31 December: Why?

It's new year's eve, 31st December 2012. I'm marching out of Kenilworth into the pretty, and pretty flat Warwickshire countryside. It's a typical British winter day: Wet and windy. Properly wet and properly windy. The only souls I've seen this morning are the bin men rushing to complete their rounds before the new year festivities, and some wet and unhappy looking dogs accompanied by some even wetter and unhappier owners, probably straining to recall why it was they decided to get a dog in the first place.

As I walk I'm contemplating the prospect, for two weeks, of having nothing else to do or think about but travelling from one place to the next. I love the idea of a road trip. A chance to live a journey over a period of time, to immerse yourself in it and really become part of it. The alternative being to turn up, do a bit, and go home - that makes you a visitor. It's not just the travelling but the bits in between - arriving at a new place, the down-time, the people you meet, planning the next leg - it's the whole experience that appeals.

For me it has to be a road trip under my own steam. I don't know why (really, I've thought about this and I don't) but I get something out of endurance exercise, and to do this over multiple consecutive days is an ambition of mine. So in practical terms this means cycling, swimming, running or walking, or indeed a mixture. Well, I'm a really bad swimmer and only do it in the swimming pool when I can touch the bottom and sit on the side when I need a rest. In open water my journey would be over within the first hour. I don't own a bike, so it's running or walking. Whilst I enjoy running (well, jogging) and do it often I'm not very good at it and don't think I could do long distances over several days. So, I'm going to walk.

The Wainwright Coast to Coast walk, from St Bees Head in Cumbria to Robin Hoods Bay in North Yorkshire has always held an interest for me. I love to walk in the Lakes, a love inspired by the great man's books. Indeed I love all three national parks crossed by the walk even though my knowledge of the Dales is shallower than the other two. And the concept of walking from one coast to another, dipping my toes in different seas at the opposite sides of the country adds an element of symbolism and provides a clear start and end to the journey.

Until last year I'd never really considered it seriously. The time commitment always seemed too great. It would eat up too much of my holiday entitlement. It would mean a lot of time away from my family. I did come up with a couple of daft schemes to condense the amount of time taken, such as walking non-stop in a relay for four or five days. This failed at the first hurdle when the first response from my usual walking pals was underwhelming. I guess it would have missed the point and much of the enjoyment. I also read about a group of guys who ran the route over seven days. Again a non-starter for many many reasons. So I postponed even thinking about it until sometime in the future.

I'm in my 50th year, and the obvious thing would be to have a big bash to celebrate the big day. I've been to several landmark birthday parties over the last few months, all of them very nice, and in each case the party girl or boy seemed to have a ball. Big parties aren't really my thing though (don't read too much into that - or rumours that I'm a bit grumpy or solitary). I wanted to mark my half-century with something significant, and something different. As I passed my 49th, Coast to Coast all of a sudden become the obvious and only thing to do. 

My timescale for the walk is rather dictated by my birthday. I guess I could have done it at any old time during 2013, but it makes much more sense to do it on or around my birthday. This means I start in 11 weeks, and I’m tramping around in the rain and mud today because my training schedule told me to!

And as with every good training session I’ve learned something today. Several things in fact:

The first is to do with mud. After squelching around in the fields for a couple of hours I’m soaked up to my knees in the stuff. On the walk I’ll be wearing each pair of trousers for several days (don’t worry – there are other items of clothing that I expect to change daily).Whilst fashion consciousness won’t be a particular priority, keeping multi-day trousers reasonably clean and dry does seem like a good policy. I think it might be an idea to wear gaiters, at least for the days when I’m expecting mud.

The second is to do with water. I’ve spent a fair amount of time today dictating into the voice recorder on my iPhone. I’ve decided to publish my thoughts over the next few months and through the walk on a blog (this blog). I’ve actually found talking into the machine to be quite a therapeutic thing to do whilst walking – and having taken the trouble to make the record it seems a shame to leave it at that. Anyway I’m not sure how many more hours my iPhone will continue to function with the sort of drenching it’s taken today, so a waterproof case may be in order.

Finally, and to give you an insight into the inner workings of my mind, I’ve also worked out today how many High5 energy drink sachets I need to take. This stuff is great, and perhaps the closest thing to a performance enhancing drug I’ll be using.