A strange title for a thread I know, but bear with me and all will become clear.

My boss (more like a buddy- there's only five of us work at our place and hence we're all pretty close), decided he wanted to walk Hadrian's wall (is that well known outside the UK? see here if not: http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/hadrianswall/index.asp?PageId=1), and somehow I ended up agreeing to join him. He asked a lot of folks to join in, but as apathetic as everyone is, there's just three of us doing it.

I figure I need to do plenty of walking between now and then, as walking a fair old distance for four days straight is likely to become painful if I don't prepare for it. I did try one pair of walking boots, but found they were cut too low at the back of the ankle and produced blisters PDQ. They're now going on eBay, and I'm going to invest in some boots that I've heard many good things about instead.

For now, I've got a well-worn in pair of British Army cold weather boots that will do the job the rack up some miles in. At least I find walking easier than running...

Had a day off today to wait for a new cooker - it came nice and early, so got out and racked up a few miles in the frost. First longish walk I've done in some time!

I've never heard of Hadrian's Wall. Wow, it is 84 miles long? Are you guys going to walk the whole thing? Do you do it straight or is their camping overnight?

When do you guys have the walk planned for?

Not until the long Easter weekend, so plenty of time yet.

Ordered my new boots today too.

We're doing twenty odd miles a day for three days, then the last day is shorter. It should be fun!

Do you take any breaks for sleeping? Or do you stay up for 3 days straight???

We'll be sleeping every night. We're planning to walk eight or nine hours a day or so, depending what kind of pace we can keep up and how often we stop for food, etc.

On a related note, whilst looking at the national trails site (The Hadrian's wall walk is one of them), I noted on another of the trail's specific websites, The Pennine Way, that the record time for completing its 268 mile length is under three days! Here's the quote:

"The Pennine Way record is held Mike Hartley, who ran the route in 2 days 17 hours 20 mins and 15 secs, finishing on the 23rd July 1989.

Mike did 2 years of research on the Way and peaked his training at 170 miles per week. He's still running now in his mid 50s (if not quite as fast or as far). He ran without stopping for sleep. In fact, he stopped only twice for 18 mins each time, one time for fish & chips in Alston! The Way took it's toll on his feet - he ran the last 40 miles with a borrowed size 10 shoe on his (ordinarily) size 8 right foot. "

That's some going, especially when you take into account just how rugged the terrain can be in the Pennines.

We're not aiming to set any records along the wall, believe me!

Wow, Mike Hartley is a crazy man! I wonder if anybody has tried to beat his record since 1989 or if everyone thinks that is too crazy of a thing to try and beat!?

That's a great accomplishment for him though!

Wow that's insane. It takes me somewhere around 4 hours to go 20-ish miles on a bike and I'd have a tough time doing that again the next day, let alone more than 2 days.

When I was a teenager there was a year where I played hookey a lot and would spend the entire school day walking around exploring new areas. Sometimes I would take a bus somewhere completely new and just walk around there. I don't believe I ever went more than 10 miles in a day back then, though I was doing it mon-fri.

Tomorrow (for some ridiculous reason), I'm off with my two walking compadres to do a 22 mile walk. This is a kind of test for us, just to see how we'll fare. We're aiming for about eight hours, so at least the pace will be steady - I'm guessing we'll just settle into whatever pace we're all comfortable with as the day goes on without trying very hard.

I admit I'm somewhat inadequately prepared, however, I do have a job where I'm on my feet walking backwards and forwards all day, five days a week, so it shouldn't be too horrendous. The weather is due to be mild, but likely also wet and windy - much like today, in fact.

I've got to be up early in the morning so I can get over to my mate's house, then we're heading to the other bloke's house and walking to the first house from there, if that makes sense. Then the first guy gives us a lift back to the other house, so I can get my car. If it all goes horribly wrong and we get completely knackered, then we have the option of being cissies and calling my mate's wife, who will come and pick us up!

My mate reckons we might be able to shave a few miles off if it's covered on the map properly - I'm in charge of getting the map this afternoon when I go to the outdoor store to get myself a few essential bits and pieces - something waterproof to wear is probably the most important thing here!

I'll let you know how it goes...

I can't wait to hear how the 22 mile walk goes! Good luck with that tomorrow!

Well, I've been to the Outdoor store and spent a small fortune, now all I have to do is get to bed, get up at silly o'clock (about the same time I get up for work - not good on a Sunday!), then get walking.

Well, we went out and ended up doing twenty four and a half miles in eight hours, forty-five minutes. I'm suffering for it now - many, many aches and pains, it has to be said - what I'll feel like in the morning, I don't know.

Worst still are the big blisters on the balls of both feet- I really need to get some socks that wick the moisture away much more efficiently. I honestly have no idea how I'll cope with work tomorrow, they are very painful and I'm having to walk around the house on my heels! Still - you live and learn.

I'm off to bed to get some well-earned kip!

Wow, good job!!! Congrats on walking so many miles! I don't think I could do it!

As a kind of expansion on my last post, here's what I wrote in my blog:

"The walk went reasonably well – if you discount the monstrous blisters on the soles of my feet, just behind my toes.

I have the expected aches and pains, but the blisters are making it very difficult and painful to walk- to make matters worse, because I’m walking funny because of the blisters, I’m setting up all kinds of new aches in places that were just fine before and letting myself into another new world of hurt.

The twenty-two miles, it turns out, was a guesstimate, and not an accurate one. According to my GPS we covered twenty four and a half miles in eight and three quarter hours – the last third of that were done with my feet feeling as though they were on fire. In all honesty, the area of my feet that became blistered was hurting a fair bit after only a few miles – I thought my sock had rucked up, but on inspection, it hadn’t. It wasn’t down to rubbing, as one might usually expect, at least not caused by my boots not fitting properly- there’s very little chafing involved there.

I believe it was caused by my feet sweating, getting damp, the skin softening and then being ‘mashed’ by my sixteen stone at every step until the skin layers separated and created the nice blisters. There’s one about an inch or more across on my left foot, and a slightly smaller one with two even smaller companions on my right foot. Having to walk about (or to be more correct, hobble about) at work all day really isn’t helping matters.

I think I need to do some research into socks. If I can’t find a sock that will really wick away the excess moisture from my feet as I walk, then I’m boned. There’s no way I could do three more days of walking after this (and that’s exactly how many I’ll be needing to do when we walk the wall), in fact I barely finished yesterday’s mileage. I had to dig deep, and I don’t mind admitting it. I was also low on fuel – I ate quite a lot at the beginning of the walk, but my appetite dropped off sharply later- maybe this was down to the stress and pain involved. Carrying liquid calories in the form of Lucozade, Gatorade, or Isostar in the drinks bottles could be a way round this, as could energy bars/chocolate. I said I had to dig deep – my head was swimming a little and my energy was gone – all this on top of the pain.

I’ve now got an even deeper respect for the Royal Marines – one of the battery of final tests they must complete before they receive their green beret is a thirty mile off road yomp over Dartmoor to be completed in under eight hours. They’re carrying a fair bit of weight too. I always knew it must be hard, but now my eyes have really been opened! My hat is off to those guys."