Shakespeare's Revenge The Morris Marathon - 2002

Question - How many steps does it take to dance a marathon? - Answer at bottom of page.

Oh yes we did!  Not satisfied with the Eight Daies Wonder and aided and abetted by a couple of members of Coventry Morris Men, New St. George from Melton Mowbray and Yare Valley Morris we set off from St. John Maddermarket in Norwich at 8am on Sunday 21st April 2002.  The intention was to get into the Guinness Book of Records as there was no record for morris dancing.

The route was to take us from Norwich to South Walsham via Brundall, Cantley, Reedham, Freethorpe, Beighton and Acle, a total distance of 26 miles. Some of our members had walked the whole route a couple of weeks before to see if it was feasible and then they realised the true scale of the task. (See map here)

The rules were very strict. We had to dance for an hour at a time and could then only have 5 minute breaks and we had to do proper dance steps all the way. Official adjudicators were with us all the way to make sure we didn't cheat (as if we would). Our marshals on their pushbikes made sure that the roads were clear but we didn't meet much traffic, even the cows in the fields ran away.

At about noon somewhere in the heart of rural Norfolk the dancers started to get very weary and blistered feet were happening, not yet half way but they didn't give up.

At about 4:15pm we spied the church tower of South Walsham and also the long road that we still had to travel to get there. But the goal was in sight and spurred on by the thought that The Ship pub was just over the road from the church the dancers managed a new spring in their step.

At last we reached The Ship and the rest of Golden Star ran to greet us with a loud cheer.  Unfortunately we had to dance right through the village, turn round and dance back again to complete the official distance.  South Walsham must be the longest village in the world, or at least it felt like that and we couldn't go into the pub yet.

We finally made it and really enjoyed those pints. What did we do afterwards, why, dance in the pub car park of course. There's no stopping us!

In 1600 Will Kemp said he would dance over the Alps. We haven't tried that yet but you never know!

Have a look at these pics of the event:-

Answer to the question - 49,285 steps (whoever counted) and it took 8hours, 6minutes, 15 seconds.

And if you don't believe it take a look here.