www.longwalks.org.uk

My Walk

• I did a lot of planning. The route wasn't just researched - I'd actually walked a lot of it beforehand, in bits. I knew where I could stay - B&Bs, hostels, campsites, possible wild camping spots.  I knew where a lot of the good pubs were.
• I trained hard before I set off. I'd done a lot of walking in the previous year, and in the three months before setting off I did a 30-mile walk each weekend (i.e. 30 miles in one day, which meant setting off at dawn - we're talking about January and February here). This meant I could walk long days from the start, which I needed to do.
• I managed to get the time off from my job without taking any unpaid leave.  I did this by carrying over some of the previous year's holidays and borrowing most of the following year's holiday.  This meant I had a tight schedule - I had to be finished and back to work in 9 weeks.
• I set off wearing a pair of very lightweight Lowa boots that I bought specifically for the walk, and broke in beforehand. Unfortunately the stitching started falling to bits before I'd left Cornwall.
  
• I met up with my family in Hay-on-Wye, where they had a week in a holiday cottage.  I took two rest days here, collected the next load of maps, and switched to a replacement pair of boots, again made by Lowa, and again already broken in. These, however were heavier 3-season boots.
• I met up with my family again at Dunford Bridge, when the Stanhope Arms was still open, and again the following day at the Old Silent Inn near Haworth.  Home is in Cheshire, so this was a day trip for them to meet up with me. Again I changed my set of maps over.
• On the way into Keld I started to have some pain in my shins. This gradually got worse over the next few days, and by the time I got to Twice Brewed youth hostel on Hadrian's Wall the pain was so great I had to stop walking. I got a telephone diagnosis from a neighbour who is a physiotherapist, who said it was probably tenosynovitis - inflammation of the tendon sheath. Shin splints is another name for this. It looks like I was trying to walk too far per day for such a heavy pair of boots, and had damaged my legs by this. Fitness clearly isn't everything! One of the doctors at the surgery we attend specialises in sports injuries, and he told my wife that ibuprofin was about all that would help. He prescribed some horse-strength iboprofin (600mg tablets), and Nicola posted them to me, along with a pair of old running shoes. At this point I couldn't stand anything touching the front of my shins, so I couldn't wear boots at all.
• I set off walking again after resting up for a day and a half, dosed up with iboprofin tablets, smeared with iboprofin gel, walking slowly in a pair of running shoes with no laces in. It still hurt quite a bit, but I got to Bellingham that night.
• The next day I posted my boots home from Bellingham, and walked on to Byrness. Again it was painful, but I got there.
• The next day I climbed up into the Cheviots, walking in a pair of trainers without laces. And no, I didn't keep my feet dry. At one point, not looking properly where I was going, I went into the peat up to my thighs. Miraculously I managed to get my feet out again with trainers still on the end of them. If I'd lost a trainer I'd have had to walk the rest of the day barefoot - I had nothing else to wear.
• Taking each day at a time, the pain gradually reduced, and my trainers gradually became one with the soil. I arrived in Peebles on a Sunday morning, but there was an outdoor shop open, and once they'd adjusted to the state of my current footwear they sold me a pair of Brasher Supalite boots, with an offer of free socks. I walked out of that shop in a pair of brand new boots (unlaced naturally) and then walked 20 miles a day in them all the way to John O'Groats without a blister. Needless to say I've sworn by Supalites ever since. The trainers went in a rubbish bin in Falkirk, and the last twinges from my shins came the day I walked to Kilsyth along the Forth and Clyde Canal.
• I met up with the family again at the Kingshouse at the head of Glencoe, then in Glen Garry, where they had another week's holiday in a cottage. I had one rest day here.
• I reached John O'Groats on schedule, having planned only two rest days, taking four, and making up the time by walking some very long days (by my standards). I got back to work on time.
• I walked all the way. I didn't run any of it, I didn't get in a car or a bus to get to anywhere and retrace the journey next day. I got off the bus at Land's End, then got on another at John O'Groats - everything else was walking. Mind you that made it a bit difficult in the middle of Falkirk where the only public toilets I could find were up escalators. I left Falkirk in a hurry.
  

Is my razor just for shaving? Yes sir

Pro

• If you shave regularly, you will look smarter, and be more generally acceptable to the people you meet. Well let's squash this one immediately. If you're on a long walk you're going to look a mess anyway, and anyone who's going to be put off by an unshaven face should be shunned. It's their problem anyway.
• If you meet very young children who know you but aren't used to you with whiskers you can easily terrify them. If you don't like kids this could be an advantage of not shaving, but my younger daughter was under two years old when I was doing my E2E, so for this reason (and this reason alone) I carried a razor on my walk, and shaved before I met up with my family.
• You save the weight of all those whiskers.

Con

• You have to carry the razor. That's extra weight that is, so you'll have Chris Townsend and Ray Jardine breathing down your neck.