Answer

By JennyW

There are no two ways about it: it's tough. It may be over the seemingly benign South Downs but the ascent soon adds up, and event rules dictate that you walk the whole 100km in under 30 hours.

I did it in July 2005, on a sweltering weekend where a third of walkers dropped out, and swore afterwards I would never do it again. I cried for six miles straight because my hips were so painful, I lost a big toenail, and even sitting still hurt for days afterwards. And it wasn't just me - all the guys in the team suffered. Spandex Dundee (we all had nicknames) was forced to drop out at 60km with blisters on the soles of his feet, Merrell cried at the second-to-last checkpoint but he kept going, and Trip passed out at the final checkpoint and he has no memory of the last few kilometres to the finish.

And we trained hard. We checked out the entire route over a series of weekends and did marathon walks in preparation. We researched what we should be eating, got used to fuelling little and often and on the move, did hundreds of lunges and squats to strengthen and protect our joints...and still it was tougher than we ever imagined.

But, and this is a huge but, I am incredibly glad I got the chance to do it. The satisfaction of raising money for charity and just being able to say 'I did it' has stayed with me. And it builds intense bonds - both with your fellow walkers and with your support team. And the support from the organisers - the Gurkhas and Oxfam -is immense too.

So I'd say it's really tough. You do need to train hard, learn what foods and drinks best keep you going and get together a great team - and it's probably still going to hurt. But it's definitely worth it.