22 January 2012 - The final blog for our challenge

First the reason why we undertook this challenge.  We wanted to raise money for two charities close to our hearts. The first charity is Marie Cure Cancer Care. Last year we lost to cancer two wonderful people who were very dear to us.  Peter was one of our oldest and closest friends.  We first met Peter in 1975 when we joined his walking and climbing club and have stayed close friends ever since.  We also lost cousin Frank who was truly larger than life and a great one for storytelling.  Both were the life and soul of any get together and we miss them both very much.  But we know that Peter, Frank and their wives benefited from the care and support of Marie Curie Cancer Care at the end of their lives, so we wanted to raise money to support the ongoing and very important work. 

The other charity is Water Aid whose aim is to help get clean safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to the poorest people in the world.  It is a shocking fact that 4,000 children die every day from illness caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.  Clear water is something we take for granted here in the UK and David is a member of a local fundraising group.  

Money raised.  I am  pleased to say that we have exceeded our expectations and raised £1,550 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and £ 1,639 for Water Aid. This means we have raised a total of £3,189 - so thank you to all who have sponsored us or contributed to our fund rasing.

The steps.  We have been counting our steps from 25th July 2011 finishing on Christmas day when we were once again in Scarborough.  We set an original target of counting 2 million steps and we easily did this by October, so we set ourselves new individual targets: Jean to count 1 million and David 2 million and which we also achieved.  In fact by midnight on Christmas day we had counted 3,494,321 - just short of 3.5 million.  This is approximately 1,750 miles which is apparently the distance of walking from Lands End to John O'Groats and nearly back again!

A few facts about our steps

	Jean	David
Individual totals	1,134,317	2,360,004
Average steps / day over the challenge	7,366	15,325
Maximum steps counted in one day	30,065 one day whilst walking the Cleveland Way	34,491 one day whilst walking the Cleveland Way
Minimum steps counted in one day	0 when ill or 1,092 on a 'normal' day	3,226

 

Only twice did I beat David's daily score including the 24th December.  On Christmas Eve he forgot to put it in his pocket when he changed to go out for a meal in the evening!!!!!  Most times he was well above my score - see the graph my daily step count is shown in blue and David is in red.

The blog - remember that I had never even read a blog before this never mind written one!  But someone suggested this would be a good way to tell those who are interested how we were doing.  What I did not know is that for each blog site Google gives the blogger the stats of how many people have accessed it and from where.  This morning, 22nd January 2012, the total number who have found their way to this blog site is 1,343 and they come from way beyond the UK!  I do hope those from USA, Russia, Germany, France, Ireland, Malaysia, Canada, Latvia and Taiwan  have found our blog interesting and hopefully amusing!

Although the challenge and the fundraising has now come to an end, recording the steps counted on our pedometers is now habit and our walking will definitely not stop.  So can I encourage anyone reading this to get a pedometer, get out walking and see how many or how few steps you walk in a day.

But I end by saying another thank you on behalf of us both to everyone who has helped us raise so much money for the two great charities: Water Aid and Marie CurieCancer Care

Jean and David Penny

Monday 19th December 2011 We have done it!!!!!!! Three million steps

Back in October I told you that 'we have registered our 2 million steps' and that 'David now has set himself the challenge of reaching 2 million by Christmas by himself and I am aiming for 1 million by myself!' Well in early December we both met our new targets!!!!!! 

I am so pleased we pushed ourselves back in the summer and early autumn as December has been  very busy and difficult to go out for long walks.  Add the shorter days to busy  work and throw in a bit of illness - all this means the pedometers have not done a lot of counting recently!  But we hope that over the holiday we will again be able to get out walking once more.

I will post one last blog on Sunday 22nd January 2012 for anyone interested.  Then I  will be able to tell you all the final figures - the amounts raised for Marie Curie Cancer Care and Water Aid, the actual number of steps walked and most fascinating for me how many people have accessed this blog and from which parts of the world.

We are going to keep on gathering sponsorship and donations until Christmas and after if people still want to give!  Go to our Just Giving sites: for Marie Curie Cancer Care or for Water Aid


But can I thank all who have supported us on our challenge and wish everyone a great Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year

Until our final blog on 22nd January 2012

Jean and David Penny

PS It is great that many of you are getting interested in how many steps you walk each day and we know of some who have dusted off their own pedometers and started counting!  Also, as we come to the last few days before Christmas, remember that pedometers make great and inexpensive Christmas presents.......

Sunday 27th November 2011

Sorry I did not blog last week but we were away with friends at the weekend then I was away with work and suddenly it was midweek so I decided to miss a week.

Lots to say though and the most important thing is the amount we have raised.  After saying last time that 'donations are understandably drying up' they have leapt again - thanks to some very generous people.  I am delighted to say that we now have raised £1,470 for Marie curie Cancer Care and £1,439 for Water Aid!!!  A total of £2,909 - how good is that?

