I went for a short walk on Thursday in preparation for The Big Walk, a charity event due on 22 June. This was essentially a dress rehearsal or 'walk simulation' as it might be dubbed, and I set off along Rivelin Valley away from the city.
After an hour I was already starting to feel tired, I was pouring with sweat and it occurred to me that there was no way I was going to make the distance I intended, that of 24km (15miles). At the ninety minute mark I sat down for the only time during the walk, this was a break of 2 minutes at the top of Wyoming Brook where I took off my Camelbak and my t-shirt (to give it some air...) and ate a banana. I put everything back on and continued with my march and within 10 minutes the banana, a fruit that I'm not particularly keen on, had taken effect and I felt reinvigorated. I suspect the glasses of wine the night before, and the single Weetabix covered in natural yoghurt and honey I'd had for breakfast, weren't the ideal training diet. I ate an energy bar as I carried on and picked up the pace toward Stanage Pole.
My feet had been feeling sore since about the hour mark, but as I approached 2 hours in it was obvious that what I thought earlier were potentially walk-ending blisters were nothing more than just general foot heat. This heat was somewhat surprising as walking isn't new to me. There was quite a bit of interesting wildlife, I saw the head of some strange creature that I assumed was a type of fancy chicken until the whole body appeared, I checked later and it turned out to be a lapwing.
It was quite windy approaching the pole and there was what looked like horizontal rain blowing across in front of me. This was dust from dry weather on the moors and from where one of the Redmires tree plantations had been chopped down.
Walking along Stanage Edge it was very windy, quite a few walkers were wrapped up like it was midwinter, but as they'd walked up from being parked on the road they weren't keeping warm from the fire generated by calorie burning - they looked at me as though I was mad for wearing a t-shirt and shorts. There were a few climbers up there and one person painting a watercolour of the valley below, their canvas was well held to their easel by numerous points and was weighted down. There was little to see due to the dust but the painter had probably been there from before the visibility had gone, they certainly had a more detailed image than was currently available, maybe they were painting from memory.
I clambered around Cowper Stone and dropped down and made my way to Burbage Bridge. At this point I didn't fancy the road and a walk to Ringinglow so I turned and retraced my steps to Redmires and then back to Crosspool along the road. The walk came to 30.1km in total (18.6 miles) and for the last couple of km I was definitely feeling as though I'd done a bit of exercise. I thought it was a decent test and have a good idea of where to tweak my footwear, clothing and what I take with me in the bag (no camera next time, too bulky, too heavy, no point), so next time out I'll see what differences those changes make.
This is what it's for -
In the heart of the dust storm stands a muppet headed man
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