I guess the name our page gives it away, but let me clarify who we have making up the team........my sister Jo - Jo's a complete beginner to the actual training and entering the Moonwalk however, she's been a big part of the support team in previous years, collecting donations on our pub crawls and arranging for local businesses to donate raffle prizes for our party etc. Jo's got little legs but a big amount of determination - essential to be part of the team! My sister Karen - Karen was part of the original Moonwalk team in 2006. She was unable to join us in 2007 as she was heavily pregnant with our little princess Olivia at the time. She's now back in 2009, with a vengeance! The team doesn't quite fulfill its name criteria, we're missing our youngest sister Laura - Laura took part in the Moonwalk 2007 but after the experience, vowed she would never repeat it!! In addition Laura is pregnant with her first baby and due to give birth 2 weeks before the event - Laura - you didn't have to go such extremes to avoid the Moonwalk this year!!

Our training started mid Jan and we were off to a fairly good start. Straight into walking 4 - 5 miles per session, taking approx 60 - 80 mins on weekday evenings and a little further on weekends, maybe 6 or 7 miles. It's not so much the training itself that's difficult at the moment but more about the struggle for time that we each have to commit to it. We now need to step up the pace on our shorter walks and stretch ourselves on the distance with our weekend walks. We're looking forward to the lighter evenings as this'll give us more choice of routes - we're getting bored of walking the same streets of Cwmbran over and over again! We very much appreciate any support, so if you drive by when we're out training, give us a beep!

Thanks to everyone at Zarlink Caldicot (and guests) who bought our homemade cakes just before Easter. We raised a fantastic £80!

Our 8 and 10 mile Sunday morning walks over the last couple of weeks have been great. The weather has been very kind, the routes have included some pleasant country lanes and the entertainment en route has been quite interesting.......we were stopped by an 89 year old lady just to pass the time of day but ended up chatting for over 20 mins! She had a great sense of humour! I think Jo began to loose the plot at one point....she thought 2 local lamas were particularly miserable looking and decided to tell them so! We had a 'guest' on one of our walks - our little princess Olivia. Karen had wrapped her up warm in her pram for an early morning start. She was quiet to begin but was soon singing 'Old Macdonald Had a Farm', as we passed by a field full of sheep! Pushing the pram was great exercise for our arms!

Imagine a typical Friday night.... It's 7.45pm, you've had a tough week in work and now you're looking forward to.............a 15 mile walk?!!!! Hmmm, not our idea of fun either, but it had to be done! We set off with reservations as we were all pretty shattered to start with! Never mind, the faster we walk, the quicker we get back home. As it started to get dark, people were putting on the lights in their homes but not yet closing the curtains. This was giving Jo and Karen the perfect opportunity to check out the different 'interior designs' - ideas for their own homes! (How nosey!) but I had other ideas....taking the role of sergeant major, I soon had the girls back into an attentive marching pace!! Walking through the centre of at 10.30 on a Friday night was interesting. We found that one of our favourite Italian restaurants has now unfortunately closed down and we were challenged by a group of slightly drunken guys that they could walk faster than us - they had absolutely no chance!! The last 5 miles of the walk were nowhere near as entertaining. The uphill struggle and the fact that our bodies were aware that it was supposed to be bedtime, was starting to take its toll. We finished at 11.30pm which meant that we'd managed to keep a really good average pace. All in all, it went fairly well but to make it less of a struggle we certainly need to do more training!

End of May, bank holiday weekend, Sunday night.............we did a fundraising 'pub crawl' in Cwmbran. Thanks to all those at the Open Hearth, The Top Bridge, The Bottom Bridge and The Upper Cocks for their support. We raised £151!

What fantastic weather we've been having in the . Fantastic for picnics, sunbathing etc but not that great for walking long distances! We decided to make an early start on a Sunday morning, to try and walk 22 miles before the heat became too much. This was to be our biggest training session (in terms of distance). I was up at 5.45am (absolutely unheard of for me and especially on a Sunday morning!), met my sisters at 6.30am and made a start on our walk at 6.45am. Oh dear......none of us felt awake or at all motivated to be doing this! After about 15mins I decided to put my 'sergeant major hat on'! I was marching the girls along one of our least favourite parts of the route (for those of you who live in Cwmbran - it was a 1 mile stretch of - boring!) 8am, we're in the centre of and it's already very very warm. Thankfully, I have my lovely, cold energy drink to sip. It's a new product, great for 'giving an energy boost before, during or after exercise' so it promised. We each took a sip......eugh! Shame about the taste!! We needed to make a short stop for the 'ladies'. The most convenient convenience was at a branch of McDonald's. We were so tempted to stay and sit out on the terrace with a nice cold McFlurry! But, we were good girls and continued our walk. We made our way along the A48, the old Langstone to Chepstow road. It's such a pleasant, fairly short journey when I drive this way to work each day. This was however, far from short when walking. The heat was getting more intense, my energy drink now tasted even more disgusting! Jo started to lose the plot and began talking to the local wildlife again - cows this time! We were getting slower as the temperature was getting hotter. We decided that to avoid any 'mishaps' we needed to call an end to this training walk earlier than planned. We called our mum to come and collect us! We'd managed 18 miles but it had taken us 5hrs. Mum arrived to 'save' us with refreshments and cooling face wipes - thanks mum!!!! (Maybe we should take her to with us?!!)

We planned one last big push for our fundraising – another ‘pub crawl’ on Sat 13^th June. It turned out to be a celebration as well as a fundraising event – our youngest sister Laura gave birth to our little princess number 2 on Sat afternoon! Ruby Imogen was born at 1.15pm weighing 6lb 13oz! Congratulations Laura and James! The ‘pub crawl’ was a success – we raised £208.30!! Thanks to all those at The Doralt, The Cwrt Henllys, The Six-in-Hand, The Crows Nest and Mary O’Brians for their support.

WE DID IT – WE COMPLETED THE WALK IN 6HRS 53MINS!!!!!!!!

Thankfully the weather was kind to us, a little cold but dry. castle joined in the fun and was all lit up in pink to support the charity for the evening! All went well with the walk until about mile 20. We then started to struggle. Backs and hips were aching, feet were beginning to get sore. Some sliced banana and orange gave us a bit of a pick up for a while but by mile 23 we were finding it more and more difficult to put one foot in front of the other! We slowed down the pace and kept going, the last 3 miles seemed like the longest 3 miles ever!! We finally crossed the finish line at 6.33am!!