We both continue to make excellent progress with our steps.  Back on the 17th October, I told you we had done the 2 million steps between us and that David had set himself the challenge of reaching 2 million by Christmas by himself and I am aiming for 1 million by myself!  Well, as of today, I have only to count 8,677 steps to make my million and David has just 41,733 to get to his 2 million!  So I strongly expect that in my next blog I will be able to tell you that we have completed our 3 million challenge!

We continue to try to walk wherever we can but as David has a outside job and mine is often in front of the laptop, some days the variation in our scores is depressing for me.  Last Wednesday 23rd November, I scored a very dismal 1,361 steps (pathetic) but David's pedometer showed 23,331 - what a difference!  

 

However we both greatly increased our step count last night by dancing.  We went with friends to a fund raising Ceilidh organized by the Rutland WaterAid committee.  In three hours of  do-si-doing, a-la-main lefting and stripping the willow (all country dancing terms for those of you who are confused!) I registered over 6,000 steps on my pedometer - the equivalent of 3 miles!  Great fun though. Then this morning, after waking to a power cut, we went a few miles down the road to the iron age hill fort at Borrough on the Hill (for more info click here ).  Although the sun was shining, it was bitterly cold and very very windy - it certainly blew the cobwebs away.  Dressed up for the cold, we remembered with longing the days when we were in shorts and tee shirts ..... 

More next week

Jean (and David)

Tuesday 15th November 2011

A bit late with my blog this week as we have been up to Scarborough again, to our flat.  As always a great weekend and lots of steps added to our total.  We tend to park the car and leave it as we can walk everywhere: to the High St. shops, to the theatre, to the museum and to the restaurants - very different to living in our tiny village where you have to drive everywhere. 

Saturday was a glorious day with a lovely sunset (photo) giving hope for a great day on Sunday but it could only be described as 

  'grey' - one where you can hardly tell where the sea stops and the sky starts.  We still went out of course - we drove 15 minutes south along the coast to Filey.  We  walked out along the spur of land called Filey Brigg, along the beach and then back through the lovely little town - of course stopping for afternoon tea!  Filey beach is 5 miles long, flat, with firm sand and is very wide when the tide is out and in 1903 it was used to test the first powered flights in the UK (photo).

Back in Scarborough it is great to be able to walk around the headland to the shops  A new work of art has appeared on the North Bay promenade that we understand is temporary and for remembrance weekend.  It is a huge sculpture of an old man, an ex-soldier, sitting on a gigantic bench looking out to sea.  His open arm and room besides him on his 

 bench invites you to sit beside him - we could not resist.  (sorry photo is on its side - I cannot make out how to turn it!!!!).  But the plaque on the bench bears a serious message.  It says:

They said for king and country, we should do as we were bid.

They said old soldiers never die, but plenty of young ones did.

So thanks to our weekend away our steps are still adding up and we have now counted a total of more than  2.5 million.  Over this weekend alone we have walked over 90,000 between us - that is the equivalent to about 23 miles each!

The donations are understandably drying up a bit.  But we are still very pleased with the amounts we have raised and we will not stop rattling our tins until 25th December!

More next week (it may be Tuesday again as I am off working on Monday)

Jean (and David)

Monday 7th November 2011

This is a bit of a 'no no' week in terms of steps.  What with work and lingering colds, we have not done any special walks to report on.  We did go to a 60s themed firework party on Saturday  - fancy dress (see photos), great food, wonderful fireworks and a lot of dubious but very enjoyable singing - with microphones!  All there were allocated a song to lead - our duet  of the House of the Rising Sun was memorable but for all the wrong reasons - the Animals have nothing to worry about!   

But I am afraid that all the singing with gusto caused me to lose my voice completely yesterday and for my cold to make a comeback with a vengeance.   So David went out by himself (without the wig!) for a walk around Rutland Water to add a few steps whist I had a duvet day instead.  It was very frustrating not to be able to make the most of the glorious sunshine.

However the steps are mounting up and the daily averages we each have to do in order to achieve our new targets (David 2 million and me 1 million) are coming down.   We are determined to make it and promise to try harder this week.  I will report more on the our steps and the money raised in my next blog.  But  pleased to say the money is still coming in - mostly by cash or cheque donations which I add to the off line donations of the Just Giving sites.

I must tell you of one friend who turned up the other week with a big heavy plastic bag containing lots of cash including bags of 1ps and 5ps as well as £1 coins.   He had gone around his house, looking in trouser pockets, down the back of the settee and emptying all the pots that held change.  He says he always does this to buy stamps for Christmas cards but this year he donated it all to us.  Thanks to him and as always thanks to all who have donated.

