After signing up for the Half Moon Moonwalk in January, the has flown by and I did it this weekend. I thought it would be a good idea to record my experience of the event and my training running up to the event to help inspire others to sign up to future events!
Last year I did the full moon marathon moonwalk (26.2 miles). I didn’t train enough of the longer walks beforehand and struggled on the night after hitting mile 19. I pulled a muscle in my foot from overuse and I was just so exhausted. I passed the finish line and I didn’t even care about my medal, I was in too much pain and tired! As soon as I got home, at 8.30am, I said I would never in my life do it again. It took months for my foot to fully recover after.
In January this year, an advertisement popped up for the moonwalk on Facebook and i forgot all about the pain of last years walk and decided to sign up (aaaaaaah!). I asked my sister if she wanted to join me in the half moon (13.1 miles) because she hasn’t done any proper walking before and the half seems much more doable (and I felt scarred for life after last year). I managed to convince my friend Helen who did the full moon with me last year to come along too, even although she also swore never to do it again.
I walk around 2 to 3 miles a day up and down to work 5 days a week along with whatever other exercise I’m into at the time which pretty much covers my regular small walks for the training. Along with this I started adding in a hike up the Pentlands during the week as the longer evenings came about and once every week or two we did a longer walk with my sister ranging from 5 miles to 10 miles.
There is an official Moonwalk training plan on their website which is good to follow if you haven’t trained for anything like this before. The half moonwalks maximum training walk was 10 miles which is great if you can’t commit to the full training plan.
On the day of the moonwalk I woke up at 8am which wasn’t the best idea, but I just can never sleep when I have something big on, but I pretty much chilled out for the full day to reserve my energy for the evening. We fuelled up at Pizza Express as it’s only a stones through away from Moonwalk City and pizza just worked well for me last year before the walk. I know the Moonwalk offer a meal before but they just aren’t to my taste.
We were to arrive before 10.30 so headed in about 10pm. You get to sit in a huge tent while you wait to go. I think this is probably the worst bit because you just feel tired and I’m just want to get going, but it lets the Moonwalk team, volunteers, police and security get ready for the night ahead. They have entertainment and speakers until your ready to set off so it’s not too boring.
You are released in stages depending on your estimated time you put in on the website when you registered so I was in the second release with my sister. My friends Helen, Louise and Linda were released in the first lot so we just agreed to meet them back at the tent after.
It’s always really congested and busy for the first 4 miles or so while everyone settles into their own walking paces and the crowd even out a little, which doesn’t really bother me too much because it’s not a race and I didn’t have a goal time in mind. The volunteers and crowds are amazing and so encouraging. They are posted all around the moonwalk map and keep you going in the right direction, keep you safe from the cars and hand out water and food. The moonwalk couldn’t take place without you all so thank you so much for your hard work.
I found the walk really easy this time and really enjoyable. It’s just so nice to walk around the city in the middle of the night and have people cheer you on. We completed the walk in about 4 hours and 15 minutes, we took it at a pretty easy pace the whole way round because Kirsty was struggling with the distance. The main point is we completed it.
We raised £270 in total which is amazing, so thanks to everyone who sponsored us. Now it’s time to catch up on some well needed sleep.
I have already registered my interest for the Full Moon again next year and I can’t wait!
I would really recommend this to anyone that wants a challenge or something to work towards. This is an amazing charity and all the money raised in Scotland stays in Scotland. If your interested in doing the Moonwalk then you can find more information here.
Julie
Be Happy Be Free 