Hi People

26/07/01

Bob Hayward & Nick Baldock have now run 5 consecutive marathons out of the 34 it will take to get to John O'Groats.  This is all in aid of Podge the 13 year old boy who was so badly burnt in an attack last May.

The day started with a jog through Okehampton, you could count the people out at 6am on the fingers of one hand - and most of them gave us a pound just to get us out of their quiet hamlet!

It is totally different running on the smaller A roads & B roads - so quiet in comparison to the constant stream of heavy traffic of the A30, we could actually talk together as we ran for the first time since we left Penzance.  The views of our green and pleasant land are just so inspiring, Greece is nice, Seychelles is nice, Majorca is nice - but the green lush rolling hills speckled with an old church here, a thatched cottage there and the apparently random hedgerows cannot be beaten.  

Bob's right achilles and Nick left knee both played up big time - they seemed to be saying "Look mate this is no joke I don't mind the odd marathon but I'm not into this constant repetition malarkey"  And we didn't have the magical fingers of Barbara to look forward too...No today it is Alan Taylor.

Alan swapped the fast moving high pressured Sales Directors job at a Data Coms company four years ago for a totally different lifestyle of the Remedial Masseur.  He took one look at Bob & Nick and decided he'd have his work cut out here.  After working on us for about an hour each he said "I often see 8 clients a day and never feel this tired" - The freedom of movement he created for us through his hard work were felt immediately and made the pain of "stripping the muscles"  (as he called it) worth while.

We parked up for the night in the services at Tiverton, junction 27 of the M5 - and met Carole and her team who have been superb hosts.

The low point of the day was when all three of us were in the motor home driving from the place we stopped running at, to the Little Chef. Unfortunately Nick stood up in the back of the motor home just as Brian had to slam on the breaks to avoid a loose cannon in a car - Nick flew through the air with the greatest of ease, better than his running style anyway, and bumped his head on the ledge of Bob's bed.  Felled like a pine under an axe, Nick landed on Brian's bed and promptly started bleeding from a gash over his right eye. Bob had to dredge up his medical past and dress the wound, an amazing what sticky plasters can do!