Ilkeston Fair Walk 2018

Friday 19th October after Circuit Training a really nice group of our fitness family made our 5th visit to Ilkeston Fair. It's become a tradition that we have to go up together, it doesn't matter if there are 4 of us or 15, we know it's a good laugh going on a few rides and getting out in the fresh (slightly onion smelling) air at the fair. All fitness family friendships get put to one side for the annual smash fest on the dodgems.

     

A rough mapping out gives us around 5km of walking, make that 6km with all the weaving around people. There was a really good atmosphere at the fair including police taking selfies with groups the kids. The weather was perfect and we all loved it, 9 of us made the walk this year with a few people stuck at work wishing they could have joined us. We did dominate on the horse racing game taking up over half the seats, I managed my first ever win to claim a little minion toy.

It's always great to see so many families out walking around town, no games consoles or mobile phones in hand. Just families out having a great time together and while walking too!

Ilson Glowsticks 

Bring on our 6th annual walk to the fair in 2019. Will you be part of our little fitness community and join us on the walk?

Keep you eye out for the next newsletter on the 28th as there maybe another fitness family walk coming your way soon.

Keep active and earning your MEPs!

Hollies Farm Double Walk

On the 23rd May I organised a walk from Hollies Farm Cafe, well actually two walks.

I wanted to accommodate clients of all abilities and those who are/were pregnant. So I planned a couple for walks both around 6km in length with a little bite to eat between the walks.

The first walk took us down towards Hermits Cave and Dale Abbey.

Walk 1

We did have some fun in the woods as there are some steep steps and they weren't suitable for all walkers so after a little jog around the edge of the wood I met up with some of the group who took the longer but flatter route around. We then all met up at Hermits Cave for a group photo before walking towards The Carpenters Arms for a quick drink and toilet stop before walking back around to Hollies for our food stop and the end of the walk for a few people.

Hermits Cave

After some lovely food as always, we set back out the other direction from the tea rooms and looped around to Cat & Fiddle Windmill. 

Walk 2

We've been on most of the paths/trails before in other walks - Miller's Walk and Hermits Walk but it was nice to cover them in two smaller walks so all ages and abilities could enjoy the lovely views. Don't forget to look at the walks in Erewash on their website - Erewash Walks.

Just watch out for cute lambs, horses and cows on your travels....

Awsworth 5K

Once again I've been neglecting my blogging as this should have been written in May.

Sunday 10th May Awsworth 5K was a good day for myself and clients. in the 2014 5 clients entered the race all setting really good times. This year there was 7, including one who ran it last year walking this year while pregnant.

Read to go!

I went into the run with a 5km PB of 22 minutes 30 seconds from the previous year. The weather was warm but really nice for running. Once again it was a really well organised event down to the Notts & Lincolnshire Air Ambulance flying over to start the race.

I felt like I go off to a good start and by the half way point I was feeling good. However by the 3.5km point you hit the last hill back up to the finish line, clients all think the hill goes on forever! When you drive up it, it takes all of 2 minutes, running it is a different task. I was at a faster pace than last year and by time I hit the hill my legs were starting to feel it. At the end I had no sprint finish left which disappointed me but I managed to set a new PB! 21 minutes and 31 seconds, finishing 23rd of 566 entrants.

With my clients there were a few new PBs beating last years times, a few people setting their first ever 5k time and Jo walking it with Lauren in fancy dress while pregnant and Jack running around in his Lightening McQueen outfit.

Jack with his sprint finish in the style of Lightening McQueen.

Lauren, Jo & Bump!

Once again it was a brilliant run, and really well organised. Bring on 2016 for my 4th run at the event and some clients 2nd.

Awsworth 5k Facebook Page

My JustGiving page for Cancer Research UK.

