Fan dance practice run

So, after quite some time of no reel training (or any training for that matter) my brother (who has been training) and I decided to do a practice run to see if we could do any better than our last attempt which didnt turn out too well to say the least. With rucksacks packed as close to the minimum weight required of 35lb, mine weighing in at 34 and marks at 37 before the 3 ltrs of water and any food needed. The plan was to make the run then head back up to llyn cwm llwych for a nights wild camp, we set off from the red phone box at storey arms at a good fast walking pace and then ran any downhill and flat sections with some strange looks from anyone we passed, later mark told me that comments along the lines of "oh my god he must be crazy" were being made by passers byas he was running behind me. At exactly 2hrs we made it to the halfway/turnaround point, a whole 20 minutes faster than previousat that point a handfull of harribos were scoffed on along with a energey gel, after 10 minutes we started off again traight into a run which lasted all of about 50 yards before returning back to a fast walk. By the time we got onto the roman road my feet felt like they were falling apart as the new boots I was wearing had no reel padding in the soles (I dont think mil-tek tactical boots are designed for this), from that point things started to hurt, from feet to knees to thighs, mark on the o5her hand seemed to be fine, so I doug down and went for it knowing that we had to at least get off the mountain and may as well try and make a good time, after all the whole idea of the fan dance is about commitment and finding that inner strength to finish and not just give up. Jacobs ladder was taken slowly as was the walk back down, I couldnt run with the amount of pain coming from my feet and legs, and so we finally got back to the red phone box in a time of 5hrs 35mins, 3 hrs quicker than our previous attempt, so wet through to the skin and freezing cold to point of shivering uncontrollably and with wet sleeping kit we decided against the slog back up to our chosen camp location and headed home happy with the effort we had made. One thing I learnt on this trip, lightweight tactical boots may be super comfy at first but in my experience dont stay like that so I'll be going back to my meindl borneo's for race day, I just need to get a few practice runs done in them first, energy gels work rather well as do harribos. Personally I think with these things ironed out a time of 5hrs 10mins should be easily achievable. Hopefully I wont leave it so long till the next update.