Eleanor

Or rather, Eleanor's blisters!

If you haven't read my journal this weekend, then I'll update you.

Eleanor is a colleague and friend, who, on Saturday, walked around the Isle of Man as part of The Parish Walk.

She started at 8am Saturday and walked until 1.32am, covering 61.5 miles in that time. The full walk was 85 miles. 1500+ started the walk - I think 159 completed the full 85 miles. I spent much of my day checking the website and waiting for texts from Manx telecom so that I could update everyone on her progress - I became obsessed by it by about tea-time on Saturday!

I actually think that 61.5 miles is absolutely astonishing - in 17 hours. Constant walking. Humid temperatures. Eating and drinking on the go. Only very very brief toilet stops.

In the end, utter fatigue, the collapse of one of Eleanor's walking partners and enormous blisters that were popping all over the place, conspired to cause their retirement.

Eleanor's personal best, last year, was just over 30 miles. She has a new personal best and I suspect is considering doing it again next year.

She has struggled today. The blisters are like nothing I have ever seen. She's been in flip-flops all day, and has really struggled to walk. The blisters are causing her enormous pain and as a result, she is walking very tentatively, which has caused backache, on top of the obvious muscle pain (and sunburn!) that she is experiencing.

Why did she do it? To raise moneyfor the Alzheimers Society . She had a target of £600. She and her walking buddy, Lydia, have raised £480. That is soon to go up, because I am going to bung some more in - it's a cause that is quite personal to many of us and I think she deserves to reach her target for doing something so monumentally epic to help others out.

Eleanor - we'll keep telling you - you're bonkers but we are so utterly proud of you that I don't think we really have the words to tell you.