Sorry it has taken me 9 days to post my thanks for a truely brilliant event (my delay wasn't just due physical recovery....honest!). From the friendly welcome at 10pm on the Friday night, followed by a warm and remarkedly quiet hall for a good pre-walk sleep, to the 'welcome back' cuddle from Mike and scrummy breakfast, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole event...except perhaps when I ended up in liquid clay up to both thighs and needed the help of 2 fellow macho walkers to pull me out. still I got a free face pack, great plaster caste when it solidified and a great hose down at the next CP!! Seriously, I cannot begin to imagine how much time and dedication is given by Mike and his team to stage The Dorset Giant...thank you. On a personel note, Mike Childs has had a very big influence on my passion for long distance walking. His personal input got me around my first 60 miler Holy Hobble and his helpful tips and encouragement helped me achieve my 1st 100....thanks Mike.

My GPS recorded a total distance of 66.1 miles. For some reason this included 0.6 miles while the GPS "wandered around on its own" inside the checkpoint at Cerne Abbas while I was relaxing (so the "real" mileage would be 65.5miles). As far as I know I followed the route pretty much exactly.

Well, it seems there three reports now that all show a bit more than 100K for the 2010 route. If these figures are a reasonable record of the walk, it would certainly explain why some finishers felt their times were rather slow. Anyway, well done to everyone, you are all real long distance walkers...

Mike,
Many thanks to all for a great weekend in beautiful Dorset. Here are the distances from my GPS, which may or may not be accurate:
In order from start, 10.2m, 10.7m, 9.5m, 6.2m, 7m, 6.9m, 7m, 3.4m, 5.8m Total 66.7m or 107.3km. To the best of my knowledge I kept to the described route, apart from a minor navigational error between Cerne Abbas and Charminster which I have allowed for above. I have downloaded the track onto a digital map and can't see any places where the GPS has thrown a wobbly.
Rob

MIke,

I've measured the route using the route description, my memory of the route, Memory Map version 4 and a combination of 1:25k and 1:50k maps.

I make the distance 64.6 miles and 7440; ascent. Most probabl;y expalins why I haven't managed to break 20 hours yet!

Thanks to all concerned for a great walk. I was looking forward to it so much and I wasn't let down.

Brilliant event - big thank you to everyone for all your hard work in bringing such an event together. The food was superb and the general atmosphere was fantastic. Beautiful route, but tough for several reasons - hard baked ground - my feet are still a squelchy mess, and the rain at night was psychologically draining for me - difficult to leave a lovely warm cosy checkpoint at 4am and go back out into stair rods.
Saw an adder in the path for the first time ever that hissed at me and quickly scuttled off - fantastic.
Thanks especially to Mike for stuffing me full of fruit jellies and for the encouragement to keep going.

I’d like to add my thanks to those in previous posts to all involved in planning and running the event. It was an excellent event. The food at each checkpoint was superb, the marshals attentive and sympathetic, and the route description was meticulous – I can’t remember any part of the route not exactly as described. It is a struggle to suggest any way in which the event could have been bettered. Even the weather played ball for the most part.

(Scraping the barrel here....) the only time I got lost was in trying to find my way back to the breakfast area in the school after the event having followed the plentiful signs to the toilets – only to discover the route was not so obvious in reverse!

Slightly more seriously, I was most grateful at the time for the marker wands on several short sections of route encountered during the night. On reflection (no pun intended) I don’t know if they didn’t perhaps reduce the element of challenge. I imagine their location was selected mindful of specific problems encountered in the past in which case there is justification, but I certainly wouldn’t want to see such marking carried out to any greater extent.

I have been asked if the route is actually more than 100 kilometres. I believe the answer may be yes, but I am not sure by how much. The complex, hilly and dissected landscape of West Dorset does not lend itself to really accurate measurement, whether by old fashioned methods or the latest in GPS

A figure of 104 K (65 miles) has been reported, but I feel this may be a little on the high side. The same estimate included the figure of about 2250 metres of ascent - which may not be far out. Looking on the positive side, if those figures are reasonable approximations, I think most of the additional mileage is in the first two thirds of the walk so it seems likely that anyone who got as far as CP6 Charminster before retiring would have completed a very creditable 50 miles (and probably 70% of the climbing) How ever far it was, you all did well.

