The Parish Walk

For those of you who do not know the parish walk is a 85 mile walk around the Isle of Man whish must be completed in 24hrs, and includes going to each parish church on the island. This walk can be completed in its intireity or a walker can stop at any of the stages (churches). The first main church is at Santon 10 miles into the course, the next at Rushen 19 miles in, then at Peel 32.5 miles in. Unless you are very keen (and have trained) it is unlikely that you will pass Peel, you must also be over 21yrs to do this. As well as completing the miles you must reach each stage within a time frame; the race starts at 8am and racers must pass Rushen by 1:35pm (5hrs 35mins) and pass Peel by 5pm if continuing (9hrs) or 6pm if finishing at Peel (10hrs). For more info see http://www.parishwalk.com/

part of the SUMT team at the start

Before the parish walk we had done some practice walks however the longest of these was only 15miles, so we were slightly unsure how far we would get, add into this we had just completed lifepath (see previous post). However we arrived at Rushen with about 30mins to spare feeling okay but maybe with the start of a few blisters so we decided to continue (the fact that the rest of our group were continuing had nothing to do with it). A few miles later I was beginning to regret continuing but you have very little choice by this point but to continue. The last 6/7 miles were very painful and hard going but to arrive in Peel, at the church I work at, with the rest of the team cheering us on and along with many members of my church made it worth it in the end, however I have no plans to ever walk that far again. My final time as I arrived in Peel was 9hrs and 40mins.