Wild Warrior

Last Sunday was X Runner's Wild Warrior at Wild Parks Derbyshire. A nice set of 64 obstacles over 10km with water slides, fire, mud pits etc. After the Isle of Wight Challenge it was nice to have a mess about event. Once I got there I bumped into a client who had just finished and was just a tad muddy and didn't smell too good. This meant one thing don't swallow any water on this course!!!

Pre-Run & Post-Run but both happy.

I didn't have any set time I would be happy with as a result for this race as it was the first time I had run it and didn't know how busy course would be or how tricky obstacles would be. 

By the end of lap one I realised I hadn't be overtaken by many people from the start line but knew a few had vanished into the distance too. The first lap was really enjoyable with everything being new and thinking what will be round the next corner. The second lap was more of a let's get to the finish now for a warm bath and shower. The water really did stink and wasn't pleasant at all but the course was brilliant. 

I ended up finishing 109th out of about 1880 which I was happy with but even better out of the wave of just under 300 I finished 4th. 

I think a wash is required!

In fact it was a shower, bath then another shower for myself to become clean again. My clothes had 2 or 3 washes too and the top still isn't fully white. Good job it only has to more races then it can be retired and I can try to get another one next year.

The last big push is on now with two races to go, the biggest being tomorrow for the Robin Hood Half Marathon followed by Men's Health Challenge in a few weeks.

That's now 10 races down, 2 to go for Cancer Research UK in 2014.

Derby 10k - 45 minutes 11 seconds.
Awsworth 5k - 22 minutes 20 seconds.
Hull 10k - 45 minutes 46 seconds.
Wollaton 10k - 44 minutes 53 seconds.
Twin Peaks Midnight Walk - 8k. - 2 hours 37 minutes.
Leeds 10k - 46 minutes 8 seconds.
York 10k - 46 minutes 31 seconds.
Birmingham Color Run 5k - 45 minutes 38 seconds.
Isle of Wight Challenge 56k - 7 hours 48 minutes 35 seconds.
Wild Warrior 10k - 1 hour 18 minutes 42 seconds.
Robin Hood Half Marathon 21k
Men's Health Challenge Nottingham 12k

If you wish to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Isle of Wight Challenge

Saturday 23rd August was my biggest challenge to date. If felt like every walk and run up till now was a practice for this the main event. A mammoth 56km (turned out to be 54.5km thanks to coastal erosion.) walk, jog and run. If you've read any previous blogs you will see there have been a number of walks and runs this year I've participated in. All of these have been practice events ensuring I'm ready for this event. 

 After a nice drive down Friday afternoon with a good crossing from Lymington to Yarmouth I was getting excited for the following day as the weather was perfect. At the same time it was starting to look very real and large when you could see from the East - Cowes all the way across to the West - The Needles. This being only around half of the event I was participating in. After a little drive we arrived at our friends house who we were staying with for the weekend and time to do one final check that I had all my belongings for the event.

Race Day

A nice early morning to get to East Cowes for registration and the start. I had a bag packed with water, High 5 energy gel packs, first aid kit and a few naughty treats. At this point all I could think was bring it on!!!

Ready at the start line.

One of my clients was also doing the event so it was nice to chat to them at the start line. I walked the first 5km with her and her friend to get into the swing on things and have a read of the map. After seeing one gentleman throwing up and his friend pull out a pack of cigarettes I saw that as my sign to turn a walk into a run.

The first drinks point was at 17km so I ran the 12km to get there asap. The first 5km walking took just over 50 minutes followed by the 12km run in 1 hour 5 minutes. SO far I was very impressed with the organisation, every single km was marked and loads of signs so you wouldn't get lost or injure yourself on any hazards.

Good job for the sign or I would have been close-lined by the branch. 

Bye 17km rest point, bring on the next 38ish km.

From here I ran and walked to the next rest stop and the halfway point at 30km. The views on this section were amazing looking out over the hills to the mainland, the needles and into the island. It was nice seeing other walkers out and about using the paths along the coastal route. Having them wish me luck along the run was a brilliant feeling and hopefully raised even more awareness for Cancer Research UK in my purple running top. 

