Having seen this challenge online, it was straight onto my bucket list. It's so straightforward that you could almost think it's easy. A mistake I made, but it definitely is not! I read some interesting accounts, including a 70 year old who trained for months and succeeded. The biggest lesson was to start at midnight! No matter how confident you are, it's an endurance event and anything can happen. You don't want to be at 97,000 steps the following midnight because you started at 4:00am; like one person I read about.
I'm both grateful that, and unsure why, Seán Ennis is always up for anything. It's the random adventures only he would consider that have elevated him from friend to brother. My house in Limerick was an obvious base with shops everywhere, nice river paths and it's essentially all flat (several people fail due to tackling mountains). Having hiked 55,000 steps once, I was estimating 80km is what I'd end up walking.
I highly recommend summertime because you need the daylight, but this wasn't an option with other plans. We aimed for October, until a weather window in September was too good to miss (even if it was two weeks after my Ironman & one week before the County Tops). My body felt like it had recovered enough. All of a sudden it was Friday after work and Seán was arriving at mine for midnight, no sleep for either of us (biggest mistake) and off we went. Naïve enough to start, and stubborn enough to finish. Hopefully.
Off we walked into the night. We'd packed ultralight and kept a consistent pace. First to Inver's 24hr deli, then the open road. The route was simple because it was just so dark! We would walk the relatively safe roads to Warrell's End in Castleconnell, and straight home again, twice. Taking us to daylight when we could wander the city, the river paths and all that fun stuff. Spirits were super high, chatting all the way out. It was incredibly cool to have everything to yourself on a clear night, and we were delighted to reach Warrell's End at 3:00am with 17,500 steps down. For me atleast... (I'll get to that).
The way back was different. By 4:30am we were two zombies, meandering towards home and having out of body experiences. By 5:00am, I genuinely don't know what kept us going, and we then got the only rain showers of the day. We dug deep to push on. After another stop in Inver for food we were miraculously home at 6:00am and Seán needed to sleep. He'd decided he would rejoin me later and be happy with 60,000 or 70,000 steps, but there was nothing in our tanks by now. This was a huge hit for me as I refilled my water and set off to repeat the same 6hr loop, but I was determined.
Mentally I was in a terrible place setting off into the dark again. Partly because I had just hit 35,000 steps while Seán, with his shorter legs, was close to 41,000! I had tried to match his stride, but that only hurt my feet and legs more. All I could do was walk consistently at my pace, saddened by the fact that an hour from now he'd be still resting as I finally caught up to his count.
I made it about twenty minutes before I started leaning on walls unable to support myself, thinking this was never going to work. I deliriously held myself against a fence trying to decide whether to call Seán to collect me, or to fall asleep there. Ten minutes on the fence genuinely felt like an eternity, I was so out of it, at a point so low that even the Ironman hadn't brought me to. It was definitely over for now, but I was too delirious to really think that, as asleep as a standing person could be. And then something amazing happened that I could never have anticipated...
As I held the fence, the sun started to rise, and my body's circadian rhythm decided it was time to wake up. I didn't understand it at first but I was walking strong. I sang all the way to Warrell's End where I snapped the photo below, more and more energised as time went on.
I hit 50,000 steps at exactly 40km. I picked up the pace knowing the sooner I get back, the sooner Seán would be out with me again. I managed to do what had been a 6hr loop in just 5hrs, including fence time! It was just gone 11:00am and my sore legs had walked 70,000 steps. It finally felt so achievable, and Seán was back and fresh.
Disgracefully we went to Inver for my fourth time today (we ate a lot), and then wandered the river paths into Limerick City. At this sociable hour everything looks so nice. Solid chats, energetic people everywhere, and while Seán was petting some horses I thought this couldn't be farther from the depths of 6:00am that morning. Crossing a bridge on route to Corbally, I snapped a photo at 80,000 steps.
The remainder flew by. My feet and legs ached and felt like I was one trip from ripping a muscle. Seán wasn't long behind those feelings either, but we'd no blisters which was amazing. We explored town and returned along the river path back towards my house. We'd planned it out and just as we entered my estate I approached 100,000. I walked the final few and snapped a screenshot when it hit. 5:47pm.
With Seán having hit 75,000, the plan was to get showered and head to the pub, but as soon as we took this photo Seán changed his mind. Told me to send on the pubs address and he'd meet me there when it's done.
My girlfriend Katie was nice enough to be the designated driver. She and I went in for pizzas, not knowing how Seán would be getting on. We'd expected him to take 3.5 to 4 hours to finish it out, but he came in under 3 having jogged a lot of it. It was an overwhelmingly happy moment for both of us, filled with so much pride. From the sounds of things he'd managed to unknowingly route himself through every dodgy area in the city, in the dark, but all's well that ends well. And to top it off, Katie surprised us with unreal medals she had designed and 3D printed:
Leaving the pub we had to get the car brought close because our legs didn't work. It took a few days before I could climb a stairs without looking like a robot, but I'm so thoroughly happy we did it. There's no getting around it, this is an endurance challenge. A rollercoaster of emotions and insane experience. For something so simple, I can't believe how much it tested us through the night. Seán thanked me for having the idea, and I'm so glad we got to experience it together. I have huge respect for anyone who has completed it, and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone. It was a perfect pressure test for Seán and I, which has given me confidence that we're going to achieve some great things. Watch this space...
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