Oxfam Trailwalker: any one done it?

[PepeLePew]

A group of people at work are talking about signing up and asked if I wanted to join them. I'm in two minds - it does sound amazing but it's so so far. Plus I have doubts about them - I'm a pretty experienced walker and have done lots of tough hikes but two of them have never walked more than a couple of miles. Still, there's plenty of time to train. My main worry is staying awake - my boss helpfully suggested we run it to minimise lack of sleep! Would love to hear your experiences,good or bad.

I've not walked it myself but did support when some colleagues did it. It is very tough, especially the overnight sections as they are also the worst in terms of terrain. We had 12 people doing it in total and only 5 finished it, two ended up in hospital the other 5 got minor injuries/couldn't cope/exhausted. These were all people who were fit and trained a lot. Also quite a few people dropped out during the training when they realised just how tough it was going to be.

Pick your team carefully. You need to be on the same page regarding ambitions and commitment. It sounds as though you have doubts already about whether these people are really going to commit to it. You do not want to get a DNF ( in trail walker you have to finish as a team to get a time/ be considered to have finished. If one person drops out then the team is out). It takes too long to train for not to at least get a time. 100km is a long way and people hugely underestimate it because 'its just walking'. I would not join a team with anyone who hadn't previously done at least a marathon or a 50km trail walk/race in the last few years.

In my experience of night events, staying awake isn't really the issue although a couple of caffeinated gels don't hurt.

Thanks. Sounds like it might not be the best plan to join the team - plus I don't know how I feel about spending 30 hours straight in their company.

I may try and do it anyway, perhaps with some friends I walk with a lot. Gulp. The furthest I've ever walked in one go is 20 miles. It was ok, and we probably didn't have enough food or rest on the way, but I don't know about doing that twice more! Hills don't scare me - I'm used to the Lakes and Snowdonia, but this is a whole new level of crazy.