A couple of weekends ago I did the 26.5 mile “Walk The Wight” across the Isle Of Wight from Bembridge in the East to the Needles in the west. As I’ve entered my first marathon next year (the Brighton Marathon), I thought it would be interesting to see how covering 26 miles on foot would feel… I guess I was hoping it was going to be relatively easy and would set me up for my marathon training come the winter. However I found it a lot harder than I was expecting, and I was surprised how much will-power was involved in keeping me going towards the end!
I found it hard for a number of reasons:
- I’m relatively fit, and a regular runner, but as I spend the majority of my day sitting at a desk (writing computer code)so being on my feet for 10 hours without sitting down once was really tough.
- Blisters… ouch – by about 20 miles my feet were in real pain. I had three blisters on one foot and two on the other.
- The route itself was very hilly and the last 4.5 miles were all uphill into the wind, which along with the blisters added to the hard work.
- Nutrition – although we had lots of food and drink with us, because it was only at walking pace, I don’t think I realised how much energy I was using. I finished the walk with lots of supplies left, but totally out of energy!
Definitely some lessons to be learnt, but despite this I had a fantastic day. The weather was very kind to us, the scenery was beautiful and there was a really enjoyable atmosphere about the whole event. I plan to do it again next year…
Will it help with my marathon training? I think so. I’ve spoken to a number of marathon runners and they’ve all said it’s a very different experience (which I guess is kind of obvious), but I like to think that because I found the walk quite a challenge (which I successfully completed), it will help fortify my will-power!
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