My June 2017 marathon walk (actually 28 miles, in the end) - with nine of the splendid Mother Nature's Diet group, along part of The Ridgeway - remains one of my proudest achievements. I worked for it with my friend Kim, using the Norfolk Coastal Path for training, gradually increasing distances from 11.5 miles (Winterton to Happisburgh) to 22.8 miles (Wells to Hunstanton).
One of the team on the Ridgeway walk, and on one of our coastal training walks, was my great friend James, who was also responsible for me climbing my first mountains. A casual conversation about marathon distances revealed that James had previously walked the whole of Marriott's Way - a disused railway route in Norfolk which happens to be a marathon distance - but at night, at midsummer, taking in both the sunset and the sunrise and using a head torch.
We wanted to achieve this originally around midsummer day, but the onset of the covid-19 circumstances had messed up our original plans for training. By June 2020 we had got our plans sorted, we were allowed to exercise together, and reckoned that we could fit in enough long walks to do the overnight marathon before the summer was out.
In May I started to do some long solo walks, and in June, James joined me to enjoy a long (15.5 mile) loop around Felthorpe Forest, and we felt we were on our way. Unfortunately, a back injury on my part put a halt to longer walks and I stuck to short routes for the next few weeks. By the time I was back 'in harness', in August, we were running out of summer. However, we managed two excellent long walks in August - 16+ and 18+ miles - and felt we could probably manage the marathon before James (a teacher) returned to school duties.
On 26 August we aimed to train by walking half of Marriott's Way - out and back from the Aylsham end, lunching and turning back at Whitwell, bringing us to an intended walking total that day of about 22 miles.
In fact, it turned out to be a total of 24 miles; and while it was a fabulous day, both of us were hobbling rather by the time we finished. My foot was in some agony for several days afterwards, and by the time it had recovered sufficiently (and I'd got back off a short holiday) we'd missed our pre-term-time slot - and the nights were drawing in.
Annoyingly, we'd walked just two miles short of the marathon distance on that last occasion! However, we know we can do it; and when the summer returns, we'll give it another go. We're determined that 2021 will see our moonlight marathon at last - watch this space!
