On Saturday May 25th, 2013, I will be walking from London to Brighton, a distance of 100 kilometres, or 62 miles. That's over two marathons of non-stop walking which will take us around 24 hours (no breaks!) to complete.
This was not my idea. Last December a friend posted on Facebook that she was doing the challenge to raise money for the nurses at Marie Curie Cancer Care that helped her uncle who died last year (you can sponsor the lovely Helena HERE), and she was forming a team to take part. At that time May seemed a long way away, so I thought why not? After all, I walk all the time, this should be easy. Or so I thought – it was one of those things that sounded like a good idea at the time, so I agreed to do it without knowing exactly what I was in for.
Our team is named 'The Elder Gods of Wrath' and we are all raising money for different charities. I chose to raise money for MIND because I strongly believe mental health issues deserve more awareness and support. If you are not aware of the charity, Stephen Fry is the president so that proves how awesome it is.
So why test your body's limitations with a 100k walk when you could easily do a 5k jog and still raise as much money? Like any event, the greater the challenge, the greater the fitness benefits, sense of accomplishment, and individual impact your contribution has on your community. But… everyone knows that already. Here are some more selfish reasons why I think you should do an extreme charity walk.
1. Food, food and more food. The best side effect of training for me so far. On average you burn about 100 calories per mile so when you are training that really adds up. After our 31 mile training walk we all went to a buffet and had ALL the food. It was satisfying knowing that no matter how much we ate there, we couldn't possibly replace the 3,100 plus calories we just burned. I get to be gluttonous in the name of charity, It's great! I've had to be a bit careful around other people though, because complaining that "Life is soooooo hard for me! No matter how much I eat, I'm still hungry and can't gain weight" is not exactly endearing.
2. It's a great excuse for getting out of stuff. "Sorry I can't come to your daughter's first violin recital, I have a training walk…you know for charity… I wish I wasn't so busy being a good person."
3. Improve local geography. It's amazing how much smaller London seems when you walk everywhere. You see first hand how everything is connected and discover parts of the city you didn't know were there before.
4. Save money on pedicures. I wear my blisters and callouses proudly as battle wounds! My feet are gross for a charity now which automatically makes them sexy.
5. It's more original and time consuming than a marathon. The average marathon time for women is about five hours. Walking 100k takes about 20-24 hours. That means the London to Brighton challenge is over four times as hardcore as running a marathon.
6. Getting to know people. When you are doing nothing but walking for hours and hours you have little choice but to talk. It's a great way to break the ice.
So, these are the reasons I will tell people it was worth it come Sunday morning when my legs have turned to jelly. If you're feeling generous you can sponsor me HERE – I would be incredibly grateful!
Danica Priest is assistant producer on the Funny Women Pop Up Fringe which takes place at the Edinburgh Festival, 15th to 25th August. See the full programme HERE.
Pictured: Danica Priest.
