And so, at 2.15pm today we finally completed all of the 11 stages of the Trailwalker UK route!
Now when I say "...completed all", I don't mean that we completed them all "today". In fact we completed stages 7 - 10 inclusive. 30.5km in 6hrs 15mins.
We started off just before 8am at the Devil's Dyke pub...
...before traversing the Devil's Dyke itself, a huge valley cut into the downs...
...Before climbing the hill past Pyecombe Golf Club...
...on up passed the Jack & Jill Windmills...
...and over the hills and (relatively) far away.
Once again, in the manner of the sun shining on the righteous, we had great weather! Not too hot, not too cold and most importantly no rain!
Having completed the walk, and with the overall distance still only being a little shy of a third of the length of the overall challenge, I can report that these four stages were too bad. Not too bad that is if you didn't have to walk 40 miles to get to the start of them, and not too bad if you didn't have to walk them in total darkness. Which we didn't! But...which we will have to on 16th July.
The prize for the worst hill on this section of the walk goes to...Castle Hill, just after Checkpoint 9, at Kingston near Lewes. Very steep!
And then just before 2pm Brighton Racecourse came into view and 15 minutes later we saw the sight that we will all want to see on 17th July...
...the FINISH LINE!!!
It has taken us 5 team training walks to complete all over the stages of the course, although we did repeat Stages 3 & 4 on our fourth walk.
So far we have completed 117.6km in 22hrs and 15mins - so far maintaining an 18 hour completion pace - but on current form, our ability to keep that going as we increase our distances above 20 miles, remains in doubt!
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Not only have we completed 117.km in 22hrs and 15mins we have also climbed 12,574ft - slightly more than snowdon (3,560ft) and ben nevis (4,409ft) combined!!
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