In the early hours of this morning, Mark tweeted about his use of social media. Over the last few days he's spent a lot of time using Instagram, Sound Cloud and Twitter, mainly due to the fact that he won't always have a mobile phone signal. This is his opportunity to share as much of the journey as possible while he still has the coverage to do so. Mark is also conscious that he needs to ensure that he has sufficient rest periods, if he were to spend time writing the blog then he would lose valuable sleep time. So, until Mark has his first scheduled rest day (next weekend) I'll try to summarise as much of the journey as I can. This progress map demonstrates the distance that Mark had made after 2.5 days.
Mark's first tweet of the day read: "Morning! As I expected, a cracking start to day 3. A very cold 0525 start with @memoodesign and John has got me to 9 miles by 0730" this was then followed with "Half marathon done by 9am. Time for breakfast" and then "18 miles done today" by approximately 11:00. A cracking start to the day, unlike mine.
At approximately 04:30 this morning I was woken by a call from the call centre of one of Mark's sponsors - Connexion2. Marks Identicom tracking device had alerted them to a 'man down' situation and they needed me to confirm whether he was ok. I'm not sure what the representative thought of me but 'mumbling mess' springs to mind. By the time I had fully woken and had come to my senses I was reassured that the microphone element within the device was recording Mark and that he sounded fine. As protocol though I needed to speak to him to confirm that he was ok. Cue call to Australia, and this is where he was...
Mark spoke with Gary and Lisa on Real Radio this morning and explained that it was more than likely as result of fly swatting which then set the alarm off. Panic over and the taxi to Newcastle airport cancelled! As dramatic as I felt it was in my sleepy state, how incredible is it that Mark has this device? After an apology Mark then tweeted "I'm fine but what a brilliant test of the #Identicom tracking device. I can see how useful a device #Identicom is for lone workers in vulnerable jobs".
Mark continued in good spirits and was once again joined by ex-pat John until the end of the day. Mark recorded the following at mile 33...
I'll not spoil too much of the story so that Mark can share it in his own words so I will leave you with a few tweets and pictures from the end of Day 3:
"41.08 miles done. So much easier in the dark without the flies. Finished running at 2015. Thanks to @memoodesign and John for company".
"Feet feel like clubs of meat. Badly swollen. Losing ability to move my toes. Very similar to day 3 in the run across the USA".
"I expect this swelling to last a couple of weeks. There is blood in my socks where the nail on one toe has caught the adjacent toe".
I think that's enough detail to share with you around the feet situation, for anyone really intrigued then hop across to Twitter or Facebook and you can get a real close up of said feet!
Click on the link below which will play Mark's thoughts after the end of Day 3.
On a final note, "I haven't been able to read any tweets today because of flys. Good food and a chance to read your tweets is a good end to the day".
The funds for the two charities, the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and The Children's Foundation, is currently £16,643. The donations have been continuous throughout the day which is fantastic. Please remember to leave your comments of support for Mark. Click here if you would like to make a donation.
