Offa and his Dyke

 The longest run since the 2014 Cardiff Half Marathon on Wednesday, and today the longest walk since the WAAT4 challenge, also in 2014.  Seeing a theme here?

We were walking for Alzheimer’s today as they tried to circumnavigate Wales using the Coastal Path and Offa’s Dyke.  I’d suggested to my friend Anne that she should lead a walk as she knows Offa’s Dyke path well, but sadly she bust her knee a month or so ago and couldn’t complete it.  To make sure the leg was completed, we walked the leg for her, 16 miles from Pandy to Abergavenny.

We started early, and it was a tad damp as we made our way to the start, it even started snowing.  And for the first hour it tried it’s best to snow without much luck.  After that it cleared up and it was a great day.

I’d only walked a small section of the Offa’s Dyke path before, so it was a nice experience to see more of Wales.  We saw some incredible sights and views along the way, like this church, and we also met many other hikers doing the reverse of our walk.  We bumped into this guy from Switzerland who was walking the path on his holiday, he seemed to be enjoying it.

The 16 miles were over quite undulating ground, so was a proper test of your fitness.  Towards the end it’s more of a mental battle, as you grow mentally tired quicker than physically tired.  So to face a great big climb right at the end of the walk wasn’t much fun, but I did it.  We met up with Anne to walk the last mile together, after a photo stop so the event website could be updated.

A splendid meal to celebrate then!