In the next few pages I will do my best to highlight some of the best (and worst) moments of completing the Oxfam Trailwalker for 2007.
To complete this event is to have shared in one of the worlds toughest team events. Running now in half a dozen countries, the Oxfam Trailwalker is the epitome of commitment, endurance, patience, focus and grit one can imagine.
It is therefore with an amazing sense of pride (and very belated window of time passed) that I inform everyone that we have walked the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker from the Harbour to Hawkesbury during the weekend of the 24-26th of August and finally glad to see the light at the end of the training tunnel that stole my team mates and my weekends for the past 5 months.
But before I head off babbling, a little snippet from the Oxfam site itself which was published shortly after the event:
“It is the first year we have taken the Trail through this new course,” said Andy Mein, Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney Coordinator “We made it more challenging but the Sydney Striders Foreign Legion have put their stamp on the event and done Sydney proud” he added.
Kathy McLinden, Oxfam’s National Event Coordinator says: “I’d like to thank all the walkers who dealt with the challenging conditions on the trail. There were also 580 amazing volunteers covering 700 shifts over the weekend that I’d like to acknowledge. They endured cold wet conditions on Friday and always had a smile and words of encouragement for the walkers. We have raised just over $2 million so far and I would like to thank the many supporters of Oxfam Trailwalker 2007 who have donated to the teams. Please keep those donations coming in!”
Now that sounds nice and all, however to articulate that into a much more accurate version:
- We just completed the hardest Oxfam course in history; and
- We completed said track in truly miserable conditions which were not seen during the entire training window
With that in mind, it was an experience that I will never truly forget and after battling some tough course conditions and a few physical (and mental!) challenges on the way, we finally finished on Saturday afternoon after a gruelling 30 hours and 38 minutes of fun and adventure.
One of only 200 teams to finish (from a starting group of 500!) with the full team intact, the feeling of crossing that line (which if you squint you can see the video here - http://youtube.com/watch?v=O-PlwcWwJ_8) is somewhat a mix of sheer jubilation and gratefulness to finally be off your feet for the last time.
The Food
Now to truly understand the preparation that goes into an event like this, one only needs to look at that most valuable of sources of concern for the intrepid walkers, and that would be the food….
And boy did we have some food…. This is just a basic snapshot of *some* of the food that we had presented, and/or consumed enroute to our destination.
Muesli bars
GU
Gatorade (it is worth noting that if you drink an excessive amount of Gatorade, you will be sick.. word to the wise folks…)
Water
Sausage Sandwich BBQ
More Sandwiches - Peanut Butter and Vegemite
The best soup in the world ever, with damper rolls at Apple Tree Bay
Fruit - Apples, Oranges, Bananas
Snack Bars at the checkpoints
Mars Bars (mmmm mars bars) at St Ives
Boiled Eggs
Boiled Potatoes (fiddly de di)
V
Rice
Bacon and Egg Rolls
Chips
Biscuits
Chocolate
Champagne & a pie at the finish line!
Adam’s Trailwalker Highlights
Some of the moments that quickly spring to mind for me are:
- Signoff and start with General Peter Cosgrove. While the man himself may not inspire me a great deal, his comments about this journey being a right of passage, and the recognition that this was something I would complete before my 30th birthday was truly sensational;
- Climbing the final range on the final stage. To know that we were ‘almost there’ has burnt into my brain and was when I first realised we were actually going to make it. And to add a further sense of occasion to this moment, I must share a small story.
- Leaving Berowra (72.5k’s in) in the early hours of the morning. 20+ hours in, through the most gruelling of terrain, feeling like death and then accepting that we had to start the hardest stage of the entire event and not having seen sunlight in many an hour was incredibly tough on the emotions, but worth every penny of effort.. While physically and emotionally exhausted, it was amazing to feel triumphant in face of all the pain we were collectively feeling, I certainly recall Lucy telling the team that I’d found my ’second wind’
- Bacon and Egg sandwiches at Cowan (the final checkpoint)….. Sheer heaven!
- Laughing with my team mates over a glass of champagne and a meat pie with our most fabulous of support crew around us. Certainly not eloquent, but a great feeling around the park was unmistakable;
Lucy’s Trailwalker Highlights
From Lucy, truly the backbone of our team and (now) a two-timer finisher:
- Adam running off to bathroom with distressed look as we were set to leave Apple Tree Bay (~45 KM) Jules deliriously happy and perky at same time
- The girls tights with breast cancer/Atari symbol which drew Adam up the hill (ed: It’s the little things that get you there. This was during stage 7, trekking up a hill that runs for over 5 kilometres and delirium has set in. And then out of nowhere, this girls shoes with reflective material shaped like a breast cancer foundation)
- Adams spectacular recovery from low point
- Lots of fire trails with cement bits that we LOVE
- Lots and lots and lots of hills that we LOVE even more (”have I told you that I love hills?”)
