Thanks, Jo & Julian. I'm packing my sack now. Sadly had to jetison the laptop and solar panel, and just looking at the weight of the inflatable bouncer. (This was my cunning plan for the descent from Ingleborough). Your "footprints in the dew" idea inspired me ... I'm going to spray the shoes of the runners with radioactive paint and then use a geiger counter to follow them in the dark. I will have to take my tiny AM radio, though. Hull City (I'm the fan) are in the play-off final at Wembley for promotion to the Premiership. At least I have my priorities right. Garfield

Belatedly ….very many thanks to all marshals, checkpointers and helpers – and even those who just gave us a friendly smile – on the Marshall’s event, it’s very much appreciated. Particular thanks to those helping outside at Kidhow Gate ! and Barden Bridge.
We only hope we can start to repay the favour on the main event.

We had a great time, no major problems with route finding, enough checkpoints with lots of food and drink, weather very good until mid morning Sunday (then it got a bit wetter), but all in all if the main event is as good as the Marshall’s it will be a great success.

I took about 240 photos I took on the way round, will sort and edit as appropriate (deleting the 100 or so of my feet, the sky etc) and put them on the web – somewhere.

Quite a lot more people out and about compared to last year in Wales, when there was – literally – not another person to be seen for hours – but that’s the Yorkshire Dales for you, Bolton Abbey area being particularly popular.

A few thoughts –

The route description is plenty detailed enough, no-one should go too wrong, (although we had the usual ‘wondering round all 7 corners of a field trying to find the stile’ a couple of times), perhaps too much so in places but better that than not enough. I went through and highlighted the few important lines where you actually ‘did something’ (ie turned L or R, left the main path, joined road etc, rather than just following the path ahead….) This meant you could just read the rest of the words if you needed to. For example off Ingleborough to Horton you only really need steps 1 to 3 – then ‘ahead downhill’ …..

I also had the map for each leg to hand so you could see where / how far you’d got, (if you want to know !! - the route has no ‘distance covered’ other than at the end of each leg) and kept my thumb on the map at the current location – (also write ‘para 4.30’, ‘7.25’ or whatever at the appropriate points on the map). The biggest navigational problem was trying to see if you were still on a path at night, one bit of grass through a field can look much like another, and some of the paths from Kidhow to Stalling Busk aren’t that ‘clear on the ground’ at night. Anyone following could of course try to follow the trail of footprints through the dew. Don’t put the route sheet in a shiny plastic cover at night or else you can’t read it !! try a matt one, or none at all if it’s dry, or waterproof paper as Sue suggests.

That said a large amount of the route is very straightforward. Very little road, a lot of good paths but these tend to be stony ! you can’t have everything – and quite a lot of grassy paths which would become muddy / slippery if wet.

The first bit of the route is very easy going, if you’re a quick walker or runner, don’t set off too soon or you’ll be waiting around at the first few checkpoints.

The track up to Kidhow is now almost up to ‘pennine bridleway’ standard I believe -but needs bedding in a bit – 500 pairs of feet should do the job.

We’ve developed a rather hacking cough - which seems to be brought on by catching up 'strollers' and tourists on narrow paths (not that they don't have as much right to the path as you do). If it's hot you can get an ice cream in the Cavendish Pavilion shop I'm told !!

By Addingham you might have seen enough of the river Wharfe…. very pretty though it is.

Support is excellent, with the number of checkpoints we had, with more on the main event you could find yourself dallying longer than you’d planned at them – not that there’s too much wrong with that of course, but you’ll still have the miles to do…

All the best of luck to everyone for the main event, hope to see you about somewhere, J & J

Try printing the route description onto waterproof paper - you can write on it (with pencil) under water. The West Lancs group bought a pack for use at outdoor checkpoints - it doesn't tear when wet. If dry, you can write on it with biro or anything else.
One supplier is http://www.aquascribe.co.uk/index.asp
You'd need the sort that's compatible with a laser printer. You can also photocopy onto it.

Highlighting alternate lines can help, but I've found it doesn't show up clearly in torch light.

The support was wonderful. I made it 72 helpers to look after 30 of us - thanks again to everyone who gave up their weekend.

I thought I had solved the problem of losing my place on the route instructions by laminating the sheets in anticipation of wet weather and buying a permanent marker pen to tick off the sections. This worked very well until it started raining when I discovered that the marker skidded on the wet plastic and made no mark. Back to the drawing board!

Many thanks to John and all his helpers - considerably more than the walkers to judge from the results sheet. Special mention must go to Helen and Garfield at Kidhow Gate. I think there was some sort of Yorkshire enchantment abroard over night that kept moving the checkpoint further and further away - but when we arrived the real magic began. Munching Helen's flapjack while she cooked hotdogs and Garfield inspected Geoff's blisters - and a few drops of rain pattered on the canvas - a memorable moment.

