Tag: 2021 LDWA 100

This is the story of my completing the LDWA 100, something which I didn’t actually always think I’d be able to do. Unlike the previous training walks, I’m going to tell this story in a different way, which is just my feelings about each section of the walk. I usually take hundreds of photos during walks, but when walking 100 miles there are different priorities. My friend Nathan also walked with me for the first 60 miles, but these are my experiences rather than his. These posts are more introspective than usual and there will be an index to these ten ‘stories’ on this page.

This section of the walk was one that we thought would be easier than it was, as we’d hoped to be buoyed up by the return to Norwich at the 60-mile mark for a brief rest. I took no photos during this ten mile stretch, partly because it was dark and partly because there were times that I started to think about giving up for the first time.

At the 50 mile KFC stop, we had decided to shift our plans away from walking Wherryman’s Way and instead walking along the quiet roads in the area. We did this as it was simply quicker to walk on road, it wasn’t navigationally challenging and it meant that we had Richard and his support car nearby at all times. And perhaps that was a mistake. Instead of going with our checkpoints every five miles or so where we met our support team, we didn’t have a target over than Norwich. So, it all started to drag. Three miles might not sound far, but it’s still an hour of walking in the dark, and is there any point in doing that?

By 53 miles, I was silently questioning why I was doing this walk. I had gone past my longest ever walk milestone (the 52.5 mile Shotley 50 in 2017) and was reminded that I wasn’t that engaged with walking. The hopes that Nathan and I had that we could inspire each other with our best chat just started to fall away a little. I think it’s fair to say that Nathan was also coming to the same conclusion that he was questioning the point of the walk as well. From what I’ve heard from others, this is not a rare occurrence amongst walkers.

The first night is a dangerous time on the 100 mile event, as it’s when the body wants to be in bed and the end point is some distance off. Actually, it’s a long way off. We slowed a little and I think both separately started to be mentally depleted by this whole challenge, which was worsened by the dual disaster of a broken head-torch and Richard’s car breaking down at the same time. Nathan suggested that perhaps this was just a sign, and actually, I started to think he was right. He actually normally is on quite a few things, but we won’t dwell on that.

I had been told that this was a mental challenge rather than a physical challenge, so I think I lied to both of us by saying we must push on just a bit more and try and see if we could make progress and walk through this. I didn’t much want to continue though, I wanted to go to bed. I was very near to suggesting to Nathan that we abandon the walk, tell everyone that we’d got to 55 miles and could enter next year’s event (which we probably wouldn’t have done) and should spend Sunday in the pub drinking stouts and other decadent beers. We could claim that we had walked a long way, get some praise and then move on, perhaps switching our future endurance events to playing pitch n putt before going drinking.

We stopped for a while and sat in Richard’s car, and full thanks to Liam for getting out of bed at about 01:30 to fix Richard’s car and restore our vision. Liam is, to be honest, incredible. Hopefully he won’t read that, friends don’t need too much praise in life. I felt slightly unwell for a few seconds, and that worried me. I switched to Liam’s more comfortable car and told myself I could have a 15 minute sleep, although I didn’t need it (well, I did, but it didn’t feel like the right time).

The element that dragged me on was that I knew I could get into Norwich, however annoying it was, so I wanted to just see how far I could get. Maybe a miracle would allow me to get into Norwich, sleep, and then carry on. But, I don’t have great willpower, and so if Nathan felt he wanted to stop, I was pretty destined to give up as well. However, between us, we did both manage to get into Norwich, and that’s when Nathan called it a day as his feet were starting to blister. And, in my mind, with Nathan stopping, I told myself I’d try and carry on the next day, but I was prepared to stop.

As for Nathan, I think his walk was incredible. He’s gone from not being involved in long distance walking a year ago to walking further than most members of the LDWA have ever walked, a tremendous 60 miles. There’s a danger that anyone thinks 60 miles is a failure as the walk is 100 miles, but, if we’re being honest, we’d only intended to walk 60 miles a few weeks ago. The extra bit to 100 miles was only ever something of a pipe dream. We told people that, but I’m not sure how much they realised we were seriously looking at only doing 60 miles for a long time.

