Day 9

Day 9 takes Sam from Nottingham to Leicester. Having picked the pace up yesterday and finding his grove again, Sam had to pull a long one out today to make it to Leicester, but before he could knuckle down and stride on, he needed to undertake some running repairs and tackle the large hard blister on his foot. Unlike previous blisters, this one didn’t pop when he burst it, and instead he had to work at it to cut away the blister. Repairs complete, he was able to set off on his way again.

Heading down to Leicester proved to be fairly uneventful for Sam, the weather was “perfect walking weather”, NO RAIN, the sun was out, and the wind was at his back, so much so that Sam thought that he was making excellent time, phoning to say that he was about 4 miles outside of Loughborough at 11:30! An hour and a half later Sam called back to apologies and to say that he was now 4 miles outside of Loughborough, which was still very impressive.

Taking the afternoon to amble down to Leicester, Sam passed the National Space Centre, and took some time out to view the “rocket in a bubble”, I’m sure a number of you are now wondering what Andreas was doing in Leicester, and more to the point, what he was doing with a rocket hanging out of him, but I can assure you that the particular bubble that the galactic craft was in was a large glass one.

Having admired the rocket and contemplated some of the other great achievements that mankind has made, such as space travel, putting a man on the moon and the Kit-Kat Chunky, Sam headed back to the main road, and on into Leicester, finishing his day at Welford Road, home of the Leicester Tigers Rugby Football Club, and a shrine to most that play the game of rugby. Feeling humbled Sam paid homage to some of the greatest in the game, then caught the train to Sunny Nunny to get a good nights sleep before starting it all over again tomorrow.