The Sloc + 20 or so miles

After the previous weeks lack of training it was time to man up & put in a serious effort. Thankfully the back was feeling much better & I was able to do a full week’s worth of hard training with a tough goal at the end of it.

The goal was to complete the Sloc, but instead of starting at it or near abouts, we were going to complete the full 20 or so miles of the Parish walk before we got to it.

Feeling full of confidence & just glad to be back to a reasonable state of health & be able to plan such a trip we set off in the morning & managed to go the wrong way in the first half an hour, pretty impressive eh?! Unfortunately I thought we needed to carry on the TT slip road slightly further than was necessary (ahem, OK a mile or so more than needed), but needless to say after a call to our trusted guide Hayley we got back on track.

It was good to be training on the actual route from the start & prepare ourselves both mentally & physically as to what was come. However, it didn’t take too long for us to get lost again as we managed to miss our turning onto the newtown road & ended up going a mile or two out of our way & then turned back on ourselves. We even managed to find what seemed to be the longest, narrowest, oddest road on the Isle of Man, which we affectionately named ‘Murder alley’, I’m quite glad that we wont have to traverse this little gem again!

We stopped off for massive amounts of food on the only shop that appeared to be open on the Isle of Man (the Colby Spa - a massive shout out & much love) & sat in the bus shelter while we ate it. This was an extremely welcome break from the mid day sun & made me think that I will have to think carefully about breaks & the food & drink that I plan to take with me or at least have with my support car for the later parts of the race.

The Sloc turned out not to be as bad as I thought, especially after traversing the 20 or so miles before it, but again, I wouldn’t have said it was enjoyable!

I think we managed to do the walk in a fairly quick time & although I was tired & sore at the end of it I definitely could have carried on, but saying that, I was glad I didn’t have to walk back to Douglas as my parents gave us a lift back (thanks Mum!).

A good sign for the future considering this is our longest walk to date!