If I were doing it all over again next Bank Holiday I think I would a) prune and edit the route description to just the essential twists and turns - I tend to lose my place with too much detail, which resulted in me telling Geoff on the road into Hawes that we had gone wrong and should retrace our steps. After he had collapsed on the grass verge we worked out we were in the right place geographically but the wrong paragraph on the page (sorry Geoff) b)keep a compass out and use it to take the bearing given in the route description off Ingleborough and over the fields to Beambridge. We did this and had no trouble but I gather one or two went a bit astray c)study the map carefully for those fiddly little fields into Hawes and note some bearings and d)put a high viz / reflective patch on the back of my pack for that horrrible bit of road after Bolton Bridge - oh and the bicycle bell - I thought of having a little card printed to hand out to all those lovely people pootling along the Dales Way explaining what I was up to and why, if they didn't mind, I would be frightfully grateful if they would just see their way to letting me slip past
And how did the marshals at Linton know that I was fantasising about hot pasta as I approached their checkpoint? Ravioli? yes please - 2 helpings

The results are on

http://www.wizzer5.co.uk/marshals_walk_results.htm

Thanks to everyone involved at the weekend. A few photos are on:-


http://drive.123-reg.co.uk/20683-137792902

Full screen mode is the symbol to the right of "100%".

I really like Tony's idea about bicycle bells for warning the more pedestrian walkers on the Dales Way that a determined 100'er was approaching. Imagine issuing 530 such bells at the start. By a very rough calculation, at the 70 mile mark there will (hopefully) be 530 walkers spread back over 35 miles. This means a walker every 116 yards. About every 90 seconds!! Or, rather than asking Mr Sparshatt to fund the bells, we ask each walker to bring their own noisy gadget. Klaxons, horns, drums etc. Now, if the average decibel level is .....

Yes, an excellent weekend despite the weather deteriorating on the Sunday. I also found the going fast on the first half but slower later on with more intricate navigation, more mud and other path users getting in the way! Very many thanks to all the organisers, helpers and checkpointers - the support was tremendous.

I look forward being at the main event in three weeks time - if the Marshals' Walk is anything to go by it will be a great success.

A superb weekend. Very much a walk with several different characters. Saturday was a wonderful walking day. Miles of open limestone hill country on good paths and tracks, easy navigation and just about perfect weather. Very fast - kicking off with 5 miles of canal walking seduces you into keeping the pressure on, the runners will love it. The steep final climb up Ingleborough came as a bit of a shock, definitely nothing left in the tank at the top. One walker was benighted there and spent the night in his survival bag in the shelter. Mountain rescue were alerted and he had a first class seat in a helicopter in the morning.

I reached Kidhow Gate at a 30 hour average, but everything changed on Saturday night. The paths on the descent to Hawes are hard to follow in the dark, not helped by a couple of hours of rain. The low level sections to Stalling Busk are also tricky so it pays to have the map handy rather than relying totally on the route description. Slower walkers may benefit, as much of the hours of darkness will be spent on the straightforward sections from Ingleborough to Horton and on to Gidhow Gate.

The rain came back on Sunday morning, which made the riverside Dales Way paths very slippery. No real navigation problems, but lots of gates to open and stiles to cross. Many other walkers around which made progress on narrow paths slow at times - a bicycle bell would be a useful addition to the pack for the main event!

The second half of the walk took me 19 hours against 15 hours for the first half, due to the slower terrain, poorer weather the inevitable problems of body deterioration and an overambitious early pace. There are many miles of stony tracks on the route, which can be particularly hard on feet, so meticulous attention to foot preparation and ongoing maintenance is essential if a painful last few miles is to be avoided.

This was my first Marshals walk and it was enjoyable to exerience the totally different atmosphere to the main event. I walked the last 40 miles with Mick Clayton and we did not see a single Hundred walker in that time. Many thanks to the noble band of checkpointers who were on duty for so many hours to look after just 30 of us. The individual service was superb. Particular thanks to The Irregulars for the life saving bottle of beer at Addingham.

If you are one of the 500 taking part in the main event, then you are in for a memorable experience, let's hope we are rewarded with good weather. I just hope you don't need my services - I am driving the body wagon!

Yes, good photos, Alan. The walkers certainly look a lot fresher than when they arrived at Kidhow Gate! Helen and I could see their headtorches almost all the way along the route from Birkwith Moor. Last walkers came through at 4am, just as the sky was lightening.

Alan - good photos. Looked better day than today, although perhaps today was better for running/walking.

Look forward to hearing how people got on. It's made the 100 feel really close now.

I've just got round to ordering some clothing. Wasn't sure whether to order them before I had finished it. Not sure I'm going to like wearing them if I don't! But on with positive thinking, I've ordered! I've also spent so much time preparing for this event, that I think it will be nice to have something to show for it (after the aches & pains have gone!)

I took a few photos on the above while marshaling at CP2. They can be viewed at www.alangreenwood.biz/walkingpage/index.html