Sunday 25th September 2011

 
I have been thinking how this walking fund raising has certainly changed my habits of a lifetime.  Take this week, twice I have been on trains rides with connections.  Before, as I waited for the train I would have sat a read or had a coffee.  Now I pace up and down the platform and I made sure I get there in plenty of time and instead of a taxi I have walked.  All to register a few more steps!!!  But I wonder if it will last after Christmas????
The scores on the doors this week continue to please.  For Water Aid the total is £830 and for Marie Cure Cancer Care we have raised £895.  This makes £1,725 all together.  And steps - this week we have registered one and a half million - only 500,000 to get to our two million target!!!  We hope to get there by the end of October but we will continue to count our steps up to Christmas and perhaps set ourselves a new challenge - watch this space......
I have said before that David has an active day job.  This shows in his average of 15,503 steps / day since we started and I am trailing with 8,976 steps / day.  But at weekends I do try to bump up my total.  Yesterday we walked with my brother and a friend.  They are walking the Leicestershire round, a 100 mile walk around the county.  And as they were walking a leg that just happened to go right through our village we joined them.  We walked from our house, through Withcote past Launde Abbey to Belton in Rutland - 3 hours and 7 miles along lovely tracks and paths in early autumn.  A great way to spend a Saturday morning but can you explain why coffee always taste so  good when drunk from a flask outdoors?  And of course our walk just happened to end with a pub lunch......
A couple of pictures of our walk below
More next week
Jean (and David)
                                                                                                            

Coffee at Launde Abbey

The avenue of trees going towards Withcote

Friday 16th September 2011

Sorry but I did not write an update last weekend as we were away - more of that later.  First the important bit.....  our current fundraising stands today at £1,650!  That is £810 for Water Aid and £840 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.  As always thank you for all those donating on line and offline - we have had over £500 given in either cash or cheques that we add to the sites as 'off line donations'.  Our steps count continues to rise - our total last night was 1,284,502.  Only 3/4 million still to do!!!

 But what a week! We took some friends to our flat Scarborough last weekend and luckily they like walking and the weather was lovely - so we walked along the sea front, up to the castle, to the shops, to the restaurants, to the park  - we walked everywhere.  David and I clocked up over 100,000 steps over the four days. 

But then back home and yesterday I registered the lowest number of steps since we started - only 1,508 in the whole day.  The only activity was going up and down stairs for coffee and lunch and it shows how inactive we can be spending the day working at the computer.  I have done more than that by 10am today as I went into town!!  

Also this week we went with other friends down Foxhole caves in Derbyshire owned by the National Trust.  Not many steps but quite a bit of crawling.  I have attached  a photo of the back of me going into the narrowest part and David coming out of that same section - it was a real experience!  And by coincidence it was our anniversary and it occurred to me that 37 years ago at 2pm I walked down the aisle - 37 years later, I went down a hole!!!  
More next week
Jean (and David)

 

Monday 5th September 2011

Well we are half way there!  We set out on 25th July 2011 to count 2 million steps jointly on our pedometers by Christmas.  And after only six weeks we have logged 1 million steps.  We knew we needed 5,000 on Saturday and when we got back from the weekly supermarket trip we had done it!  Photo to prove it.....

Completing the 1 million so soon has surprised us but doing this is certainly encouraging us to look for ways to walk more.  I have attached a graph (now I have at last learnt how to attach photos there will be no stopping me) showing the number of steps we have walked each day and you can certainly see the peaks.  Last week on that lovely sunny Friday, we went to Burghley Horse Trials.  Although we saw a few horses (it was dressage day) we went particularly to walk the course - we both registered over 11,000 steps walking around past the 33 huge fences..  And of course the shopping!  There were certainly more shops than there were 10 years ago which was the last time we went and such a huge variety of goods on sale.  But again, although we walked virtually every where together and certainly going around the course we registered a similar number of steps, going around the hundreds of shops David registered 3,000 more steps than I did!  The only reason i can think of is that he stomps around and I glide or mooch as one friend has said! We know the pedometers work the same as we have swopped and David still registers more than me - but those of you who knows him knows that he rarely keeps still

However the important thing is the money we are raising and I am pleased to say it keeps going up thanks to all our friends.  

We have now raised £760 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and £735 for Water Aid.



More next week
Jean (and David)