Pollen Cloud

We had provisionally planned a monstrous 40 miler for yesterday, with exactly 3 weeks to go before Trailwalker.


Initially all four team members were fit and available for this final mammoth training trek but in the week leading up to it, both Rachel (calf muscle) and Gelly (ankle) were ruled out... preferring to start the event fully fit and slightly less well trained than better trained but nursing injuries... probably a wise decision.

The gorgeous Hampshire countryside, early morning.

This left just Sam & me to tackle the 40 on our own. We planned to walk 5 times round an 8 mile loop (which included a killer hill near the end), coming back to the car between each loop for a 'pit-stop'... fuel & footwear.

We set the alarm for early and crawled out of bed, somehow managing to be awake and walking by 06:19! It was pretty quiet around; in fact we saw absolutely nobody on the first 8 mile loop, hardly surprising that early on a Saturday morning. The car was still all on its lonesome in the car park and we had a super quick 10 minute break then set off, in the opposite direction, for loop 2.

Loop 2 was completed with minimum fuss and bother, and we stopped for 15 minutes at the end of that as it involved changing socks and boots as well as shovelling down a load more pasta salad. Loop 3 went much the same way, and included the very steep hill at the end, the photo doesn't really do it justice but it gives an idea.


Loop 4 started off well enough but about 2miles from the end things started to get interesting. We had just started crossing a large field towards West Wood and almost immediately we could see what looked like a dust cloud hovering over the field. We instantly knew what it was (grass pollen!) as we'd seen the same thing a couple of years ago, on the same field, on a bike ride... that time my eyes swelled up like golf balls within minutes and stayed that way for several days, despite overdosing on antihistamine. Having already dosed up on antihistamine and not wanting to interfere with our plans/schedule we ploughed on. 10 minutes later my eyes started itching and swelling and this time, for added fun, my throat decided to get really sore and feel like it was swelling up too... rather a concern. We were right out in the sticks at this point so kept walking (I could still breathe, obviously!) so that we were closer to civilisation should this get out of hand. When we got back to the car, my throat and eyes were still swollen (although fortunately not getting worse) and, to top it all I was developing a sizeable blister on my left heel. We'd done 32 miles, I didn't want to cross that field again and I didn't want to make the blister any worse with just 3 weeks to go so we decided to call it a day and head home.

When I got home I discovered a new development with the grass pollen allergy... a lovely rash on my torso, arms and neck.


It was a bit disappointing to have not completed the 40 miles, especially as we both still felt strong in the legs, but all in all we were still quite happy with 32 given the difficulties.

The battery on the Garmin watch gave out around halfway round the 4th loop, but here is the route anyway.