A Duffield walker has put his heart and sole into a personal challenge to walk 1,000 miles during 2020 – notching up an entire marathon in just one day.
Brian Sword, who works as a project manager for Lubrizol, has so far clocked up an impressive 692 miles, which includes an extraordinary 26.2 miles – a full marathon – in a single day.
Despite the cancellation of the group walks Brian had planned, with fellow members of the club Boots and Blogs, he was determined not to be beaten.
Brian said: “At Christmas I read an article that talked about the benefits of consistent walking – for your physical and mental health it scores on many levels. It’s less taxing on the body’s joints than running and you don’t really need any special equipment.
“I have always loved walking and from the age of 14 months I lived in Scotland; I think this is where my love of being out in the general countryside, walking and nature comes from.
Walker Brian Sword, who works at Lubrizol.
“I also enjoy setting myself personal challenges, so I decided to try the 1,000 miles in 2020. Obviously there have been no group walks and thanks to Covid plenty of events have been cancelled, but I decided to soldier on.”
In June, 30 of Brian’s colleagues at took part in the British Heart Foundation’s MyMarathon Challenge, which invited people to run or walk 26.2 miles over the course of a month.
They collectively clocked up more than 1,600 miles – the equivalent of running from Belper to Albania. Brian saw the exercise as an opportunity to get some miles on the clock, so committed to going the distance in a day – rather than over a month.
He planned out a circular route which took in Quarndon, Kedleston Village, Limekilns, Turnditch, Shottlegate and Farnah Green, and completed the marathon effort in 10 hours and 43 minutes, at an average speed of 2.5 mph.
Brian added: “This was a personal challenge for me as I hadn’t attempted such a distance in one walk before – my personal best being 17.5 miles some years ago with my eldest son which was also for the British Heart Foundation.
“I made some interesting discoveries during the walk, including a well on the route out of Quarndon, which displayed a plaque saying Daniel Defoe had visited it in 1727.
“Close to the village of Weston Underwood I also found a Second World War grave and memorial to the five crew of a night cross country navigation flight that had been returning to its base at Ashbourne when the aircraft dived into the ground just a few miles short.
“It’s finds like this that make the challenge really worthwhile and I’m looking forward to seeing what else I discover in the remaining 308 miles.”
ENDS
For further information please contact Sarah Newton at Penguin PR on 07974 502 764 or email [email protected]
