Sometime during 2020 the idea came to me to have some sort of revisit of my 1986 running the Wealdway end to end. I’m certain I don’t have the physical capability and definitely don’t have the inclination to put in the sort of mileage preparation that would be needed to tackle it as a one day attempt, so I worked up a plan to cover the approx. 82 miles over three consecutive days. By undertaking it as a solo attempt with the least possible external support, it still felt like a major challenge to work towards. Put simply, the plan would look like this:
Day 1. Drive to Paddock Wood. Train to Gravesend. Walk to the Wealdway starting point on the river Thames waterfront and then turn round and set off along the route. Day 1 being significantly the longest leg of the 3 day journey south, crossing the hills of the North downs before dropping down to the Medway valley, the aim being to get back to my home in Southborough, which by good fortune lies on the route. A short detour off route back to my house would total approximately 33 miles.
Day 2. From home, rejoin the route and then continue south across the weald and climbing to the highest point on the trail at the top of Ashdown forest, continuing on to conclude the day somewhere beyond Uckfield after a day of about 26 miles. A lift back to my car in PW (thanks Andrew, as always) then a drive home.
Day 3. Drive back to park at the day 2 finish point, and then continue the relentless push south for about 24 miles to face the hills of the South downs and run through some of the tiny hamlets tucked away in the east Sussex countryside, before the final descent down to the finish on the English Channel coast at Eastbourne. A lift back to my car, drive home. Looks easy enough on paper.
I felt that so long as I still fancied the idea by New Year’s day, I’d pretty much commit myself to doing it (injury or illness permitting) and that a general increase in mileage, and specifically individual long training runs would have to start from early January. From a starting point of very few recent runs beyond 8 miles I did a steady 13 miler without trouble but then descended into a malaise that dragged me down by mid-January. Suffering a complete loss of desire to run, I took some of my own advice and only did a couple of gentle jogs over a two week period to wait for the hunger to come back. Today – 30th January – was the first day for over 3 weeks where I felt I’d like to run, so despite the grim weather I managed a gentle 3 miles, which was enjoyable apart from having to deal with a mid-run nosebleed . I’m very conscious that to prepare for 3 very long runs on consecutive days with no real recovery, from my current position is a bit pressured, but at least today I feel again that it’s a challenge I want to have a go at.
I’ll update this “blog within a blog” mini diary here and there over the next few weeks with either progress or lack of progress !!!
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