Putting your Breast Foot Forward

After the successful completion of the Belfast City Marathon Walk on Sunday 1st May, my next challenge was Action Cancer‘s Breast Foot Forward Walk on Friday 10th June. This walk was only 10km compared to the 8 mile Belfast City Marathon Walk but the Action Cancer one was taking place in the evening rather than first thing on a Sunday morning so that made it a little more challenging.

This time my walking partner was Elaine Hutchinson and it was her first time to take part in a sponsored walk of this scale. As usual, we had a few practice walks at Lurgan Park, Drum Manor in Cookstown and Craigavon Lakes to make sure we would be able to walk 10km on the day.

The weather forecast wasn’t the best for Friday 10th June so it was a dilemma to decide which clothes to wear and bring. Would a coat be needed? Or would it be too warm for a fleece? What about an umbrella? With a torrential downpour at 6.15pm just 45 minutes before the walk started, coats were deemed essential but thankfully the rest of the evening turned out to be dry.

Before the walk started

Belfast City Hall was the starting point for the walk. When we arrived there to a “sea of pink t-shirts”, it was time for photos to mark the occasion before a warm-up routine orchestrated by U105. We even had time for an ice-cream but we declined the goodie bag as that was going to be one extra thing to carry on the walk.

Around 7pm, we were encouraged to head for the starting line at Donegall Square East. Somehow Elaine and I managed to be some of the first people to cross the starting line but that definitely didn’t mean we would be the first to finish the 10km route! Our objective was simply to complete the route and not worry about our time.

And we’re off!

As the swarm of pink t-shirts headed towards Lanyon Place Railway Station, we were greeted by a series of friendly marshalls at the main junctions. They were making sure that we waited for the “green man” at traffic lights and didn’t dash across the road recklessly. We had a map with us but we didn’t need it as we just followed everyone else. After the station, we took a right turn before the River Lagan and walked along the path beside the river, a path that I didn’t even know existed. Before reaching the Ormeau Road, the walkers split in two – some people then took a right turn to follow the 5km route whereas other braver souls like us opted to continue on the 10km route.

Our supporters

After crossing the Ormeau Road, we were greeted by my son Jonny who cheered us on before making it to the Stranmillis roundabout. That’s when things got difficult. Up until now, the route had been relatively flat but as we headed towards the Malone Road, there was a gradual incline which we definitely felt on the backs of our legs. And then out of the blue, we spotted our friend Siofra O’Reilly at the top of the hill with a very welcome energy boost of a banana and some blueberries for each of us. We added an extra inch to our step and then we were greeted by more supporters at the entrance to the Ulster Independent Clinic. This time my husband David, son Jordan and Elaine’s husband Gary were cheering us on complete with extra bottles of water to keep us hydrated.

The route then weaved around the leafy suburbs of South Belfast as we headed towards the City Centre via the Malone and Lisburn Roads including a refreshment stop at Action Cancer’s head office on Windsor Avenue.

The finishing line

Back on to the Malone Road and past Queen’s University Belfast where Elaine and I had both studied many moons ago. Then we were on the home straight as we passed Shaftesbury Square, the Europa Hotel and then back to the City Hall where our cheer leaders David, Gary and Jordan were waiting at the finishing line.

So we did it! Our time wasn’t brilliant at two hours nine minutes but we did finish the 10km. The atmosphere was fantastic and we had lots of encouragement from cheering pedestrians and car drivers beeping their horns. We were definitely a little bit fitter at the end of the walk and we raised over £600 for Action Cancer. A big thank you to everyone who contributed so generously.