Offa’s Dyke. North to South. Self-supported, making use of the few shops and pubs available on route. Carried all gear. Base weight was just over 4kg without food and water. Ran with my coach for a couple of miles early on (he lives on the route) he stayed behind me and in no way ‘paced’ me. Track shows additional mileage from leaving watch/tracker running whilst inside. This was a bit of an epic mission. A beautiful and varied route. Weather was warm on the first day, with the only bad weather coming on the Saturday night. Struggled with finding supplies and water. Used filter in rivers a couple of times, but wasn’t much about. Was very sick at around 50 miles, became very dehydrated and was coughing up/spitting blood at one point... Pulled it round after finding a couple of pubs in the right spots (although big time waste, obviously). Had trouble with feet after being unable to keep them dry. That cost me even more time and was pretty painful by Chepstow! Only slept for a few hours in total: once under a bridge, once just by the side of the road. Had some very strange experiences between Monmouth and the end. Not so much hallucinations but a sense of intense deja vu that went on for most of the final few hours - it was dark and foggy which didn’t help... Was hoping for a much quicker time but these things piled up and it was enough of an effort just to get the thing done! Looking forward to doing it faster one day. In fact, I’m assuming this isn’t the fastest time for solo self-supported, but I couldn’t find any information out there. So, this is more of a conversation starter...
Athletes
Route variation
Standard point-to-point
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Self-supported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
3d
1h
25m
31s
GPS track(s)
Offa’s Dyke Rob Smith.gpx9.96 MB
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