Well this was meant to be the "2nd half" of our attempt at completing 100km within a 30 hour time period - whilst still taking an 11 hour break in the middle.
The aim of the plan, was largely to give us a psychological boost for the "Challenge" itself, on the basis that if we could complete 100km on the flat(ish) Downs Link within a 30 hour period, AND having a normal night's sleep within that time also, then when we had to do it for real on the South Downs, we would be more mentally prepared for it.
That was the plan...but the plan, well us actually, didn't succeed!
Given that we had decided to time our walk so that we could sleep normally meant that our planned available walking time, within the 30 hours available, was reduced to 20.
The plan was for us to walk for 10 hours, rest for 10 hours, and then walk for a further 10 hours. Therefore to achieve out target walking time of 100km in 20 hours, we had to achieve an average speed of 5km, or 3.1 miles, an hour!
As it turned out, speed wasn't actually the problem, injuries were. Even with the injuries whilst we were walking we managed to achieve the desired speed, we just couldn't keep going long enough.
As reported yesterday, we had to stop at 9pm, (rather than the planned 10pm) as thunder and lightning approached, after we had completed 28 miles of our planned 31. So we finished an hour early. We were also suffering with blisters, some of which were large and painful.
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| 8:30am 30 April 2011 - Still looking happy(ish) |
The plan this morning was to start at 8am, if we were able. As it turned out we were slightly late, but still managed to get away by 8.30.
Today's walk was from Southwater to Shoreham and (theoretically) back. A distance of 31 miles.
Progress was relatively good, albeit painful. I for one, was not wearing appropriate footwear, wearing training shoes instead of walking boots (as I still haven't broken my boots in) and thought that trainers would be fine on the flat Downs Link.
However, the soles were inadequate. Too worn, or too thin in parts, making the walk increasing painful on the walk to Shoreham.
"Our soles!", I occasionally shouted, (or something that sounded like that) "...are not good enough for this walk!"
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| 8:56am - Copsale |
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| 9:08am |
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| 9:25am - West Grinstead |
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| 9:25am - West Grinstead - 4.7km |
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| 10:31am - 10.5km (Still on over 5km per hour pace) |
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| Shoreham in Sight |
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| The End (although it should only have been three quarters of the way through!) |
Whilst walking, we managed to get used to walking through the pain, but whenever we stopped, to start walking again felt for the first 20 paces or so like walking on broken glass, until once again we got used to the pain. (Watch out for future post entitled "Pain doesn't actually exist"!)
Despite the above, we managed to get to Shoreham, where again met up with Teresa & Charlotte who had brought us lunch again.
Whilst we wanted to complete our "plan" and walk back to Southwater it would not have been sensible, especially as this was only a training walk, and it would have been stupid to risk damaging our feet more seriously.
So our sixth training walk ended at 1:50pm today, Sunday 30th April 2011. Almost 26 hours after we had started, having walked for 44 miles in that time. Theoretically we had a further four and a quarter hours left of our challenge, in which we would have had to have walked a further 18 miles, which even at 3.5 miles per hour wouldn't have been quite enough.
However, we obviously learnt a lot (see future post for lessons learnt) and we had also taken an 11 and a half hour break, within the overall 30 hour period.
So we are not undaunted, we were just not as prepared as we should have been with our equipment, specifically in the amount of fluid carried/drunk, or some of our footwear.
However, as long as we have recovered fully, we will try the challenge again at the end of May, hopefully with more positive results.
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