How long would it take an average 10 year old to walk 200 miles, how many days, how many breaks?

[Walkingtimes]

My youngest wants to do something for a charity v. Close to home and has got one idea of walking from (hospital) X to place Y (close to cause).

Should I encourage/discourage, of the former how to go about planning! Thanks for any feedback.

It's from a hospital (likely to be in a city) to an undisclosed destination.

So not necessarily a pleasant or safe walk communing with nature, more likely communing with pollution.

6 miles a day is fine and not too demanding day after day. If you do many more than 6 and there will be tired legs and core feet the second day onwards. Or he could use a walking machine or rowing machine to virtually walk the distance.

Sorry didn't mean to hit that.

Wanting to do a hypothetical task and actually wanting to complete the task are two very different things though!

Nothing like a bit of ambition! I think it might be fun to sit down and go through it with him as a lesson in planning and logistics if nothing else.

What route is he getting 200 miles from? If it's as the crow flies or via motorways the actually route he'd need to walk may end up being a very different distance.

What terrain would it be? Ten miles on the flat is very different from ten miles over the pennies.

It's doable, although I think ten miles a day would be pushing it for twenty days so I think I'd want to make it more like four weeks/a month to allow for some days off, shorter walking days etc.

I would also want to vary the length of the days - some days 12-16 miles, some days 4-5 depending on terrain etc.

Then take him for a ten mile walk and see what he thinks afterwards.

Logistics - in an ideal world, it'd be helpful to have someone with a car nearby to drive you to accomodation etc if it's out of the way and in case of emergency/terrible weather etc resupplying if necessary etc.

200 miles is a bloody long way - to put it in to perspective it's like walking almost half the distance from London to Edinburgh!

I'd be inclined to encourage him to start a little smaller maybe - fifty miles away or something, which should be doable over five days.

For a little bit of research, suggest he finds out about the Jarrow March. It was closer to 300 miles, but this was done over 25 days by grown men.

When we do family walks with everyone from age 8-80, 7 miles in a day is tough for the least robust but realistic and doable, albeit with a lot of moaning and refusal to move at all next day. 10 miles is feasible if just the strongest go and leave the less enthusiastic ones at home.

To do 100 miles I would break it into 6 x 16 mile chuncks and do it across 6 consecutive weekends, each time driving to where you left off last time, doing half the distance to an airbnb on Saturday and the other half on Sunday, then taxi back to the car and drive home.

Then 6 weeks off entirely and do it again to make it to 200.

Look at joining the YHA. I think you could do it over the summer holidays.

Surely he needs to try walking 10 miles a day or whatever for at least 3 days in a row to see if it is feasible? I've taught primary for a long time and the idea upthread that a typical 10 year old could walk 20 miles a day two days on one day off just seems ludicrous to me. I don't doubt that the odd few could do it but it would be far, far from the norm.

Good on him! When I was that age I did a sponsored walk of 24 miles (4x loop of a local stately home). Not sporty but did a lot of dog walking. I’d say he could do an average of 15/day. But the logistics would be a nightmare. I’d think about alternate options.

The Youth Hostels Association rarely offer actual hostels for youth nowadays, unfortunately 🙄. You have to be 18 to sleep in a dorm, so your only option would be a rather expensive family room. And many hostels only offer group hire nowadays. I think it's a fucking scandal, tbh.

Where in the UK could you walk 200 miles and not plan it to be mostly rural?

Actually you’re right.

A kid I know did a similar distance as something he wanted to accomplish but did it over a series of weekends, driving to the previous end point each time so that the whole journey was walked.
Required quite a bit of logistical support from parents and grandparents (someone always with him, he was 11 or 12). As there were quite a lot of rest days more miles could be travelled each day than if doing it in one go, so fewer days of walking in total. Can’t remember how long it took though, was a few years ago.

Depending how flat it is he could realistically walk 15 miles a day I would say. I do that fairly regularly although admittedly I don't have to do the same the next day but my legs aren't sore the day after so I think I could do it. I'm just averagely fit.

My colleagues son did a strenuous 100 mile long distance route at about the same age for charity. He did it with his dad over several weekends, so 2 days of walking a week. It's doable, but i would suggest in chunks rather than in 1 go! How far can he usually walk in a day?

We’ve gone on weekend hikes as much as 11/12 plus miles. Ten year old struggled the most towards the end (as you’d expect!)-and his feet were sore sometimes- that’s an issue, think of your poor sore feet after a long walk, his skin is going to be less tough. We’ve actually really cut back since and only do half so it ends on a more enjoyable note. Lovely idea if you can figure out what’s doable

I think it's risky to do as a continuous journey.

Overuse injuries at that age can easily become ingrained long term weaknesses/ injuries. Children have a lot of growing left to do. They don't have the same joint development and muscle development as adults.

Children's equipment is not designed for heavy duty usage and is designed to be grown out of before it sustains major milage- especially shoes. As an adult with small feet, every time I've bought child-sized shoes, they've worn through quicker than adult shoes and they are not as well designed for comfort in demanding use. Rucksacks don't have the back and hip padding of a scaled up adult rucksack for prolonged use.

The reality is that it would be hard. Day after day of ongoing hard. Mental and physical. I've done things like Gold DoE (50 miles walking in wild upland areas with backpack) and a marathon. It takes a level of grit to get out and complete one day of demanding sustained activity. It's another to do that and to get out and do more... and more... and more.
It's difficult for a child or total novice to grasp that depth of fatigue (and often pain) and what it takes to endure through it.

Another age barrier to consider for context is while the distances can be feasibly be run casually younger, UK Athletics has a minimum age of 11 for racing 5km/ 3.1mi, 15 for racing 10k (6.2mi) and 17 for HM (13.1mi/ 21.1km. Running hard is not walking but it's recognising the risk of over use injury in youths through endurance sport. Arguably more harm can be done through excessive multi-day walking with a pack than training to run a race.

Logistically you'd need to know the reliable milage you can achieve daily and advance book accomodation along the route. DoE guidence is to carry no more than 25% of your bodyweight; this is a challenge for slightly built 14 year olds, and would be problematic for a younger child. This means more load for the adult to carry. It would affect the logistics of camping as an option if B&Bs/ hotels aren't spaced along the route at the right milage.
Shorter distances per day mean more accomodation, more days of food and more laundry to factor in. Shorter distances may not tie in with the distribution of accomodation along the route.

I would not plan a challenge like that for a child who is not fully grown.