Neil Featherby: Learning from past mistakes ahead of Hadrian’s Wall challenge

Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote of ‘by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail’ is constantly niggling away at the back of my mind of late.

I’m doing my very best to train my body and mind to take on next month’s Hadrian’s Wall run from Bowness to Wallsend.

The last time I took on this amazing challenge was back in 2018 with friends, Chas Allen and Jason Wright, when a number of things went wrong and very early on.

Starting at midnight on September 29 at a time of the year when the sun is down longer than it is up was not a good idea.

Then finding out that there were several diversions due to work on sections of the Wall caused a lot of confusion.

However, it was all my fault for choosing the date and start time and my fault for not checking prior to leaving home about the diversions.

Trying to meet up with our support crew of Baz Hipwell, Mark Hewlett and John Fensom during the run was also difficult at times as we tried to find specific designated places along the route which was not helped by some of the diversions.

However, getting lost in a field after just a few miles in the dark and then looking up to see the eyes of a herd of cows shining in the light of our head torches made for a bit of a surreal moment. Even more so when we realised that we had done a lap of the field and were back where we started.

This wasn’t the only moment when having to take care around cows too. It was around 65 miles in when I said that we needed to be careful only for Jason to say “no we will be fine” and then changing his mind once onto the field as a cow chased after us which resulted in us sprinting back the way we had just come from and Chas Allen literally throwing me over a fence.

Perhaps the funniest mishap though was when just a couple of miles from the finish, when I think it is fair to say mind and body were completely drained, John, from our support crew, joined us for the last 15 miles or so and had it mapped on his phone and said “this way” as we headed up this huge hill.

My mind kept saying ‘this is not right, I know it is not’ but as he was leading the way I wasn’t arguing. The next 45 minutes or so saw us weaving in and out of night clubbers rolling out of the bars looking more bedraggled and leg weary than we were as we crossed over from one side of the road to the other.

Needless to say, it wasn’t too long before we realised that we had taken another wrong turn which also meant another mini diversion as we headed back in the direction we had just come from. “Don’t worry, I have got it, and it is definitely this way,” John kept saying. By this point I was desperate to get to the finish. “Just a bit further,” he kept saying and then “here you go guys, you’ve done it”.

“Done what?” I replied. I then looked up at the sign which we were standing beside which said Welcome to Wallsend.

I really did not know whether to laugh or break down crying in the middle of the road.

“Not Wallsend the town, it’s the bloody end of the Wall where we should be,” I said in a somewhat stressed manner and even more so when I saw the time was ticking by on my watch.

We were aiming for a sub-24-hour clocking, and we were now 23 hours into it. A couple of quick calls to Baz and Mark in the support vehicle which in fairness was just half a mile a so further on saw us arrive with 42 minutes to spare.

As said, I take all the blame for not preparing properly last time around and as always it’s one thing making a mistake or two, but another learning from it. I think I have, or at least I hope I have.

Last Saturday night, myself, Karen Grapes and Craig Bowen Jones, who will also be doing this year’s challenge did a 31-mile hike from Cromer following the Weavers Way to Blickling before picking up Marriotts Way back to Felthorpe.

I had never ventured along Weavers Way before, but now having done the first 17 miles of this super 61-mile footpath, all I can say is that I am so glad I have. The views and sights were amazing right up to when the sun eventually went down around 10.30pm. After that it did get much tougher particularly as I hate running in the dark during the hours when I would normally be in bed. However, all part of taking on board those wise words of Mr Franklin’s in preparation for what is to come next month.

At the same time, when watching the sunrise during the last couple of miles through Felthorpe Woods back to my place and hearing the birds singing was just one of those ‘life really is for living’ priceless moments.

It also brought home to me that with another 50 odd miles to go plus all the climbing, there is still a lot of work to do.

Four weeks to go and counting down… I must just say a huge thank you to Steph Jones and Tracey Bowen Jones for all their support last Saturday night.

With regards to fundraising, as I write this, we are already over £1,800 so I am hoping we can reach our target of £3,500 by the time we hopefully arrive at Wallsend… the end of the Wall this is!

If anyone would like to help us reach our target whilst raising money for some super causes, then even just a £1 donation will be very much appreciated. You can donate here.

Have a great weekend all wherever you may be running.