- Lucy’s (well brain’s, but delivered by Lucy in brain’s absence) mandarin joke told 10 times, particular fave was getting Adam to answer
- Lucy swearing more than Julia
- The hours of amusement by saying ‘quit your jibber jabber’ in Mr T voice!
- The endless amusement at Dave and his not being quite on the same wavelength as everyone else
- The almost missed checkpoint due to attempted shortcut going into St Ives (and relief of not) (ed: How could I forget this one… Dave wants to lead us down a 30m shortcut… 30m! and we almost followed him! … that would have meant we missed a
- the finish line at last and the making us walk the extra 100m to go to the other end of the oval (b@stards!)
- Julia’s complaint letter to the organisers (yet to see)
- the a-z games getting us through the last stages (words to describe Trailwalker!!?)
- the mud, mud and mud. the only good part of the mud was the last horrible climb down wasn’t slippery.
- drying the socks on the car engine (ed: you can see the photos at the end of this article)
- our wonderful support crew (apart from Brian saying ‘3 minutes, minutes, get moving’ before we even sat down!!)
Julias Trailwalker Highlights
Julia, our illustrious captain had these moments to share:
1. Checkpoint 3 and my first major blister that only got attended to after 3 first –aid consultations, much examination of said blister and finally a large needle that managed to pierce my uninjured skin rather than the blister.
2. The carefully applied padding on blister coming off after 5 minutes
3. The brief happy feeling of clean socks being wiped out (sometimes within 5 minutes) after being unable to avoid the seemingly infinite number of large puddles/quagmires or even creeks at some points. The constant friction between wet sock and foot is a feeling I will not soon forget.
4. The knowledge that the most spectacular scenery was walked though in the dark and some of the most uninspiring after daybreak. Picking our way thought slippery and treacherous terrain with only the torch light reflecting off the trail (well I think it was the trail but I’m not sure because of the thick fog). At 3am. With no sleep.
5. The seemingly infinite flatulence of Dave; as if the conditions weren’t bad enough without walking through and breathing a toxic cloud
Adam’s Story
During my training sessions in the early months, I excitedly purchased special trail walking shoes (at some expense) however was suffering quite badly from blisters whenever I wore them. Assuming that this was simply that the shoes were more rigid, I continued to persevere but found that the further we walked, the more my feet would suffer. For clarification, we’re not talking about the usual small bottom-of-the-toe type blisters, but the whole-of-foot-tear-you-apart-can-barely-walk type that makes your feet look like someone has taken a jackhammer to them.
So onto the story….
It was during a particularly easy 30k (ed: ha, try doing a 30km walk one of these days and see how easy it is!) training walk that my blisters were getting the better of me, and for the first time in 4 months of training I was seriously contemplating in my head that I just wasn’t cut out for it and honestly wasn’t going to make it…….
At this exact moment, as we were perched beside small bridge in the middle of nowhere, we were approached by a friendly couple (neither were of spending physique I shall note at this point) who greeted us.
They carried the familiar ‘Oxfam training map’ and we struck up a conversation regarding the course and some of the challenges that lay ahead. It was during the conversation that I noticed he was wearing my exact same brand of shoe that I normally run in
So of course I asked him. And he duly informed me that this was his 8th Oxfam, he always wore these shoes and that there was absolutely no reason for me to wear shoes I didn’t feel comfortable in. So that was ok, but over the next 10 minutes we proceeded to discuss some methods for dealing with the race and how to mentally complete the journey (he also mentioned blister blocks which I decided to take on board)
With this chance meeting in mind (trust me, 100k’s of trail and meeting someone with the same shoes as you who’s walked Oxfam 8 times!?!?! You’ve got to see the odds are slim!), I headed off and decided that if I was going to make it, I was going to have to take a crack without the fancy shoes.
And go with my x-trainers I did. And survive Oxfam I did.
You know what’s funny about this. What’s funny is the moment that at the highest peak, of the highest hill of the last section of the Trailwalker, I crested the final steps and couldn’t help but laugh.
At no stage in the entire journey had I made contact with this gentlemen, but by an infinite-to-one chance I happened to see him at this most historic of points. And I thanked him. I thanked him for helping me to realise my dream of finishing Oxfam.
(ed: *sniff* … kinda makes me want to cry now… fucking homo…)
Thanks
I can’t truly begin to express my thanks to our amazing support crew who were the lifeblood of us making it across the line. Without them I personally know I would never have got there, and many an hour was spent walking thinking of the great food, comfortable seats and jovial nature of Anne-Marie, Paul and Brian who soldiered on the entire time and never once let any of us down in any way.
I also want to thank my 3 amazing team mates who persevered with me over 30 hours. Of nothing to spend 3 hours with me, to spend 10-fold that, in terrible conditions and under a cloud of darkened skies and sleep deprivation is truly a feat in itself!
Photos
And as a final signoff, some photos (notice the team mates smiling like an idiot, that’s sleep deprivation folks….)
http://www.sciron.org/photos/v/Fitness/Oxfam_Trailwalker_2007/
