I completed the Sara Kiley walk in just under 7 hours 30 minutes which is a speed of 4 miles an hour. This was the time I was aiming for as I hope to walk and maintain the same speed for the Parish.

I walked with Jenny Patrick for the entire distance. I had done a few walks with her prior to the event and we intended to walk together - it was great to have her company.

I found it harder only walking 30 miles as apposed to walking 50 miles in previous years. I think it is because I didn't prepare myself mentally because I didn't think I needed too (as I only care about distance, not speed) and I felt that I could walk 30 miles comfortably. However, time did not fly by and I wasn't comfortable at all.

I felt guilty about the shorter distance this year, so I decided to walk to Jenny's house which is 2.5 miles away from where I live, Jenny's mum then gave us a lift to Peel.

I wore reasonably new shoes and I replaced the insoles for better ones. I also wore 2 pairs of thin socks. I'm not joking when I say my soles of my feet had a burning/stinging sensation only after a few miles of walking. I have never experienced this type of pain before, especially so early on. I could only guess that perhaps it is because I'm wearing 2 socks? Or are the shoes to new? or perhaps their isn't enough room? At Kirkmichael, I took one pair of socks off too try anything to ease the burning sensation. It continued to bother me until the finish, and all I could think about was thank god it wasn't 50 miles after all. This walk was supposed to give me confidence for the Parish, but I think it's done the opposite.

On the plus side, I didn't get any blisters and my muscles were fine.

At about half way I felt really queezy, like I wanted to be sick. I wasn't sure whether is was because I had eaten too much food or whether is was because I was Hungary? So I didn't know whether to eat or not. I decided not to eat, only because I didn't fancy it and my queezyness soon went away. I eat far more food in the 1st half, but this always happens to me because later on in the walk, eating is the last thing I feel like doing and this might be a big problem in the Parish. I find it hard to know how much and how often I should be eating.

Jenny's mum was a star, she backed us up the majority of the way (which I am not used to) and she provided me with a cheese roll. I definitely prefer savoury food on long walks, however, without the back up it's hard to eat savoury food as I can only carry energy bars, chocolate and sweets in my bum bag.

Now that I know this, I plan to buy lots of different types of fruit for the Parish, this is savoury and also contains natural sugar.

2 days ago, I walked the Parish Walk route from Ramsey to Laxey, I intended to walk all the way to Douglas, but I'm too good to my friends as I decided to get a bus home to meet them all in time before going back to Laxey and seeing a bit of the Blues festival.

I have now walked every part of the Parish walk route, just not in order and not in one go.

I now work in Glen Vine which I have already mentioned and tomorrow, I intend on walking to work and back which will be just over 8 miles in total.

Jenny and I are attending the Sara Kiley presentation tonight which is at the Cat With No Tail at 7pm for a 7:30pm start.