doof.me.uk

It may come as a surprise to some but this is my fortieth year. I told a whole bunch of people that to celebrate it I was going to challenge myself to walk forty miles in one day. So far my longest outing had been just shy of 34 miles. I had meant to slowly build up to it, maybe adding one mile a month, but due to the hot summer and some other things I was dealing with I completely flunked the training regime. But I decided to have a bash at it anyway, having found a reasonable looking route from Colchester to Saffron Walden via Braintree.

I woke up at some ungodly hour and set off before sunrise.

Here’s a top tip: if you measure a 40 mile distance on Google Maps using rough straight lines, the actual distance is going to be a lot longer. By the time I got to Braintree I was already two hours behind schedule and I’d only just passed 35 miles when the sun set in sight of Stansted airport.

Now I could probably have bailed out at this point but I was feeling quite energised and I’d brought a flashlight and a head torch so I just powered on and blasted through the 40 mile mark.

After about 45 miles I’d had enough. Everything was painful and I staggered the last few miles to the station in Newport (Essex) just short of my original goal. Total time was just over sixteen and a half hours with a brief break for lunch. The fiftieth birthday challenge seems doable now though, eh?