The Needles and Alum Bay. 

At this point I was going to stop and have some food but my legs were burning. I was currently about 30km in 4 hours. I had run about 20km of that so almost a half marathon with a light rucksack on my back and so many stiles to climb over. Rather than sit and have food and drink where I would have cooled down and started to stiffen up. I just refilled my water bottles enjoyed some sweets and a few High 5 energy gel packs. The Isle of Wight's a funny place as from here it was time to go up the Downs. Setting off from around Warren farm it was a nice gentle walk up to the Tennyson Monument on the Needles Headland & Tennyson Down.  

Tennyson Monument

This point was a great feeling as for the first time in the event I was looking at a different coastline as I was now on the Southern leg of the event. Looking out over the English Channel rather than The Solent was a nice psychological change and felt like a huge milestone. I've visited the Isle of Wight most years of my life and either the sense of achievement doing the event but I've never seen the sea looking as bright blue as it was that day. The next 10km was the part of the event I was looking forward to the most as it's the part of the Island I spent a lot of time there as a child. From Freshwater to Compton Beach so many memories of playing on the beach, and skimming stones into the sea. I think this gave me an energy boost as it only took 1 hour 10 minutes to run/walk the 10km. At college I did A Level Geography and I still love it now even if it's nothing to do with being a Personal Trainer. This helped provide a big distraction along the South coast as there is huge erosion along the coastline. 

Yes the cliff falling down is a little hazard.

I really wouldn't have enjoyed being the event manager and risk assessor for this event with so many sections at risk of slipping. Action Challenge did an amazing job for the event with every little part of the run signed for you to see the correct route, avoid hazards and know how far you had run. 

The last 15km were the hardest by a long way, at this point the event was already at Marathon distance which was a PB distance for myself to have ran/walked. With the uneven ground over the route my knees and hips were really feeling the impact now and the cooling coastal wind didn't help either. BUT as each km passed and the finish got closer and closer managing to run a km, walk a few hundred meters then run a bit again, walk I was soon down to the last few km. All that was in my mind now was let me see the finish line!

Eventually after turning one last corner there it was the bright white marquee, usually I enjoy a little sprint finish. This time my legs have nothing left to give as I walked towards to finish line in what felt like slow motion. I then made myself laugh imagining the Chariots of Fire theme song going round in my head as I crossed the line. 

Finished!!!

Boom race finished!!! 54.5km in the end in 7 hours 48 minutes and 35 seconds. I had a sub 8 hour time in my head but didn't set myself a specific goal as I honestly didn't have a clue what time it would take. At first all I wanted was sleep but then when it hit me that I had finished and I had done an amazing event for Cancer Research UK I was buzzing. Plus it meant it was time to eat and relax, bring on the BBQ. 

After a long warm bath, fluids to stop my left hamstring from cramping up and a load of BBQ food I chilled out with the new Dr.Who and my trusty foam roller. A few of the positions were painful but thanks to stretching post run they weren't too bad. A bit of myofascial release with the foam roller is an amazing stretch when done correctly. 

I found the results a few days later and I was annoyed at the time posted for myself 8 hours 2 minutes but realised they scanned us before we did the warm up so their "official" time includes warm up compared to my actual moving time of under 8 hours. Ignoring the time for now I couldn't believe it when I looked down the list and saw that I actually finished 9th out of 120 finishers of 141 starters. 

That's now 9 races down, 3 to go for Cancer Research UK in 2014.

