Category Archives: LDWA

Clare to Bury challenge and LDWA Wolsey Waddle

Back in May, Gina Jayne and I did the 18 mile Clare to Bury challenge, We almost missed out on this event, it filled up so quickly we had to go on the waiting list and I suspect it was a case of who you know not what you know that secured us a place !!

We all met at Clare country park and got the transport to Bury ready to start at 10.30 am, we usually do LDWA events where you have to find the way from a route sheet although I always have the route on my Garmin which really helps if we go wrong. This time though the route was going to be marked so we didn’t have to worry about route finding

The route was definitely undulating and it was often hard and rutted underfoot, but the Suffolk countryside was beautiful and the checkpoints and refreshments were always welcome. Towards the end, my feet did start to hurt a little so I was more than happy to see the finish line, once again I was amazed at how enjoyable this run/walking can be and we were soon planning our next goal !!

Which turned out to be the LDWA Wolsey Waddle, at 20 miles this would be our longest run/walk to date, just a shame that Jayne could not join us.

On the week running up to the event, we had many e-mails about route changes which left me feeling apprehensive but on the day it all worked well, the route sheet as always was well written and easy to understand and of course, we have the Garmin just in case !!

The route was lovely although surprisingly boggy along the River Orwell, so we were forced to walk this stretch as we didn’t want to slip on the Algae. The other surprise was finding all the Elephants in Ipswich.

The countryside was truly at its best with many fields of beautiful golden corn which all seemed to have a splattering of poppies and wildflowers thrown in and of course, an LDWA event  would not be the same without the wonderful food and cheerful marshals at the checkpoints, I especially liked the glass house although if it had been a warmer day we may have boiled inside

The other great thing about these events is seeing all the people I know, and this time a real surprise was seeing a dear friend I had not seen for what seems like years !!

The ground was kinder to my feet this time and I had no problems with my feet so I was relieved although I must still sort myself out with some wider trainers.

As always great food at the finish, and I bumped into Justin Smith a runner who I follow on Twitter, his blog makes an interesting read too.

So what’s next with the running, once I get this Audax challenge finished I have the  George Munday 10km, St Neots Half and a 26-mile run/walk.

Daffodil Dawdle (31st March 2019 )

As we put the clocks forward and jumped into summer it was time for the first of my run/walk events with my friend Gina, the LDWA Daffodil Dawdle, a circular scenic route along the Waveney valley, starting from Stradbroke.

Gina and I used to walk these 18-mile challenges, but as we saw more and more people running or run-walking we got the urge to try that ourselves.

The day started well as I bumped into a friend on my way to registration, it’s always a delight to see the amazing Sandie, who will be doing her own challenge for the Air Ambulance in July. Race to the Stones, a 100km walk along the Ridgeway.

By 8.30 after a quick cup of tea, a loo visit and a chat with Jayne who was in the kitchen, as usual, we set off on our way.

The challenging part is usually following the route because it is not marked out, you have to follow a written route sheet so it can be easy to miss your place when chatting too much !!. In the old days, a GPX file was not available but luckily for us, they now include one which certainly helps.

We had no set plan just run when we wanted and walk when we wanted, depending on the terrain, it’s amazing how quickly time passes when you are having fun, we seemed to reach the first checkpoint in no time at all.

The checkpoints and food are amazing on these events, you can easily linger far too long, but after a quick drink and some lovely homemade snacks we set off for checkpoint 2 promising ourselves a longer stop then.

Sandie was sticking to a training plan on this event and we kept playing cat and mouse with her along the route, which was always encouraging.

Arriving at checkpoint 2 feeling slightly hungry we were not disappointed with the food, after a picnic lunch, loo visit and a chat with Paul from Cambridge Rambling club we set off feeling happy knowing we only had approx 5 miles to do.

We had a good strong finish and arrived back in Stradbroke with nice big smiles,4 hours and 46 mins after leaving (moving time was 4 hours 14 mins.)

As usual, the finish food did not disappoint, homemade soup followed by crumble and custard, I was delighted to see Cathryn from Cambridge too so we had a quick catch up before we all departed for home.

Maybe Gina and I will attempt the 26 miles next year !!!!

