Sunday 28 February 2010

Week Two

Well hello there end of week two, 

What a week its been!  We're not going to lie, at the beginning of the week we were both absolutely exhausted, luckily we are both ridiculously stubborn and have mustered on and now it seems that we both accept that taking a good long walk is now part of our daily routine and we're not feeling half as tired as we were when the week began (yaaay, stamina!) 


This evening we are feeling quite smug with ourselves and with good reason we think. 
This morning we started out bright and early and started out on a walk...a 13 mile walk. 
13 miles is quite alot further than our usual 3-6 mile walk but honestly, it didn't feel any worse than usual...though we did find ourselves becoming hysterical at one particularly steep part of a hill when we were making our way home! 
We stopped off along the way to buy ourselves rucksacks...hilarity ensued! Neither of us have used or even owned a rucksack for at least 15 years, the sight of them in use sent us into fits of giggles - clearly we don't get out enough! 

It is also very gratifying that the sponsorship on our justgiving page keeps steadily increasing, the generosity shown has been amazing and the words of support are our biggest source of motivation - we really can't get enough of it and consider ourselves very lucky that we're surrounded by so many supportive people.

So all in all, we've had a great week! 

Thank you all for your continued support,
We couldn't do it without! 

Love 

Becky & Sal 
xx  xx

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Mid week blues

Well, today was a bit of a fail for one reason or another! On most days we have to train separately because our working hours are so different. So, the day went like this:

Sal - wakes up at 7.30am on a day where she really doesn't need to wake up that early, but she can't sleep! Goes out for her walk - taking the dogs with her. Chimp like van man shouts abuse at her. She decides to go through the park. Bailey disappears into the woods. Stress ensues. 
But despite that, she still manages a good few miles.

Becky - Spends the day at work absolutely knackered. Her body is really not used to this amount of exercise! It takes a small pep talk to herself to take herself out on a walk after work, but she does, and decides to take the dogs. Barely at the end of the road, it becomes apparent that Ruby does not want to go for a walk. Trying not to give herself any excuses to give up and go home, Becky carries on. Ruby still does not want to go for a walk. So the route has to be changed and Ruby has to be taken home, but not before doing a poo in the street. The poo bag that had been in Becky's pocket for weeks, which she kept pulling out by mistake every time she went in her pocket for a pen has suddenly disappeared! Great. So of course that means doing the shifty looking to see if anyone is watching before rapidly walking away from the crime. Throughout this by the way, it is raining. Hair is wet, feet are wet. Just....wet! Once Ruby is dropped home, Becky carries on with Bailey - taking a route that appears to be ALL up hill. Good times. You see since stepping out of the front door, shins have started to hurt quite badly. Nuff said.
Only 2.5 miles done - but almost all uphill which kinda makes up for it.....doesn't it??!

So there you go! We are doing our very very best, but we're going to have bad days. Luckily we're both very determined, and are eager to make this work. 

Anywhoo, apart from that, training is still on the go! :)

Sunday 21 February 2010

Week One: The week of the muscle

Well today marks the end of our first week of training. 

We've both walked between 3 to 6 miles every day this week (much to the delight of both of our dogs!), we've discovered muscles that we didn't know were there and have found ourselves filled with a sense of serious achievement already. 

Its strange how quickly you begin to feel the benefit of doing some proper exercise - those endorphins work wonders and they are a welcome addition to our days, we love you endorphins! 

We've been busy trying to promote our walk this week and have literally hounded everyone that we have met for their support; not so much in the monetary sense, we have seven months to find lovely people to make donations; at this stage it is the moral support that is nice, its nice to know that you have people on side. 

There have been some doubts as to our abilities from certain individuals but we're both such stubborn people that we have adopted quite a pro-active attitude of "Yes! We can" and every doubt spurs us on an extra mile in that day of training and really we can only be thankful for that. 

...The support that we have had so far has been overwhelming and we are so, so grateful to every single person who has encouraged us, spread the word and of course made a donation for us (www.justgiving.com/walktowestend)  - it means so much to so many, but especially to us. 

And so, onwards to a new week and new, exciting adventures! 
You can find daily updates at www.twitter.com/walktowestend 

Thank you so much for your support! 

Lots of Love 
Bex & Sal 
xxxxxxxx

Thursday 18 February 2010

Whats It All About?

Name:  Becky and Sal 
Age:  26 and 23
Interests:  Musical Theatre; singing, acting and (attempting to do something that looks slightly like) dancing
Objective: To 'Walk To The West End In A Week' 


"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me"  - Henry Ford 


We have set ourselves abit of a challenge, a challenge that does exactly what it says on the tin. 
On 17th September 2010 we plan to start a journey from our home theatre the 'Birmingham Hippodrome' and from there, onwards 112 miles  to London's West End finishing at the 'Dominion Theatre'  7 days later- Phew!! 


We're training by walking between 2-5 miles a day at the moment, something we will increase gradually until we can walk 16 miles a day (we have to average 16 miles a day to get to the west end in 7 days!). We have our route planned, our justgiving page activated (www.justgiving.com/walktowestend) and we are sending off e-mails, twitters, carrier pigeons, smoke signals and everything else we can think of to spread the word of our quest!

We didn't just randomly wake up one morning and decide to walk to London (although, we kind of did!) without reason; we wanted to do something different and challenging to raise some money for the 'Mercury Phoenix Trust'. 

The Mercury Phoenix Trust is an organisation set up by the band members of Queen and their management in memory of Freddie Mercury; they raise funds so that they can contribute to charities worldwide that treat people suffering with HIV and AIDS and educated others about the infection - invaluable information when you take into consideration that statics state that an estimated 33.4 million people in the world are suffering with HIV or AIDS and scarily, these numbers are rising annually. 


So there is your answer for if you were thinking "WHY?!" -  
If you're interested and want to follow our journey then please keep checking back for regular updates. We also have a youtube account which we will post a link to after we have uploaded our first video. 

Your support and help is greatly appreciated, we couldn't do it without you - so Thank You in anticipation!

Lots of Love, 

Bex and Sal 
xx         xx