Wednesday, April 26, 2006

A Walk and a Pint

Bankes ArmsClickRich has foolishy signed up to join some friends on a 40-mile-in-a-day walking lark. The 40 miles is a challenge. The speed that these friends will do it at will be a challenge. With less than 2 weeks to go, a training regime is something of a challenge too so I decided on Saturday to walk as fast as I could from ClickTowers in Bournemouth to the Bankes Arms in Studland village. There I would reward myself with a pint of their locally brewed* Isle of Purbeck Brewery before charging back as quickly as my hiking legs would carry me.

The objective, aside from a vain attempt to improve fitness, was to test my new clothes, check the boots still fit ok after 10 years, see how much I need to carry and work out what kind of pace starts to hurt... oh, and explore a corner of the world that I can see from our living room, but have not been to in 3 years here.

First things first. The pub is lovely. By it's character and panorama, it's something of a tourist spot, but there's plenty of room for everyone in the beer garden- even the domestic chore dodgers masquerading as mountain bikers (I know your game). I chose a pint of the Studland Bay Wrecked and I was not disappointed. I'd underestimated the amount of curvature of the coast round Studland- perhaps through the flattening effect of the distance as I view it from home- but I was surprised to be looking straight out to sea at Bournemouth. Strange.

Anyway, with the heat smashing down I headed for home and, excluding the wait for the Sandbanks ferry and sitting in the pub, I managed a round trip of 14 miles in 3 hours 40 minutes. To do three times that distance in less than 12 hours (which I suspect is the target of my friends) will be pushing me to my limits...

...and there'll be no beer.

*round the back of the pub

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1 comment:

Wossername said...

If you can do that distance in that time you should have an hour to spare at the end of your 40 miles. Good luck and enjoy it. Take the following 2 days off work to recover though.