Fourth Training Walk completed

Today we set off on our longest Training Walk so far - Stages 3 - 5 of the Trailwalker UK. 30.5km (or 19 miles in old money) which we completed in 5 hours 30 minutes, including a short break for some lunch.

Whilst the weather was a little changeable, yet again we avoided the rain, and whilst extremely wet and slippy underfoot for the 10km, and having to cross a (very) recently ploughed field - with the permission of the farmer I should add - and whilst also having to climb the steepest hill so far at the beginning of Stage 5, we still managed to average just over 16 minute mile pace for the full 19 miles!

One of the joys of walking along the Downs, especially on a clear day, is that when you look back you can very clearly see how far you have gone, and when you look forward it is a little more difficult (thankfully to see how far you have still to walk.

Whilst, I only took a couple of photos on the walk, I was conscious of the fact that one of our kind sponsors jokingly said that from the photos previously posted the walk look "...completely flat!", and whilst he knows that it isn't, when I looked at the photos I could see what he meant.

Whilst the following photos show two of the hills, they don't really give any real feel for how steep they are. The first shows the descent down to the end of Stage 3, looking back from Littleton Farm...

Whilst this second picture is taken two thirds of the way up Rackham Hill. 

At this point we had  already walked about 20km (on on the 16th July will have already walked 40km) before we get to the base of the hill, which is at sea level. So imagine this...

 

You have just walked 12 miles and somebody asks you to climb a hill as high as the Gherkin in London, and then having done so, you have to walk another 50 miles - including climbing an even higher hill (as high as the HSBC building in Canary Wharf, London) at the start of Stage 7.

So, one thing that you can say about this Challenge - and you can say many things - is that is NOT flat!!

However, having got over the climb, we soon got back into our rhythm and built up speed again to ensure that our target time was achieved.

At the end of our walk, with minimal blisters, aches or pains we decided to conduct the first stage of selection procedure for our support crew...but more about that another time.

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