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50 Mile Walk... How I Spent My Last 24 Hours


Sponge

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Hey, this might seem a tad ostentatious or show-offy, but I really thought it was worth mentioning as I am so proud of myself and those of my fellow yearmates who completed the 50 Mile walk.

My school, Charterhouse (boarding school in Godalming, Surrey) holds a traditional event every summer before breaking up for the AS yeargroup. We get driven down to Brighton where we must walk 50 miles, yes literally! (wel, 56 to be precise) to find our way back to the school's archway. We had a 24 hour time limit to complete it, I finished with a group consisting of two friends and myself in 19 hours, which is an fairly OK time, (of course several groups finished earlier!)

We walked through day and night from 4pm wednesday through the hills and countryside of Brighton moving slowly into Cranleigh, Surrey. Night time was hellacious, I mean walking through the woods seemed taking forever as the terrain and scenery seemed the same for miles and miles and hours and hours. Some of my other friends (girls mainly) were crying, full of blisters and aches, yet not giving up quite yet for a long long time, it just added to the overall anguish of the walk. Many had to pull out because of the ridiculously harsh toll it took on the body... I am so damn glad my parents bought me blister plasters and foam cushioning plasters the weekend before. It was a lot to do with preparation!

The last 15 miles or so were absolute hell. Absolute hell. I have never experienced such pain and agony, both mentally and physically. Had it not been for my two teammates motivating us all to pull through to the end, I may well have not made it. There came a point when we promised ourselves at any cost to complete the walk to make it worth all the pain and suffering we went through. I would have felt terrible to pull out having done half or 3/4 of the walk... I felt that I had to justify going through the anguish, as did the rest of us.

Finally, the walk came to an end, with the three of us running up the last hill through the school archway, arms on eachothers' shoulders. What a way to end a gruesome 24 hours!

So we all received our 50 mile walk school ties and certificates as a symbol of our achievements. It will look very impressive on any CV, and I personally feel that I learnt a lot from this. The mental and physical agony we all went through has probably been the worst we have ever felt yet. I know now that whenever I go through hard times or need to motivate myself to achieve something, I'll think of this walk. If I could beat the walk, then anything is possible. I'll use that as a source of motivation wherever and whenever.

This all being said, I am now totally broken apart. The blisters and acheing legs are bad, but hell.... this killer of a stomach ache and excessive diahorrea is FAAAR worse! :P

One source of motivation for the walk was that my new bike'll finally be completed this weekend. So I can finally ride again after months of no riding! The headset and sprocket came to my house according to my madre, so I'll just have to pray that the chain tensioner comes in the next few days, and I'm done! :)

I do realise that some of you will have done harder things. Such as going to the armed forces or even bigger walks/marathons. But for me, and my yeargroup, this was something special. I'm sure many of you'd know the feeling.

Wow, I need some sleep now. :sleeping:

Edited by Sponge
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I bet you had to sign a whole bunch of forms saying the school weren't responsible for your health.

H&S would go MENTAL on that plan, otherwise.

Sounds really good - well done for finnishing.

I'd've loved to do something like that.

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So we all received our 50 mile walk school ties and certificates as a symbol of our achievements. It will look very impressive on any CV, and I personally feel that I learnt a lot from this. The mental and physical agony we all went through has probably been the worst we have ever felt yet. I know now that whenever I go through hard times or need to motivate myself to achieve something, I'll think of this walk. If I could beat the walk, then anything is possible. I'll use that as a source of motivation wherever and whenever.

why :S

"Aaaaaaa i see youve walked 50 miles in 24 hours, i pressume that makes you more qualified than most, welcome aboard"

?

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why :S

"Aaaaaaa i see youve walked 50 miles in 24 hours, i pressume that makes you more qualified than most, welcome aboard"

?

Maybe he's going to be going into an Industry which requires you to be physically fit.

Edit : Well done though, I couldn't do it! :)

Edited by Hendrix
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For my Duke of Edinburgh Gold I had to do 50 miles, so I wasn't expecting much in this thread. Difference was though, I had 4 days to do it! not 24 hours!

Fair do's thats pretty damn good going :P

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