How hard is it to hike/walk 26 miles?

[Bemyclementine]

I've had a leaflet come through the door fir the "mighty hike". A half or full marathon distance.

I'd LOVE to challenge myself to do this, and there us one very locally.

I'm am currently not fit and overweight.

I have previously been very fit, but chikdren and single parenthood plus a couple if health issues kind of put it on the back burner.

I do at least 10k steps a day without really noticing and can walk 6 - 8 miles at ease (but dont do it often.

How hard would it be? How would I train for it? I used to run a lot, up to 10 miles, so I guess train in a similar way, just walking and upping the distance/varying terrain?

It depends how long your ultra is

DH did the 100km Thames path walk and what was the hardest thing for him was getting long training walks in. He had to take time off work for the longer training walks as I wasn't being left looking after the children every weekend while he was out walking/flaked out afterwards.

I guess what I'm saying is, plan for how you'll do the longer training walks as time goes on.

I did it a couple of times a few years ago in my fifties. I was a walker. On both occasions I was fine up until 20 miles. The last six miles were hills and I could feel my knees felt wobbly and in the last mile I felt I had to concentrate on walking and my knees didn’t feel strong. Second time I wore knee supports. A few weeks later on both occasions I lost toe nails and two have grown back funny. It’s not a race and you can take your time. I think in my mind I wanted to do it quickly and feel if I’d taken it slower then it might have been easier. Make sure you do squats to get your thighs strong to protect your knees and Abs to protect your back.