July 2020 will be a month I will certainly remember for a variety of reasons. The first is that on Wednesday 22nd I completed Country Walking magazine’s #walk1000miles challenge.
This was a month quicker than any #walk1000miles challenge I have done since 2017 when I first took up this quest. Indeed my previous record was during my first #walk1000miles challenge back in 2017 when I achieved this distance on 22nd August. Now having bought the #walk1500miles medal this is the new distance I will try and attain before 2020 comes to a close. Earlier in the year I did consider the #walk2000miles challenge but after an amazing January where I walked almost 175 miles I was beaten back by severe weather in February with floods, high winds and storms so these aspects limited my walking to only 117 miles.
Returning to July 2020 it was my highest mileage recorded in a month attaining 255 miles (410.5km). All these miles were completed on countryside walks starting straight out my front door and returning home at the finish. Previously my highest recorded mileage whilst participating in the #walk1000miles challenge was in April 2017 when I hit almost 211 miles (339.1km). Even then most of the miles were completed locally with support from lunch time walks in urban green spaces near my work place.
This now leads to the next reason as in March the British Government suddenly recognised that we were coming into the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic. In mid March after I returned from the British Mountaineering Council’s Walking Symposium in the Lake District there was a #Lockdown. This greatly affected my monthly mileage for both March and then April. However, some restrictions eased starting from the end of April and the Gove mandated one hour a day exercise guidelines were lifted. So in May and June my monthly mileage for both months touched the benchmark of 167 miles which is the monthly target to attain the #walk2000miles challenge.
Perhaps the final reason is that even though I had four weeks holiday in July I will remember it for #Staycation. The Government promoted this due to travel restrictions in holidaying abroad and indeed this was previously the case for travelling to either Wales or Scotland. So it basically means a holiday spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions. I went for the latter meaning. Every walk I completed in July were circular activities starting and finishing at my front door. Personally, I think that my staycation should be certified as “carbon negative” by whoever gives out these awards! Yes, I am fortunate to live in a village in the English East Midlands but I have taken the opportunities on offer with the amazing local landscape and the associated rights of way network to #GetOutside. Please note that even as committed hillwalker I haven’t waited until Covid-19 to find out that my locality is a great place to walk. I have been utilising the rights of way network wherever I have lived for over 40 years.
Finally, as July comes to a close and I am back at work next Monday it has been a wonderful #Staycation experience and my total towards #walk1500miles challenge is now 1063 miles. Now with five months left of 2020 I am confident that I will attain the 1500 miles target.
chrisnavigator 