Rather chuffed

[harrumph]

MsM and I did a 50-mile challenge walk (think walking Audax, mostly on footpaths and bridleways) at the weekend. I had programmed the route into my Garmin via Tracklogs, so when darkness fell - and it gets really dark away from roads - we just carried on at the same speed, with her reading out the route sheet as we went, and me interpreting the GPS compass arrow and applying what it told me to what I could see by the light of an LED head torch. It needs a bit of interpretation, because the accuracy available from 3-digit grid references is a bit lacking - but in conjunction with the route sheet, it worked really well. We only took one wrong turn in 15 miles-worth of darkness, and we knew within less than 100 yards that we'd gone wrong, retraced and quickly got back on route.

We gradually picked up a "tail" of about a dozen people... and when we came out of the next control, we found them all waiting for us 

One of them even said "Thanks" at the end 

[Manotea]

Mattc and I are doing the Dorset Doddle (Weymouth to Swanage) on Sunday. Happily we (should) be finished by dusk but navigation is reported as being fairly straightforward as the route follows the path along the coast. We should be OK as long as we don't turn right...

[harrumph]

Mattc and I are doing the Dorset Doddle (Weymouth to Swanage) on Sunday. Happily we (should) be finished by dusk but navigation is reported as being fairly straightforward as the route follows the path along the coast. We should be OK as long as we don't turn right...

It's a great walk in good weather. Quite demanding, given the 7000' of ascent/descent along the way. The bit I remember as particularly hard had "steps" down in the chalk which were just too big for comfort (well, after 20+ miles, anyway).

Having succeeded on the Doddle, then (if you haven't done it already) there's the triennial Dorset Giant 100k - one of my very best walking memories. Dorset LDWA organise very good events 

They do have the decided advantage of being in Dorset!

[mattc]

Having succeeded on the Doddle,

Woah - let's just pause that statement right there until Monday ...

[if I say how little training I've done, noone will believe me, so I shan't bother!]

[Manotea]

Depending on how the Doddle goes I was thinking about the Sussex Stride on 18/19th Sept from Brighton. That's a 50 Miler, the equivalent of a 400km audax (?) so a whole new world of pain to explore.

[harrumph]

Depending on how the Doddle goes I was thinking about the Sussex Stride on 18/19th Sept from Brighton. That's a 50 Miler, the equivalent of a 400km audax (?) so a whole new world of pain to explore.

I'd say that a 50 mile walk is about the same as a 300k - so should be no bother, then 

A 100k walk is equivalent (in time taken, for me anyway) to a 400k Audax.

And the 100 mile walk which you will be qualified to enter on completion of a 50 is the PBP of walking!

[mattc]

Lurching back to the OP ...

The first thing I thought when I read about the 100-mile walks was how hard the navigation might be.

I've never walked any distance in the dark. Navigating (on road) on a bike is a little tricky, but not a problem with the right materials prepared (map or routesheet, or both!), and a headtorch or similar.

Even without nav issues, I would think you need a pretty bright headtorch just to keep up a decent pace.

[mattc]

Depending on how the Doddle goes I was thinking about the Sussex Stride on 18/19th Sept from Brighton. That's a 50 Miler, the equivalent of a 400km audax (?) so a whole new world of pain to explore.

I'd say that a 50 mile walk is about the same as a 300k - so should be no bother, then 

A 100k walk is equivalent (in time taken, for me anyway) to a 400k Audax.

And the 100 mile walk which you will be qualified to enter on completion of a 50 is the PBP of walking!

This is probably an extension of this thread Cycling distance equivalent to running a marathon?, and is certainly not a GPS topic