Along with a couple of hundred other people, I did the Coventry Way yesterday.
It’s a 42 mile walk / run around the circumference of Coventry, you choose which method you want to do.
I walked with my friend René, starting out at 5am-ish and finishing close to 7pm-ish. It’s a long time to be on your feet, particularly when you haven’t put the training in.
The furthest walk we did in training this year was to the canal basin and back for a fish finger sandwich and Portuguese cake.
Suffice to say, my feet are a bit of a mess today and moving isn’t exactly pain-free 🤦♂️
What did I learn?
Your body is capable of so much when you haven’t put the belief in it and a general level of fitness. Although, I haven’t done much distance walking this year; I still do a strength circuit a couple of times per week, along with kung fu and jiu jitsu.
Being out in nature helps my brain in ways I don’t truly understand. Watching the sun rise and set, seeing wildlife, walking through woods.
Coventry and Warwickshire have some amazing views and countryside trails if you take time to walk a few hundred metres from the roadside.
Long distance walkers and runners have some amazing stories to tell if you take the time to listen.
Be humble before you’re humbled – Towards the end I thought we were doing pretty well when we got chatting to an older man, he was 84 and let us know that the Coventry Way was a training walk in preparation for a 100 mile walk he’s doing in Kent at the end of next month.
Everyone is an inspiration, from Jim at 84 to the father and daughter team we saw doing it together for charity. Everywhere I looked I saw reasons to believe in the world.
The smile from a grandchild will put bounce in your feet – my friend’s wife and daughter provide a much needed smile, hug, coffee and bacon sandwich at various stages of the walk. However, when his granddaughter started chanting and running towards him after 36 miles he physically had more energy. That gave me a boost too.
A lot of long walks revolve around cakes and sandwiches; I heard about a walk across the width of mid-Wales that starts with a breakfast and has many cake stops and a cake walk in Shropshire that have been added to my list for next year.
Taking one step forwards lots of times is all you need to do to achieve great things.
Darren “wants to be like Jim when he grows up” Checkley