In the first part of this series of posts about the walk, I mentioned about I was unsure why I was doing the walk. As we reached the home stretch, I was of course disappointed that we wouldn’t both finish the 100. There was the thought that if we could finish the 100, then we could meet other challenges. Not walking related ones, not even health related ones, but any of those random ideas we’ve come up with about projects we could do and run (no pun intended) successfully.

It’s nonsense though, because 60 miles was enough. We’d done that, that was enough evidence we could achieve things, perhaps it just meant we were sensible enough to know when to stop. What it meant though was that if I wanted to go on the next day, I’d have to do it alone. As I went to bed that night (for all of an hour) I was already writing the blog posts in my mind of why I’d quit. I knew some people would be disappointed, not that I hadn’t finished, but they’d be disappointed for me. Fortunately, I fell asleep quickly, without pondering this whole thing too much.

This is the story of my completing the LDWA 100, something which I didn’t actually always think I’d be able to do. Unlike the previous training walks, I’m going to tell this story in a different way, which is just my feelings about each section of the walk. I usually take hundreds of photos during walks, but when walking 100 miles there are different priorities. My friend Nathan also walked with me for the first 60 miles, but these are my experiences rather than his. These posts are more introspective than usual and there will be an index to these ten ‘stories’ on this page.

This section of the walk took us from Loddon along the Wherryman’s Way by the River Yare and then into a point just short of Rockland St. Mary. Chelle and Paul had left us at Loddon, but we had the surprise of Rob (another successful LDWA 100 completer) joining us for a big chunk of this section of the walk.

The quiet and still river at sunset.

The not so quiet Cantley Sugar Factory, reminding me slightly of seeing Las Vegas in an otherwise dark Nevada sky (you have to use your imagination for that a bit, but it does dominate the local Norfolk countryside with its bright lights).

Not a great photo, but this was the KFC treat at 60 miles, which Richard had kindly rushed to us from Norwich. He was in charge of the support car for this section, and again, I must say how much we appreciated his help. There’s another tip here, which is ensure that you get some of the food treats that you want, whether that’s something sensible like KFC or even something perhaps just a little less sensible such as fruit. Whatever it is, it’s another little target to look forwards to.

I felt this stretch of the walk went better than we had anticipated, as we had expected the walk into Norwich between 50 and 60 miles to feel easier than this section. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be, but it meant that at 50 miles things seemed pretty much at ease. We had gotten used to walking at night, frightened only once by a pack of hungry yelping wolves (or a solitary muntjac deer, they sound similar) and from them on Rob had helped to distract us with conversation. I also feared for a moment that I was breaking out into a sweat, but it seemed to be more the condensation of the evening. We might have recognised that if we’d done more night walking, but that’s a bit of an effort to organise and it usually seems a much better idea to go to the pub.

Richard had set up the tables and chairs at 55 miles for us to have a stop and sit down at Hardley Staithe, and I had another of my slightly decadent teas to pass the time. I wasn’t particularly hungry at this stage, but carefully made an effort to eat a few things to ensure that I had enough salt, sugar and other essential nutrients.

That I don’t have much to write about my feelings during this stretch tell their own story, I think we had gotten into a rhythm of walking, buoyed up that we were some way ahead of schedule and were in as good as a shape physically as we could have hoped for. We also decided that we’d amend our route from 50 miles onwards, which was to go off Wherryman’s Way and to walk along the road. I think we felt that this was a chance to make our lives as easy as possible to get into Norwich. But, the next section was to prove to be more testing. Quite a bit more testing.

This is the story of my completing the LDWA 100, something which I didn’t actually always think I’d be able to do. Unlike the previous training walks, I’m going to tell this story in a different way, which is just my feelings about each section of the walk. I usually take hundreds of photos during walks, but when walking 100 miles there are different priorities. My friend Nathan also walked with me for the first 60 miles, but these are my experiences rather than his. These posts are more introspective than usual and there will be an index to these ten ‘stories’ on this page.

This 31 to 40 mile section was all on the Wherryman’s Way, taking us from just past Berney Arms, onto the Reedham ferry and then into the town of Loddon.