A walking and riding weekend.

Another active weekend was had on 17th/18th June.

Untitled Since I fell in love with Biking I don’t do as much walking but I do still enjoy walking and would walk more if I could get to the mountains !!!   As for local walks, I try to do the LDWA challenge walks

 This weekend started with the LDWA  Poppyline walk, which we almost missed out on as it filled up quicker than expected, but lucky for us I know the right people !!!

This time Jayne was able to join Gina Jo and myself, so on the hottest day of the year so far we found ourselves walking 18 miles from Sheringham.

As usual, the route did not disappoint with sea views and parkland.

We have now done all 3 LDWA challenge walks.

Poppyline took 6 hours 34

Daffodil dawdle 6 hours 09

Flower of Suffolk 6 hours 50

Many people run walk these events and it’s something I would like to try sometime in the future.

Then on the Sunday Geoff and I did the Cycle together Sandringham ride, I like to support this ride as it’s local and all money goes to Parkhouse at Sandringham

Once again it was another very hot day and for once I was happy that we had decided to do the shorter route of 50 miles although riding from home made it 65 miles.Untitled

There was a huge gathering of SWNC riders at the start, then we all split down into our little groups.

Although we ride these roads regular on our Sunday social rides I never tire of them

After the very hot but enjoyable ride, we gathered with other riders in Parkhouse garden enjoying ice cream, hot dogs and shandy before a gentle ride home.

The Flower Of Suffolk

Its been a while since I did some real walking, I am usually put off due to the amount of travelling and cost, but yesterday I dusted off my walking boots, made the effort and was not disappointed.img_4002

The day started with a 2 hour drive to walberswick ,in pouring rain with Jo,where we met up with Gina and Jayne to walk The LDWA challenge walk ,the Flower of Suffolk, in the past Gina and I have walked the Daffodil Dawdle 26 miles and Jayne well she has now done 13 of the 100 mile events, while this was going to be the first taste of a challenge walk for Jo.

Luckily by the time we had met up,picked up our route sheet had a quick chat and coffee the rain had stopped and the sky was brightening up.

Although I can follow these walking routes, as we are chatting a lot !! it’s easy to lose your place so I decided to put the route on my garmin 1000 as a back up. Happy to say it worked very well fullsizerender-15especially as when we set off  Jayne just presumed we were doing the 26 miles…..

Once back on the 18 mile route the sun had decided to come out and greet us,and much fun was had as we found our way from check point to check point.

Walking through the heath at this time of year with the heathers, grasses and boardwalks is really beautiful, the route ended with a stretch along the beach too, shame my battery died on my camera.

The Marshalls at the checkpoints were all friendly and it was nice to see people I knew, the other fab thing about these LDWA challenge walks is the food, great food at every check point, then a bean and veg stew followed by crumble and custard when you finish.

A really great day out with great company lots of chat and giggles…….. and I must make more of an effort to do more walking, next year we will try to do all 3 challenge walks, The Daffodil Dawdle, The Poppy line and The Flower of Suffolk.

LDWA Daffodil Dawdle Challenge Walk

For the second year running I had arranged to do The Daffodil Dawdle 26.5 mile walk with my friend Gina.

DSCF8064-001The route may have been the same as last year but that was the only comparison that could be made, last year we walked in snow and blizzards this year it was sun and t-shirts 🙂

Its called a challenge walk as the route is not marked, your given 4 pages of route instructions and off you go…. last year there were so few walkers that we had to follow the instructions word by word.

This year how ever there were many more walkers and with out realising it we just followed the walkers in front, which is not really a good idea because I never really knew where we were up to in the instructions.

Over the 26.5 miles we had 3 check points where great food and drink was supplied at no extra DSCF8065-001cost, it was amazing to see the 100 or so people of all ages and sizes running the route and lovely to bump into other walkers I now know and have a chat on the way.

After 8 hr and 20 mins (20 mins quicker than last year) we arrived back in Kirtling to be greeted by my friend Jayne who had been busy cooking the finishers food, delicious soup and crusty bread followed by crumble and custard…  all this for the £8 entry fee 🙂

The time just whizzed pasted in fact it felt more like an 8 hour chat with Gina than a 27.5 mile walk 🙂 and a great way to spend Mothers day.

