Seems quite a number of us wear contact lenses! I find the daily disposable ones excellent, and I've worn them on numerous ultra distance events without any problems at all. The longest was for about 45 hours on an event, plus several hours before and after. With plenty of oxygen passing through the lenses plus tear fluid to keep them moist, they were perfectly good the whole time. I do, however, include a spare pair at any 'bag drop' checkpoints (such as the breakfast stop on the LDWA 100s), just in case. Whilst wearing lenses I have experienced torrential rain, snow, and gale-force winds, none causing any problems at all. On rare occasions dust can cause discomfort, but hardly more than to the naked eye. Seeing others battling with their glasses in the rain, I wonder why they don't at least investigate contact lenses. These days they aren't too expensive and the daily disposable ones can certainly be used on an intermittent basis, such as on LDWA walks. I seldom wear them during the week but really appreciate the freedom they offer me on events.

Jeff

I had my eyes lazered about 18 months ago as I just couldn't get on with contacts and my glasses would steam up when I tried to run. Probably wouldn't suit everyone and I needed double the amount of recovery time that was recommended as I couldn't focus on the computer screen for a week, but I do enjoy seeing the scenery without having to worry about glasses or contacts, and riding my motorbike is a joy, and have better than 20:20 vision now.

Thanks, everybody - helpful advice. I'll take a spare pair and my specs, which should cover all eventualities.

Just to confirm what others have said:

I nearly always wear daily disposables when out walking. I always take my glasses "just in case", but I don't ever remember having to change to using them while still walking, though once or twice I've had to take one lens out, and continue one-eyed.

John

Hi Ian

I have been using daily disposable contact lenses on challenge walks for a good number of years and find that they work very well indeed for me. I have worn them continuously on many 50 mile plus events and on the 100's that I have done. I think you need to build up the time that you wear them and of course, avoid sleeping with them in otherwise your eyes will become dry and cause difficulties. Having said that, I do take a spare pair and a pair of specs on the longer challenge events just in case and I think that this is a wise precaution. Good luck with them, Ian, hope they work well for you, too.

Hi Ian

I wear daily disposable lenses too. Walked the Ridgeway 40 on Saturday with them in. Having had an early start they were in for about 16 hours, which was about as long as would want to wear them.
I'm doing the hundred and plan to mix and match: lenses by day, glasses by night.

Hello everybody,

I'm planning to start entering some of the LDWA challenge walks, with the aim of working up to entering a Hundred. When walking, I much prefer wearing contact lenses to glasses, especially in the rain. But, as other lens wearers will know, opticians tend to recommend against leaving them in for more than a few hours at a stretch. So I wonder what experiences people have with wearing lenses on 50 or 100 mile walks? Any advice, perhaps to swap back and forth between lenses and specs?

I wear daily disposable lenses, by the way, so swapping to a fresh pair after some hours isn't a problem.