100km, whether between friends or between one end of an epic adventure and the other, is 62 miles.
It is also the distance of the next challenge I have signed up for!
It is a, “right I am now going to prove I am crazy” 100km challenge.
no. not an ultra marathon. I am not actually certifiable.
well…
not an ultra marathon that I am running anyway.
According to Wikipedia, an ultra marathon is any even where you run or walk longer than 26.2 miles. so I guess technically it is an ultra marathon, but I am not calling it that!
I am calling it my 100km endurance walking epic adventure!
I have with a group of other similarly crazy people signed up to the Grand Union Challenge on the 27th June 2015! It is a 100km (in case you hadn’t guessed the distance) walk which we aim to do in 24 hours. It is a long the towpath of the Grand Union Canal which runs from London to Birmingham, but we don’t go as far as Birmingham, that would be crazy. It is from London to Bletchley where the WW2 code breaking operation was based.
So having no experience really of endurance walking, I am going to have to do a bit of research into how best to train for this, but I am thinking…by doing lots of walking! Same as training for running distances, walk a lot and build up the distance coupled with other cross training to build strength and such!! I also think my half marathon running training will help, and this even more than a half marathon is going to give me incentive to carry on with that!!
It is a very exciting challenge!! I am looking forward to it already, although I suspect after one or two training walks, the enormity of the distance will probably make me more appropriately scared!!
I will be raising money for Keswick mountain Rescue, they are the lovely people who rescued me from the side of a mountain when I fell off it and broke my leg! For the full story of my dramatic mountain dive go here: -dizzy-new-heights
This is a fully voluntary organisation which does some excellent work!
I will keep you posted with training updates and the like, but for now, this is my first 2015 challenge set up already and it is not even 2015 yet!!
Project Warrior Goddess 
What an incredible challenge to take on! I look forward to hearing how it goes. Endurance walking is no joke! You are going to rock this!
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😀 thank you!
I am really looking forward to it and training for it! I suspect it is going to be hard going mind you!!
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Sam, I participated in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer event for 5 years in a row. The event was a 60km walking event (over 2 days). Typically it was approx 33 kms in day one (typical start time was 7:30 am and finish of day one at base camp was around 5:00 pm). Day two was usually ~27 kms – starting around 8:30 am and arriving at the finish line around 3’ish pm. I can tell you that it was a VERY, VERY difficult event, and one that usually left me in a ton of pain, and almost immobile the Monday following. The only way to train for an endurance walk is to do a lot of LONG training walks. in the few weeks leading up to the event, I was doing 3-4 hour training walks at least 3 times a week. And even that doesn’t prepare you for walking over 8 hours, two days in a row.
So that was 60 kms in 2 days. You are talking about 100 kms in one day… So I don’t even know what to make of that… Are you walking all day and all night? I’m not sure how you could fit that many kms into that few hours?? 🙂
Either way, WOW, that is a huge, huge goal. Good luck my crazy sole-sister. 🙂
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It is an all day all night continuous walk which will take approximately 24 hours although you are allowed more, it says most people will finish in 20 – 30 hours!
It is going to talk a lot of long training walks and a lot of practice walking over long periods including night walks!
It is going to be hard work, but hopefully achieveble 🙂
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Anything is achievable when you believe you can!
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😀 thank you! I rhink so too!!
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