18th Wilmot Wander - 32 mile Challenge

Well, i trained for the miles and arrived at Chaddeston Scout Hut at 7.30am on Sunday 24th January,

Start time for the Wilmot Wander was 8.06am,

The Weather was fine, clear but a little cold, no worries the next 32 miles would keep me warm,

The first 22 miles of the challenge was tough with approx 3500ft of climbing, sticky mud with flooded fields,


Lily not getting to close as "your a sweaty daddy" Checkpoint at The Bridge at Duffield

The route took you out of Chaddeston, towards Morley, then across towards Duffield, Radbourne, Mickelover, Findern, Stenson, Swalkston, and then on the old railway line into Pride Park, over the A38 to finish.

My personal experience was as follows;

Started well and soon found myself passing runners and walkers, as each group set off at 2 minute intervals, arrived at first check point feeling comfortable

The climb's felt easy, and the conditions suited my pace and running style,
The miles passed and then i was caught by a team of two, who flew past me and followed what i thought was the wrong path leaving Morley, i had a feeling that this was wrong and switched my route to the the correct exit across the road,

I didn't see them again until the Water Towers at Radbourne lane,

Claire and Lily were meeting me on route in four places,



Coming down the road into Checkpoint at The Bridge at Duffield

First place was second checkpoint at the bridge pub, Duffield, the 6 miles i covered before that are a regular training route, so i felt really comfortable, and didnt realise that i was running so quickly, i was running this at race pace and come down the hill into the checkpoint steaming!

Quick drink, check in, number 49, kiss from Lily and Claire then off!


The next leg was again training route for me, so just kept plugging away at the runners and walkers in front of me, was also getting passed by a few as well, but would never have kept up with them.

Pushed across the fields at the back of Vickerwood Farm and across the road nr the Mackworth Hotel, up the two fields to meet Claire, Steve, Anya and Lily cheering me on,

Stretched a stiffening calf, water and gel then cracked on 18 miles in, and going well apart from the calf,

As i reached the A38 i had ran with and by some great runners, but kept ticking of the miles,

From a mental point of view i always, split long events into groups of miles, for this i had thought a lot about this, and my mental split were,

6 miles
10 miles
6 miles
6 miles
4 miles

Splitting like this makes the distance easy to manage mentally, and from experience never think about the distance covered...

So arrived after a very long and drawn out 4th section at the Stenson Bubble, all toe path and tarmac left, must be at least 9 miles of this, swapped shoes and lost about 5 mins on two teams that i had been pulling away from, but needed a few mins to take on fuel and water, including the last gel,


Change of shoes at the Stenson Bubble

Only the toe path to go and i could see the two teams in front of me, so set off at 8.30 min mile pace to claw then back, to my amazement i did, by the Swalkstone checkpoint,

5 Miles to go, and as i set off, for the final push a team of three guys came behind me, one of them was really struggling, but with a team of three you can double time the distance, run and walk run and walk, i kept with them with only 2 miles to go and then held back a bit,

Looking at my Garmin i pulled myself over the A52 bridge at 6hrs 20 mins and made a final dash for the scout hut,

Finished,

Final time, was 6hrs, 23mins, 58 seconds, 32miles/4325ft of ascent,

Personal thanks to Claire, Lily, Steve and Anya for your support! and Special thanks to Claire for the great Sunday lunch i received when i got home.