I did it!

On the Sunday 18th May, both Howard and I left home and travelled to Manchester by train from Dewsbury. I've never seen so many runners in my life and it was phenomenal. The atmosphere was absolutely wonderful. I met Chris Raine and other people from the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Services... couldn't miss them as we had big "e" on our t-shirts!

Come round 11am, we did the warm up and then we headed for the "START" and we began to shout the countdown 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 and Dennis Law blew the horn and off we went. I could hear so many bleeps at the start as everyone was wearing the microchip and it really bleeped so loud!

The first 1km was a KILLER as everyone was pushing around to take over the runners, I wasn't actually running as I am not a runner but a fast walker and it was hard work for the 1st kilometre! I just left Claire at 2km as I just wanted to get into my pace rather than fast walking and the weather was just dry and sunny not too hot (just perfect!)

Saw the 3km sign.... 7 more to go I thought... it was lovely to see the runners, walkers etc and the spectators etc on the way.... saw Manchester United grounds and thought I'm half way there - great that was super!

After going round outside the grounds and by the river (near Imperial War Museum), it was getting better because I saw the 6km sign and the 7km sign. I sent a text message to my husband to see where he was and his reply was "800m sign".... that's a long way to go I thought!

More metres and time flew by and I saw this sign "1km to go"!!! WOW I thought and then saw Howard at 800m and I walked a bit faster this time and saw the "400m sign" and then I made it to the end!

It took me 1 hour and 49 minutes to do 10km walk. I was so proud of it and so was Howard. I collected my medal and my t-shirt and headed for a local cafe and had something to eat.

At 1.30pm my mum phoned to see where I was but all we could say was "We're having lunch and Rachel's got the medal round her neck".. mum was very surprised to hear that I did it in 1 hour and 49 mins.

We walked around Manchester and then caught the train back to Dewsbury and I just couldn't walk any further once I got off the train but we got home and had a shower and I felt so fresh again and went to mum's to collect the boys.

I have now raised £550 for the Ear Trust which is fantastic. Thank you for supporting me.

On the 2nd June, my Guides (10th Mirfield) did lots of quizzes and raised £110 for the Ear Trust so that's £660 so far!

THANK YOU for helping me to raise money for the Ear Trust.