Continued....

Soph made sure i had plenty drinks and stuff and off we set, before long i had to stop and get her to snip bit of compeed though as it was rubbing too much. Lucky that Soph had scissors in her bag eh? ;) lol

7 miles on and i was surprised and delighted to see Phil & Anna! phil had said at last checkpoint he'd see me in pub so i thought I'd not see them again. But he didn't forget (like i did!) that i said i wanted my vodka & irn bru at mile 40! Great boost to see them and Anna thankfully looked much happier than when i'd last saw her :o) It was great getting updates on how Simon and everyone else was doing when we saw people too.

Kept passing folk and was surprised to pass Angus, who at start had said to Simon he's run with him as they were same pace. I offered him some vodka and he said *i wish* i think he didn't believe me i had voddie in the irn bru bottle lol

You know, most of the few passed quickly again. Soph was brilliant, i didn't even need to take lid of my drinks, she did it for me and put them back in bag for me too, wonderful. about 3 mile away from next (and last!) checkpoint we saw a bike coming towards, with a fetch top on on! Wooop, it was Gavin aka HappyG, i gave him huge hug and he was super excited and more than a bit surprised to see me haha, i said oh thanks very much, thinking i'd be way slower! He told me to keep moving and shout if i needed anything, he had my flask of tea as promised and said i'd to give a shout when i wanted it. Had the BEST cup of tea ever, still walking though still no stopping, keep moving forward, keep moving forward, Karen's words stuck in my head every time i stopped running, great mantra from a great Ultra runner.

Gavin even took all our drinks of us both so we didn't have extra weight to carry, what an angel. I wouldn't even have thought of something like that. Then he took off to the shops to get me a packet of crisps as i fancied something salty, he came back with a choice of flavours for me and a sandwich too lol, i ate half the crisps and passed on the sarnie but thank you anyway Gav, you're just fabulous. Before too long we were at last checkpoint (47m) as i came under the bridge i was rendered speechless by the shouting and cheering and all the lovely people who'd made such a big effort to be there, yes me, speechless!

Scott told me that Simon was only 20 mins ahead of, i turned to Soph and said *c'mon!* :o) lol not that i would catch him but i was super surprised to find he'd slowed down so much. I said to Soph i wanted to do a wee dance at mile 50, it felt significant and i wanted to mark it. We discussed songs and dances by singing them at top of our voices, first up was Timewarp, followed by agadooo, do do, then last but not least reach for the stars. At this point Angus who we'd been passed by at this point turned and said *vodka kicking in then?* lol

Got to 50 miles, did a wee dance, sang reach for the stars again til i got bt choked up and off we ran again, passing Angus once again. We kept a fairly steady pace up until about mile 52/53 where i started to feel ravenous, i ate half boost bar then half a cereal bar soph gave me, she then made me run which made me choke on it, almost choked to death and fell in canal at mile 54, one mile to go, way to go !

We got to the cobbly bit which heralds the last 500metres or so, my garmin beeped to tell me i'd reached 55 miles and i started to fill up, i could hear Phil shouting by this point and i ran and ran until i crossed under that big finishing tunnel. I have a bit of a short memory loss here but i remember getting hugged and kissed and wad handed a large vodka :o)

I did it, i ran 55 miles in 9hrs, 52 mins , i was, i am an Ultra runner.

to be continued....