Bob Hayward & Nick Baldock have now run 27 consecutive marathons out of the 34 it will take to get to John O’Groats from Land’s End and in doing so have covered over 700 miles. This is all in aid of Podge the 13 year old boy who was so badly burnt in an attack last May.

Running from Dalwhinnie today was certainly interesting. Almost gale force winds blowing them northwards, dropping down below the tree line, their first sight of the Cairngorm Mountains and pain.

Gale force winds ripped through their motor home during the night, Nick loves his windows wide open normally, but for the first time in recorded history he closed them, well alright, we exaggerate, he left them ajar. The wind was strong enough to shake the motor home and actually wake them up, a strange sight had it been recorded on video, three grown men (debatable claim there we know but we’ll come back to that another time) three grown men each, with one eye open nervously asking the same question, “why don’t you open both eyes?” no not that question – “what was that?” answer “it was only the wind”. Reluctantly they all turned over and fell immediately back to sleep until the next blast when the above sequence was repeated.

5am. The alarm goes. Simon their driver sticks out his hand to turn on the gas to make the first and most important cup of tea for the whole day and the gas goes straight out. The first time ever we run out of gas in the morning. Nick and Bob both laughed as Simon, struggled to wake up sufficiently to dress, go outside, unlock the cylinder cupboard, detach the gas pipe from the empty canister and reconnect it to the spare one. All they could hear was banging, crashing, blaspheming and cursing from outside. All Simon could hear was unsupportive laughter from inside –Nice cup of tea in the end.

Each day it seems the scenery in Scotland changes, today the trees returned, the mountains grew in stature and spread themselves back from the road leaving room for Lochs, crazing cattle, herds of horses and even more deep mauve heather, grey brown and green bracken with a splattering of deep mauve thistles. Dotted along the roadside they also found bright red mushrooms. Bob had read about poisonous mushrooms but never known for sure if he’d seen them, but looking at these colours of red and orange as bright as any flower these for sure had to be poisonous.

The size of the mountains overlooking their resting place this evening of Aviemore are truly massive. It is easy to imagine how fantastic they look during a snowy winter and we hope we get a chance to come back to see them in all their glory.

Pain, well, they managed to put that in a box and forget about it for 18 miles today, but after their lunch break it insisted on coming out to play, never mind, their pain is temporary, Podge will face it every day of his life.

They called Stuart Nottingham on the phone today, his advice for Bob’s knee and achilles was so helpful and produced such immediate results, they felt it was silly to struggle on. Stuart has suggested a particular way of strapping legs up to relieve the pain from “shin splints” unfortunately it means shaving your legs. True to form Bob has followed his advice and dutifully shaved his right leg, and Simon says “You’ll find it easier to get your tights on in the morning now!” Will it reduce the pain? Tune in tomorrow to find out, same time, same place.