Derby 10k - 45 minutes 11 seconds.
Awsworth 5k - 22 minutes 20 seconds.
Hull 10k - 45 minutes 46 seconds.
Wollaton 10k - 44 minutes 53 seconds.
Twin Peaks Midnight Walk - 8k. - 2 hours 37 minutes.
Leeds 10k - 46 minutes 8 seconds.
York 10k - 46 minutes 31 seconds.
Birmingham Color Run 5k - 45 minutes 38 seconds.
Isle of Wight Challenge 56k - 7 hours 48 minutes 35 seconds
Wild Warrior 10k
Robin Hood Half Marathon 21k
Men's Health Challenge Nottingham 12k

If you wish to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Color Run - Birmingham

This run wasn't about recording a fast time at all as shown by my time on MapMyRun - 45 minutes 38 seconds for the 5km. It was all about having a good time, getting nice and colourful and doing a bit of exercise. The run is advertised as "the happiest 5k on the planet" as it's all about fun.

A nice drive to Birmingham NEC where the Color Run was based, with the route going around the NEC complex. People turned up in the thousands all starting the day looking very white, but they didn't stay that way for long. The day got even better when we found the Dulux Dog!!! This really was going to be "the happiest 5k on the planet".

Such a soft dog.

Over the course there was 4 different colour stations then a massive paint party at the end. Each station you got covered in a different coloured powder paint. The volunteers at each station looked incredible as they were either bright pink, green, orange (Oompa Loompa style) or Blue (Smurfish). 

Time to be a Smurf.

Post run, gutted lots of the paint blew off in the wind. 

Nice shades of purple created on my back from the blend of different colours, Rob's just a mess haha. 

This was a nice relaxed little stretch of the legs before the hardcore events of the Isle of Wight Challenge and Robin Hood Half Marathon take place.

Bring on Color Run 2015 as hopefully I will have a massive group of clients all looking to paint themselves while exercising. 

That's now 8 races down, 4 to go for Cancer Research UK in 2014.

Derby 10k - 45 minutes 11 seconds.
Awsworth 5k - 22 minutes 20 seconds.
Hull 10k - 45 minutes 46 seconds.
Wollaton 10k - 44 minutes 53 seconds.
Twin Peaks Midnight Walk - 8k. - 2 hours 37 minutes.
Leeds 10k - 46 minutes 8 seconds.
York 10k - 46 minutes 31 seconds.
Birmingham Color Run 5k - 45 minutes 38 seconds.
Isle of Wight Challenge 56k
Wild Warrior 10k
Robin Hood Half Marathon 21k
Men's Health Challenge Nottingham 12k

If you wish to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

York 10k

Just a couple of days after getting home from Glasgow and Whitby is was time to drive back up to York for the 10k.

Not idea preparation being on holiday and driving around 700+ miles. However I still managed a time of 46 minutes 31 seconds so I'm happy. This was never going to be a PB run after a week away so it was a nice training run ready for the next few longer distance runs/treks coming up.

This finished my three races in the Jane Tomlinson Run for All series with Hull, Leeds and York. All three races were totally different with amazing crowds all the way along the routes. I was very impressed with Hull and will be going back in the future.

For now it's the official 10k races for 2014 done for myself. A couple of longer runs, a couple of mud runs and a nice short paint run this coming Saturday.

A little rest post run with my medal. That's all three Yorkshire runs finished for the year.

For more photos from the weekend visit my Instagram account or Facebook page.

That's now 7 races down, 5 to go for Cancer Research UK in 2014.

Derby 10k - 45 minutes 11 seconds.
Awsworth 5k - 22 minutes 20 seconds.
Hull 10k - 45 minutes 46 seconds.
Wollaton 10k - 44 minutes 53 seconds.
Twin Peaks Midnight Walk - 8k. - 2 hours 37 minutes.
Leeds 10k - 46 minutes 8 seconds.
York 10k - 46 minutes 31 seconds.
Birmingham Color Run 5k
Isle of Wight Challenge 56k
Wild Warrior 10k
Robin Hood Half Marathon 21k
Men's Health Challenge Nottingham 12k

If you wish to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Leeds 10k

So this blog is about a month late but it's been a very busy time. On the 20th July I ran the Leeds 10k for Cancer Research UK.

On the way up we used it as a perfect opportunity to find a few more Gold Post boxes from London 2012.

