The Walk!!!

Heading Down

Wednesday night I headed down to Melbourne and met up with the rest of my team. Fortunately, their flight from Perth arrived just before mine, and our support guy, Kevin, was there to pick us up. He had even practised driving to the airport, having arrived exactly 12 hours before after confusing a "p" with an "a". Oh well.

After settling in for the night in a miscellaneous hotel, in a miscellaneous suburb of outer Melbourne (only after the Perthites failed to fully ajust to Eastern Standard Time), we got some sleep. Being without transport, we could only wait for Kevin to arrive the next morning for a course reccy (not that we had anywhere in particular to go).

We were able to see the start, as well as the first couple of checkpoints. All good and well, particularily as Kevin already planned a few of our breaks slightly away from the checkpoints, where he knew there would plenty of space for him to set up our resucitation table. Now we knew where to meet him.

That night, we ate heartily and packed like a pack mule, whatever that is like. I was taking 2 pairs of shoes - a pair of trail runners and a pair of sturdy joggers. I was also taking 3 lots of 2 pairs of socks - 6 in total. Two t-shirts, plus a long sleeved one. A vest for warmth, as well as some wet weather gear, not that any rain was predicted (warm and dry was the forecast). A spare pair of shorts, and some spare reggies to boot. More than I'd need, but because I had the opportunity to take them, I would.

The Start

As predicted, the day dawned dry and sunny. Our lift arrived on time, and soon we had signed in, and were ready for the walk. We were starting at 8am, but only after we changed our predicted time to under 30 hours. About half of the 400 teams of 4 were starting at 8, the rest at 10. Teams who planned to start out running (such as the Gurkahs) were underneath the startline. We were about halfway down the snake, wearing our GRD Minproc t-shirts.

Eight am and we were off. The girls (Tanya and Kimbra) started at a brisk pace, a bit too brisk for Ian and myself. Still, we never got too far apart, although it may have reached a few hundred metres at times. There were no support teams allowed at the first checkpoint, but there was plenty of food and drink made available. We stopped for about 15 minutes before heading off.

The day was as predicted - warm and dry. Although the official temperature reached 30 in Melbourne, I never felt too hot at any stage. Thirsty, yes, but never too hot.
The walked continued towards Sassafrass, a genteel suburb in the Dandenongs. We had been walking at slighlty over 5km/hr - much faster than I expected - and I (well, Ian and I) were the slow ones! We negotiated our first big obstacle easily enough - the Kokoda Track Memorial (unfortunately, the evil influences are still present on the older signs, incorrectly labelled the Kokoda Trail. MESSAGE TO ALL: it is a track - a TRACK! It was even known by the diggers as "the track". It was only later evil (re American) influences that crept in which led to it be known incorrectly as a trail. When I go bushwalking, I walk on tracks - TRACKS! Or I bush-bash. Sometimes I walk on fire trails, but these are wide, designed for firetrucks to gain access to remote areas to fight bushfires - not what was in Kokoda).

So, after wandering up the Memorial Track - which was a fairly steep hill over a couple of kilometres, we had a break we guru support crew Kevin.

Checkpoints and Ressucitation

Overall, there were 8 stages with 7 checkpoints. Apart from the first CP (when there was no supporter access allowed), Kevin did a fantastic job, using his abundant experience of 5 trailwalkers (and 2 previous support crew badges) to make our walk as easy as possible. Each checkpoint, after carefully selecting an ideal spot (not always at the CP, but usually not far from one), we found a table filled with a smorgasbord of sports nutrition. Gels, bars, gatorade, protein shakes, plus boiled potatos (with extra salt), fried rice (with no peas), chicken, sandwiches and more! We would find 4 chairs around the table, enabling us to pig out without standing up. I believe this refuelling process allowed us to continue at a reasonable pace throughout the event. Well, it sure worked for me.

Darkness

I was surprised to reach CP 4 (or just after, where Kevin stopped) before dark. We had covered almost half the distance in under 12 hours - a very brisk pace. After another pig out, a change of clothes (although, by now I had already changed shoes and socks) we were ready to hit the dark tracks. Walking in night was much easier than I expected. For one, we were walking on well maintained firetrails. They had also placed glow sticks every hundred metres or so, meaning it was easy to work out if we were on the correct path (not that we ever got off track).
For me, the real part of the walk had just begun, I was looking forward to the darkness; I was curious to see how I would perform without much sleep; I wanted to feel what it was like to go non stop throughout the night. It was time.

