Penguins, ponderings and picking me.

Since the moonwalk finished I have been pondering what to do next that may be adventurous and/or challenging. Even though it hurt like a bugger at some points in the walk(about 24 miles out of 26.2), I still finished it. The buzz that you get from actually finishing an event is unbelievably good and worth the pain. I have felt that since then I can achieve anything I set my mind too. Although I may have to accept at some point that I can not actually win the 100m gold medal at the next Olympics. Also there is that small problem of not swimming that well and needing stabilisers for my bicycle.

So what next? Penguins, penguins and more penguins (hopefully).
What? I know you are now worried that I am going to jump in the penguin enclosure of the local zoo and molest some poor flightless creatures! Don't be daft, I am trying to to travel to their homeland and molest them insitu! I spotted a competition today that seemed to good to pass up, it offers you the chance to get an expedition to Antarctica all expenses paid and you get to blog about it. I think I could just about manage the blogging part, you think?

My entry:

I wasn't born with an adventurous soul; it is something that has happened over time. Well some would call it adventurous and some would call it buffoonery, I prefer adventurous. Over the last few years I have developed a more pronounced wander lust and that has been reserved to armchair travelling via nature and travel documentaries up till now. After recently doing the MoonWalk, a 26.2 mile power walk for Breast Cancer charities, I felt invincible! Well my feet didn’t, but I had gotten bitten by a bug that filled my mind with the ‘I can do anything!’ spirit.  Okay anything may be stretching it as I am a rubbish swimmer and can hardly ride a bike, but you know the thought is there.

Why Antarctica?  Well bird watching and I have had a difficult journey; from the moment I could walk I was forced into the world of twitching by my father and granddad. Car journeys from one end of the country to the other end in record time, was not what I would call fun. Especially when the lesser potted whatnot had flown off, or had been eaten by somebody’s cat.

So the ultimate revenge would be to go to place that they both would have loved to have gone! Well that would be rather mean of me; I would probably have to take the dad. I can’t take the granddad, well except in spirit, so that still only takes up two places.

I will shamelessly use my dad’s vast array of birdlike knowledge to inform and amaze folks with Antarctic facts and figures. Along with photographs, writings and my speciality of doodles! Also I have been blogging for a fair while now and can ramble with the best of folks

Click this for FREE PENGUINS (or to vote for me)

Voting does require registering and I know how much you love that.... But please do it! It does not involve spam. I will bring you back a snowball or something.

I know the chance of me winning is slim to none, but it is somewhere that the dad has always wanted to go and it would be most excellent to go on an expedition with him. Even though this is something he would run off and do by himself. Just think how cool it would be to send me to a place like that! I could fall in the sea and freeze my pants off. The competition is stiff, as a lot of the fellow entries are professional writer types and/or people that have travelled extensively. I say boooooo to them, send a total novice instead, much more fun I thinks.

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Moonshuffling to the end

Where was I? Ahh yes temporarily I had buoyed my spirits with freeze spray, painkillers and tunes! Thus making miles 13 - 17 my fastest to date.  During this time the sun also came up, glistening over the water and twas a lovely site to behold. I was seriously tempted to run into the sea and drown myself stick my toes in the water, but decided that would be a bad idea. So I used my camera phone to snap a few shots and plodded on.
Well I should say it was lovely at first, then it started to get bloody warm! Where was the rain? the clouds? a bloody breeze? Hot, lovely sunshine is all well and good for larking about in the park, but not when one is shuffling power walking like they have never power walked before! Thank goodness I have a sunny disposition, otherwise it would appear that I was a total miserable sod. Sunny disposition in my case was plenty of water, fresh orange slices at mile markers and happy smiling faces (not mine). On approaching mile marker 19, I met up with some girls that I know from the walk the walk forum, so plodded on with them. They were decidedly in better shape than I and were excited to be approaching mile marker 20.

 Supposedly at Mile Marker Twenty a sense of uber calmness and elatedness descends upon you like a thousand angel wings providing a cool breeze. I may of ever so slightly exagerated the wonderment that is mile marker twenty, but it was definitely a woop woop moment for a lot of people. Why not for me? The pain and tiredness due to severe lack of training was screaming in my ear. My nasty inner voice was whispering "You still have 6.2 miles to go! still not just! you lazy sod!", my nasty inner voice is a right sod. Luckily for me,from deep within my being a competitive streak was sparked just ever so slightly at the prospect of keeping up with people.
The last 6.2 miles seem to take an age, heading back into the city of Edinburgh with the sun blazing and seeing all the sights that had been shrouded in darkness hours before. Edinburgh is truly a lovely city surrounded by greeness and beautiful architecture. Of course I was not really paying attention at the time because I was concentraing on putting one foot in front of the other. The cheeriness and enthusiam of the volunteers that are spreadout throughout the course is really a nice boost when you are flagging, even though they lie about how close you are to the next mile marker (cheeky buggers). They might not of actually been lying but boy did one mile feel like ten towrds the end! Oh and the curbs! Stepping up and down curbs is like torture towards the end.
Not sure when it dawned on me that I was actually going to finish the challenge, I think it was only as I recieved my medal, sat on the floor and took off my trainers!

As I sat on the grass with my medal and bare hobbit like feet, I felt like shedding a tear or two but was not sure why. I felt emotional because I had finsihed it , but also because I hadn't had enough faith in myself that I would finish it. My fears were not unfounded, because I had been so poorly prepared for it, with excuses abound from the mumborg to college work.  So after a moment of melancholy I popped my blisters, squirted blister juice in my face (yuck), used the glorious freeze spray and felt at one with the world. Then I tried to stand up.......

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