Alistair Brownlee - Triathlon

Nicola Adams - Boxing.

The route for the 10k wasn't the most exciting as around 7km was on one road, but compared to Wollaton it was a relatively flat route. The morning of the race it was a very nice surprise to look out the Travelodge window and see the start line. Once I had gone for a little walk and was getting ready for a warm up it was nice to bump into a few local celebrities, Mr.Burton from Educating Yorkshire, Keith Senior - Leeds Rhinos player and the best of all Matthew Lewis - Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter. But more importantly I had a client running in the event too, she finished in a really good time of 1 hour 12 minutes. This was only her 2nd 10k so I am very proud of her achievement.

I finished the race in 46 minutes 8 seconds. So I was a little bit behind my PB set in Nottingham but on a hot day I was happy with that result.

I had to ask for a photo with a Harry Potter star once I saw him cross the line. 

For more photos from the weekend visit my Instagram account or Facebook page.

That's now 5 races down, 7 to go for Cancer Research UK in 2014.

Derby 10k - 45 minutes 11 seconds
Awsworth 5k - 22 minutes 20 seconds
Hull 10k - 45 minutes 46 seconds
Wollaton 10k - 44 minutes 53 seconds
Twin Peaks Midnight Walk - 8k. - 2 hours 37 minutes.
Leeds 10k - 46 minutes 8 seconds
York 10k
Birmingham Color Run 5k
Isle of Wight Challenge 56k
Wild Warrior 10k
Robin Hood Half Marathon 21k
Men's Health Challenge Nottingham 12k

If you wish to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Coffee Morning for Cancer Research UK

On Sunday 6th July I organised a post Boot Camp Coffee Morning at Nutbrook Cricket Club in aid of Cancer Research UK. Rather than asking for sponsorship for every race I'm doing this year I thought people deserved something back and a little naughty treat too for all their hard work.

Saturday was spent in the kitchen making lots of mess and hopefully nice tasting cakes and cookies. First up a little bit of cheating but so the kids had some little cakes they would enjoy we made the standard Disney style cakes from a box adding an egg to the packet. It also gave us a nice easy start and got the oven warmed up for the other items too. Next followed cornflake cakes, chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. Decorating the cupcakes was brilliant pretending I was painting an Airfix model as a client again haha.

 

 

So far all is going well and I'm thinking thank god I'm a personal trainer or I would have eaten every single item by now with a few pints of milk to wash it all down.

Then a client arrived with their cake for the event as they couldn't attend due to work. A lot of thought and effort went into this cake as the event was at the cricket club she made a cricket pitch cake. In the time she made the cake her husband sat making a little set of stumps to go on top. His effort was worth it as the cake looked awesome. As she couldn't attend the event the following day I let her sample (for a small donation) one of the white chocolate cornflake cakes and apparently it was "the bomb". This gave us confidence the rest of the food wasn't a disaster.

Mum then entered the kitchen as it was her turn to give us the master class. Not that I'm jealous of how easy she made it look or anything but it was just effortless.

Here comes Sunday morning, I'm setting up Boot Camp while Mum and Lauren are in the pavilion setting up the cakes and getting the kettle boiling. What we hadn't realised was there would be an under11 hardball match that morning as well as the Nutbrook Petanque team down there. Before we even finished boot camp they had a queue to the door and had made over £30 before we really started. Slowly more friends, family and clients arrived bringing all sorts of cakes which looked so tempting.



Personal Trainers nightmare but all for charity.



Quality home made cricket pitch cake with handmade stumps.

I did have to try a small slice of the chocolate beetroot cake and it was amazing!

As we was just about to sort out the last remaining cakes I was asked if I could play cricket for the 2nd team in the cup match at the club. So I drove home to drop off my boot camp kit and pick up my cricket bag. We don't need cricket details as we lost but their scorer donated his fee from the game to the coffee morning too which was a lovely gesture.

