Section 1: Start out, feel good, this section is roughly the same distance I walk to the station so all good.
Section 2: My right shoulder is aching a bit against my rucksack strap, hmm, worrying, still got a good 7-8 miles to go.
Section 3: This section is a little bit treacherous because during part of it I have to walk along a thin grassy stretch alongside a very busy dual carriageway, said stretch turns into a very thin (one person width) bit of pavement with a brick wall on the left and the road on the right. Fortunately this bit of pavement leads up to a pedestrian crossing and a roundabout which, in theory at least, forces drivers to slow down, anyway I made it without falling into the road and becoming road kill.
Section 4: I'm sweating profusely now and I have a long hill to walk up, knees are beginning to sing now, almost to the top of the hill and an Irish guy asks me for directions, I don't want to stop and lose momentum but neither do I want to be impolite so I help him with his directions and painfully get going again.
Section 5: A water break, ahh soo good! Putting my backpack back on is uncomfortable because it presses my now cooled sweaty t-shirt against my back! Lower back is also showing signs of soreness, I grit my teeth and press on.
Section 6: I am now officially hallucinating due to tiredness and the heat, I start thinking random thoughts - work, home, what's for dinner. Shoulder still aching, knees singing a tune... I walk past several takeaway joints and suppress the urge to go in.
Section 7: This section is a killer, it's sort's the men from the boys, or possibly turns men into boys - bawling, crying baby boys when they see the double hill ahead of them, especially after the distance they've just walked. For me, it's a tightening of the rucksack straps, gritting of the teeth and a mental "COME ON" yelled from the tired recesses of my mind. People in cars are looking at me funny.
I stop to rummage through my rucksack to find my keys, the reason why I do this is because it's been bugging me for the last few miles that my keys are somewhere at the bottom of the rucksack and I just know that Sod's Law will make it extremely hard for me to find them when I arrive home... I simply can't have that happen. This is the way a fatigued mind works after 9 miles of solid walking... I find my keys and put them in the side pocket, I feel better.
Section 8: Ahh, made it! This section is a blessed flat wonderland with a slight downhill section to massage my tired limbs, it's also the home stretch. There's a carnival in my home town and lots of people about, I keep my head down and walk through them, single-mindedly on course to home and the bliss of my couch and TV... I get a few strange looks. I arrive home, tired but exulted and I've done it for another year, my shins, knees and feet hurt! Still, that's why I do it on a Friday so I've got the weekend to recover.
I did it in 2 hours 51 minutes and, boy was it painful towards the end!
