23rd Founders Challenge
Info: New entries for this event closed on Sunday 29th September 2019 at 22:00.
| LDWA Member | £12.00 | |
| Non Member | £17.00 |
30 & 20 MILE CHALLENGE EVENT FOR WALKERS & RUNNERS – NEW CIRCULAR ROUTES FROM GUILDFORD
ORGANISED BY LONG DISTANCE WALKERS ASSOCIATION LONDON GROUP
The 23rd Founders Challenge walk will take place on Saturday 5th October 2019.
There will be 2 new routes of 30 and 20 miles: for the first time the event will start and finish in Guildford.
In 2019 the walk will be in an anti-clockwise direction, the reverse of how it has been, so perhaps it will seem completely different!
Organised every year since 1997, this will be the 23rd occasion on which we remember the founders of the LDWA. This event provides a unique opportunity to visit places associated with the founders of the LDWA: the old Post Office in Peaslake where in 1966 Chris Steer, Alan and Barbara Blatchford first made contact with each other, Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel where the first meeting took place in 1973, Pitch Hill with its toposcope about the LDWA, Steers Field and Blatchford Down where the National Trust honours our founders.
The event is mostly off-road, on good footpaths and tracks. It takes place in the Surrey Hills, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1958. The routes offer a wonderful mixture of autumnal forest and downland; a significant proportion of participants’ fees will be donated to local countryside charities.
Together with the welcome provided at checkpoints and fine food at the finish, these elements combine to make the Founders Challenge a memorable event.
The Start and Finish will be at St Catherine’s Village Hall, Chestnut Avenue, Guildford GU2 4HF (GR SU991484)
- 1 mile from Guildford train station via Portsmouth Road or, quieter, along River Wey and up Ferry Lane.
- ¾ mile from the Artington Park and Ride car park, Old Portsmouth Rd, Guildford GU3 1LP either on foot or by bus #200; £2.20 return (£1 with bus or Freedom Pass.)
THERE IS NO PARKING AT THE START VENUE. Please use Artington Park and Ride.
Please note that this car park closes at 7.30 p.m. There will be a shuttle to the car park from the event HQ from 6.30 onwards so later finishers will be able to check in and then collect their car before returning to eat.
Checkpoints will be located at Peaslake Village Hall, Tanners Hatch Youth Hostel and Shere Village Hall.
Entries will open on 1st May (preferably online through SIEntries). Further details including a map of the routes are available here. The Routes are currently being finalised and will be available by Friday 27th September.
The Marshals Walk will take place on 14th September.