Overall we raised £245.50 which I was thrilled with. Once it was bagged up Monday morning it was paid onto my JustGiving site for Cancer Research UK to access.

Now to focus back on Running for the Leeds and York 10k.

Wollaton 10k

Less than a week since the Hull 10k it was time to change the standard running shoes to the trail running trainers for the Wollaton 10k. At School I didn't actually enjoy cross country, I preferred 100m, 200m, 4x100m and triple jump. But things change and I was really looking forward to a bit of cross country around Wollaton Park the home of Batman.

After Derby 10k being a PB at 45min 11sec, then Hull being slightly slower at 45min 46sec. I wasn't expecting a quicker time at Wollaton with it being a combination of grass and gravel paths with a few hills that are nicer to roll down as a child, not run along.

The weather was spot on for running, cooler than the weekend before in Hull with a nice light breeze. a much smaller event with 477 runners on the day rather than Derby and Hulls 5000+. There was still a great atmosphere and it looked as if we were all celebrating Holland's trashing of Spain from the night before in the VERY bright orange running tops we were given.



Tops provided by Sytner Nottingham MINI!

The run is organised by Bluecoat Academy PTA and they did an amazing job. Really well organised parking on arrival, friendly marshals and easy to follow route round Wollaton Park. Great seeing loads of kids there on stalls helping being involved with the run.

 

Once the run started I just tried to find my running rhythm, if I actually have one. I think I'm more Forrest Gump style just keep running. One of my aims for the year is to record my first sub 45 minutes 10k and with Derby I had been so close. I didn't expect this route to be a fast course with the hills and terrain.

- At the end of the first 5k lap I was at 22 minutes 30 seconds, bang on time for a 45 minute 10k.

- By 7km I was 31 minutes 20 seconds.

- Same as in Hull I seemed to hit a little wall around 8km and slowed slightly but I entered the last km with just over 4 minutes to finish to be around a 45 minute 10k.

- As I crossed the line running as fast as my leg could take me I saw the clock at 45 minutes 22seconds.

At first I was gutted to have missed out on a sub 45 minute by a small margin again! Then I realised that was the gun time and having not started the run at the front my chip time was going to be faster.

 

 

It was going to be a long wait to see the results posted online to see if I had managed a sub 45 minute 10k or not. Seeing as it was a nice day I had a walk to look around Ilkeston Carnival then down to watch Nubtrook CC 1st team in action. On about the 40th time pressing refresh on my phone the results were posted. 44 minutes 53 seconds!!! Whoop my first ever sub 45 minute 10k on a course I wasn't expecting to do it on. For the rest of the day I just had a huge smile on my face. The smile only went at 1am Sunday morning as England lost 2-1 to Italy, even then England lost but played very well and hopefully they can win the next two matches and make it out the group stage of the World Cup.

 

Just approaching the 5km point, feeling good so far!

 

Post run, sweating like a beast but that run felt good!

Quick change of top to show the reason for running. Support Cancer Research UK.

For more photos from the weekend visit my Instsgram account or Facebook page.

That's now 4 races down, 8 to go for Cancer Research UK in 2014.

Derby 10k - 45:11
Awsworth 5k - 22:20
Hull 10k - 45:46
Wollaton 10k - 44:53
Twin Peaks Midnight Walk - 8k.
Leeds 10k
York 10k
Birmingham Color Run 5k
Isle of Wight Challenge 56k
Wild Warrior 10k
Robin Hood Half Marathon 21k
Men's Health Challenge Nottingham 12k

If you wish to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Hull 10K

I had never been to Hull before and my first visit was for the Jane Tomlinson 10k. After arriving at the hotel we had a nice walk around the City and found the start of the run and the 5k point near The Deep. The weather was ok after a really rainy start to the day and the city looked nice too. As we headed back to the hotel we bumped into Luke Campbell's Gold Phone box he had painted after his win at London 2012.

