Victoria I was pretty drunk! We got on our trains and attempted to keep awake.
Would we do it again? OMG yes! It is so much fun, despite the hard work. By the sounds of things there may be quite a crowd of us doing it next year, but I'm not sure if I want to sew all the costumes next year! And I'm not sure about the stockings and suspenders theme either......If you do want to join us you better 'Register your interest ' on the Walk the Walk site to ensure you get your application form.
One last thing we'd like to say is a big 'Thank You' to all our friends, family and loved ones who gave us all so much support, from the training to the sponsorship, the provision of champers and music to the calls through the night while we walked, it all really helped, we couldn't have done it without you!
Friday, 08 June 2007 19:26 | 
