One Step at a Time

50 miles walking, in less than 22 hours, in February? Why not?! I roped in a friend who is a ‘say yes’ kinda girl and with two preparation walks under our belt; one involving a brunch stop, the other involving a pit stop for a cocktail, we were all set!

The daytime walking was perfect. Norfolk was at its best under big, blue skies, a lovely temperature, a hint of sunshine and some great views along the coastal path. After dark we had rain, mud and a shingle beach and my poor friend had nasty blisters. Ouch! 

In the darkness, we ended up mostly walking with a lovely group of seasoned and experienced walkers from around the Birmingham area. They were walking this 50 mile route so that a member of their team could qualify for the Speyside 100, an event in May challenging folk to walk (or run) 100 miles in less than 48 hours near the Cairngorms in Scotland. As people were chatting about this near the start of the walk, we were quite intrigued to look into it. By mile 40, we’d changed our minds. 50 would be more than enough for us.

It was a really well run event with kind folk serving us hot drinks and food at the village hall checkpoints along the way. The camaraderie is my overriding memory of the event. That and the beautiful feeling of finally getting in my bed at 4.30am after 19 hours of walking. Bliss.