thoughts about my adventure

This is what I call my "mud avoidance" strategy.

I think I wasn't anticipating just how difficult this walk would be. I had done a few 10-15 mile walks, but never multiple days in a row. I had been putting in a lot of miles around town, but walking in a city is different than walking up and down hill and through muddy fields.

Despite all the training I put in, my body was just not ready for what I put it through. After I got home Friday night and showered, took care of my blisters and got in bed, I laid there for a couple of hours freezing. My skin was hot, but I was cold inside. For me, this is how I know I have a fever. This lasted pretty much all day Saturday, and Saturday night I took some Tylenol PM to help me sleep. I got up Sunday morning feeling pretty good, so attempted to go to church...big mistake. As I was sitting and waiting for the service to start, I felt like I was going to pass out, so I had someone drive me home. I slept all day, and the fever came back so I took more Tylenol, and by Monday it had finally broken. Thankfully Monday was a holiday, so I just took it easy most of the day. I made it to work for part of the day Tuesday, and every day after that felt a little better than the day before. My knee, however is taking a long time to heal from overuse, and is still a bit sore sometimes.

People would ask how the walk went, and all I could think about was how horrible I felt right then. Its amazing how the pain we feel in the moment can overshadow all the good things about the experience. Like despite the first day of torrential downpour, we had great walking weather for most of the week. The sun even came out a bit, and it wasn't too hot or too cold. Sure, its not beach weather, but for walking it was great! I was tired, my knee was killing me the second half of the walk, and the last day I developed huge blisters...but I still really enjoyed the amazing scenery! We walked along flat coastline, through fields and rolling hills, and up in the crags. I just loved being able to spend all day outside in God's creation and see the calves and lambs frolicking. And, I feel such a sense of accomplishment for actually pushing through all of the bad stuff and finishing.

So despite all the physical difficulty, I can definitely say that I would do this again. There a few things I would do a bit differently, however.

1) Shoes. I will get some that are actually waterproof. The ones I wore said the were, but were in fact, not. I did stuff them with newspaper the first night when they got wet (great tip, thanks Dad!) and they were about 95% dry when I put them on the next day. But then they got wet again, and they weren't able to dry out properly that night so by the time I wore them for the third day they were pretty damp...

2) Food. I would try and eat a bit healthier. It was so easy to have the mindset of "I'm burning a bajillion calories, I can eat pretty much whatever I want". Which was true to a certain extent, but my body was already hating me because of all I was putting it through, and by the end of the week my stomach and, ehem, other digestion, was really not happy with me. So I think having less fat is a must, which is difficult since we ate at pubs. Like, a lot.

3) Rest day. I really wish we had planned an actual rest day in there. Oh well, now we know.

4) Accommodation and luggage. This isn't something I would do differently, but I definitely want to mention it because it is something I would do again, no doubt! We booked with a company who booked all our B&Bs for us, and took care of moving our luggage from one place to the next. It was one less thing we had to worry about, and is the only way to go, in my opinion. I would suggest looking over the itinerary and making sure that the mileage you're doing is ok for you. We didn't have any problems, but we ran into one couple who were doing 5 miles one day and over 20 the next because of the distance between their accommodations. Um no thanks!

Next adventure: Transform 2013 El Camino outreach! 74 miles in 6 days with a few days of outreach right after. Yes, I am crazy.