Walk 3 - 13.5 miles - Total 44.7 miles - To Go 955.3 miles

London Loop Cockfosters to Elstree

6am up and everywhere dark and outside damp. Text Rob to say 'Boot on Front' only to find out later he had no idea what this meant. Can you guess? Give us some ideas in your comments - answer in next blog. Catch the 7.19 Hitchin to Finsbury Park dressed for walking and sardined amongst suits. At Finsbury Park everyone heading to London as I head north with two other people in the carriage. A wonderful cup of tea at Cockfosters where I meet Rob and we set off. A surprising amount of snow and walking is difficult. As we build up real momentum Rob said 'Len you are off at the pace of a banker chasing his bonus'. He pulled me back to climb a small incline for a surprise view - a great big lake right there in the middle of Hadley Monken common. Lovely. Jack put it there so it is called Jack's lake.

We pull up outside Henry Livingstone's cottage - more like a mansion than a cottage. This is where Livingstone returned after his time in Africa. Rob then told me some story about Richard Burton and discovering Livingstone and the source of the Nile. Surprisingly Rob had not heard that RB married Elizabeth Taylor so it felt good to be able to educate him a little.

There before us was Barnet Common where in March 1471 the battle of Barnet was fought. As we peer into the grey mist and gloomy sky we imagine the scene. Edward IV, the deposed King of England, lands in Yorkshire and declares himself King and marches south with 12000 men and funds from Burgundy. Richard Neville the Earl of Warwick who was a supporter of King Henry VI has his 15000 and races to intercept Edward and they meet at Hadley Green on April 13th to do battle. Confusion reigned with the battle fought on Easter Sunday in thick fog. As the fog cleared and after a four hour battle it was clear Richard Neville's army is heavily defeated...and when he is found he is quickly despatched with. A large number of those 27000 troops died that day. As we leave, we have a strange sense of rideless horses carrying on their fight on behalf of their fallen riders.
Edward went on to reign for twelve years until his death in 1483. And now this is a delightful suburb of London with some amazing houses and ladies walking their dogs and chatting across the Green.

I thought we may also expire today. 13.5 miles in snow and mud is hard, and with not a single break and a hilly diversion at the end (ok - Rob got us lost) my back was siezing up and every step became painful. Rob was admirable and looks fit. He didn't offer to carry me back to today's finish line but had he done so I would have accepted. A horrible pub lunch in Elstree where English fayre was provided. With all that effort by Edward from Burgundy I so wish he had also imposed some culinary skills on the locals.

Some yoga stretches and a bath and I am now recovered and ready for more. Next walk in two and a bit weeks and I can't wait.

Walk 2 - 13.7 miles - Total 31.2 miles - To Go 968.8 miles

London Loop Sections 17 & 18. Trent Park, Forty Hall, Enfield Chase,

South Africa v England cricket test match looks well balanced. The sun shining in Cape Town and the fine tans showing a sharp contrast to the frost outside and the expected shut down of the country tomorrow after the snow falls tonight. We start the London Loop today with Sou dropping us off at Cockfosters. Within minutes we are in hunting ground in Trent Park and ahead of us there is a scene that makes us rub our eyes and look again. We see a hunting party that has riden from Hatfield to Enfield Chase. All on their horses are 12 ladies in white satin, 120 yeomen in green and 15 archers in scarlet boots and yellow caps and each armed with a bow. Along with them is a lady of the dogs ready to retrieve the spoils of the hunt. A fabulously colourful scene from over 400 years ago is there for us to imagine as we look where Elizabeth 1st brought her hunting party for a fun day out on the chase. We walk on and talk about all the things that have happened over the years on this Chase and later Epping Forest and the exploits of Dick Turpin. A little further ahead near Forty Hall we notice a man throwing his cloak across a puddle to allow a lady to pass without wetting her feet. We approach and see it is Sir Walter Raleigh making this favour for the same Elizabeth. She looks so pleased and grateful and yet later we know she orders his head to be removed. As we approach Cuckold Hill we reflect on Elizabeth 1st and the complexities of relationships between men and women.

The walk is tough with a number of hills to climb and at the end our legs are weary. As we talk about the pain in our legs and look forward to the finish today we reflect that this feeling at the end of a walk is how some people with MS feel every day when they awake. We are lucky our weariness and pain will be gone in the morning. The pain for people with MS goes through the day and for many gets worse as time goes on. We really hope that with the steps we are taking we can increase the hope they can have for something better in the future.

We have agreed to rearrange our next two days walks so I don't get seperated from Karen for too long (our village will get snowed in tonight) and to be sensible about the weather. We will be making up the shortfall as soon as we can.

