Page 137 - MERCIAN Eagle 2011

Tommo cracked some cylume sticks and continued into the darkness. We realized that by now the other four would have finished and with Paul suffering with his knees, he resembled someone on a Zimmer frame. He was sporting walking sticks which he had picked up earlier that day; watching him hop over fences became a moment of considering calling the padre or catching on camera for ‘you have been framed’.
We could see the flashing lights at the bottom of the valley and this cheered us up, so we both decided to run the last 2 miles into the checkpoint where the others were waiting. When we returned to camp that night there was plenty of applause, and also plenty of moaning and groaning from the sore feet and blisters. Again our admin team had a lovely chicken curry prepared, swilled down by more lager. We eventually got in our sacks at about 11 o’clock ready for our wake up at 4 am.
4 am wake up, and yes there he was, Dennis Smart, whose age I’m not allowed to print (but he’s bloody old) was washing up all the dishes for the remainder of the troops getting up. This man has been around most of us in the Branch since we were 14 year old Army Cadets when we were just starting to think of joining the Army, and
is still involved in what we do to this day.
He is something of a legend. All five of us jumped into the seven seated minibus and headed for the last checkpoint. We had a photo, and then we were off.
Day 3 trek
We started to walk but almost straight
away it was apparent that ‘Forest Gump’ Mcmulkin and Ghandi were at it again. Within 1.5 miles they were gone, and we only got small sightings of them way in the distance from time to time. This just left 3 of us plodding out the ground as the morning sun came up. Darren Stewart, who the day before was absolutely flying started to slow
slightly, and as we progressed he started to disappear altogether. I think the difficulty of the day before had taken its toll.
We reached our 1st check point of the day, where once again Gaz Brooke and Eric had hot drinks and food waiting. Brian Mcmulkin and Ghandi had been there for about 25 minutes and soon took off, by the time me and Tommo had started our break, they were well gone. The paths down towards the river Tyne were long and winding, the temperature had risen again, and while walking down them we had no shade. We must have been about 6 miles from Newcastle, when I started to feel strange. First it was a bit of dizziness’ in my head, but after a while I seemed to be walking sideways towards the trees, Tommo stepped in and asked “where you off” and
Darren eventually crossed the finish line to a massive and well deserved applause. We all took on some water before proceeding the last 4 miles together as one unit, as we had started. Even those who could hardly walk gave it their all on this last stretch.
Carl Ashfield for some unknown reason found the energy and ran the last four mile with his Bergen on, (hallucinating I think). As we all waddled our way to Wallsend we could see our admin team along with the two buglers; this pair had travelled all the way to Newcastle to meet and support us. The gate was opened and we all took our places at the last piece of the Wall ready for a photograph. The buglers then proceeded to play the Last Post and we observed a minutes silence for our fallen comrades.
at that point I realised
I was on the point of
passing out through
shear exhaustion. A
short while later Tommo
experienced the same
sort of thing so we
decided to give it five
minutes in the shade
before carrying on. As we entered Newcastle a man stopped us and said “I saw you 2 days ago in Carlisle”, you told me that you were going to do the wall in three days, my wife thought you would not make it but here you are. I think at this point we realised
how far we had actually come. The last mile into Newcastle is probably one of the hardest I have ever experienced, and as we approached the last bridge all the lads were up on there wounded feet applauding us in. This was quite an emotional rush after the last 2 days.
Behind us and not forgotten somewhere was Darren, he had endured this last tough 25 miles on his own and we all agreed
that this man must have dug very deep
to manage this alone. His brother in law (Paul Crettela), although exhausted himself
went off to see if he could find him. Eventually the call
came on the phone; they had found him about a mile away
making his way to the bridge.
It was then straight onto the bus and we headed off to our spiritual home the King’s Head where wives, girlfriends, friends and the children were waiting with a prepared buffet.
The last mile into Newcastle is probably one of the hardest I have ever experienced
While we were in
business man put £100 behind the bar for all the lads to have a couple of pints.
I would, as Chairman of the Lichfield Branch, like to thank Bookers and Whitehouse the butchers for donating
the food. A massive thank you to the four
3 MERCIAN soldiers who helped us on
this weekend; this could not have been possible without them. Also a thank you to Captain Steve Ostle, for believing in us and supporting the event. Above all I would like to thank everyone who took part; I don’t think I have ever seen so much enthusiasm and dedication from a group of guys to make sure this worked. I know for me personally this is possibly the hardest thing I have ever undertaken in my life and probably all of the guys that took part would agree. Last but by no means least, everyone who sponsored us and our families and the Branch
who put up with us though all the training.
DAVE BRADSHAW Chairman Lichfield Branch
the Kings Head, a local
THE MERCIAN EAGLE
The finish
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