Thames Path Challenge 2014

A bright crisp Saturday morning, and thousands of nutters are descending onto a small park just north of Putney Bridge, the reason..........they have all given up their weekend to walk, run or jog for charity.  Walking on behalf of the Alzheimers Society, in a moment of weakness I had signed up for the 100km (approximately 80km further than I had walked previously in any one go!).  In the months leading up to the event I had managed to build up my walking to 40km in one go (although never made it home without a lift - due to time not fatigue!), but this was a completely different scale!

We set off into the sunshine at 7:20 in the morning after the worlds most expensive taxi ride from Wandsworth to Putney Bridge (we must have been wearing our 'mug' look!).  The walk was going to take in some of the sights of London - obviously the Thames, but Kew Gardens, Hampton Court, Staines (ok might be stretch this a little now), Runnymede, & finally Henley-On-Thames (very steep High Street here!).  ALl this doe mean that people looking to sell their houses in Henley-On-Thames can say they are within walking distance of central London!

The Relief

The Anticipation

So what were the highs (& lows).  The biggest high was rounding the last corner to see the finish & a well deserved drink/sit down!  Although somewhat of an anticlimax as we were finishing at around 2am in the pitch dark so there was hardly anyone around, we had not really seen another walk for the best part of 2-3 hours at this time.  For the previous half hour the finish line had been in sight, but the menaders of the river had kept it just out of reach!  By far the lowest low was around 77km when ever part of the body ached, the blister on the feet we starting to appear, and sitting down was not an option!  Once sitting there was no chance of getting back up.  There was also the moment I walked into an electric fence in the dark to avoid climbing over a stile - that will serve me right!

The Reward

 Over the course of 100km (yes I know it only says 99.83km!!!) you rack up a fair few stats but the main one was 18hrs 58 mins 21secs of walking time in a 22 hour period is not bad going

What next?  Well that was almost a year ago now so time to start thinking about the next stupid thing to do!!