The Trek

British Heart Foundation 50km trek, Saturday 13 May

Took the 0612 train from Reading on Saturday morning, getting off at Staines and heading to the Spelthorne Leisure Centre for the start of the London to Oxford Trek (or the London to Henley ‘day trek’, in the case of six out of eight of our group). Our team convened in the sports hall to register and collect our BHF red T-shirts and a map of the route. Matt, Guy, Rebecca and Hai had spent the Friday night in the Staines Travelodge, as the journey by public transport from Milton Keynes is cumbersome; Sara’s husband Scott had delivered her, Galina and Louisa by car.

Start of the trek at Spelthorne Leisure Centre, Staines

Team 'OU Pretty Things' ready for the off

After an inaudible safety briefing, we set off at around 8:00am. The route was well signposted with arrows throughout, so there wasn’t much danger of getting lost. Although it hadn’t been planned that way, we fairly swiftly fell into two groups, with Sara, Louisa, Rebecca and Matt striding ahead and Guy, Galina, Hai and me walking at a more reasonable pace some way behind.

Guy, Galina and Hai having a sit down at the second checkpoint

At Maidenhead. Flagging

Our 'Tier 2' team arrived at the first checkpoint in Windsor, 15 km into the walk, at around 11:00am, and the second checkpoint, at Cookham Reach Sailing Club, at around 3:00pm, after the speedy lot had already left it. We were all flagging a bit as we walked through Maidenhead – albeit it was the halfway point for the 50km event, the realization that there was the same amount to go ahead of us was a tad depressing at that point. We were obliged to sit on the ground at Cookham Reach as the tables were all occupied, but still valued the chance to take our shoes off and eat something.

Guy started to get knee pain at around Marlow and spent some time looking around for a walking stick, eventually finding a huge thing that we joked looked like Gandalf’s staff.

We reached the third checkpoint, at Hurley Lock, at around 5:45pm, where we had some more food and drink from Michaela’s Tea Shop, plus a nice sit down. By this point in the walk, difficulties had evidently kicked in for some, with various people with their shoes off being ministered to and one woman lying on a bench wrapped in foil. I recognised her as a woman who'd overtaken us earlier, but nobly resisted the urge to say "Ha, not so quick now then, are you".

Guyndalf

Having a sit down at Michaela's Tea Shop

Insufficient toilet arrangements at Hurley, coupled with Hai lingering over her tea cake, led to Guy and I setting off from the checkpoint ahead of the other two as he was keen to keep his knee moving. We managed to get what we felt was quite a decent pace up, spurred on by the thought of the finish line, but the last section into Henley felt interminable. We finally crossed the finish line in Mill Meadows at around 8:30pm, with Galina and Hai arriving around half an hour behind us.

Guy and I cross the finish line

We were scanned at each checkpoint, I guess to check that everyone was in - indeed I have subsequently received a personalised email congratulating me on finishing.

 

Here's the map of the route:

And here are the stats from MapMyWalk. I didn't pause the tracking at the checkpoints, so the 12 hour time is the overall time.

Amazingly, Matthew and Hai completed the full 100km, setting off from Mill Meadows around 9:30pm and walking through the night to reach the finish line in Oxford around 11:00am on Sunday. Matt is impressively fit and had recent experience of a combined day-and-night trek of over 50 miles, but Hai freely admitted to finding it very tough - not helped by heavy rain in the early hours. Here they are at the 100km post - though it was apparently then about 3km further on to the actual finish line in Oxpen Meadows. Hai said on Tuesday morning, somewhat indignantly, that she'd signed up for 100km, not 103km.

Managed to resist consuming either of the packets of energy gel Judith had kindly donated to me, along with various energy bars. Apparently when you're flagging in the later stages of a triathlon these are just the thing. The walk, although a slog, wasn't at any point strenuous enough that I felt I needed one of these - but I guess I'll keep them for possible future use.