I can’t recall what I said to the sheep that upset them……

We were pleased that the river bank was cut back and easy to walk on, this was a real problem for us last year on the first occasion that we walked along Wherryman’s Way. It was also positive to see a new stretch of the long distance trail had been opened up at Reedham, meaning that there’s no requirement to walk alongside a busy road down into Reedham ferry.

Back to my thoughts during this stretch though. The section to Berney Arms had dragged a little bit, but this meant that the walk into Reedham was slightly shorter than I had anticipated given I’d gotten muddled up about distances. Reedham was always a bit of a high point, as it meant we got to go on Reedham Ferry (the only way to continue on the long distance path) and also got to enjoy a little BBQ kindly laid on by Liam.

With this entire walk, we had split it into two distinct chunks, the first stretch which was 60 miles from Lowestoft to Norwich, and then the second stretch which was 40 miles from Norwich towards Aylsham. I had the treat of a one hour sleep between these two stretches to look forwards to, which was hardly ideal, but was still something of a treat to think about. This meant that reaching 40 miles was effectively two thirds of the way through the first day’s walking (we had decided we’d call the first 60 miles as day one, and the second 40 miles as day two), and that was a useful mini target. For anyone thinking of walking this distance, it’s essential to have these mini targets and to chalk them up as small victories.

A mistake we’d made was not putting more food into our bags for the stretch into Reedham. Having support cars meant that we didn’t have to carry 48 hours worth of food, but I felt that I only needed a chicken bake and a Scotch egg for that section, and ultimately I felt I could have done with more. I’d say looking back now though that I was pleased with how much water I was drinking, and I ensured I always had enough throughout the walk. I was always hydrated and this is another key element of making the walk achievable, which is drinking water even when the body might not think that it needs it. For that matter, it’s important also to eat enough, to deal with the calorie burn and to keep the body sustained.

We timed the Reedham ferry perfectly (although it’s hard to time it badly, the longest wait possible is probably about four minutes) and Liam had set up the BBQ in the car park opposite. This provided us with our first proper sit down and Richard had kindly ensured that he had brought some garden chairs for us to sit on, indeed, some of his best quality ones. I’m not sure that we were hugely hungry, but the sausages, burgers and chicken were all very welcome and I had one of my slightly decadent peppermint teas.

We were met by Chelle (who is a proper 100 walker, there’s little that she doesn’t know about long distance walking) and Paul (another experienced 100 walker) who walked with us into Loddon. That marked the 40 mile stage, which meant it was time for the ten-mile checking of feet and reapplication of Sudocrem. I had feared that I might have had a blister forming, but that was just in my imagination, and I was starting to get confident that my footcare strategy was working. This is something I really haven’t given enough thought about before, often not being fully prepared, and it’s absolutely essential to get this right for something like the 100.

I was quite hopeful at this stage, as we had been refreshed by the BBQ and Richard had kindly bought half of the Co-op to ensure that we had enough food and drink for the night-time sections. All we had to do was to get to 50 miles, and then walk the final stretch into Norwich. For the first time I started to worry though about the night-time section, this wasn’t something we’d done much of and there were some navigationally challenging moments ahead.

I’d say that I left the 40 mile mark confident, but slightly nervous of how the next 20 miles would unfold.

This is the story of my completing the LDWA 100, something which I didn’t actually always think I’d be able to do. Unlike the previous training walks, I’m going to tell this story in a different way, which is just my feelings about each section of the walk. I usually take hundreds of photos during walks, but when walking 100 miles there are different priorities. My friend Nathan also walked with me for the first 60 miles, but these are my experiences rather than his. These posts are more introspective than usual and there will be an index to these ten ‘stories’ on this page.

Preparations at Breydon Water for the drone flying, which unfortunately didn’t quite work out due to the strong winds. But it was worth a try and at least Richard got his drone back safely.

The bird hide on Wherryman’s Way that I’ve walked by many times and never gone in. I popped in to have a look this time, which probably explains the relatively steep ascent on this section of the route.

I’m not sure that the younger members of the support team really comprehended my bravery despite my telling them several times.

But, back to the walking. The stretch between 21 and 30 miles took us from the Outer Harbour in Great Yarmouth to Great Yarmouth Minster and the neighbouring cemetery area, before then leading us onto the Wherryman’s Way.

