Two years ago when I took on the challenge of raising money for 21st Century Legacy Trust I could never have imagined myself wearing a Morph suit, styled in cheetah spots from head to toe!
I have suffered several injuries over the last two years which has made the challenge much more difficult and last year saw me walking alongside David Hemery in six and half hours. I am pleased to say that this time round, with plenty of applications of Deep Heat muscle rub, I was able to more than halve that time to 2hours 58mins. This was not without its own challenges along the route.
The preparation started with the challenge of registering and getting into London but also trying to squeeze myself into a very tight outfit and make that as comfortable as possible on the day. Once the suit is on – its on! I was aware that if there was going to be any comfort break it would involve the support of others to de-zip and re-zip me!! With that in mind, I made sure I was the last person to visit the loo in the celebrity tent, which meant that when I came out everyone had gone and were on the start line!
After an official quickly helped me into my special outfit we realized my Garmin GPS watch was on the inside of my suit so I needed to re-zip all over again. I got to the start line with 60 seconds to spare and was able to take full advantage of being at the front for a quick start. I was slightly taken aback by the speed of Robert (Judge) Rinder and decided to try and match him so initially it looked as if he was being chased by a cheetah with no one else in sight. It looks like we both paid the price for this initial pace as things got quite uncomfortable after 12 k. I hung on and as I entered the last few kilometres realised that going sub-3 hours was possible so prayed my legs would carry me the distance and I would not need the dreaded loo stop!
I was delighted to support 21st Century Legacy two years in a row and am very grateful for friends and family support with donations and cheers on the day.
Toby 27.4.2016