Marathon!

Trailwalker Training Walk 12 - South Downs Marathon 11/05/08 with lots of us - see below - 26.5 miles from South Harting and back. Av speed 2.95 mph. Total vertical ascent 4298ft

We did a marathon on Saturday! 8 of us started and 8 of us finished. But that's just the start of the story... It was supposed to be just another training walk on the way to the Trailwalker, but it turned into a watershed I fear for a number of people.

It all started so well. It was a 26.5 mile walk organised by the Sussex Long Distance Walkers Association and covered part of the South Downs way that will form part of the route in July. It was however, an absolutely scorching day, no clouds or breeze all day, and one that probably rose to about the high 20s or low 30s in the heat of the day. It was not ideal for exerting oneself in the sun for 8-10 hours!

We all met up on time, except Colin McPhail, typically the person who lived nearest arrived just after the 9am start time, so the group, consisting of myself, Jo and Sasha from Al's Angels (Katie was at Windsor doing important horse things!), Lucy, Laurence, Claire, Colin Johnson (Jo's friend and also BDO) and Colin McPhail, a contact of mine who is always up for a challenge, finally set off in bright sunshine from South Harting Village Hall 10 minutes or so later.

The first thing we had to deal with was two huge hills, the first called Tower Hill and the second called Beacon Hill (see pic, which doesn't do it justice). The latter was one of those hills that one can see from a long way away, just looming up infront of you. It was so steep that in many places steps had been formed in the chalk to help people climb up. Even by this point, only 4km into the walk, it already looked like there were likely to be two natural groups forming, given the speed we were all walking. In the front group were me, Sasha, Laurence and Colin McPhail. The others formed the second group.

Did I mention yet how damn hot it was? It really was very very hot! After the event I also noticed that our total vertical climb was only 111ft shy of the height of Ben Nevis! It certainly felt that way at times for sure.

The front group made it to the first manned checkpoint, (the "2" icon in the North East corner of the map) in reasonable time, only to get a call from the second group that they were lost and had overshot the turning to take them down the hillside. After about a 20 minute wait, they arrived safe and sound fortunately.

After a climb back up the steep side of the South Downs, we headed SSW on more forgiving slopes until we arrived at CP3 and the sweeping views you can see in the video clip. Whilst it was very beautiful, and finally we had a little wind, we had now covered some 22km in to the walk, so aside from a 10 minute break to change socks and get open our lunch we never really got to take in the beauty of our location. By now we were in the heat of the day, but we managed to keep up a pretty respectable 5.5-6km/h pace, and even jogged a few of the gentle downhill parts.

As we got past about 3pm the heat got a little cooler, and eventually we finished in 9 hours but it was a long day in the sun. Over the course I hasd my first taste of "Fat fingers" caused by all the blood congregating in my hands due to the hours of swinging. The capilliary action of the blood vessels isn't enough to get it all back up the arms again so it swells in the hand instead! You probably can't tell from the photo just how chubby they became!

I later also found a couple of blisters on the insides of my heels, but nothing too much, certainly not enough to stop me walking on. I must learn to dry my feet better though as if anything is going to stop me, it'll be feet I think at the moment. They did get very hot and wet. Sasha and Colin both finished strongly, running the last 3 or 4 miles. I stuck with them for about 1/2 a mile but I'm not built for speed (then again nor is Colin!) so I let them get on with it. I managed to get lost as I'd given my directions to the runners, but sorted myself out and eventually finished with Laurence who had caught up whilst I was lost. The other team came in about an hour later, Jo in particular looked absolutely shattered. I think for the members of the second group, and possibly also for Laurence, this walk had made them reconsider whether they could do twice the length, and then some. For me it's made me realise that I need to do more training. Lots more! We've decided to have a get together of all entrants on Friday to see how everyone feels, and I think we will have some drop outs. We shall see.