100 miles for 100years

by Sue Macdermott, Beaconsfield WI

​Spurred on by the Bucks Federation’s centenary challenge to ‘walk 100 miles for 100 years’, Beaconsfield WI asked me to form a walking group and lead it through the year. By the end of October, the official end to the challenge, 111 different walkers had participated in 13 walks. We averaged 3.5 miles – the shortest walk a gentle 1.5miles, the longest 7.5 miles, walking the perimeter roads of Beaconsfield as a grand finale to the challenge.  The total distance walked was 366.5 miles. 

​Our year started off with a four-mile walk from a coffee house in Beaconsfield, walking in woods, fields and an unused country lane, to finish where we started with a well-deserved coffee and the chance for everyone to catch up after the Christmas break.
 
We managed to get out on a regular basis thereafter, so that by 12 March we had successfully completed five walks – one being the wettest walk the walk leader had ever led. The alpacas we saw did not seem to mind the rain but we did, so the walk was shortened to get back to the protection of the pub, where a hot drink was very welcome. 

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​Then of course ‘Lockdown’ started and WIs were not allowed to organise any more walks. That was disappointing, as we had established a good momentum. The walks had been going really well and people had all sorts of ideas that we could add into our overall walk challenge – one in particular was to try to get to a total of 100 participants before the challenge ended.
 
After nearly three months’ lockdown we were off again, now testing our social distancing skills. We kicked off with a gentle evening walk to get everyone back in the swing of it. This was the shortest walk of the year; we spent longer sitting and chatting away on the green afterwards than on the walk itself!  We learnt to walk at a social distance in groups of no more than six and this very quickly became the norm – and not as hard as it sounds.
 
It’s always good to socialise, especially so after the isolation of lockdown. So we always tried to end the walks somewhere we could meet safely, and non-walkers were always welcome to join us for a drink and chat.
 
The Challenge has been a really rewarding experience despite, or perhaps because of, the pandemic constraints on meeting, and many of us have discovered wonderful new routes and spaces we’ve never been to before. The glorious summer helped a lot, but we will keep going through the mud and rain and take up the new challenge for 2021.