London to Brighton Ultramarathon Trek
Sat, 08 Feb 2020
A 100km hike from Central London to Brighton Pier, through one of the most devastating storms the UK had seen since 2013 - Storm Ciara.
This was 100% one of the hardest things I've ever done, and probably will ever do. I'm writing this post 7 months later, and I'm still having issues with my legs from it 😥 nonetheless, it was still a great experience.
The idea originally came from our team captain, Brandon, who was also my housemate in my second year of university. I instantly agreed to join, 100km seemed a bit of a long distance but how hard could walking be? I've basically been training my whole life!
The plan was to start at Westminster on Saturday at 8am and tackle the first 60km over the period of 14 hours, stopping at Crawley where we'd be staying in a Holiday Inn. We decided to split it unevenly, as the majority of the first day would be through London, not many muddy fields to slow us down, whereas that was pretty much the whole of the last 40km on the second day.
The 8am start was killer, it meant we had to be awake by 4:30 so that we could catch the 6am train. Now let me tell you, nothing really puts how far 100km actually is into perspective better than a 2 hour train journey does...
Luckily the weather wasn't too bad once we arrived, and the first few hours were a relatively easy stroll. There weren't many hills until we started to get to the outer parts of London, we took our first official break at a pub in Coulsdon.
Click to expand
The idea originally came from our team captain, Brandon, who was also my housemate in my second year of university. I instantly agreed to join, 100km seemed a bit of a long distance but how hard could walking be? I've basically been training my whole life!
The plan was to start at Westminster on Saturday at 8am and tackle the first 60km over the period of 14 hours, stopping at Crawley where we'd be staying in a Holiday Inn. We decided to split it unevenly, as the majority of the first day would be through London, not many muddy fields to slow us down, whereas that was pretty much the whole of the last 40km on the second day.
Click to expand
The 8am start was killer, it meant we had to be awake by 4:30 so that we could catch the 6am train. Now let me tell you, nothing really puts how far 100km really is into perspective better than a 2 hour train journey does...
Luckily the weather wasn't too bad once we arrived, and the first few hours were a relatively easy stroll. There weren't many hills until we started to get to the outer parts of London, we took our first official break at a pub in Coulsdon.
I would class Coulsdon as the edge of London, because soon after we took off from our break we started to see nothing but fields - Which is where the real pain began.
I was feeling pretty good at this point though, a few blisters but I was feeling better than I was expecting to for sure! Before I left, I had my housemate give me a few tips on what I could do to keep myself in the game for as long as possible.
Lots of stretches, and lots of slow-release carbs - like pasta.
Of course, being the cautious man I am, I took his advice seriously. People laughed at my stash of pasta, but I knew it'd be ME having the last laugh tomorrow 😎
I would class Coulsdon as the edge of London, because soon after we took off from our break we started to see nothing but fields - Which is where the real pain began.
I was feeling pretty good at this point though, a few blisters but I was feeling better than I was expecting to for sure! Before I left, I had my housemate give me a few tips on what I could do to keep myself in the game for as long as possible.
Lots of stretches, and lots of slow-release carbs - like pasta.
Of course, being the cautious man I am, I took his advice seriously. People laughed at my stash of pasta, but I knew it'd be ME having the last laugh tomorrow 😎
Towards the later part of the day, Storm Ciara had caught up to us. The fields we were walking through were draining more and more energy out of every step we took as the dirt turned to mud. Some of the team were really beginning to struggle, but we still made it to the hotel just after 10pm - just a bit later than planned.
We were all absolutely ruined at this point, the hours of constant wind and rain had killed our spirits, so we ordered four large pizzas to our room and passed out soon after they were devoured.
The next morning I felt paralysed from the waist down, I couldn't even climb over my socks that I'd left on the floor the night before. It was so bad that I actually told everyone I was going to have to bail, there was no way I could walk another 40km in this state. However, in typical Jake fashion, just as everyone was about to leave I made the last-minute decision to give it one last push. Even if I only lasted 10 minutes, I knew I would've kicked myself for not giving it a go.
We'd lost over half of the team at this point, either from being unable to walk or just fear of the storm which had grown significantly worse over the night. Nonetheless, we tanked on! The first 10 minutes were absolutely agonizing, I was the one trailing behind the group and was slowing them down which made me feel quite bad.
Something I have learned from this whole experience is that if you keep pushing through the pain, you eventually hit a point where your legs just go completely numb and you suddenly have this energy that you didn't know you had left - although that could've just been the pasta doing its magic 😎
There's not much to really say about the second day, other than how horrific the weather was. We decided to scrap the route we planned and stick to following country roads, as trekking through the mud was just too exhausting.
Reaching Burgess Hill was one of the happiest moments of the whole trip, it is the town I work in and it was relatively close to Brighton with only 15km to go! The sad part however, is that this is when I started to get sharp pains in my shins, that ultimately lead to my defeat.
I pushed on for as long as I could, another 7km to be exact, but it was at the 92km mark I had to call it a day. I made it to a place called Pyecombe, which has a BN postcode!! So even though I didn't make it to the pier, I still like to say I made it to Brighton :)
It was absolutely gutting that I could not make the final push, but the pain was just too unbearable. I ordered an Uber and headed home, where I promptly the nicest bath I have ever had in my entire life.
Congratulations to Rory, James, Brandon, Miret and Amy who made it the whole way. Total champions 🏆
Towards the later part of the day, Storm Ciara had caught up to us. The fields we were walking through were draining more and more energy out of every step we took as the dirt turned to mud. Some of the team were really beginning to struggle, but we still made it to the hotel just after 10pm - just a bit later than planned.
We were all absolutely ruined at this point, the hours of constant wind and rain had killed our spirits, so we ordered four large pizzas to our room and passed out soon after they were devoured.
The next morning I felt paralysed from the waist down, I couldn't even climb over my socks that I'd left on the floor the night before. It was so bad that I actually told everyone I was going to have to bail, there was no way I could walk another 40km in this state. However, in typical Jake fashion, just as everyone was about to leave I made the last minute decision to give it one last push. Even if I only lasted 10 minutes, I knew I would've kicked myself for not giving it a go.
We'd lost over half of the team at this point, either from being unable to walk, or just fear of the storm which had grown significantly worse over the night. Nonetheless, we tanked on! The first 10 minutes were absolutely agonizing, I was the one trailing behind the group and was slowing them down which made me feel quite bad.
Something I have learned from this whole experience, is that if you keep pushing through the pain, you eventually hit a point where your legs just go completely numb and you suddenly have this energy that you didn't know you had left - although that could've just been the pasta doing its magic 😎
There's not much to really say about the second day, other than how horrific the weather was. We decided to scrap the route we planned and stick to following country roads, as trekking through the mud was just too exhausting.
Reaching Burgess Hill was one of the happiest moments of the whole trip, it is the town I work in and it was relatively close to Brighton with only 15km to go! The sad part however, is that this is when I started to get sharp pains in my shins, that ultimately lead to my defeat.
I pushed on for as long as I could, another 7km to be exact, but it was at the 92km mark I had to call it a day. I made it to a place called Pyecombe, which has a BN postcode!! So even though I didn't make it to the pier, I still like to say I made it to Brighton :)
It was absolutely gutting that I could not make the final push, but the pain was just too unbearable. I ordered an Uber and headed home, where I promptly the nicest bath I have ever had in my entire life.
Congratulations to Rory, James, Brandon, Miret and Amy who made it the whole way. Total champions 🏆