Week Four: Walking through life....

Hello! 

Abit of a late blog update this week as we've both been busy with work, catching up with friends and family and rehearsing (yes, you can see us on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in May if you fancy, we're singing in the choir at 'The Night of 1000 Voices' don't cha know...or maybe it should be 'The Night Of 998 voices and 2 girls physically gagging with excitement') 

After having to take last week easy we have eased ourselves back into our training by either doing a couple of miles in a day or spending at least half an hour doing some aerobics (thanks Davina!) 

Feeling much more positive this week which is always nice! 

Last week we were offered a couple of nights accommodation in a hotel in London by one of our lovely supporters, Philippa! Not only has she found us somewhere to say but she, to date, has given us our biggest amount of sponsorship  - she had a bonus from work and thats what she put towards our cause.... what a lovely girl, she gets two gold stars and a thumbs up from us! 

The Falcon Inn in Hatton have also donated a room to us for the first night of our challenge; we are so, so grateful!!  Hatton is a little craft village in Warwick, its absolutely beautiful so it'll be lovely to walk though that way on our travels ...and if you ever want a quiet weekend away from it all, we'd recommend that you book yourself in there!! 

www.thefalconathatton.com 

Publicity wise we are doing quite nicely at the moment - we've not been too pushy to date but people have started to show a little bit of interest in what we're doing ; we've had an article published by 'Showandstay.co.uk' - we made 'WestEnd News', can you believe that?! 

That article was then picked up by someone over at Brian May's website and put on...get this...'Queen News'. (.we were excited.com!)

We've also had a mini-phone interview with one of the local papers thanks to another one of our supporters, Jamie, who got in contact with them on our behalf....

In the grand scheme of things, these publications are not the kind that are going to launch us into the lives (and bank accounts) of thousands of people - but come on, BRIAN MAY!! ('s website) 

We're contented walkers! 

Check back next week! 

 

 Lots of love 

Becky & Sal 

xx xx

Week Three: The oblique week!

We were trying to think about how we could sum this week up. 

After the triumph of a 13 mile walk on Sunday, the week looked like it was off to a brilliant start with both of us putting in extra time and walking extra miles. 

And then it was Tuesday, 'turning point Tuesday' and the rest of the week? The rest of the week can be likened very much to this beautiful moment...

Sal managed to pull her 'oblique' muscles apparently and spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in quite alot of pain - however she is pleased to report that she is feeling much better now and it only hurts if she over stretches - which is great when opposed to just when she is breathing, laughing, sitting, standing.... 

(a combination of tripping over Ruby the Westie and doing way, way too many sit ups - upsetting that it was no spectacular walking accident!) 

Becky has been nurse this week and looked after Sal - even though her knee was giving her abit of a gentle reminder to slow down abit on Monday. 

...Last night Ruby, Sals' Westie had an accident in the garden and surpassed both Becky and Sal - she has managed to put one paw out of action and bleed and is still hobbling around on three legs today with a bandage that makes her leg thee times as wide and three times as long as it should be; naughty, bad first aider mummy- drama!

Beckys' dog Bailey, we are pleased to report, is absolutely fit and healthy and ready to walk as many miles as he needs to in the name of charity.

   

So a far cry from last Sunday when we were getting ready to set out on an incredible journey, this week we are sitting on the sofa watching the 'Hollyoaks' omnibus in preparation for, hopefully, a better week!! 

Lots of Love 

Bex and Sal 

xx           xx  

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

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! :)

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

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