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Great success for walking course and children’s event.

A great group and fantastic weather

During our Walking with McArdle’s course in Wales this year we tried to come up with a collective noun for McArdle-ites. Possibly the best was “a Determination of McArdle-ites”, though the jury is still out. Our group photo of 11 of the 12 McArdle-ites on the main course certainly reflects the determined spirit of those participating. During the course, and the Children & Parents event which followed, we reckon that we walked a total of about 600 miles in blazing sun – that is certainly some determination!

Day overlap of courses

This year we overlapped the two events by one full day so that children and adults could walk together. The activity for that day was a boat trip from Tenby harbour to Caldey Island, where we walked several routes including to the high point of the island where there is a lighthouse. We hope to soon have some video footage of the group filmed by Alfred from his drone. It wasn’t all walking, we enjoyed the nature trail, the chocolate factory and many of us paddled or swam from a beautiful beach before the boat trip back to explore the picturesque town of Tenby.

Walks on coast and estuary and sightseeing visits

During the two events we are also walked on the coast where we saw the “Green Bridge of Wales”, a spectacular rock arch on the sea cliffs, climbed the Cribin Ridge at Solva, walked around Bosherton Lakes with its lily ponds, walked along an estuary, explored Manorbier Castle, and visited St. David’s with its cathedral.

Learning and sharing

With people from seven countries there was no shortage of talk about McArdle’s, learning tips and techniques along the way. We had a talk on genetics and what happens in McArdle disease from Jeremy Michelson of IamGSD who was an honorary McArdle-ite for the 10 days, as he actually has Tarui disease (GSD7), which is very similar to McArdle’s.

There were lots of “gold stars” awarded, first and foremost to Lucy, age 9 and 3/4s, for beating her previous best distance of 6.1 miles with 6.6 miles on a challenging lakeside and clifftop walk, followed by Irene for re-finding her second wind and Bronte (as assistant/trainee leader) for overcoming a cramp injury to complete the last walk.

We hope to have more news, photos and video to follow.

See some more photos on the “McArdle’s takes Wales” Facebook group.

Looking to 2020

Watch out for details of our plans for next year, the tenth anniversary of these courses.

Main photo, Children & Parents event: Irene (USA), Lucy (England), Jeremy (USA), Bronte (England) and Andrew (Wales).

Walking course 2019: Brenda (USA), Jeremy (USA), Christine (Scotland), Andrew (Wales), Debbie (USA), Danny (England), Bronte (England), Andy (Scotland), Sioned (England), Fieke (Netherlands) and Alfred (Germany). Missing from the photo is John (Australia).