A few weeks ago I received a call from my friend M asking if I fancied walking the Essex Way, which is an 82 mile footpath from Epping to Harwich, to raise money for charity. The idea being to walk it over 4 days and camp each night, meaning around 20 miles needed to be walked each day. Easy, right? Feeling über confident at my walking abilities, I threw myself at the challenge, to which my friend replied with “Cool. You’ll need to get some training in though.” Training? For walking? Mate, please! I’ve been walking since I was two…I’ve got this.
A few weeks on, once we’ve decided on our charity and the logistics of everything, I start receiving progress updates from M. 9.34 miles walked today. Averaging 18minutes per mile. Now 16 minutes per mile. I’m thinking fine, you want to play, I can play that game too. So I download the Map My Walk app. I set him a challenge for the most miles walked in a month. Was I feeling confident I could win? Well, I named it “Bring it B!tch” so I’ll let you read what you want from that.
The 1st of April rolls around, the first day of the challenge, and with the sun shining brightly I throw some bits in my backpack, don my walking boots and set out to start the ball rolling. I’d worked out a little circular route, nothing too big but enough to figure out my current ability level. 4 miles later and I’m averaging about 19 minutes per mile, which isn’t bad but needs work. That’s okay though, I’m feeling good about it. Although I am pretty glad to see my front door. I ask M what he thinks of my pace (it’s quicker than he’d anticipated) and he replies with, “Have you seen mine yet?” The jammy git had only gone and walked to and from work, totalling an 18.5 mile trek! That was it, I was going to walk at least 5 miles a day and show him what I’m made of. A great plan until I wake up the next morning and wonder how the hell my legs have been replaced with chunks of concrete! I know I’m pretty out of shape, but damn was that a snap back to reality! Needless to say my 5 miles a day hasn’t been happening, and it has definitely dawned on me just how much of a challenge this walk is going to be! Which just makes it all the more worthwhile, especially when we have such a great cause to raise money for.
Our chosen charity is AA Dog Rescue based in Latchingdon. This lovely group of staff and volunteers are working to rehome unfortunate and abandoned dogs, many of which are rescued from pounds, and they have endless costs which have to be met. These range from everyday things like food, bedding and toys to those horrible times when medical treatment is needed and a vets bill needs to be paid. Some of their dogs have recently been on the Sky programme “Dogs Might Fly” including the winning dog who actually flew a plane – yeah, that’s right- who goes by the name of Shadow! I visited the rescue centre recently and although I think the staff there are doing a great job, it’s clear that they need all the money they can get so that they can keep making improvements to care as best they can for those poor little pups, including having to sound proof the property to keep the peace with the neighbours! To read more about AA Dog Rescue, please visit their site by clicking on this link.
So if you want to support the fact that I’m going to be walking 20 miles a day whilst carrying a heavy backpack, then camping along the way without a shower or other amenities, just to get up and do it all over again 3 more times, an help to raise some money for this great cause, please visit our gogetfunding page by clicking here.
Thank you in advance for any donations!
LPW xo
Little Pixie Wild 