Day: April 1, 2009

Well as I set off a a ‘short’ 5km walk yesterday I thought about what one of my Dds had done over the weekend.

Remember I mentioned she and 3 others were going to attempt the Oxfam 100km/60 mile Trailwalker event

This is the four of them not long into the run/walk and they were full of the joys of Spring or Autumn in our case lol

Half way and still with smiles on their faces – they left Jells Park at 7am so this would have been mid afternoon. They had come along the Dandy Creek Trail up to Churchill Park, through Lysterfiield Park to the lake, then on up through the Dandenongs via Belgrave to Sherbrooke. Up to Ferny Creek and Olinda and then down to Silvan and Mt. Evelyn.

We (as in Me, Dh and DGd) met up with them at Mt. Evelyn just after 5pm and they were getting a bit weary.

Leg sore and foot sore it was time for a shoe and sock change with foot massage thrown in by one of their support crew – also time for a ‘proper’ meal break and not a quick check in and out of the required check points. Food and water and a good laugh was what they needed more than anything else.

So 63 km down and less than 40 to go but all of sudden that reluctance to move appeared out of nowhere. This was how they started that next leg, water camel packs on their backs but shoulders down and walking. It seems that as they had arrived at that check point they’d all thought about throwing it in but wouldn’t let the team down.

And they didn’t – the enthusiasm came back and they moved on along the Warby Trail to Woori Yallock and Milgrove and finally after 19hours arrived at Wesburn Park to finish at 2.20am

They have all agreed that to do it 2 years in a row and improve their overall time taken was great – at the final tally on a time taken basis they finished 68th out of 714 teams – but next year they are going to volunteer and help others achieve their goal.