Surrey Stumble 25th March - 40kms (or is it?)

The sun had been shining all week so we were looking forward to walking in July like conditions! This was to be our mini Trailwalker run as we had the full Vale Venturers team out plus Vicky’s friend Alex and we started at 8am our preferred start time come the big day! This was also to be the day of unveiling our team T-shirts…..ooooooo!

Our team t-shirts!

On arriving at Surrey Police HQ we discovered it was 3 loops all starting and finishing at police HQ. Off we set on the yellow route 10km (allegedly!). The sun was shining , brilliant blue skies and much chatter accompanied us up over the Hogs Back and down to the hospital(!!). We had a quick pit stop at The Foundation Centre (Charity of the day) and headed off towards the cathedral and found ourselves surrounded by fog and the temperature plummeting – starting to wish we hadn’t worn shorts….We wandered through Guildford Train Station subway (it was on the directions!)  and eventually to the towpath back to HQ. 11.5 km down, we felt good, and the sun was now shining!!  Vale Venturers do like their cake so we filled up on Sandra’s brownies and then headed out on the Blue route (20km allegedly!).

Half way and still smiling!

This was a much prettier route and took us past Loseley House – discussion turned to potential wedding venue for Vicky and is the venue of Sandra's 40^th celebrations. We then skirted round Compton and ended up coming into Godalming through a lovely park and found the checkpoint in a dodgy corner of the old police station – deciding this wasn’t really picnic territory we headed off towards Bramley and Becky’s old school.  Once on the North Downs Link we found a kids park to picnic in! Sue’s Grandma's secret fruit cake was on offer as well as lots of different sorts of nuts. 

Lunch = cake and coconut water!

The Tropical sun was flowing here and Vicky & Alex had their first taste of coconut water that the rest of us all rave about! Off we went again and onto the towpath once more. We walked and walked – past the way back on the yellow circuit – and despite the blue tags still appearing we feared we had walked too far…. However, after consulting written directions we were sure we had to keep going. We bumped into a Trailwalker Veteran as we were finishing the blue route (25KM! – 36.5km total so far with a loop still to do!!). He spotted our rather pink team Tshirts and his advice was to keep a steady pace, don’t rush off and avoid blisters! He wouldn’t divulge his Trailwalker record but he says he has one so we had a little guess to keep us entertained….

Back at HQ we took on fluids, Haribos and Nurofen and off we went – the final 10km!

As Sandra had navigated all day Sue volunteered to do the last easy 10km. Back on the towpath again! We heard lots of sibling stories between Becky & Vicky and Vicky’s experience of teeth marks!! This friendly banter/ story telling helped distract us from a few niggling hips and toes! Half the team experimented with alfresco wees – something we are sure to have to encounter over 100km. Past Loseley again, a little loop on the north downs and back to Police HQ!

The Finish!

46Km completed in just under 9 hours, 1100m climbed and lots of calories burnt! No comedy falls! Not a young fit bobbie in sight! However on the official photos there are lots of soldiers – how did we miss seeing them!