Do You Know How Much Those Blisters Raised Today?

Who can believe that this time last week the excitement was at fever pitch as, like children on Christmas Eve, we all slept less than we should have because we couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning, cause it was Kiltwalk Day.

This is my first post since Sunday’s Glasgow Kiltwalk and in addition to Oor Kiltwalkers, The Kiltwalk Team, our Partner Charities, our Volunteers, the Stewards and emergency services I’d like to thank my 1,000 mile socks as after 23 miles of walking, I didn’t have a single blister. What was even more surprising was that for the first year ever, I wasn’t doing The Kiltwalk Shuffle.

So with one down and four to go this year, I hope I’m still saying that after the Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Speyside and Dundee Kiltwalks.

So why am I walking all five? Well several reasons I guess.

First of all they’re there to be done. Second? Well it’s easier walking than being part of the Event Team on the day, honestly it is. Third and finally and more importantly, then having walked all previous Glasgow Kiltwalks, this gives me something different to do and I hope it provides me with the best chance of raising as much as I can for The Aila Coull Foundation.

Glasgow, as usual, didn’t disappoint as we had over 6,000 people taking part across all our distances on the day. Thankfully, the weather was kind to us too, although to be honest our walkers had brought so much sunshine and goodwill in their hearts it was never going to be anything else but sunny if you were a Kiltwalker.

Sunday was great, but for Holly, one of Aila’s Amblers and my wee lassie, it was a day tinged with sadness as she had to miss taking part in The Kiltwalk for the first time in three years. She had to miss it as her Audition for her final year of her Acting Degree fell on the same day, so that had to come first.

However, that didn’t stop Holly heading down to Balloch at eight o’ clock to catch the last of the Kiltwalk excitement and join in the evening festivities. Talking of the evening festivities wasn’t Gary Speirs a real treat? Three Kiltwalk songs now in the bag, think he’ll be releasing a Kiltwalk Album soon :-)

Anyway, I left the tent to go along and meet Holly just before eight and that’s when I bumped into these four fantastic, first time Kiltwalkers from Lanarkshire in the shape of Claire, Daniela, Nicola and Maureen.

Being the nosy Kiltwalk Blipfoto man that I am, I couldn’t pass by without chatting to them and asking them how they were and it was then Daniela asked if I would take the picture above and what a great picture it turned out to be.

However, don’t be fooled by the smiles as when I first bumped into them, they looked completely broken and unable to move. In fact, poor Daniela’s eyes were all bloodshot as the tears of pain had been rolling down her face and her pals were all in a similar boat.

I stood and chatted and listened to their story. They were all best of pals and worked together at the same company in Lanarkshire and had heard all about The Kiltwalk from the Lorraine Kelly radio adverts on Clyde One.

To be precise, it was actually Nicola, or the Kiltwalk instigator as she had become known, who had heard it and had quickly talked the rest of them into taking part.

They had all thoroughly enjoyed the day, but the aches, pains and blisters meant they had walked their first and last Kiltwalk.

As I spoke with Daniela, who is Italian and lives and works in Scotland, the tears and look of pain returned to her face, as it did to her friends.

It was at that point, with pain on all of their faces, I asked them all if they knew what they had achieved today?

I explained that last year, the Glasgow Kiltwalk had raised £750,000 as a result of the fund raising efforts of our fabulous Kiltwalkers.

I then told them that this year we think the Glasgow event will raise over £1million pounds!! Therefore every step they had taken, every ache and pain they had experienced and every blister or lost toenail they now had, had helped raise money for Scotland’s Children and they’d played their magnificent part.

It was at this point, they tears of pain turned into tears of joy as they realised the enormity of what they had just achieved.

I asked Daniela if she’d send me the picture I’d taken so that I could share it with you all and use it for our Blipfoto page, so we swapped email details and as you can see, she was as good as her word.

She also sent me the following message with her email, which I’m sure she won’t mind me sharing with you all.

“Hi Ian,

It was lovely meeting you on Sunday at the finishing line and thanks for taking our picture.

It was such a wonderful emotionally charged day, and an experience we will never forget!

The response was outstanding and it is incredible to think of the amount of money we all raised.

Now that the pain and blisters have gone away... we’re all really thinking about joining in next year's too!!!”

As we say round these parts, once a Kiltwalker, always a Kiltwalker. See you next year ladies.

Oh and in case you were wondering, Holly found out on Thursday that she has been offered a place in the final BA Hounors Year, so well done Holly. She's walking Edinburgh with me, so ask her to do a bit of Shakespeare along the way if you see her :-)