As for Betty Lewis - what an example to us all...

Is there anyone who believes that they have a more accurate figure ?

.

Great event. When I plotted the route I could not understand the reason for the Dog Leg out Langton Hive point - but certainly did when I got there, the views were over chesil beach were stunning. Not only was the food excellent but every checkpoint made sure there was enough left, including variety, for those of us at the back, or to be more precise - last! Hope the catering is as good on this year's 100 - it has been a problem on some past 100's for slower walkers, where there has been no real portion contol. Many thanks to the organisers of the DG and all the helpers.

Many thanks to Mike and all involved for an excellent event. Superb organisation and the checkpoints were the best ever. Your hard work is very much appreciated by everyone. Thank you.

Yes, a great event. Checkpoint services at the top of the LDWA standards (which are already superior to any others): Friendly and cheerful faces, wide choice of food: all the help a walker needs (except a lift to the next checkpoint).

The route? Ah, this was one of the hard ones. Hard ground, hot day, hills steep and plentiful. Rutted tracks, too – it takes just one tractor or a few horses on a muddy day to turn a path into an ankle twisting nightmare when the ground bakes hard. As a training walk for Scotland to check both fitness and equipment it surpassed expectations: so much that at 50 miles the prospect of another 50 was more than daunting. And I definitely will not be wearing the same boots in Scotland. But of course through the Dorset countryside: ancient ruins, beautiful views, woodlands with bluebells and wild garlic.

Thank you, Dorset, for hosting a wonderful event, and thanks, Mike, for the extra bit of help at the end and at CP 1.

Brilliant event. Like you said Mike the Dorset countryside is superb any time of the year (funny enough I am looking out of my bedroom window on the edge of Yeovil at the vast telecom pylons at Rampisham as I write!). Great appreciation must go to all 3 south west groups for the running of the "triple". The checkpoint food was top notch and a big thanks to the manning of them. It was also the first time I have been to Weymouth since the start of the relief road building, what a shock! Anyway, looking at the times of these postings has lots of people taken the day off today for recovery? Not suprised though, it was tough. It was also great training for the 100 as well. See you there.

this was my first LDWA event , absolutely brilliant! far tougher than I expected but also far far better organised and supported that I ever dreamt . Yesterday morning I vowed never to put on my boots again but Im toying with the idea of a 100 miler now. thank you so much , absolutely excellent event and a real experience. and thanks to the two blokes from cheshire (sorry didnt get your names) for your company in the last 5 hours or so and helping me get through that last 8 miles or so. thanks, thanks and thanks again to everyone involved :-)

That was such a fantastically nice event! The blackcurrant and apple crumble served at Frampton was the best ever, the support all round terrific, the route unforgettable. We saw cowslips and orchids. Those cows were a bit scary - it was dark by the time we went through that bit and my head torch kept picking out the whites of their eyes. Yes, it is (to use Mike's understatement) 'quite a hard event' but so worth it.

In addition to the official results, we intend to put an event report on the Dorset LDWA website sometime in early May. In the meantime, please put any feedback and comments on the forum and we can use them in the final report. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, the weather was almost perfect. You would have had some very nice views over West Dorset from Shipton Hill. Isn't the countryside lovely on this route ? It was great to see lots of familiar faces on the walk. Because of the very cold winter the bluebells were a bit late this year but the blackthorn blossom was very pretty. Well done Rebecca (third time lucky - I knew you would finish) It is quite a tough 100K, I think.

mike

what an event! such an amazing part of the uk with wonderful views; the checkpoints were so well managed,with great food and a friendly welcome at each one; thanks also to Julie, Jenny, Alan, John, Peter and (last but not least) Graham, we all started at 10 and managed to stay together to the end despite torches failing, falls, chased by cows etc

100K? Could easily have been the annual 100 with regards to CP support - all in village halls except the first, food plentiful and infinitely varied, much of it home-made (lemon cake and cottage pie were superb), all served up by friendly, helpful marshals. Maybe only to be expected from an LDWA group but much appreciated non the less. Even the rain came at the right time and in sifficient quantities to water and soften the parched, rock-hard terrain we had to walk on! Dorset group really did push the boat out and many people must have put in many a long hour to prepare so well for such a big event - thank you.