At about 11:00 am on Saturday 7 June we left our friends’ house in Maidstone, Kent, and began the short journey to Leeds Castle. After getting parked we made our way to a marquee where we were required to register our arrival to take part in the 10-mile Pink RibbonWalk at 12:00 pm. Once registered we made our way to the crowd of other walkers gathered around a small stage. Introductions and Welcomes were made and then we started the ‘warm-up’ session. Then at 12:00 pm the first wave of walkers departed followed about 5 minutes later by the rest of us.
The walk started in the grounds of Leeds Castle, so the first mile or so was fairly gentle walking along pathways in the grounds, past a lake where various water-fowl were swimming and flying around. Ahead we could see the long ‘pink ribbon’ of walkers weaving their way into the distance. We left the castle grounds and the terrain became much more ‘interesting’ and varied; through wooded areas, along muddy paths (where Collette almost did the splits as she slipped and fell in the mud!), through fields of crops and occasionally crossing roads or going past farm buildings.
Gradually more and more walkers kept passing us until we only had the back markers behind us, removing the numerous arrows pointing the way as they followed. We reached the first rest point where food, water and toilets were available, but being the last to arrive it didn’t seem long before we were the only walkers left. I’d got a blister on my practice walk a couple of days earlier and on checking my foot I found it had developed again. :-( After applying a blister treatment plaster and not wanting to drop too far back, or to stiffen up too much by stopping, we set off again very soon.
About half a mile after the rest stop, we reached the point where the 20-mile walkers re-joined our route, so once again we had walkers behind us!
I was starting to struggle after about 5 miles, with my feet starting to ache badly and at least the one blister with the possibility of more (tw o more as it turned out). At various points, I was asked if I wanted a lift back to Leeds Castle but I was determined to complete the walk and politely refused.
Collette proved to be a great help and kept encouraging me to keep going. We knew we weren’t going to finish early but hoped it would still be daylight!
We eventually reached the 2nd rest stop where I was offered a (canvas) chair to sit on - luxury! We stayed about 10 minutes and then continued on for the last section of the walk.
Every few minutes, 20-mile walkers were catch up to us and we stood to one side to let them past - they always thanked us and told us we were “doing great”. The last section of the walk involved walking through some large fields of wheat and rapeseed, along narrow pathways between the crops, so stopping to let others pass was sometimes difficult but I didn’t want to hold them back - always glad of a moment’s rest while they passed.
Eventually we started getting glimpses of the castle as we got nearer to the finish. Collette started pushing me along, saying “Come on, we are going to cross the line together!” I knew my husband, Rob, would be using his binoculars to watch for us returning and that he would probably see this - I was right. We were back in the castle grounds and could see the castle in the distance, with what appeared to be a wedding taking place.
As we neared the Finish Line, about 6 hours after starting the walk, we upped our pace, especially as there was a group of 20-mile walkers some distance behind and we wanted to cross it before they caught us up. Crossing the Finish Line was the best part of the whole walk and the highlight of the day - knowing we had finally completed the 10 miles and could now relax our aching bodies! We were handed ‘goody bags’ containing various samples, chocolates etc and our all-important medals! We were supposed to get a free massage but there was at least 15 minutes to wait for a turn for full body massages and we were advised to go to the foot-massage tent, but it was closing.
On registering our arrival back from the walk we were given vouchers for a free meal of pasta. I had not eaten since breakfast apart from a banana, an apple and a few sweets, so this was devoured quickly before we headed back to our friends’ house and I fell asleep in a hot bath!
