Walking marathon challenge

[karen]

This is how many steps I took yesterday walking 50km!

At the start of the year my friend and I challenged ourselves to walk the 100km Race to the Stones ultra marathon this weekend. I tried my hardest with training but at times really struggled… and it paid off.. well, sort of!
We cleared 23km yesterday in 4 hours and felt pretty good.
Disaster struck at about 28km when I started to get blisters. Throughout my training I’d had one blister which hadn’t hurt, I’d done the right prep with foot care and the right socks, Vaseline on my feet and so on. And yet my feet turned into what felt like (and actually isn’t far off!) 1 giant blister.
On uneven and often stony terrain this meant I adjusted how I was walking and soon enough the rest of me began to hurt through compensating. By 35km I knew I was done. I was absolutely heartbroken to have put so much of my life into training over the last 7 months and to be really pushing myself and knowing it wasn’t enough.
An emergency text to my poor parents asking if they could come and retrieve me and I set off with some sort of grim determination to at least get day 1 complete. That last 15km took me not far off 5 hours. At just after 9pm having set off at 8.30am, I crossed the finish line. What a relief!

As an event it was superbly well run, and having woken up this morning, if I could get my feet into my boots I would be driving back up there to have a crack at day 2. I am so gutted as although I’m a little sore (actually, to be fair my right knee is quite impressively swollen despite not really hurting) it’s the state of my feet which means I’m not even at the starting line.
My 2 friends are cracking on so I’m going to see them over the finish line later hopefully- I’m so proud of them!

I have at least raised over £500 for a lovely little charity who supports bereaved children from military families. I’m hoping people won’t want their donations back though given I haven’t managed to complete what I set out to do

Looking at results this Morning, the ultra runners completed the whole thing over night in around 9 hours- fastest time was 8 hours something- that’s frightening!
I wasn’t the last person over the line so I’m comforting myself with that, although as I wasn’t in the last wave of people to set off it doesn’t necessarily mean I wasn’t the slowest!

Just thought I’d share as I’ve never done something like this before

[bella]

I know you didn’t achieve what you hoped for, but I have nothing but admiration for you.
So sorry about your poor feet and the rest of your body. I hope you recover quickly.
I am sure your supporters will still donate.

[amy]

That is an amazing achievement and you should be very proud of yourself for having the determination to do it in the first place. Well done. If you do want to do something like that again the army guys I knew used duct tape on their feet and then thick wool socks on top to stop blisters. I wonder if vet wrap would work. The other thing they did was wear pure silk socks next to the skin and then a second pair on top.

[janey]

Well done, that’s an incredible achievement.

Before you reach for the duct tape and vet wrap, just buy those ridiculously expensive blister plasters. They are for avoidance rather than treatment so put them on any area where you might expect to get a blister, or as soon as you feel that suspicious warmth. Don’t try to take them off. The plaster becomes a second skin so you just have to let it fall off naturally.

[dawn]

That’s an amazing achievement – well done! you did so well to get this far and finish the first day

[Emma]

That sounds like a valiant attempt!
I hope your blisters and everything else make a speedy recovery. Well done!

[scats]

Well done…great achievement!

If you carry on training…when my trail shoes were rubbing, I tried wearing those ankle length tights things that you wear with trousers under my socks. It really helped to stop the friction. As others have said, pre-emptive plasters can help, although I tend to sweat them off!