I can’t remember when exactly we signed up for this but it seemed like a good idea at the time because it seemed like it would get us out of the house doing some miles. We signed up as Team Double Dopey and because we had no idea how I would be, the plan was always for Kath to do most of the miles and I would contribute what I could. To cover the full trek distance of 234km we would need to do just short of 10km a day each over 12 days. That actually didn’t sound too bad! At the start I had grand ideas about doing lots of run/walk but I soon realised that I was once again expecting too much of myself and that I really needed to remember that I have been quite poorly and that really not that long ago walking 1km was pretty much impossible. So a reigned myself in and settled into the idea that walking was a good thing!

Today we completed the challenge with a whole day to spare and in fact we also sat Friday out and didn’t add to our total then because we were both really tired and heavy legged. In the end I did almost half of our team effort with 113.8km and Kath did 122km exactly. Mostly I walked. Here’s how my challenge went:

1. A shortish local walk ‘inspecting’ other people’s Christmas lights started us off on 10th December
2. A shorter than planned run because of the now infamous bra malfunction on the 11th
3. Another evening walk, more inspecting of Christmas lights again on the 11th
4. A slightly longer distance (4.4 miles) of which the first 3 miles were run/walk on the 12th
5. The 13th saw us walk 6.75 miles in the cold and wet and dry and warm feet have never felt so good
6. On the 14th I just walked a short loop because my feet were sore
7. On the 15th I went to Bolton Abbey and walked a stunning sunny loop of 7.6 miles
8. I added another couple of miles to that with a short out and back walk in the evening
9. On the 16th I combined a post office stop with a canal walk home adding another 5km to the total
10. On the 17th I stopped at the post office again and looped home the other way round drawing Zero from A Nightmare before Christmas in the process (sort of)
11. I’d just got back home when Kath finished work so we walked up to say hi to the grouse – they were grumpy of course
12. On the 18th we rested and on the 19th we walked to Ilkley to the bookshop and back
13. And later that day walked a loop with multiple errand stops
14. Yesterday we walked 6.74 miles mostly in the sun
15. And today, well we walked at dawn – out and back just over 5km
16. And then we finished with a run/walk on a similar out and back route for our Solstice Saunter at dusk

It was lovely to finish the challenge with a run/walk and I found the 30 second run intervals much easier than I had the last time I tried them so walking most days has helped. The challenge also meant that I went out much more than I might have done otherwise – particularly on those rainy grey days. It’s been great all round really – in spite of sore feet at times.