Swindon

Training session

MARCHing on and on and on!

19 GoodGymers made their way on a training session in Swindon.

  • Paul Bonner
  • Becky Moylett
  • Emma Sperring
  • Pauline Harrison
  • Ashleigh Netherton
  • Jo O'Leary
  • Teresa Sugden
  • Richard Curtis
  • Swindon runner
  • Lily
  • Rhoda Lewis
  • Tracey C
  • Sam Coxon
  • Kirsty Hodgson
  • Gabrielle Newson
  • Swindon runner
  • Hannah Garraway
  • David Garraway
  • Cath Rose
 
Wednesday, 31st of March 2021
 
Led by Emma Sperring

Have you got wanderlust after a year of lockdown? After virtually exploring Swindon in our February fitness monopoly challenge, it was time to head further afield in March. With international travel banned, what better time to explore the length of the country and take on a virtual Land's End to John O'Groats (LEJOG) challenge?

After some frantic WhatsApping and spreadsheet making, we got ourselves organised - 1084 miles of running or walking in 31 days.

Could we do it? Well, after clocking up an impressive 66 miles on Day 1, not only did we know we could do LEJOG, the challenge was on for JOGLE too πŸ’ͺ

With a quick wave to our friends at GoodGym Bristol, we were soon on our way to the East Midlands (fuelled by Sam and her recommendation of Bird's pork pies) and on to Leeds. By day 8, we could proclaim we'd walked (and run) 500 miles. Although the storms hit as we ran along the North East coast, we ploughed on to cross the border.

We hit JOG on 17 March - but no hanging around as JOGLE was on. As we headed south, Spring had sprung and we spotted daffodils and postboxes wearing Easter bonnets.

Always with a close eye on the data, on 21 March we projected that we'd make it to Land's End on 31 March. Time to up the ante again... could we get to Land's End and then back to Swindon by the end of the month?

After a quick pit stop in Lands End for a Cornish cream tea on 28 March, we started heading back to Swindon. 202 miles to cover in 3 days...the challenge was on!

The final day quickly came around...77 miles to home. And we were averaging 77 miles a day - it all seemed too good to be true.

Did we make it home? For a while, I wasn't sure we would. Tracey kindly offered to step in and carry out an emergency walk to the shops for essential snacks. But she was spared from this mission as the totaliser suddenly sprang to life and suddenly that was it, home sweet home! 🏑

Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Together we covered an impressive 2409 miles in a month. And that's just the human miles - our canine friends did their bit too 🐢

Thank you to everyone who took part and supported and motivated everyone to keep marching on. Special thanks to captains Gabrielle, Gina, and Cath who kept us on track. And to Pauline for joining us on our tour.

Report written by Jo O'Leary


Discuss this report

Lily
Lily
Thursday April 1st, 2021 23:45

Great report Jo and great challenge - well done to all the admin team too πŸ‘πŸΎπŸΎπŸ‘πŸΎ πŸŽ‰ 🎊

Emma Sperring
Emma Sperring
Friday April 2nd, 2021 11:59

Loved this challenge - thank you to the Virtual Run Leaders for organising this. And thank you to Jo for the fab report. It was also great meeting Pauline and her dogs 🐢🐢

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