Lucy’s story

We get lots of wonderful stories about how taking part in a MoonWalk has an impact on peoples lives…some have slightly more impactful things to deal with before they get there! This one is from Lucy:

Hi all,

I just wanted to share a little bit about my MoonWalk experience because this last month has been one of the craziest times of my life!

Together with my wonderful mate Dee, we signed up to do this year’s London Full Moon. We completed the challenge in 2009, but felt that we could have gone about the whole thing in a much better way and we really felt that we wanted to don a proper job of training, getting fit and completing the challenge.

We started training in Oct 2011, as soon as we knew we had spaces and we kicked up a gear after Christmas. We have really pushed our distances in training and came to consider 10miles as “a stretch of the legs.” We felt fitter and more vital.

Dee had managed to convince two more ladies to join us and, when we met to take on 18 miles, they called us “machines.” And we were! We felt invincible. We powered through 20 miles in 5hours 5 mins. We were going to beast the Full Moon.

And then…

I woke up the day after my birthday with a hangover that seemed excessive and simply would not clear… Day after day I woke feeling queasy, drained, fuzzy headed… A 10 mile stretch of the legs suddenly wiped me out. And then the penny dropped… The magic had happened for me and my husband and my hangover was actually a baby! Still the size of a lentil, but definitely making it’s presence felt… I am going to be a Mom… but first I had 1 week to decide whether I would still try to Moonwalk.

I spoke with my doc, I talked to my walking partner and I cried and fretted with my husband.

Then I went for it. I would be doing the Moonwalk while pregnant!

Oh my days it was hard… so hard! I was tired before I began. I was queasy and hungry and nervous and windy! By mile 8 I was struggling. By Mile 10 I was angry. By mile 15 I was emotional and frustrated. Mile 19 brought tears and protestations that I couldn’t go on. Mile22-25 were sheer agony. While Dee, my walking partner and best mate knew the score, the other two ladies in our team didn’t. They must have been puzzled as to where the “machine” from the 18 miler had gone. She had been replaced by a weeping, shivering, limping mess.

Yet Dee never left my side. Every step I took she was there for me. And even though Chez and Aimi didn’t know the secret, they waited for us to catch up, even though they were going strong and could have walked a load faster than me. We walked over the line arm in arm and smiling and crying in equal measure.

I want to say a huge thank you to the team,for never leaving me behind. I want to say an equally huge thank you to the volunteers on the route. You can never know how much your encouragement meant to me. If you said “you’re doing great” to a pair of punks in Mohican wigs- I’m sorry that one of them could only sob in response. Your words meant a lot to me!

We all made it. The whole team, including my little bean. And you can guarantee that I’ll be telling this story when the Moonwalk baby arrives in Jan 2013. :

Thanks for reading. XXX

From Guy:

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