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Vallum hadriani1/30/2024 It was six years ago, while spending a few weeks at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The thing is, I’ve actually been to Hadrian’s Wall. Did you know that in 1821, a blacksmith named Thomas Clark was arrested for stabbing a “labourer” on or near some canal in Drumburgh? And yes, I looked all of those up, and many more, over the 42 days I spent imagining my journey. The best part is finding my location on Google Maps, and then looking up all the delightful-sounding British towns I would be walking through were I actually walking Hadrian’s Wall and not virtually walking Hadrian’s Wall.įavorite discoveries include the villages of Walbottle, Low Brunton, Once Brewed (also known as Twice Brewed), Haltwhistle, Rickerby, Grinsdale and Drumburgh. If I were able to complete the challenge, this means I’d be complicit in the planting of five trees. ![]() Well, I say there is some truth in that, and I expect as I travel this cultural icon it’ll most likely unsettle my soul too.”Įvery time I completed a distance equal to 20% of the total length of the wall, I received a cheery congratulations and a notice saying that The Conquerer would plant a tree somewhere that needs trees. “‘Of all our games, loves play is the only one that threatens to unsettle our soul’ - Hadrian. The first one I got came about 10 miles into the challenge. One of three virtual postcards sent throughout the 42 days of pretending to walk Hadrian’s Wall in England (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE CONQUERER VIRTUAL CHALLENGES)Įvery so often, you get an email with a digital postcard from yourself. Fuji to walking among pyramids in Giza to following the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon to traversing every mile of Route 66, from one end of the U.S. There are several different challenges, on land and sea, some longer (and some MUCH longer) than others, from crossing the English Channel to climbing Mt. The gist is, you sign up for a challenge online, the cost being somewhat pricey at around $30-$50, depending on various specials and discounts. It’s one of several such exercise activities presented by an American company called The Conquerer Virtual Challenges. The Hadrian’s Wall Challenge is a virtual exercise experience I stumbled upon by accident while browsing the web. In Hadrian’s Wall terms, this roughly translates to walking from the town of Wallsend to the village of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. ![]() In fact, the first three miles of pedestrian adventure was spent walking from my house to the downtown movie theater and back, a distance of three miles. Over a period of 42 days in January and February of this year, I put on my running shoes and walked all 90 miles of Hadrian’s Wall, and I rarely left Petaluma to do it. ![]() Today, what’s left of Hadrian’s Wall is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a popular walking path that runs approximately 90 miles from the North Sea, along the River Tyne, then across various counties till it ends at the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea. The Romans called the wall “Vallum Hadriani,” because everything sounds bigger and scarier in Latin.Īnyway, the Romans eventually gave up and sailed back to Italy, the stone wall fell into ruin or was dismantled and used to build castles, the Britons endured other invasions and incursions for another millennium-and-a-half, until they got powerful enough to try and do to the world what Rome had once tried to do to them. He wanted a big, scary symbol of Rome’s power that might impress the unhappily oppressed Britons and keep the fierce, warfare-inclined Picts from crossing over into the areas they seemed to believed still belonged to them, just because it all had belonged to them, before Hadrian’s army took it away. The Roman Emperor Hadrian - a very poetic guy who was fond of talking about love while trying to take over the world - ordered the wall to be built after his army invaded the island of Britannia. That’s a long time ago, even for me, who’s looking at turning 61 in a couple of months, which, given that it’s the oldest I’ve ever been, seems pretty old. Hadrian’s Wall, in England, was built in the year 122 A.D. David Templeton, with Hadrian’s Wall T-shirt, at start of the 90 mile challenge.Ī brief history lesson first, then I’ll tell about my really heavy new medal and the T-shirt that came with it.
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