Fortitude

[fawr-ti-tood, -tyood] noun
mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger or temptation courageously.

To complete the Parish Walk, you need fortitude, and you need it by the bucket load, believe me.

It was interesting at the Walk Talk last week, at one point Kevin Walmsley asked the panel to write down how much of the walk is mental. The difference in answers was quite marked, but I particularly liked Steve Taylor's interpretation. He said that beyond Andreas, for him it was 100% mental, as he had no intention of stopping but he was physically exhausted.

This is fortitude.

You don't only need fortitude on the day, you often need it when training and after the weekend's wobble, I needed it to get myself back out on the road. I have found that pushing yourself through the mental barrier when training whether it be just to get out or to push yourself that little bit further helps train the mindset. Being a stubborn so and so also helps.

So, since my missing weekend, I did a 9 mile loop of Baldwin on Monday night with Simon Briggs and Stewie Jones. We set of from Simon's house at one hell of a pace, and for the remainder of the walk we hardly let up only to navigate the many hills, but I think the lay off at the weekend really helped. We finished in just over 1hr 36mins meaning an average of 5.6mph which I was well pleased with. It was quite a nice evening too and I really enjoyed walking with guys who are quicker than me as it really helps me focus and push on. Just on the way past the abattoir, we bumped into Dave Walker who was going the other way for a lap, it really is a popular route and I would encourage anyone who hasn't done it yet to get out there, the views are breathtaking, the hills more so!

As the kids are on Easter hols at the minute, I am relieved of the morning school run. As such, I have decided that over the course of the next couple of weeks to walk to or home from work a couple of times as  it is something a bit different and I'm effectively killing two birds with one stone. I decided that today I would walk home, so Caroline and the kids all piled into the car this morning and dropped me on Athol Street complete with my PE kit.

I persuaded a colleague of mine James who is aiming to complete the Parish this year to nip to his house in Onchan and get his kit and we could at least walk that far together. We set off from the office at about 5.15pm, and as soon as we dropped down onto Lord Street we realised that it was going to be tough work all the way. One of the guys at work had said that he had heard it was snowing in Castletown just before we left. Well, this snow had moved rapidly northwards and was starting in Douglas.

By the time we got to the Prom, the snow had turned to hail, and we were walking into a driving headwind. The temperature was obviously low, but the fierce wind made it feel several degrees lower still. I later found out that it was around 3 degrees. 

We really struggled along the Prom, as the wind was coming straight off the sea and made walking almost impossible. James suggested that he could ring his girlfriend and she would come and get us. I told him that we wouldn't entertain anything of the sort, and he should get his head down and work hard. I told him that if he is aiming to complete the Parish, he can't pick and choose the conditions and he should be familiar and comfortable walking in all conditions.

By the tome we got to Summerhill and away from the sea front, the wind dropped, and although it's a steep hill, it was more comfortable than the flat of the walkway. I waved goodbye to James at the top of Royal Ave, and knuckled down for the last 4 miles to my house. From the top of the Whitebridge to the LA was tough, as was the open section of Baldrine as the wind came straight down from Conrhenny, but I battled on. I eventually made it back to mine averaging 12 minute miles so 5mph for 6.5 miles into a headwind all the way and contending with snow and hail made me feel pretty content.

The training wheels are back on, and I'm glad to say that I demonstrated a good level of fortitude.