In September 2021, we headed to Eastbourne to walk 57km along the south coast. Almost 13 hours later we finished the South Coast Challenge, very tired, decidedly beaten and very frustrated that we'd had to walk the last 5km along the seafront where the good times in bars and restaurants were spilling out on to the pavement as we passed by.
Convinced we could do better, in June 2022 we went to Goodwood for the 50km Race To The King. Again we crossed the finish line but Rosie had done her knee and I was about to start feeling the full effects of sunstroke. I was even concerned we'd have to call it a day at around 40km but painkillers got Rosie through the last few miles, just, so we pushed on.
Quicker, but coming off worse. Not really progress.
With the wedding coming up, we entered the Easter 50 Challenge, figuring a training plan for an April event would stand us is good stead to be in shape for the Big Day in June.
Rosie was having PT sessions, I had a marathon later in April, as well as roughly sticking to a training plan for the walk, so we were hopeful that we would be well prepared to at least finish relatively unscathed. How we felt the day after could wait!
For the two weeks leading up to the event we watched various weather apps like hawks - all forecasting the same: rain, in varying degrees, all day. Which left us with the same questions as pretty much everyone else doing the event - what's the best outfit for the day, the best footwear and how many changes of clothes will we need?
As the day drew closer, we resolved ourselves to getting very wet and very muddy, which meant a full costume change at halfway and a change again at the end for the drive home. But then the forecast started to change and it may be dry for spells. And warm. And that means we might not need full waterproofs, or thermal tops. And that complicated things considerably. Resolved to just carrying everything we needed for the first half, we packed up our bags with the hopeful intent that we could unburden ourselves considerably at the halfway point when we returned to base camp. The walk starts from Windsor racecourse, though not next to the track like with Race To The King which has a similar loop that starts and ends at Goodwood racecourse. Heading out through the local houses it’s not long before we dropped down on to the river path and start following the Thames, and that was where the challenge really started – the heavy rain of the last few weeks had left the ground very muddy with some sizeable puddles. Still with 20+kms until the fresh socks at halfway (Rosie was changing socks at every stop), it was better to go round them than through. We saw one woman wearing wellies and thought we couldn’t walk this distance in those! Only to be extremely jealous as we hit a particularly wet and muddy section and watched her walk straight through middle while we clung on to the railings at the side to get around!
With no sign of the promised rain we continued to dodge the puddles in the hope of keeping our feet mostly dry, although there were a few unavoidable slips into the muddiness. Onward through Runnymede and into Windsor Great Park, I was quite excited to get a view of the castle and the Long Walk. I’ve never been a fan of long stretches that go on for seemingly miles as the scenery barely changes and the horizon takes an age to arrive, and so excitement soon turned to boredom as we endured two of the straightest miles we have ever walked in our life. Although one highlight was seeing the 20km marker on a tree that was in the middle of a small rain-made lake! Kudos to the marshal who put that sign up!
Would we do this event again? Probably not. We love a riverside walk and big open parks but it just felt relentless and quite frankly, a little boring. With the exception of a big climb and the subsequent descent shortly after the first rest stop it's an incredibly flat course which isn't as good as it sounds. The variation offered by hills of all inclines and heights makes a real difference to our mindset and ultimate enjoyment of the event. We mentioned to a couple that we had done a Threshold event (Race to the King) last year and these Ultra Challenge events are by far and away the better organised, better staffed and better catered. We will definitely do another UC event and we’ve got our eye on the Lake District in 2024 (with the wedding and a couple of holidays this year we have zero money left for these events!).
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