2021 LDWA 100 – Miles 11 to 20

This is the story of my completing the LDWA 100, something which I didn’t actually always think I’d be able to do. Unlike the previous training walks, I’m going to tell this story in a different way, which is just my feelings about each section of the walk. I usually take hundreds of photos during walks, but when walking 100 miles there are different priorities. My friend Nathan also walked with me for the first 60 miles, but these are my experiences rather than his. These posts are more introspective than usual and there will be an index to these ten ‘stories’ on this page.

The section of the walk between 11 and 20 miles was from Great Yarmouth Greggs up to Caister and then back down again, although we went further south in the town and nearly reached the Great Yarmouth Outer Harbour. This wasn’t our intended route, we had planned to go a little further north to Scratby, but we decided against traipsing on too much sand, so we spent more time in Caister and made the lost mileage up in Great Yarmouth.

There was just a little rain as we came back down into Great Yarmouth, although apparently the situation was rather more moist in Norwich. I wasn’t worried too much about the weather as I couldn’t control it and I had all of the possible clothing options that I might need. It did occur to me that I could use the weather as an excuse if I didn’t finish though…..

I remember taking this photo thinking that we could have just spent the day in Great Yarmouth meandering down the seafront, whilst visiting a few pubs along the way instead of walking back out of the town at a storming pace en route to a destination much further ahead. But, after telling myself that quietly, I also knew that we were still in good shape physically and ahead of schedule. Completing 20% of the walk without incident was a real positive and we were just a few miles from starting off on Wherryman’s Way which was an important section of our route.

Great Yarmouth had been quiet when we left it going up towards Caister, but it was much busier by the time we reappeared there as holiday makers and locals were taking advantage of the retail options that the town provides. I’ve always quite liked Great Yarmouth and although I admit it isn’t quite Las Vegas, there’s still something that excites many children about a visit to the jewel of Norfolk’s coast (or whatever the local tourist authority call it).

I mentioned that these posts were more introspective, but on this stretch I had mostly (but not entirely) stopped questioning the why was I doing this and thinking of the strategies that we needed to follow to be able to complete the walk. That involved checking my feet every ten miles and carefully applying lots of Sudocrem to them, a tactic that I consider to have been enormously useful. Seal Skinz socks also helped me, so I felt comfortable which is essential at this stage of a long walk.

It also put into perspective the 18 mile challenge walks that the LDWA put on, as we had already completed that distance by the time we came back down into Great Yarmouth. I’m a big fan of these LDWA events for those who want to dip their toes into challenge events, as they’re supported with food and drink, marshals and they’re very achievable. Richard was in the support car for this section and we were most grateful to him for his help, especially as he had managed to have had some quite exciting dramas that morning.