50k steps challenge: report

I walked 42km in one day, this is how the day went

I’m on a quest to change my life (with limited success so far), but I also thought of some challenges to spice things up. A few months back I saw a YouTube video of a bloke doing 100k steps in one day. I also read some Reddit posts of people trying this challenge over the years and it always seemed really cool.

However, when you calculate the effort required to reached 100k steps you can get a grasp of how tough this challenge is. I know that I roughly have to walk 1.5 hours to get 10k steps. So that means 15 hours of walking to get the 100k steps, without breaks. Add 2-3 hours of breaks and you’re on the road for 18 hours at least, assuming you don’t slow down because of fatigue. It seemed a bit too much and since I try to live sensibly, I made the challenge more sensible. 50k steps seemed like a nice goal and still challenging. I figured I would do it now because I have walked a ton in Japan so my body is well prepared.

A quick side note: I know I promised to write about what living sensibly means, but I want to write about this 50k steps challenge day first now that it’s still fresh.

The day before the challenge: preparation

I prepared my route and the stuff I was going to bring. The route would be: walking around Utrecht city. I have walked around Hilversum three times and I knew that was 26km and Utrecht is bigger so I hoped it would bring me close to the 50k steps. I guessed that I would need to walk around 40-42km to get the 50k steps. I opted to start from home and stay in the city so it’s easy to get food and drink. Also, walking is a really nice way to view cities!

I used a trail running vest with 5 liter capacity for this challenge. It comes with two 500ml water bottles: one of those I filled with an isotonic sports drink and one with plain water. When it comes to long and sustained exercise you really need to think about getting enough electrolytes. I brought three energy bars and 2 powergels (30 gram carbs each) for food. Real lunch is bought on the road. I chucked in blister plasters, an extra pair of socks, a powerbank and cables (my Apple Watch is so old it needs to be charged twice day lol) and a fleece vest. Yes, this all fits in this running vest, it is amazing. Why didn’t I use a backpack? A running vest can also be loaded at the front of your body and is more comfortable than a backpack.

The day of the challenge

I left my house in Zuilen (all the way in the north west of Utrecht) at 9AM, a little bit later than I’d hoped. The weather was pleasant. While the rest of Europe is suffering from a heat wave, it’s about 20-23 degrees Celcius in the Netherlands. Climate change is doing its thing, but this time I am on the benefiting side of it. Who knows what it’ll be like one month from now, weather wise.

The first part of the route would be the ugliest, I took me about 30-45 minutes to cross a large and stinky industrial area (Lage Weide) to reach Leidse Rijn. Leidse Rijn is an area of Utrecht that is pretty large, consisting of newly built houses. Lots of families with kids live here. Because it’s a new area, the urban planning here is very good. Lots of green spaces and parks, plenty of separated infrastructure for bikes and cars and it’s quiet except for the main roads. I reached my first 10k steps, took a small toilet break and purchased a smoothie.

The next goal was to reach Oog in Al. I had to cross a canal so I walked to the Dafne Schippersbrug (bridge). This bridge is amazing: it’s bicycle and pedestrian only and one side of the bridge houses a building under the ramp.

I kept walking next to the canal and I realized that, compared to Japan, (and lots of other countries, I’m sure), the Netherlands makes sure that there are tons of green spaces in cities. It’s not an asphalt hell, there are lots of trees and flowers everywhere. Actually, that was one of the things that really stood out to me when I came back from Japan: I smelled flowers everywhere in Utrecht. The lovely sweet scent really brightens my mood.

Another thing I started to appreciate more during this walk: I realized that even in the ugly industrial area I could walk safely protected from cars. Granted, I had to walk on the bike path, but it was a pretty wide bike path. Every big road I had to cross offered a pedestrian crossing. Good to know for the American reader: turning right with your car on a red signal is illegal in the Netherlands (unless indicated otherwise) so this makes it safe for pedestrians to cross when their signal turns green. Doing this challenge made me very grateful for Dutch infrastructure. It’s important to appreciate what you have. Too many people take stuff for granted and only realise what they lost when it’s gone.

Meanwhile, I walked in the middle of what seemed like a small forest (still in Oog in Al). After leaving this lush green, I knew I would have to go without it for awhile as I made my way through Kanaleneiland and I followed the main road for a while. There is a big park in the middle of this area that I ened up going to, to avoid the big roads. Lots of parks in the Netherlands have a Kinderboerderij (Petting Zoo) and this park in Kanaleneiland also has one. Next to it was a large communal garden and an amazing looking playground for kids. I saw plenty of people enjoy these facilities and it looked nice!

I now made my way to the south-east of the city. I felt nostalgia as I reached Lunetten, an area I lived in for 12 years. I moved there as a student, had a great time in my student housing with 7 other people for 5 years and then I bought an apartment one street over.

