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Don’t do it all in one day?
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I twice did https://trailwalker.gwt.org.uk/ (when I was much younger). I did 3 or 4 decent all-day walks in the lead up, at least 40k each, maybe a bit more. Practice some night walking as well, slightly different mentally.
Otherwise usual endurance event advice Get 100% comfortable with your kit, especially footwear and socks. Don't be tempted to wear anything new. Pay attention to hotspots on your feet before blisters develop. Remember to eat and drink regularly.
Not sure if you are looking for any sort of fast time but whatever you do, don't go out too fast. On the second event we did it in 19 hours - strategy was to walk at a steady pace but be very disciplined to get in and out at checkpoints very quickly. Very easy to get sucked in to spending 20 or 30 mins at checkpoints, especially if they have food, and the time really adds up.
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any other advice?
If you look into advice for ultra running I expect a lot of it would apply. Start off feeling very comfortable with the pace, deal with issues when they arise rather than allowing them to become a problem (stone in shoe comes out straight away rather than waiting for the blister etc), don't faff in checkpoints - even better if you can not stop at all and do your admin/eating on the move. A very simple trick is to put your pack onto your front to remove items from it, you can still keep moving and you'll be amazed by how much time you can save by just cutting out all those little stops.
Eat little and often, drink to thirst.
Consider waterproof socks and have spare clothes in your pack.
You get colder than you think at night so have spare layers.
For running people wouldn't normally do a training run much over 5-6 hours. Walking is less intense so you could go longer but I'd expect you're getting into diminishing returns over a certain length. From a physiological perspective endurance changes are triggered by exercise in the 2-3 hour range, so if you have plenty of walks in this range you'll probably find this is long enough to test out kit as well as a good training walk.
"Relentless forward progress" is a good mantra to remember. -
This stuff is meant to be very good at keeping your feet in good order over big distances and through wet conditions https://trenchfootcream.co.uk/
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withered_preacher
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@ChasnotRobert
great that there is a thread about walking.
i've signed up to do a walk around the isle of wight next year, it's 106km. I think the furthest i've ever walked is about 20 miles so this is a different scale.
i'm 50, i've got a minor knee niggle and an ankle (other leg so it balances) screwed and plated back together after a bad break 30 years ago. other than that, all is good.
I went out today and walked 21km in 3.5 hours, quite enjoyed it.
A friend who has done 100km walks before advises that I should get comfortable with 50km and after that "it's just about mental toughness".
any other advice?