Friday, 8 April 2011

Marathon day 24. Friday 8th April - Exeter, Haven Banks

Good morning all - what a glorious one. It looks set to be even hotter than yesterday. Hope Andy copes with it OK although he does admit to preferring  hot to cold or wet (for running).

Breakfasted in the hotel and arriving at the RV which had been parked overnight in the car park, discovered that someone had decorated the front & windscreen with a Chinese take-a-way - Nice!!  Bit of cleaning, however and it's good as new.

Short drive to Haven Banks (Exeter Quay) and set up in the middle of the Piazza Terracina, sounds grand doesn't it!! It's actually a lovely plaza bounded by some commercial but mostly residential accommodation plus several retail and eating establishments.  Unfortunately, we set up right in front of 2 cafes and completely blocked their view of the river and boats. So . . . . . we relocated a short distance away and everyone is now happy!

Our final resting place for today's run



Barry's pre race briefing again

Ready for the start - note the official timekeeper!

Andy has now complete 13 miles of his 31 and is looking good - he actually looks like he's been abroad on holiday for a couple of weeks, he's so tanned (or perhaps weathered would be a better term)!
Oh - and did I mention that we were running low on fresh water? The manageress from one of the cafes (who's view we blocked) turned out to be a really nice lady, however,  and allowed me to fill our 25litre water jerry can from her hosepipe which I then carried to the RV and emptied into the inboard tank, the filler of which is about shoulder height. I tell you what, 25litres of water is bloody heavy!!!
So after repeating this procedure 4 times, Barry who was taking a telephone call outside, casually pointed out  a water point (and power point) about 10metres  from the RV on the quayside!  So the exercise was completed in a much more efficient and less strenuous manner.


The view from the RV - note the water point just to the right of centre!

A big thank you to Peter from Ironbridge Runner who donated recovery powder for Andy's milk shakes (Priced at £26) to the cause.  Wish there were more people like him around!

Hopefully getting our overnight parking for the RV sorted soon - but time for a steady jog / walk around Andy's 4+mile circuit today.

Started my jog with Sophie but when it was time for me to walk, she wanted to carry on jogging. No problem - off she went!!!

It was a lovely circuit down one side of the River Exe and back along the other. 

Arrived back in time to get things ready for Andy's finish. Cracking time today - 5hrs 57mins!!

 Another one over with . . . . .

Just the packing up to do and set off for Plymouth, about 90 minutes away.  We had an uneventful journey until we hit the city centre and not having a post code for our final destination, ended up turning the wrong way on to our destination road, this action then leading us in to a mass of closed off streets, road works and temporary traffic lights!  Oh what fun!!! There are certain advantages to driving a big bus, I've realised - people may not want to give way to you but in reality, they have little choice!
Arrived at the hotel to find Andy trying to conduct a normal skype conversation with Loz, his daughter but Sophie's" tender ministrations" did little to make it normal! What a hoot!
Andy trying to be brave!

I decided to accompany Andy to his presentation that he was giving tonight at the Corinthian Yacht Club for one of the Challenge66 sponsors. 
We took a slow walk to there, giving Andy plenty of time to reminisce - he spent 10 years of his childhood living in the area, in the military quarters in the Citadel, the very place where our RV was garaged tonight!

Memories? - Who can guess what Andy's thinking about!

His presentation was brilliant - it's the first time that I have heard him speak publicly and he had the audience enthralled.
He was delighted to receive a cheque for £400 raised by Forever Living in support of Challenge66 with the proceeds from the night also to be donated.

Thank you very much Forever Living

We walked back to the hotel afterwards (what's another couple of miles when you've already done 31 miles that day?) and finished the night at Pizza Hut  for dinner.

Plymouth Hoe tomorrow!!

Benjie's Blog
Morning Sweetie
I enjoyed watching you do your silly dancing last night! It was very funny and I laughed very much.
The place where we are staying is called Plymouth Hoe and is number 24 on your map. It is here that a very famous explorer called Sir Francis Drake  is said to have played bowls before sailing on his ship to do battle with the Spanish Armada. Mummy can find out about this (maybe Google, mummy?) and tell you some more! In the last picture, Uncle Andy is standing at the place where his ship sailed from.

Talk to you soon, son
Love you,
Daddy :)
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