Walker Brian notches up 1,000 in miles and pounds

DUFFIELD walker Brian Sword has turned his love for the great outdoors into cash by completing a 1,000-mile ramble – raising a pound for charity with each mile.

Brian, who works as a project manager for Lubrizol, set himself the challenge of walking 1,000 miles during 2020, an average of 2.73 miles a day.

As Brian notched up the miles, he planned a big finish with an impressive single 30-mile walk to complete the challenge in style.

And in November he set off on the High Peak Trail from Cromford Wharf to Parsley Hay Station – and back again – finishing 8 hours and 34 minutes later. The final walk, at an average pace of 16 minute and 40 second miles, clocked up 60,000 steps, burnt 4,000 calories and involved a 2,003 ft elevation gain.

His efforts raised an impressive £565 for the British Heart Foundation via sponsorship, while Lubrizol added an extra £500 to the total.

Brian, who belongs to a walking group called Boots and Blogs, said: “As anyone who knows me knows, I absolutely love walking. There is nothing better than when I’ve got my boots on and I’m out walking in the countryside.

“Despite all the trials and tribulations that Covid-19 has challenged us all with, I have steadily but surely been chipping away at that 1,000 miles. Sometimes longer walks out across the fields, sometimes just smaller ones pounding the pavements around where we live, sometimes on my own, sometimes with my wife, but clocking up miles.

“But rather than just letting the last few miles fizzle out and reach the 1,000 miles as an anticlimax, I thought why not do something a little bit special?

“The walk itself was beautiful, but then when is a walk never not beautiful? The walk has expansive views on the higher parts across Derbyshire and is fascinating for anyone with an interest in industrial history.”

The 30-mile walk was not Brian’s only marathon effort; in June he took part in the British Heart Foundation’s MyMarathon Challenge, which invited people to run or walk 26.2 miles over the course of a month.

Brian saw the exercise as an opportunity to get some miles under his belt, so committed to going the distance in a day, rather than over a month.

He said: “I can proudly say I’m a Proclaimer now – I walked 500 miles and then I walked 500 more. But the best bit, the icing on the cake, is the money raised for charity. Now that really is something to be chuffed about I think.”