I am planning another attempt at the Dales Way non stop, starting tommorrow morning (Monday 20th July) around 9am. This will be my 5th attempt at non stop, however the first time I walked the route was over 8 days with my wife. Of the 5 attempts 3 were successful and 2 failures at 40 miles and 65 miles.
You have to be on your metal to succeed in these as any underlying problems comes to the fore with a vengence by 30 miles and inevatably leeds to failure.
I still have the 5 day C2C attempt in my head and have recently proved that I can manage over 30 miles a day on multi day trips carrying a wild camping pack, so I going to see how I go with this once more. I am going for shear distance and speed, so I will go as lightweight as possible wearing my Merrell Exotech adventure racing shoes. Here goes!
Dave.

Good luck. The weather looks to be OK for tomorrow and Tuesday morning and not too hot either. With the rain "up North" lately it could be a bit "damp" underfoot!

Cheers for that and yes a good point, Ive decided to go with boots instead.
Dave.

Well thats the third failure on this route! I was going strong up to 10 miles, then MY underlying condition came to fore. This hip/groin strain that has dogged me for 18 months although never really affected my walking, did so this time. Perhaps because I was striding away more than of recent and stretching the muscles that bit further. Anyway both upper inner thighs began giving me grief and soon my legs had tightened up to the point they only feel light towards the end of the route.
On top of this both heels blistered at about the same time. I had experimented by placing Compeed on beforehand. This worked well on the other areas of my feet but not on the heels. I drew the conclusion from this that reason I always seem to get deep seatd blisters there if down to pressure rather than friction. The faster one walks the heavier the heel strike - the more the pressure. The weight didnt help. I tried to go as light as possible but still ended up with 17lbs with water, food etc. During my recent multi day trips wild camping in the Lake District I have carried 30lbs worn the same boots and socks, covering over 30 miles per day and never has a blister. The only difference was walking at a steady 2.5 mph compared to 3.5 mph on this non stopper.
I ended up walking into the river, filling mt boots with water to try and ease the discomfort. Unfortunatly this proved futile and late in the day I realised that if I carried on, by the time I got to Bowness after 84 miles the blisters would have spread right round and underneath my heels as had happened before. I wasnt prepared to let that happen especially as that would also have meant slowing down too much and being far outside my intended time. There would be no point in that as I have had faster times on the route before.
Fter 43 miles and 13.5 hours averaging a little under 3.2 mph including stops, I endeded up walking up to the Station Inn at Ribblehead at 11.05 pm and asking for accomodation. I had been fearful of refusal at that late hour, but they couldnt have been more helpful and fixed me up. This could signal the end of my longer non stoppers, my wife in the meanwhile is less than convinced claiming that I say that everytime!
Dave.

.hard luck Dave
better luck next time caus ethere will be a next time

I expect that you will want to do it again as you will forget how bad it was but as you have nothing to prove on the Dales Way you could just decide to walk something else and set yourself a new best time.

Having just re read articles on the Long Distance Walkers site about deep heel blisters including a comment I made about the use of Lanolin, I think my recent heel problems are due to the shaped footbeds I have been using. I will now be looking for good cushioned yet supprtive FLAT footbeds. Problem is the better footbeds ALL seem to be shaped. Any one know of any flat ones?
Dave.

Having just re read articles on the Long Distance Walkers site about deep heel blisters including a comment I made about the use of Lanolin, I think my recent heel problems are due to the shaped footbeds I have been using. I will now be looking for good cushioned yet supprtive FLAT footbeds. Problem is the better footbeds ALL seem to be shaped. Any one know of any flat ones?
http://www.ldwa.org.uk/forum/show_topic.php?tpc=63&dir=S
Dave.

Commiserations on the blisters and the disappointment.
I've never been able to fathom why, once in a while, I get blisters under the heel.
Same boots, same footbeds, same type of sock - usually OK, no reason to expect a problem, then out of nowhere I know there's a blister forming.
Your point about the pace of walking sounds like a good one. My problems have always arisen on warm, dry days when I've been doing higher mileages than normal, but probably aiming to finish at the same time. Thanks for that enlightenment: the blindingly obvious isn't obvious until someone points it out!
As for the flat footbeds, I'll take a look at the article and might be tempted to try them, but I start from a sceptical position.

Blimey, Dave, those LDWA members are like economists - ask 100 of them for a solution and you get 100 different answers.

For what it's worth, several years ago I had a pair of Sorbothane insoles that were dead flat, and tho' I've favoured the shaped variety for a long time now I wonder if the "flatties" might be worth a shot...if indeed they are still produced.

For me, the Sorbothanes are the answer to knee trouble, hence my preference. I might just go shopping tomorrow...