Sydney Life

For those of you who are regular readers, you might remember a blog entitled 'Am I an idiot?’ I now have a definitive answer: YES!!!

Last Friday morning I was amongst 1784 people who undertook the challenge of walking 100km for charity. Sadly, 20% of them did not complete the challenge for various reasons. It was without a doubt the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It is so difficult to describe the physical and mental pain that I was experiencing. Give me 6 exams in 5 days any time!!

I knew 100km is a long distance to walk and I knew I would hurt. I just did not imagine the extent of how far 100km (2.5 marathons!) really is and how much it really would hurt. Kind of like childbirth I guess. You know it’s going to be the most incredible amount of pain you have ever felt, yet almost all females are willing to give it a go!!

We started on Friday morning in good spirits. The conversation was free flowing and the mood was quite jovial. At the 33km mark, we were hurting a little as the chaffing had kicked in, but we weren’t easily knocked back.

The 50 km mark would have been a great place to finish as we were all tired, hurting and satisfied that this was still a crazy distance to walk! We were met by our support crew and had a yummy dinner provided. It was hard to get up again and get going at 9pm on a Friday night, but we did anyway.
Walking during the night was extremely tough. The only light that illuminated the path in the bush came from our head torches. So you can imagine the amount of stumbling and falls that took place. The hours we walked through the dark was the most testing time for us – we were all irritable and non – communicative. But as soon as the sun started to rise, the dark mood disappeared.

At the 75km mark we were all hurting badly. Chaffing, blisters, new found knee problems and fatigue had well and truly kicked in. We were so close yet still so far away.

Needless to say, we did it!!

We completed it in 31 hours 48 minutes. A little bit slower than what we anticipated but considering we had only done one big 35 km walk as training, we were just happy to finish it in the end!! Plus we had all four team members finish, which only 52% of the teams can say.

This was one of those crazy things that I am glad I have done, but I will NEVER do it again!!

Next time, I think just giving to Oxfam is simply enough…….

(To sponsor me for all the hardship I endured, go to www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/donate, click Sydney, click Lions of Zion #406)