Walk - 9th May 2009

Lancaster to Waterfoot
41 miles in 11.32 hours

With my entry now one of 1,620 entries taking part in this year’s Isle of Man Parish Walk on 20th June 2009 (85 miles in 24 hours) I thought I would get a further practice walk in and with my friend Heather Birch suggesting this “easy” route I leave the famous City of Lancaster at 9.15am on Saturday and walk through the Trough of Bowland, Clitheroe, Accrington with the final destination being Waterfoot.

On leaving Lancaster I see this massive hill looming in the distance, yes you are right we did go over it, and many more followed. There was a slight breeze but it was dry and sunny and the noises from birds and animals were wonderful as you made your way through this stunning scenary.

We had one short coffee break and another short lunch break lasting in total some 28 minutes and all other intake was on the hoof. The weather forecast did state that rain would arrive in the afternoon and at around 2pm the heavens opened and to make matters worse there was a driving wind as we were making the ascent of yet another hill with no shelter what so ever. However at around 4pm it all suddenly stopped with sunshine appearing as we passed through Waddington; what a lovely village.

Light was fading and at 9.15pm we finished in good shape with no pains and no blisters. If this was on the Isle of Man we would now be looking forward to doing a further 44 miles!!

Key Statistics
Walking for 11.32 hours
28 minutes stopping time
41 miles total distance
The ascent was a staggering 6,938 feet and a decent of 6,400ft
Calories lost 3,307
Average speed 3.5mph Max speed 6.1mph (On this performance we would be 28minutes outside the finishing time for The Parish Walk).

Fraser Mackay
12-5-09