The only disappointment was that Geoff didn’t pop up in the middle of a field !!

A Very Long Walk…

After walking the 12 miles from Downham Market to Kings Lynn along the Fen Rivers way.

DSCF7754I thought it would be a good idea to walk the rest of the Fen Rivers Way

So last weekend I met up with my friend from the LDWA to walk the remaining  33 miles from Cambridge to Downham Market.

33 miles is nothing to Jayne who often walks 50 miles and has done 10 of the 100 mile challenge walks, this year she finished it in 36 hours…   totally amazing 🙂

We set off at around 7am, the path along the River Cam bustling with runners, with all the chatter we just flew along reaching Ely in no time at all, where we enjoyed tea and cake at Peacocks Tearooms.

10 Mile Bank

10 Mile Bank

Then we happily set off for Downham Market, it was a nice enough walk to Littleport but the stretch from littleport  along 10 mile bank was hell….. you could see Downham Market in the distance but we never seemed to get any closer as the river twisted and turned 🙁

Finally 12 hours after setting off we arrived in Downham Market,10 hours of walking 2 hours of breaks and amazingly we kept a constant pace and never slowed down !

Total miles for the day was 36 the most I have ever walked…  I suffered by having blisters deep under the skin on the bottom of my heels 🙁  but no aching legs 🙂 I was rewarded with another fitbit badge for doing 0ver 75,000 steps in one day, I actually did 77,910 🙂

I was also told by another long distance walker that my blisters were badges of honour !!

The Wherryman’s Way

At the weekend @sallyinnorfolk was actually walking in Norfolk and what a walk it was!

wherrymans wayWe tagged along with our LDWA friends to see just what we were made off, the plan was to walk the Wherryman’s way, which runs along the River Yare from Norwich to Great Yarmouth.

The website says the route is 35 miles from train station to train station.

As I was a little unsure about walking 35 miles and to make it easier for parking the car, we decided to start our walk at Whitlingham Country Park.Screenshot 30:04:2013 15:24-2

So bright and early on Sunday morning in perfect weather conditions,we set off on our longest walk yet.

11 hours and 34 miles later we arrived in Great Yarmouth 🙂

I was amazed at how easy I managed the walk,walking with girls that chat all the time does make a difference and apart from a few sore toes I had no other aches.

Not sure if the sore toes are from the new shoes, which had dreadful insoles with no cushioning at all, or just from the fact that I walked 34 miles.

All photos can be seen here 

Next its the GEAR 10k run !!

The Daffodil Dawdle

On Sunday my twitter Friend Gina and I did the LDWA challenge walk known as the Daffodil Dawdle.

Gina and I striding along..

I must confess to feeling very nervous about this walk, not because of the snow and not because of the distance but because this walk is not marked out, your given the route on the day.

I had asked for the GPX file and luckily for me late on Saturday evening I received it in an e-mail, which opened perfectly into my viewranger app.

All my worrying had been for nothing though, as the 4 pages of route instructions were very detailed and  fun to follow,I only used the GPX file a few times just to double check we were actually where we thought we were 🙂 I even had the confidence to tell some other walkers they were going the wrong way !!!

Gloopy mud

The conditions under foot were far from perfect, when we decided to do this walk the last thing we expected was SNOW and thick gloopy mud !! It certainly put some walkers off as they had 70 no show’s 🙁

All check points were perfectly spread out with food and a hot drink available at no extra cost too.

It took us 8 hours and 38 mins to cover the 26.6 miles and we enjoyed every min 🙂

The surprise of the day was bumping into Geoff when about 2/3rds of the way into the walk…  he had walked out from Cambridge using the GPX file and latitude to find us.  Those that know us well

We did it !

will know we are addicted to our Fitbits and no way was Geoff going to let Gina and I clock up all those steps while he sat at home !!

When checking in at the end,it was lovely to see Jayne who with other LDWA members had hot soup, crusty bread, apple crumble and custard waiting for us.

A very warming end to a great walk, one that may become a yearly event for us 🙂

A few more photos can be seen here...