39% there! Sadly that's not a pass.

The mock exam proved to be a real eye opener...

May 12th opened with glorious sunshine and a sweet cool breeze. Neil & I were dropped at Queen Elizabeth county park for our warm up walk of the actual trailwaker route. Checkpoints 1 - 4.
Confidence was high and the beautiful surroundings meant the first check point was reached in a quick time and relative ease. Beacon hill was a particular high point, quite literally! In a slight deviation of the south downs way you go up a very steep ascent to go over the top of the hill. You know it's steep when you use your hands to get up!
A good view at the top and an ideal photo opportunity was seized.
Unfortunately it was soon after this point that my feet started to blister, a change of shoes from walking to running trainers eased things a lot and I was confident the problem was sorted.
The hard point came at the beginning of the 2nd to 3rd checkpoints, although a shorter leg the start is a long, long, long climb! We'd promised ourselves a break and pork pies at the top, unfortunately for us the top never seemed to arrive! A fallen tree was an ideal sit down point and pork pies, dried fruit and energy bars were decimated on mass. The ten minute rest was over very quickly and it was very obvious it hadn't been great for our legs! Still we persevered over the hill.
After 17 miles my garmin died due to a lack of battery power, this had an impact on my mental state more than anything as I then found it hard to judge how far we'd been and crucially when I could have my next fruit pastille (one a mile!). The blisters started to take over and we had to stop to try and fix my feet. Neil had packed some blister stickers thankfully, and we carried on, at a noticeably slower pace!
By 21 miles I was in quite a bit of pain and the fact I knew the finish was near meant I started to go into shut down. The last few miles were tough, it felt like I was walking on pins! I cursed my shoes, and I cursed the fact I couldn't continue, and certainly wouldn't make 63 miles.
Amberley train station was a welcome site!
My next mission...
1. Get new footwear, seek a professional retailer and get advice, get measured and get sorted. I don't want to fail due to kit.
2. Get walking! Sounds obvious but I need to get my legs used to long distance walking, certainly not there yet, the hills really make a big difference.
3. Get some good tips on dealing with blisters, Vaseline is very useful apparently.

Mock exam results:
Fail :( but hey it's a mock and we've got 2 months to get in a place to pass. But before that I've got a premier league decider day curry to nail, and then a wedding & honeymoon. Then the army training will kick in!!