Walk 1 - 17.5 miles - Total Completed - 17.5 miles - To go - 982.5 miles

Bank of England - AXA IM HQ - Houses of Parliament - St James Park - Buckingham Palace - Green Park - Hyde Park - Oxford Street - Regents Park - Hampstead Heath - Alexandra Palace -Winchmore Hill.

Up early, cup of tea, look outside at deep frost and get ready for action. First walk of the 1000Miles4Hope and remind ourselves we are doing this to raise hope for those who currently have none. The motivation is strong as we don our branded t- shirts and consider all the work put in by Tracy and Charlotte to get us kitted up (in addition to all the work on websites, blogs and twitter). Piccadilly Line and Northern Line and thousands of commuters returning to work after the xmas break. Rob and I now reflect how shy we are as we do not know how to engage this audience in what we are doing. We clearly stick out as different with our bright red t- shirts and 1000Miles4Hope logo and people are trying to read what we are about. Something to work on for tomorrow is to enter in to conversation with strangers and engage them in what we are doing.

We meet Richard Harris at the Bank of England who is ready to film us between here and the Houses of Parliament for a news clip on CityWire tomorrow. Feels good starting out. We first talked about preparing Rob for Kilimanjaro about a year ago and came up with the idea of a 1000 mile walk for charity. Now we can take our first steps and what a great place to go. The interviews go well and we are on our way. First stop AXA IM HQ. More evidence we look suspicious as two burly security guards come hurtling out of the building to ask if they can help us. Looks like we were identified as a threat and would have been straight to the ground arms in cuffs if we did anything suspicious. Somehow we got through the threat level and were allowed in. It was great to meet with and thank Martin Hall for AXA IM's sponsoship of the effort, our first corporate sponsors. Our message to the City is to give us any contributions they can to help us speed up the research in to cures and treatments for this horrible disease. Outside the Houses of Parliament we make the case to raise the political profile of Multiple Sclerosis and attract more interest to do something about it. With Rodin's statue of the Burghers and Parliament in the background we make our plea for people to help people around them with MS, support us in what we are doing and encourage them to make efforts themselves to help the cause.

The parks are wonderful and remind us what a wonderful place London is and how many tranquil places there are. We stop in Regents Park while Rob tries to capture some creative perspectives on a Henry Moore statue. There is a challenging hill up Highgate Hill West that tested our preparation and we came through with flying colours and with 10 miles behind us it is time for lunch in The Flask. I said to Rob that the distance just covered was what we needed to do 100 more times this year. He said 'you exaggerate.....it is only 99 more!. On reflection once again we are too shy to enter in to conversation with others in the pub and too focussed on how we were coping with our first steps. Must do better tomorrow. After lunch of fish pie and sparkling water we admired some wonderful views across London from the top of Highgate and then work our way across to some more stunning views across a hazy and smoggy London from the top of Alexandra Palace.

It was cold but a beautiful clear blue sky. The last four miles were really tough and we think it is the amount of walking on roads and paths. The last mile was even tougher and in the dark and it was great to get back home. Some Yoga stretches, a hot bath and a refreshing and tasty soup made by Sou left us refreshed, re-energised and ready for tomorrow.

I miss Karen as I am staying at Robs and am going to have to find ways of her coming along or being with us on more of these trips. I hope we can make a difference and bring some real hope. If you know anyone with MS think about what help and support you can give them. Also please please tell everyone you know what we are up to, make a donation and sign our guestbook to give us support.

Day 2 tomorrow and another 13 miles for hope.

Your Story for 2010

Tomorrow Robert and I start our 1000 miles and this will be a big part of our story in 2010. We will write about this with the pen firmly in our hands or those we give it to along the way. Here are some thoughts about your story for 2010.

The success you achieve in 2010 will depend on the story you tell yourself about yourself. The pen that writes this story will on occasions be in your hand and at other times in the hands of others. One of the most important interventions you can make to ensure the best success for you in 2010 is for you to control the pen at all times. If you give it without thought to your boss, partner, friend or opponent they will write what is good for them and this may or may not be good for you. If you decide what will be written and who will write it then the story written will be good for you and contribute to your growth and fulfillment. But beware the dilemma you are faced with. Giving the pen freely to others is so much easier and natural to us than keeping it in your own hand or choosing who you give it to. Accepting you can't get the promotion you want is down to your boss or you can't have the work life balance you prefer because of your partners needs is so much easier than considering your own role in getting the outcomes you want. Give up the pen and you watch life go by as others are allowed to insert paragraphs and chapters in your story. Hold the pen and face the big challenges this will raise for you and you will be confronted with some exciting and difficult choices that will open up a new world of possibilities for you. Allow yourself to face these choices to shape the future you want. Think about this. What you do today can be an increment on where you finished yesterday or it can be a move made by you in the direction you really wish to travel. You can let the pen write wherever it is or you can grab it and set your own path. Write a great story and make sure it is the one you want to tell.