50 miler

Last Saturday (June 27th) I reached the 50 mile mark for the first time in my training. Having started off with 15 mile walks/jogs, I have worked my way up to 20, 25, 30, 40 and now 50 miles in a day. Nicky, who is joining me at the end of July for the 3rd day of the challenge, and I set off from Salisbury at 6am and walked/jogged the Clarendon Way to Winchester and back. We made the most of the cool conditions in the morning and covered the first 25 miles in 5 and a half hours. We were slower in the heat on the way back, but were very pleased with our overall time of 11 hours and 45 minutes for the 50 miles.

With 2 weekends of training left, the challenge is getting ever closer. It was great to get a 50 miler under my belt and, apart from bad blisters, my legs felt good at the end of it. The thought of doing another 16 miles on top of the 50 (as I will be doing on the first day), and on more challenging terrain, makes me realise even more how difficult my task is. I'm also hoping that at the end of July it won't be as hot as it has been recently!

Next weekend I'm going to head down to the Purbecks for some hill training and the weekend after that I aim to do 80 miles over the 2 days.