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Led by a samba band, the event begins!

It’s certainly a fun way to start the event.

And off they go. Just under 450 people in this wave, the first of three.

Despite his new slimline look, he’s still got a big booming voice.

Katie giving the welcome speech at the beginning of the event.

Richard taking a selfie now he’s lost weight.

Susanna.

Phoebe, the LDWA President, saying a few words.

Rob arrives at HQ, with Ken and Isobel helping him register.

Łukasz….

He’s hoping for a record time. We had a training session with pizza and beer on Monday night, so he’s well prepared.

Susanna helping in the breakfast area, lots of hot drinks and toast available for the over 500 entrants.

The set up arrangement for the bag drop.

There’s Peter in the middle, he’s always pleased to see me, it reassures him.

Everyone has been saying how thin Richard is, he likes the attention, but he deserves it after his massive weight loss. Mind you, it’s all uphill weight wise now.

Madeleine, our marvellous national chair.

A side view of the registration excitement.

After registration, entrants then get their tracker.

Jane and Sara helping with the tracker placement.

String!!!!

Entrants then scan here and their bag is taken to the breakfast stop. It’s a huge transportation effort moving 500 bags to the mid-way point.

Michael at the start on car park duty.

Richard is briefly allowed into the control room.

Patman (he likes this name) busy doing the PAT testing.

Jon and Simon at the helm of the control room.

Now it’s busier.

Still only half the entrants here though. The main start is at 10:00, but there are other start times of 12:00 and 14:00.

And the registration process starts! Here’s Heather at the welcome desk.

The registration team in action.

Peaceful at the moment.

Simon and David from the media team.

Interviewing a first time entrant.

Richard playing with Flora, the mannequin which is used to display Flower of Suffolk merchandise…

I didn’t get involved….

I left them to have a quiet moment.

In just over twelve hours, there will be over 500 people registering for their big walk.

And if your surname is M to R this will be the check-in…

Merchandising at the event and we’ll no doubt get plenty of sales after everyone sees the marvellous job that Richard has done with Flora.

This feels like some floral tribute to the God of the roads to ensure that Richard gets us safely to our destination, but it’s actually part of the Flora arrangement (on which more later).

Oops.

The new healthy Richard.

This is Flora and the new lightweight Richard after his diet, which is still an amazing result which has surprised many people….. We’re now here to help at HQ, although I wonder just how much help I’ll actually be. But I’ll take some photos of something.

This riveting blog will now be entirely focused over the next few days on the LDWA 100 which is being held in Norfolk and Suffolk, or, more specifically, Suffolk. Just as a background to the amount of planning that has taken place for this weekend, this is the application that I made to the NEC on behalf of Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA to hold the event, signed all the way back on 20 March 2021. I remember the support given by David Morgan and Alan Warrington and it’s the first time that the event has been held in East Anglia. I wrote about the marshals’ event that was held three weekends ago, on the first Bank Holiday of May, and the whole event seemed a marvellous success which bodes well for this weekend. Anyway, let the excitement begin…..