Those were the days: I could get a mortgage for that apartment with my shitty salary as a junior software tester. I did not realize how lucky I was to be able to buy an apartment. Looking back, the only thing that made it possible was the economic crisis that started in 2007. Housing prices reached an all time low in 2012-2013, but I was clueless about that. Right now, the Netherlands has a huge problem. Rent is super high, but housing prices are also super high. There’s a housing shortage, it’s a real shit show. The only demographic that is (mostly) unaffected by this is the group of people that already owned a house before the prices went insane. It is fucked up that the monthly cost for my current house is lower than the rent for people living in tiny apartments. Anyway, I digress.

I left Lunetten in the rain (huh?? Apple Weather didn’t predict this!) and made my way to Rhijnauwen, a lovely forest area just outside Utrecht. I would cross this forest to reach Utrecht Science Park. I also had just passed 25k steps. In the forest is the greatest treasure of all: a pancake restaurant. And boy, was I hungry! Pancakes were all I could think of the hour leading up to this and I swear this was the best tasting pancake of my life. Funny how after applying effort everything tastes better. This was my longest break and getting started again was a bit tough. My legs were all stiff for the first 5-10 minutes.

Utrecht Science Park was called De Uithof back in my day (ok boomer), and I hadn’t been there for 13 years. Coincidentally, I finished studying in 2010. The area has changed so much. Tons of new buildings and student housing. They finally built a tram line so they could ditch the busses. This area is so far removed from Utrecht Central Station that you had to take a 20 minute bus ride if you were a commuter. The busses came every 2 minutes and were always terribly crowded. The busses were crazy long too, see picture.

The route continued on towards Rijnsweerd. This is an area with a couple of houses, but mostly offices. Here is where I had my first adult job (that I hated). I looked at the building and smiled, happy that I left that place behind. I walked around the area reliving some of my lunch walks. Those were the highlight of my day as I otherwise felt trapped inside the building. I swear, the change from student life to working life is too harsh. You go from a life of freedom and autonomy (that’s how I experienced my university days) to having to be somewhere for 8 hours straight. Or rather, 9 hours with breaks. I couldn’t deal with it all that well.

I now had a problem: it was starting to rain pretty heavily. Because Apple Weather lied to me and predicted no rain I did not bring a raincoat. Thankfully, I could hide under the trees for a bit and I waited for the heaviest rain to pass. I came into an area of Utrecht that I don’t know too well and I had to consult Google Maps. I decided to go through Voordorp, another newly built area in Utrecht. The houses looked nice and again I was impressed by the amount of green spaces. The residents also clearly made a lot of effort to plant flowers next to their houses and apartments.

I reached the area that I regard as the worst of Utrecht: Overvecht. There are tons of ugly looking apartment blocks (think: Soviet style). The funny thing is, even the worst areas in Dutch cities look pretty clean and have lots of green spaces. You will not find a true ghetto looking area in the Netherlands. This is because most of the cheap apartment flats are owned by corporations called “woningbouw”. They provide cheap housing that you can only live in when you meet certain conditions (low/medium salary, be on a waiting list for 10+ years or get the house assigned to you), but it’s also in their interest to keep the housing and area in good condition. It looks cheap and awful to live in (to me, a priviliged person), but it’s not shabby. Combine this with the Dutch standard of urban planning (the green spaces are cared for by the municipality, bike paths, pedestrian paths, etc) and it’s not too bad. This is not an area I would walk in during the night, but during the day it’s perfectly safe.

I reached 40k steps and my legs were starting to hurt. I skirted around the north-east of Utrecht and with a slight detour to the north I reached my house again. 47.5k steps, 38km.

Damnit, not enough. It was now 6PM and I was super hungry. I lay on the couch and fell asleep at once. My husband cooked diner and it really hit the spot after such a day, but I had to get up again to finish the challenge. My body was now really stiff because I had rested for a bit.

These last 2.5k steps were the most difficult of the day, I swear! My whole body hurt, I was feeling sick and had a headache. 2.5k steps is just a 15 minute walk, it’s not much at all. But I was so happy to get it over and done with.

I took a magnesium tablet against muscle cramps and drank some more water. I fell asleep on the couch again, so I dragged myself to bed where I had a good night’s rest.

Conclusion

This really was the perfect challenge. It was very doable, gave me a couple of funny nostalgia moments and the mental aspect of it was just right. It made me appreciate Utrecht and my country a whole lot more. Good urban planning is so valuable! When there are plenty of options to go around: walking, cycling, car, public transport, it makes it enjoyable for everyone using the public space.

As expected my body could handle this just fine. I was tired, but the next day I felt fine. I even had a great leg-focused workout in the gym!

I still have great respect for people doing the 100k steps challenge. That one is still too far out for me. I encourage you to challenge yourself on an appropriate level once in awhile. It’s amazing what you can do, so go out there and surprise yourself!

Please leave a comment and/or share this post. Thank you so much for reading.