Last saturday we got on the bikes and did our first training weekend for the tour!

Tom had planned a 80-100 mile cycle route around Shropshire and Wales before we hit the hills for some running!

Once I had got to grips with the cycle clips, I did get stuck initially and had to fall into a bank!, we were off. I had swapped the “Eagle” for “Black Lance” (Tom’s spare bike) and was loving the change!

After a leisurely 80 odd miles we finally dismounted and, after a quick snack, we were off on our run!

Now, running a marathon is hard enough, but we will be doing the snowdonia marathon. A marathon where the first 8 miles is all up hill!

Fortunately, Tom loves hills and is pretty much surrounded by them! After our mid-afternoon snack I was introduced to two of the steepest hills in shropshire! The “Elevator” and the “Lawley”.

A few weeks ago I climbed “Pen Y Fan”, the highest mountain in South Wales. Now, I climbed this with an old army friend and we were both feeling the pace as we climbed it. The “Elevator” makes Pen Y Fan look like a pancake! This thing is exhausting just walking up it, and we were running up the whole thing!

Whilst Tom is generally regarded as one of the better fell runners in Britain, I was a rookie at this level, and with bleeding lungs and legs of lead I completed each climb within shouting distance of Tom.

The emotions you experience as you kick in to keep going our phenomenally intense. As Tom says, “There really is no where to hide on the hills”. They will assess your levels of fitness faster than any other challenge out there.

Having completed the climb we returned to a “Joanne Special” Supper, tired but more focused than ever on the demands of the tour.