It was quite a boost to get onto the Wherryman’s Way, which was at about 24 miles into the route, as this was the walk back home to Norwich and it’s a path that we’ve completed before. The first stretch is easy to navigate and we were looking forwards to seeing Richard and Liam for the drone flying section, all a little bit of a boost. The temperature conditions were perfect, a slight breeze and not too much sun, as this is an area where it wouldn’t be hard to get sun burnt and I didn’t want that to add to my list of worries.

It was at about the 28 mile mark that I started to become a little disappointed, as Berney Arms was further down the route than I had remembered. It didn’t much matter, as the distances were the same, but I just wasn’t quite at the location I thought that I was. However, I was buoyed somewhat by knowing that we were about to hit 30% of the distance and that we could have a decent sit down at Berney Arms with our food.

As for my thoughts during this stage, I remained upbeat because I wasn’t injured or hurting, and that meant confidence that I could at least keep going for some time yet. But the enormity of the whole walk started to hang a little at around the 28 mile mark, despite all the mental thoughts I had worked on about remembering that this was just a series of short walks and not to think about the big picture. I’m not sure that I had much time to think about the big picture for this stretch, as conversation took over and proved to be a useful distraction.

Despite my comments earlier about liking cities, pubs and beer gardens, there was still something quite special about the peace and quiet of this path. We saw nearly no-one (other than for a party of five sitting having a picnic on a little bit of sand, and I admire how far they had carried their things with them to get there) along the path and the river was still and quiet, with the Norfolk big skies up above us. This stretch is perhaps one of the most beautiful on the walk and the reason that I’ve completed Wherryman’s Way twice before and still come back for more.

This is the story of my completing the LDWA 100, something which I didn’t actually always think I’d be able to do. Unlike the previous training walks, I’m going to tell this story in a different way, which is just my feelings about each section of the walk. I usually take hundreds of photos during walks, but when walking 100 miles there are different priorities. My friend Nathan also walked with me for the first 60 miles, but these are my experiences rather than his. These posts are more introspective than usual and there will be an index to these ten ‘stories’ on this page.

The section of the walk between 11 and 20 miles was from Great Yarmouth Greggs up to Caister and then back down again, although we went further south in the town and nearly reached the Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour. This wasn’t our intended route, we had planned to go a little further north to Scratby, but we decided against traipsing on too much sand, so we spent more time in Caister and made the lost mileage up in Great Yarmouth.

There was just a little rain as we came back down into Great Yarmouth, although apparently the situation was rather more moist in Norwich. I wasn’t worried too much about the weather as I couldn’t control it and I had all of the possible clothing options that I might need. It did occur to me that I could use the weather as an excuse if I didn’t finish though…..

I remember taking this photo thinking that we could have just spent the day in Great Yarmouth meandering down the seafront, whilst visiting a few pubs along the way instead of walking back out of the town at a storming pace en route to a destination much further ahead. But, after telling myself that quietly, I also knew that we were still in good shape physically and ahead of schedule. Completing 20% of the walk without incident was a real positive and we were just a few miles from starting off on Wherryman’s Way which was an important section of our route.

Great Yarmouth had been quiet when we left it going up towards Caister, but it was much busier by the time we reappeared there as holiday makers and locals were taking advantage of the retail options that the town provides. I’ve always quite liked Great Yarmouth and although I admit it isn’t quite Las Vegas, there’s still something that excites many children about a visit to the jewel of Norfolk’s coast (or whatever the local tourist authority call it).

I mentioned that these posts were more introspective, but on this stretch I had mostly (but not entirely) stopped questioning the why was I doing this and thinking of the strategies that we needed to follow to be able to complete the walk. That involved checking my feet every ten miles and carefully applying lots of Sudocrem to them, a tactic that I consider to have been enormously useful. Seal Skinz socks also helped me, so I felt comfortable which is essential at this stage of a long walk.

It also put into perspective the 18 mile challenge walks that the LDWA put on, as we had already completed that distance by the time we came back down into Great Yarmouth. I’m a big fan of these LDWA events for those who want to dip their toes into challenge events, as they’re supported with food and drink, marshals and they’re very achievable. Richard was in the support car for this section and we were most grateful to him for his help, especially as he had managed to have had some quite exciting dramas that morning.