On Thursday 26th November I woke at 4:00am to walk 100,000 steps in one day.

This post is all about the steps taken to ensure I had what I needed, knew what I was getting into and how I trained for this.

Firstly a brief note on why I decided to walk 100,000 steps.

This was never something which was on my radar until I watched a YouTube video by Benni Ortega called THE TOUGHEST CHALLENGE EVER! 100k STEPS IN 1 DAY After watching Benni walk 100,000 steps around Stockholm, I thought that it was something I would like to attempt…. one day. Then in mid October I injured my knee which has meant I have been unable to run for the past 6 weeks and I am most likely looking at three to six months off running.

This injury brought forward my desire to have a go at the 100,000 steps. I can walk pain free as long as I am not going up any steep hills. So last week, whilst walking our Toy Poodle, I decided now was the time. I was off work at the end of November so I would pick the driest day and go for it. Thursday 26th looked the driest but also the coldest day. Date set, that gave me 7 days to prepare for it.

Planning

I’ll be honest here, I didn’t put a great deal of effort into planning this out.

I thought it is just walking around until I hit 100,000 steps so it won’t be that difficult. I will just pack a bit of food and head out.

I watched a few more videos on YouTube of others who had done the challenge, surprisingly there are quite a few people who have done it.

I calculated that I would walk approximately 2,000 steps per mile, meaning I will need to walk close to 50 miles to achieve the 100,000 steps goal. A quick Google search on “How far is 100,000 steps” confirmed that it was about 50 miles.

From my dog walks, albeit up to a maximum of 3 miles, I knew my walking pace was between 16min – 20min per mile (depending on the number of lampposts she stops at). If I took the slowest pace of 20min per mile or 3 miles per hour, it should take just under 16 hours to walk 50 miles.

What to take?

I didn’t think that I would need to take that much stuff out with me. I took my The Explore Douchebag to pack some items in, pictured above.

Simple things like tissues as it was due to be around 3’c, plasters in case I got any blisters, face mask so I can go into shops to get warm drinks, a cap, gloves and beanie hat to keep me warm, a head torch so I could see on any unlit roads, a bottle of juice, (I actually took a second 750ml bottle as well) portable power bank to charge the Garmin Forerunner 935 watch which I used to track my walk and a GoPro and Panasonic TZ-8 to capture some photos along the way.

Other than that, I packed some flapjacks to eat along the way, some cheese sandwiches for lunch and a pack of Oreo’s. Got to keep the body fuelled throughout the day and I didn’t know how many of the shops would be open during the second national UK Lockdown.

Shoe wise, I just threw on an old pair of Adidas Ultraboost ST, a pair which I had run 623 miles in during 2018/19, so not in the best of condition but they are a comfortable pair.

Route?

I didn’t plan any specific route upfront. I just knew that local cycle route I take was around 20 miles, that goes towards Congleton then to Biddulph Chell, Goldenhill and Kidsgrove. I thought I would follow that route and split off in places. I did plan to walk around Knypersley Pool, a local reservoir where I spent a lot of my childhood exploring.

My wife kindly suggested I walk to Marks & Spencer’s to pick up a Christmas present for my sister-in-law, so that was on the afternoon agenda.

Other than that, I was just going to make it up as I went.

Training?

Given I only came up with this idea 7 days prior, I did not do much…. any training for the walk. I was going to rely on the fitness I had from the 1,700 miles of running & 4,500 miles of cycling during 2020. Although, the knee injury has meant I have done no physical activities for the last 6 weeks.

One thing I have learnt over the years whilst doing endurance races such as marathons, Ironman and multi-day cycle sportives, is things will get tough, you will want to stop and give up but just keep going, keep putting one foot in front of the other and get it done! you DO NOT give up mid-way through anything.

My biggest concern was whether I would get bored being outside for 16 hours by myself, but that’s just one of those times where I will have to suck it up and keep going.