No long into the night, I needed to change the batteries on my Pretzyl (the name I give to head torches). Being slightly rushed (we were still moving at a swift pace), I didn't quite read how one should put the batteries in. I thought I had lost a part of my torch, and it was never going to walk again. Luckily, we had a spare torch - a mini mag light, so I was not to be without photons.

By now, I had hit the Nurofen. My knees had started to ache a bit, along with my feet. I had already popped 2 blisters, and there were a few hot spots elsewhere on my feet. I was paranoid about getting massive blisters, so had changed either my shoes or socks at each checkpoint. I had also taped up a known hot spot (still got a blister there, though), and always double socked. Unfortunately, my orthotics (the old ones, not the new ones) managed to place extra pressure on one of the hot spots (the taped blistered one). Fortunately, by using normal soles, the pressure point went away.

As the night continued, the walking only got easier. We were now on the Warbuton Track, which used to be a railway line. Hence, it was wide, flat, and, well, easy. And it was long - about 30km long. There was a checkpoint about half way along, where we had a 45 minute break (which seemed much shorter to me). Here, we had to decide if we were to rest (ie sleep), or continue on. The consensus to to keep going - who wants to try to get going after some sleep? It was even hard to get going after 45 minutes...

By now our pace had slowed. I tried to keep up my spirits but relating random incidents from my primary school days to Kimbra, like when I got put in the black book in kindy for throwing a stick at David Stone (hit 'im just above the eye, too), or when Mrs Jenkins brought in her husband's skeleton (he was a doctor), and I wore the cranium like a skull cap...

I even started bursting out into song just before CP7. It was around 5am, and I was surprised at my enthusiasm. I had been taking a lot of Nurofen and caffeine, though...

Mt Donna Buang

We made sure to stay rugged up at our final checkpoint. It wasn't even in single figures, but fatigue always make you feel a bit colder. I felt a bit stiff as we started wandering towards our goal - the 1231m Mt Donna Buang. We were gradually climbing towards the base of the mountain, and the fact that we were almost home, and that it was at last starting to get light, made things a bit more bearable. I was carrying a bottle of coke and some glucose lollies, after hitting the sugar at the last checkpoint. Normally, you don't want to consume too many simple sugars in a long distance event, as you can experience energy lows following those sugars highs. Generally, once you start on the sugars, you should stay on them - hence the bottle of coke. And I was definitely on a sugar high. By the time we hit the start of the final climb, I was ready to start motoring along. First, after completing the lyrics to my new song "Donna Buang Rhapsody"*, I decided to really put the foot down. I started to catch a few of the teams ahead of us, and one guy told us there were some SES guys ahead, who had just walked down a little bit (maybe 4km) to drop off some water. I decided I wanted to catch them, and I was off.

There must have been a heap of teams just ahead of us, as I caught a lot of people. I caught the SES guy easily, and started making boisterous "Good Mornings" to everyone I passed. Not everyone appreciated it. Soon, I had reached the end of he climb, which was not the summit (which was the finish). I was still 3.6km from the finish, and I was also without my team mates.
Fortunately, this was the perfect (and pre-arranged) place to wait. There were a whole lot of SES personel, a few chairs, blankets, and warm drinks. I immediately sat down, grabbed a blanket, and ordered a warm milo. And another. The people I overtook started to appear, and Kimbra soon popped up. W started to doze a bit, until Ian and Tanya materialised, adn we set off for the summit finish line. By now, 24 hours had just ticked over. We marched the last section together, and crossed the line side by side at 9:03, 25 hours and 3 minutes after starting. And about 10 hours ahead of our original schedule. Woo Hoo.

Finished

After posing for a few photos, we grabbed a small bite to eat. I think I had some soup, but by now i was sick of eating - I had been eating regularily for the past 24 hours. i should have eaten a bit more, to aid my recover, but we had finished, and I couldn't be bothered. The whole finish line was a bit anti-climatic, but most competitiors would have exited no long after they arrived, and with people finishing over a 36 hour period, you're never going to have too many supporters there.
The drive back took a lot longer than expected - I guess we had walked 100km. Eventually we were back - after Kevin stopped for a break (he too, had spent the whole night awake). I got first dibs on the shower, which meant I could hit the sack first. I rested well.