More next week

Jean (and David)

Monday 31st October 2011

Last week I said that the sponsorship has dried up a bit - what a difference a week makes!!!  One friend who wants to remain anonymous has been very very generous with a cheque for each of our charities.  A really BIG THANKYOU!!!! So now our fundraising has leapt to £2,559 in total with £1,175 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and £1,384 for Water Aid.  But continued thanks to EVERYONE who has donated.  It makes it all worthwhile!

As I predicted back in the summer when we started, doing the steps is getting more difficult as winter draws nearer.  David has had a horrible cold all week but by Saturday, when we had planned another section of the Rutland Round, he was feeling a bit better. I on the other hand woke up at 7am, it was dark and I had a sore throat and runny nose - I had caught it!  When the alarm went off at 7.30, it was so hard to get out of bed, get ready and get in the car to drive to where we were to start walking!  I can honestly say if it was not for this charity challenge, we would have turned over and gone back to sleep.  But off we went and it was glorious and we both felt much better for getting out in the fresh air.  We walked 7 miles (14,000 steps each!) from Lyddington to Barrowden and we will think of this as the railway section: going under and by the side of old, now unused local railway lines and with wonderful, if misty views of Seaton Railway Viaduct.  A few facts about   the viaduct: 70ft high, 82 arches, built in just 2 years between 1876 and 1878 by 3,000 navies and it has been calculated (by some person with a lot of time to kill!) that 20 million bricks  were made locally to build it.  It is still in use for mainly goods trains, however, once when the main line was blocked, the Leicester to London train I was on was diverted over the viaduct - a long but very impressive diversion. 

One thing I have not yet mentioned is that for our weekend walks, we try to start walking at about 10am and aim to finish by 1pm with lunch at a pub.  So if anyone wants any recommendations of where the best ploughman's lunches are in Rutland - just ask us!  

Finally, where are we with our steps?  David is just over 1,500,000 and I am just over 820,000 - so going well towards the 3 million (2 million + 1 million) by Christmas.

More next week

Jean (and David)

PS both now coughing and wheezing - the Penny household is not currently a healthy place to be in!

PPS according to the stats on this blog, 771 people (excluding me) have viewed it - WOW!!!!!!!

Monday 24th October 2011

This week we have started our individual challenges to make up the 3 million steps.  But due to work and other commitments we have not been able to do any more of the Rutland round.  However on Saturday we walked in Leicester.  Not very exciting I hear you say....

Well, we were out in Leicester in the evening and wanted a few things from the bigger shops so decided to go in for the day.  But we decided to look at Leicester as we would if we were going to visit a city not known to us, as opposed to one where we grew up.  So before we left home, I went onto the 'what to see in Leicester websites' to see what was suggested to tourists.
 
We started off going to the 'cultural district' where the Curve is, a new(ish) theatre  that we have not yet visited.  Lunch was in their restaurant watching street performers in the square outside.  In the afternoon we walked to the museum via the traffic free, tree lined New Walk.  The Leicester Chronicler website says: Leicester's New Walk was laid out in 1785, and was probably the first pedestrian walk of its kind in the country.  It follows closely the line of the old Roman route from the town south towards Medbourne and possibly Colchester.......  New Walk is a charming and idyllic route for thousands of people who walk in the city, connecting the railway station with the centre of the town.  It is the home of  a variety of wildlife including foxes and squirrels, and is lined with a rich heritage of architecture.

David and I were trying to remember the last time we had been to the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery and couldn't.  I think for me it was when I was still at school - many many years ago.  But what we both remembered was the huge dinosaur skeleton which is still there as part of a new and fascinating dinosaur display.  But we remembered the museum as a quiet, not very user friendly place - how things have changed - it was vibrant and buzzing with lots of families as it was half term!  The best for me was to see the new Attenborough Collection of Picasso Ceramics.  In 2007, Lord and Lady Attenborough announced that their Picasso ceramics collection would be entrusted to the City of Leicester to commemorate the lives of their daughter, Jane Mary, and their granddaughter, Lucy Elizabeth, who perished together in the Asian Tsunami on 26th December 2004.  (From the Museums website).  The Attenborough brothers, Richard and David, grew up in Leicester.

Then on to a bit of retail therapy and happy hour cocktails in the Highcross area of the city before going out for the evening.  Not quite the Rutland Round, no rural landscapes or  bird song, but looking at Leicester as a tourist was new experience, which we will do again, and we clocked up a good few thousand steps!

Now the weekly step total and I start with an admission.  I got mixed up with the numbers of 0s in our step count last week.  I should have said that I have clocked up just over 700,000 steps and David has done just a little under 1,300,000 steps - I did not out in enough 0s!!!!! (I have now corrected last week's blog!).  This week I have added 52,462 and David has done 100,101 - he always does about twice as many as me........

Sponsorship has dried up a bit but not altogether.  Marie Curie now stands at £905 and Water Aid is at £1,100.  We are very very pleased with this but we are still hoping for more

More next week
Jean (and David)
PS no photos as I forgot to take my camera