Unexpectedly I became ‘Chair' of Wilts group this year. Fairly shortly after that conversation on a walk came to the LDWA 50th and that the group ‘ought' to do something. OK What? Before COVID Wilts was intending to run a 50 mile challenge walk. There was not the time to restart that plan for 2022, so in the course of a group walk, an idea developed of a lightweight event, 50 miles, 50 walkers, for a 50th (or 50:50:50).

After a quick bit of further thinning and checking it was realized this was possible, and could be delivered with a small team of volunteers. The walk would have no start/finish hall (just a car park on the top of a hill), and only 2 indoor checkpoints (supplemented by 3 outdoor checkpoints). Also it would be a walk, so no runners (the only real condition of entry was “anyone reasonably believed to have been running on the route will be disqualified�).

The nature of the walk was going to challenge what some of the faster walkers would otherwise have done. Also as a small event it gave the opportunity to experiment with doing things differently.

The volunteer ask was different. The first team of 2 doing checkpoint 1, part of checkpoint 2, and checkpoint 3. The second team did part of checkpoint 4 and checkpoint 5. The catering started at checkpoint 2, then moved to checkpoint 4. The main checkpoints were all within 20 minutes of each other). I handled the start, and moved around the route and checkpoints, eventually welcoming people back to the finish.

Advertising was deliberately kept very low key, with signup using the groups Meetup account. A week before we had our 50 walkers, but then the inevitable retirements. So on the 8th October 44 walkers arrived on a hill in the middle of wiltshire bathed in glorious sunshine for 8am.

The route was achievable, but certainly not easy, with over 7000' of ascent, and made use of an area of Wiltshire that would almost certainly be new to almost everyone on the walk. The start location did mean that the hardest ascent was the last ascent on the route. The route was deliberately as varied as possible, and for the night section tried to make more use of tracks, and road sections were kept to a minimum. The route description was largely written on a tablet as the route was walked. You get some good looks when out walking and you pull out a tablet and stabbing at the screen ;-)

The route went from Westbury white horse, north a bit, before turning south through the edges of Westbury to the first checkpoint in Upton Scudamore. For there, south to the first real hill, before passing through the sidestreets of Warminster. Further south still to reach Longbridge Deverill, and the ascent of Cold Kitchen Hill before descending to checkpoint 2 in Upper Deverill Village Hall. From there, some more hills (well the same hill twice) before heading to Mere, and a climb to the top of Mere castle. After a quick checkpoint 3 in Mere the ‘flat' section along the Monarch's Way to Hindon and checkpoint 4. Now for the long walk home, north over the Great Ridge, and towards the Imber Range Path. Checkpoint 5 came just after the first lump of Scratchbury Hill, before continuing north with more of the lumps on the edge of the plain. Finally the last ascent to Upton Cow Down, and a track to the finish.

44 started, 41 finished the full route. Everyone walked. Everyone (more or less) stayed within the checkpoint timings. For those that want to see the checkpoint timings the can be found [url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GvkAuwIBeDcnvbEBfy_FrGZ0xCIrK-aIzfpyCFHXZIc]here{/url].

An army marches on its stomach, and Janette did an absolutely stellar job with the catering. The soup kettle really showed its value, and is a great way to keep food going for hours. I think it is the first time I have seen couscous used as the carbs in checkpoint meal, something I would recommend.


I think there are a number of points which are worth identifying:

1) The event was kept small. My view is that people enjoyed it more because it was small.

2) The look was kept not too professional. Entry used meetup, and payment site, rather than a big event payment site. Emails were deliberately kept friendly.

3) Marshals were multi tasked. Everyone had a full day, and it is good for both the marshals and the walkers to see faces again.

4) No runners. Yes you can organize an event which says you will be disqualified for running. Several people said that is not possible to do. I did, and it is.

5) We tracked the entrants using my system which is based on mobile phones and NFC tags. This worked well, and as it is one device which is handed to a marshal, and is easy to use.

6) The system allowed me to easily access walkers mobile numbers. This allowed me to call back markers and do a ‘welfare check'. An approach I would use again (possibly a bit earlier) as being more effective than sweepers.

7) Knowing where walkers are meant it was possible to meet entrants on the route by car, and do a welfare check/encouragement.

8) A Whatsapp group was setup for all the marshals to communicate. I would heavily recommend that any event does something similar. It keeps everyone informed, cuts out chinese whispers, allows questions or problems to be solved quickly (by whoever knows the answer), and helps make all the volunteers feel far more part of a team.

9) Notes on checkpoint locations to marshals need to be very detailed, and include pictures of all the checkpoints.

10) The finish probably needed another person so there was slack in the system in case of a problem.

11) Don't try and write certificates out on a windy, wet table at night. Use a printer with a battery

12) Ideally the event should have been structured to further minimize number checkpoints open at any one time. This would have meant fast walkers being more heavily encouraged to start later.


Challenge walks are only possible to the volunteers that offer to give up their time to deliver them. I wanted to keep it to a tight small team, and thanks to Bea, Clive, Deirdre, Janette, Mike and Sue for your efforts (particularly Janette).

Beyond the above I would be interested in what people though of the format, and how things worked (inevitable I only had visibility of parts of the day).