With our team being almost complete now, we thought it might be a good idea to try and replicate each of our roles that we’ll have in Africa. This way we will have plenty of time to iron out the problems we discover before we leave. We had a look into trails that are already established in the UK to have a practice on. The West Highland Way was looking like an exciting, wild and rugged trail to use but unfortunately the road doesn’t get very close to the trail often. At a similar distance, we found the Cotswold Way (103 miles). Apparently, the most sign posted trail in the UK, so fingers crossed the navigation should be super simple: follow the sign!
So, on Wednesday we had our first team meeting, in which the main topic was the practice run (along with a million other things). This was our first meeting that Mike has attended so there was lots to update him on. We have probably completely overloaded him with information and tasks for him to get started on but he’s a good’un so I have no doubt he’ll get stuck in. Aysha was particularly quiet for most of the meeting, this might have something to do with the snot running down her face and her lack of voice! (this is why she isn’t in the picture!) Bless her. And I did a cracking job of supplying health snacks.
I think having a meeting, chatting about plans and throwing around ideas is always a great way to get motivated. At least for me it is anyway. I’ve come away from the meeting feeling overly excited just about the practice run. I can barely contain myself when I actually think about Africa! We’ve all got our own list of jobs that we each need to get ticked off, hopefully this has been shaped by our individual skills. Doing this kind of challenge with a team is so incredible. I don’t know about the rest of the team but at the moment I am feeling really supported and a real sense of team spirit, which in turn makes me want to be better myself and not let them down.
Go Team Head Over Heels!!!!
By Emma
I have gained a new running partner who is super keen for trail running which is great for me. He knows lots of places to run that I don’t know and also works shifts meaning we can run together in the week. I have managed a couple of long runs but not as many as I had hoped. I’m not too concerned about this as there is still plenty of time, and I do worry about overloading my knees too early. I have also had my only run in the snow this year, it was so pretty. What a shame the winter has been so mild!
slotting in training around other things. I turned 30 so there has been lots of celebrations to squeeze training around. At the beginning of the month I spent a few days in Scotland doing more winter mountaineering so there was no running then and at the end of the month I went out to Taiwan to visit my brother. I can’t complain as these are all things that I want to be doing. I am eager to start building up my mileage but I need to remember that its still at least six months before I leave.
Head over Heels 2014 