{"id":21665,"date":"2016-04-16T16:08:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T15:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=21665"},"modified":"2018-11-13T07:27:50","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T07:27:50","slug":"welsh-1000-walk-llanrhystud-furnace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2016\/04\/welsh-1000-walk-llanrhystud-furnace\/","title":{"rendered":"Welsh1000 Walk – Llanrhystud to Furnace"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Coast Path capers<\/a> all started when I signed up to do the Welsh1000 Walk, a charity event to raise money for the\u00a0Alzheimer’s Society<\/strong>. I initially showed an interest in doing the event with the Scouts, but somehow ended up being the ‘leader’ for the Llanrhystud to Aberystwyth section of the walk. The idea was that 72 different walks would be taking place on the same day (April 16th) and in total these walks would circumnavigate Wales, following the Wales Coast Path and the Offa’s Dyke Path.<\/p>\n

\"Welsh1000\"<\/a>At first I assumed that the walks would be open to almost anyone and that there could be quite a turn out, but I later found at that each walk was limited to a maximum of 12 participants and that they had to donate (pay) \u00a325 to take part. Now, I don’t like to criticise as the organisers of the event have no doubt had many difficult decisions to make during the run up to the event and will have spent countless hours planning and organising it. Having organised small events for various things myself I know how much time and effort is involved, but I do think that the sign up process put people off.<\/p>\n

For a start we\u00a0didn’t encourage our\u00a0Scouts to take part as with only 12 places available there just wasn’t enough places for all of them. Similarly, the \u00a325 sign up fee is bound to have put many people off as well. Many people would be willing to give up their time to walk along the coast path in aid of the Alzheimer’s Society and no doubt many of those would donate as well, but not everyone can do both, or at least, not to the sum of \u00a325 anyway. That sign up fee immediately discouraged many people from getting involved in what could have been a great event. In fact, it meant that there was no one at all<\/strong> signed up for Walk 30 from Llanrhystud to Aberystwyth that I was leading, so I was there doing it on my own. We couldn’t even sign Anna and Morgan up as we couldn’t afford the \u00a325 each for all of us and I’m sure this would have been the same for many families across Wales. Worse still, there was no one, not even a leader, doing Walk 31 from Aberystwyth to Furnace, and I heard of a few other walks that only had one person doing them as well.<\/p>\n

Now, I can’t prove it, but I’m fairly certain that if there hadn’t been a sign up fee, or if it had been a minimal fee such a \u00a31 then there would have been LOADS of people there for all of the\u00a0walks everywhere around Wales. I can be\u00a0certain that if that had been the case then most of our Scouts would have been there for walk 30 as we would have made it the weekly Scout meeting. If the Scouts had been there then they would have raised several hundred\u00a0pounds in sponsorship and even more\u00a0importantly, their families, friends and acquaintances would likely have either joined in or at least been aware of the event. Instead the only money raised from this section of the Ceredigion Coast will be that of people who donate due to my exploits today.<\/p>\n

If more people had been there, many of them would have posted about their exploits on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc meaning that everyones streams would have been full of Welsh100 posts and links to the Alzheimer’s Society’s JustGiving page<\/a>\u00a0today. Also, if there had been ‘loads’ of people doing the walk, we would have had a reception at the end of it and no doubt the local paper would have been there to take photos and document it, spreading the word yet further and once again increasing the chances that people would donate. We would probably even have taken a bucket with us and collected money on the way. Instead it was just me, one middle aged man running along the coast path on his own doing the Welsh1000 walk and raising money and awareness for the Alzheimer’s Society. Unfortunately, even I’m not delusional enough to think that many people\u00a0are going to take any notice of one middle aged man running along the coast path, even if it is me!!!<\/p>\n

I shall feedback\u00a0these thoughts\u00a0to the organisers though so hopefully these criticisms will be taken on board and they’ll try to organise the event again next year but with a different emphasis. I’m sure if the idea was to not only circumnavigate Wales but to get as many people as possible doing it then it could turn into an amazing annual event. It could be a celebration of Wales and The Wales Coast Path, it could encourage people to get out and active (which\u00a0may actually help prevent diseases such as Alzheimers) and by getting more people involved it would raise awareness and no doubt raise much more money than it did today.<\/p>\n

The Welsh1000 Walk<\/h2>\n

In the end, I completed\u00a0both Walk 30 and Walk 31 on my own. Anna dropped me off on the beach in Llanrhystud at 7:30ish and off I headed. It was a chilly start, 4\u00baC with plenty of snow on the hills and a cold wind. I started out at a slow pace as I knew that there was a long way to go.<\/p>\n

\"Off<\/a>

Off I Go<\/p><\/div>\n

I was making good time though. I stopped for drinks and a snack every 3 miles or so and the odd photo too and before I knew it I was in Aberystwyth having taken 2 hours to do the first ‘walk’.<\/p>\n\n\t\t