Our Midwinter Marathon is a Sport Walk Personal Challenge for the 21st December – the shortest day (in the northern hemisphere). The concept is really simple, you just plot a marathon distance route which will challenge you and walk it on the shortest day of the year, with the objective of finishing before it gets dark. That’s it.
Being a Personal Challenge, this is your own test, by yourself, for yourself. There are no sign ups, no leaderboards and there’s no medal at the end – it’s all about having a goal and going out and achieving it. That said, if you share your challenge and your experiences with us, either in the Sport Walk Squad private Facebook group (if you’re a member), on our community page or within our Strava Club, we and others will give you a big virtual pat on the back!
On the 21st December, there’s roughly eight hours of daylight and a fast Sport Walker would aim to complete a marathon challenge in around six hours, which leaves two whole hours for differing abilities and levels of experience. But even if your pace is not yet at its peak and finishing within eight hours is going to be tough, you won’t be spending that long at all in the dark and this experience in itself can be really character building – getting used to walking at night.
Of course, while the added impetus is to try and finish in daylight hours, the challenge itself is to walk a marathon distance on the shortest day, so in terms of the challenge itself, there’s no requirement to complete it before nightfall. The only objective is to complete the distance.
The Sport Walk Midwinter Marathon is great opportunity to take on a challenge with friends or family, where you’re 100% in control. You choose the route – so you can pick something that will really feed you. You make the arrangements – so you don’t have to make any bookings or conform to someone else’s timetable. You could even use it to raise money for a cause that matters to you, it’s all down to you and what you want.
Personal Challenges are a major part of what it means to be a Sport Walker and they allow you to test yourself and to have amazing adventures even when there are no organised events taking place. You can set challenges of any length, from a Super Sprint test all the way up to 100 miles and beyond. These are personal challenges and you decide what you do, where you do it and how long you want to go.
While the Sport Walk Midwinter Marathon is, as the name suggests, a marathon distance challenge, if you’re not at a point in your development where you feel comfortable taking on a marathon distance, why not buy into the overall concept and set yourself a shorter distance challenge on the same day.
The shortest day is a day to celebrate because marks the turning point where days start to get longer and that’s worth celebrating with a strong Sport Walking test. You could try a half marathon or if that’s still too much, whatever distance you feel you could manage. The only thing is to do something that will really test you, so that this special day has real significance.
In some years, the 21st December falls at the weekend, which is absolutely ideal but on years where it doesn’t, you can take on this challenge on the nearest day that fits for your schedule. If you can’t take day off work to do it on the actual day, then go for it on the nearest weekend. The difference in daylight will be minuscule but the principle still applies and your achievement will be no less great!
Winter is a challenging time in itself and staying motivated during the short, dark days can be hard. Our Midwinter Marathon is the antidote to ‘off season blues’, giving you something decent to aim for but, most importantly, placing you fully in control. It’s hard to think of a better way for Sport Walkers to end the year, so why not get planning and make your shortest day a day to remember!