The following morning was the day for the 10k and Luke Campbell started the race before jumping in to run it himself. Unfortunately he beat me by about 5 minutes, then again he is an Olympic gold medal winner.

The weather started off really nice for the run, by 2km in it got hotter and hotter. I was thinking "bring on the 5km point by the Humber for a nice cool breeze" well that didn't happen, it just got hotter still. At 8.5km I was just on target for a sub 45minute 10km which is my goal for the year. Unfortunately I think the heat got to my and the last 1.5km I ran out of energy finishing in 45 minutes and 46 seconds. After crossing the finish line I felt shocking!!! I think I was totally drained of energy and dehydrated.



Before the 10km



Nearly at the end!



Chilling in the park after the run, sweating like a beast!

 After a quick shower back at the hotel we made the most of the day and visited The Deep where we realised we was standing next to Jade Etherington but we didn't want to disturb her day out by asking for a photo. We then went to Luke Campells Gold Post Box, KC Stadium, the headed over the Humber Bridge to Cleethorpes for a walk along the beach and a game of crazy golf. I will admit I lost at crazy golf in a game the my Mum recorded her 1st and 2nd ever hole-in-one.

For more photos from the weekend visit my Instsgram account or Facebook page.

That's now 3 races down, 9 to go for Cancer Research UK in 2014.

Derby 10k - 45:11
Awsworth 5k - 22:20
Hull 10k - 45:46
Wollaton 10k
Nottingham Colour Blast 5k - (Cancelled so I've replaced it with the event below.)
Twin Peaks Midnight Walk - 8k.
Leeds 10k
York 10k
Birmingham Color Run 5k
Isle of Wight Challenge 56k
Wild Warrior 10k
Robin Hood Half Marathon 21k
Men's Health Challenge Nottingham 12k

If you wish to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt

Cossall Walk

Yesterday we embarked on a smaller walk - Walk 3 in Broxtowe Borough Council. The walk is based around Cossall, Awsworth and the disused Nottingham Canal. I picked a shorter walk this week as I knew a few people were on holiday and would be gutted to miss a longer walk in Derbyshire.

However I decided to run to the starting point to meet the other walkers there to give myself a mini practice for the Isle of Wight Challenge in August where I will be running and walking half the Island. So I did the 5km to the starting point in a steady 22 minutes 53 seconds, a quick change into some different walking clothes then off we went.

 

We thought we were following the correct route, we had followed the instructions "correctly" and the next little path wasn't exactly easy to walk along.  Having just re-read the route and looked on the map we actually did follow it correctly through the bushes but we then missed the turning we needed thanks to so much foliage covering the stile we needed.

The bit of grey right in the middle is Lee making his way out.

 

I can't say it was easy walking through that, I think a good set of pruners were needed, but we managed it eventually with only a few branches swinging back into the person behinds face. Having just looked back at the route this was the correct route! However we went wrong just after this as the buses baffled us and the foliage was covering the stile we required.

It only took us a few minutes to get back on track knowing the local area. So a quick walk up Awsworth Lane and we were on the correct route again. It's not getting lost it's taking a detour, something we manage to do most walks.

The route back was really easy to follow with some really nice views over the local area. Cossall Church looked lovely as we approached it. We then bumped into Will.i.am and Sir Tom Jones thanks to Cossall Scarecrows it was a slightly surreal moment on the walk. It wasn't long until we had re-joined the Canal and were heading back to the cars. Once again it had been a really enjoyable walk with great company and some randomness thrown in too. For more photos visit my Instagram account.

Overall the walk took us 2 hours 42 minutes and was 10.25km long. That takes the years total up to 116km (72 miles). It's only just the start of June so there's time yet to reach 200 miles by the end of the year especially if I drop in Rutland Water with a huge 26 miles one weekend.

I'm doing this for Cancer Research UK so hopefully walking can help save lives too please visit - www.justgiving.com/adamfretwellpt