Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Waltham Winder
I found this event quite by chance as I thought it had died a death years ago.
There were three distances for the Waltham Winder; 10 miles, 14 miles and 26 miles. The start times were staggered, with 26 mile runners setting off at 8am and us mere mortals (walkers!) at 8.15 am. The shorter routes set off later still. This event only took 25 minutes to get to, so I had a bit of a lie in! I toyed with the idea of only taking my small pack, but thought, no, you wimp, you have got to start upping the weight, so reluctantly got my large pack out and set about filling it. Now, I usually put any old pair of shoes in to make up the weight, but for some reason I put my newer running shoes in, as I decided to walk in my old Air Structure Triax Nikes. I was later going to be very glad of this decision!
We were directed to park in a field and when I left the car, I wasn't sure where the Village Hall and registration point actually was so I followed a girl who looked like she knew where she was going. After a few hundred metres, she turned to me and said "Do you know where you're going I'm not sure!"
I had a coffee and a couple of biccies and met Sue, who I'd spoken to on the Ponton Plod. She was going to walk with a friend, but the friend had gone to the wrong Waltham and was some miles away! Me and Sue decided to walk together. There were about 12 people walking the 26 mile route and we gathered outside for a briefing on cows etc before setting off. There were no route descriptions as the long, middle and short routes were marked with red, blue and green arrows and tape respectively. We were given rubber bands to be handed in at each check point.
We set off and half the field took off at a really fast pace. It was very misty and remained so for most of the day, it was actually quite damp. I don't remember that much of the beginning of the route as me and Sue were chatting quite a bit! Being in Lincolnshire, it was fairly flat and also fairly muddy. We negotiated a lot of bridal ways and tracks, and had a few gentle jogs, before reaching a road. The other two routes met here so we found ourselves suddenly surrounded by throngs of walkers! I realised that the first check point couldn't be too far off, so we put a spurt on and managed to pass most folks.
We reached the first check point, grabbed a biscuit and stashed a mars bar for later, and set off before the throngs arrived. We found ourselves walking part of the Ponton Plod route, but in reverse; we walked through Buckminster, passed the water tower and jogged most of the lane to Saltby. I discovered that the route overview I had been given had completely disintegrated, so it was lucky it was so well signed!
The second check point was on the air field near Saltby, at about 14 miles. We grabbed another mars bar to stash and I had the most gorgeous home made lemon cake. We set off and periodically picked off a few 14 mile walkers and overtook a couple who were doing the 26. The route was a bit more undulating here, and the 26 mile route branched off to complete a large loop.
We found ourselves on part of the Ponton Plod again, walking between two reservoirs before branching off to pass a third.
Labels: Waltham Winder
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