‘Walking out my grief one step at a time’: why I’m doing a 24-hour walk | Stuart Heritage

It’s an exercise I actually like – it rewards persistence over ability. What’s more, I can think about my late mum, who was also a walker, and all that she meant to me

For years throughout the 1960s, my mum walked the North Downs twice daily. In the morning, she’d traipse from her home in the village of Hastingleigh across to her egg-packing job, just over three miles away in Wye. Then, once her shift was done, she’d haul herself back up Occupation Road and begin the long journey home. Rain or shine, all year round, that was her commute. A seven-mile round trip across the top of Kent to put eggs into a box.

These days, on Saturday mornings at least, you’re likely to find me on Occupation Road, too; trudging along in a fold-up cagoule, quietly cursing my choice of underwear and wondering what the hell I’ve done to myself. Later this year I’m participating in a 24-hour walk around the circumference of the Isle of Wight, and this just seems like the right place for me to train.

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2EWwLZe