Trailwalker, the story.
18 Apr 2010 7:45 AM
As Lora's dad's team (Dragmoe) were starting at 7am, we didn't need to drive Lora to the trail, which meant we had enough room in the car for three team members and two support crew (Lucien and Nicolai). Cha and Nicolai have a car-space but no car, so Peter drove over in the morning and parked at their place and we picked the three of them up from there in the morning.
I didn't get up as early as I'd liked. I slept really badly because I had pain in my feet. I also was worrying a LOT about the fact that I had pain in my feet, given the distance that I intended to walk! I'd seen Julie (my sister, a chiropractor) on Thursday afternoon and she'd told me that I had some thing which I can't spell which makes the bottom of my feet feel like they are STABBING ME IN THE LEGS. I think what happened was that my foot started to hurt while I still had a bit of a sore ankle. So I kind of assumed that when my ankle got better, that pain would go away too. I was wrong. It got much much worse. I looked up the thing that Julie said I had on the internet on Friday morning when I woke up and I found some ways to strap my feet which might help. I got out my tape and strapped up my feet and I felt pretty much immediate relief from the pain, which was encouraging. I'd pretty much got everything organised before I'd gone to bed, so there was only a few things to get together in the morning. Then we headed around the corner to Cha's place to pick up Cha, Nicolai and Peter.
Nobody else had slept very much or very well either, which wasn't really a good beginning. Lora was feeling very unwell due to a migraine but we all seemed pretty bright and chirpy. We had made really good time to Jells park and must have been one of the first teams to register.
Lora and I envied other people's foot umbrellas and wished we'd actually worked out where to get them. I am totally getting some for next year!
Soon enough there was a count-down and it was time to start walking!
Just as we started walking, I received a phone call from an unfamiliar landline. I was walking at the same time
Me: Hello?
Them: Hello, is that Elise?
Me: Yes, speaking
Them: This is control, I was just calling about your status?
Me: Excuse me?
Them: I'm calling from the control centre, I received some information that your team had retired at the start point, I was just calling to talk to you about that?
Me: I'm sorry?
Them: Where are you right now?
Me: I'm walking! We've just started?
Them: So you didn't retire? Did you register?
Me: Yes! We handed in our medical forms and signed our waivers and got our bibs and now we're walking!
Them: Oh sorry.
So that was interesting.
As we walked we had interesting philosophical discussions about Zeno's tortoise. As we were walking while talking though we were not hearing each other correctly so eventually we were talking about Xena and an Evil Eagle Turtle.
Lora's mum soon called us to find out if we were already at CP 1, as the internets had told her that we were. We wondered if there were, in fact, two other teams numbered 417 or something: one of which had dropped out at the start, and one of which had run to Checkpoint 1 from the start.
We made awesome time to Checkpoint 1, checked in and out, grabbed some gu and bananas and headed off to Checkpoint 2!
We arrived at Checkpoint 2 a little before our projected time, which was awesome. Nicolai and Lucien had lunch waiting for us. It was fabulous and other teams were jealous. Then we checked in and out (Lucien and Nicolai were set up a little before the checkpoint and we didn't bother heading over to checkin and then walking back to the table) and headed off to Checkpoint 3!
There was no easy support crew access to Checkpoint 3, so we told the boys we'd see them at Checkpoint 4. However, Lora and I both had some blisters not long after we left Checkpoint 2 so we really wanted our medical kit at checkpoint 3. A passerby was able to supply us with some blister pads and we patched ourselves up and let the guys know we wanted them at Checkpoint 3.
There are a lot of hills from Checkpoint 2 up to Checkpoint 4. We were quite a lot slower than I'd hoped, but that was pretty much to be expected. We were also delayed by quite a lot as we patched our blisters up at Checkpoint 3.
I'd swapped camelpacks at CP 2 and Nicolai refilled my second pack at CP 3. I think the lid didn't do up very well though so part-way to Checkpoint 4 I discovered that I had been leaking water all over myself and had to walk a lot of the way to checkpoint 4 with wet pants. Wet underpants are not fun to walk in. Up hills. For several kilometres. I stopped to go to the toilet and try and squeeze my clothes out a bit. Lora sent Cha and Peter on ahead and waited for me.
Lora and I caught up with Peter fairly quickly but we didn't see Cha until we were like half way up Hackett's road! I think that Cha has a secret rocket pack :) such a champion.
We all got to the top of Hackett's road (it's a really frickin' steep road. and it's long.) and let the support crew know that we'd be wanting dinner at Checkpoint 4.
As well as Lucien and Nicolai, we had a Lydia and Joe at checkpoint 4 (and, eventually, a Duncan!). It was awesome to have so many people to meet us. Dinner was once again fabulous. We spent quite a long time at checkpoint 4. I had to get changed as my clothes were wet and I pretty much had to re-do my feet at every checkpoint to re-strap them and attend to my blisters.
We'd scheduled training walking Checkpoint 4 - Checkpoint 5 a couple of times, but our efforts had always been thwarted! I had ankle problems for several weeks and then they were doing burns on the trail and we couldn't get to that bit of it. Thus, Checkpoint 4 - Checkpoint 5 was the only part of the trail we hadn't trained on - and this was one of the bits of the trail that had changed since last year.
And it was awful.
On the elevation graph on the trailwalker site it looks like it should just be pretty much downhill from Checkpoint 4 through to Checkpoint 5. Oh no. It was endless horrible HORRIBLE uphills and downhills.
In the dark. It was narrow and there were a lot of people and it was dark and unfamiliar and steep. We made it to the half-way (50km) mark at about 2030.
I'd always hoped that we'd complete the trail in around 24 hours. My projected times got us there at about 20-22hrs. Our blisters and delays at checkpoint 3 (where we expected to just walk straight through) made that unlikely but it was at the half way point where I admitted to myself that 24 hours was just not going to happen. It took us almost exactly 12 hours to walk the first 50km, we weren't going to do the second in the same time.
I am terrible going downhill. It makes my knees hurt and I'm slow. I ended up going backwards down the hill using the rope (they obtained permission to put up a rope because THAT'S HOW HORRIBLE THE HILL IS) and it was just awful. Cha was also feeling very sick, and so was I. We'd planned on having another small meal at Checkpoint 5, but as we got closer to checkpoint 5 we called ahead and let them know that none of us could stomach even the thought of food.
We had a good spot in a tent with a nice warm heater and there was no line for the physio (but there was a very long line for the toilet!). We decided that as long as we were able to keep warm, we should take as much time as we needed for the breaks. Lora and I saw physios and I had a short nap under the table. The break and nap really made me feel better, but unfortunately Cha wasn't feeling an better, and didn't think she was likely to come good any time soon. We were at just under 60km at this point, over half way but still a huge chunk of the trail to go.
A year ago I had to make the same decision, in the same location. It was so hard to lose her, but with 40km of the trail still left ahead of us, it really was the correct decision. Lydia and Joe were heading home so they were able to take Cha and Nicolai home. My brother was heading out to meet us at Checkpoint 6 so we could lose Nicolai as well.
My thumb was sore where the quick was pulling away from the nail. I needed a bandaid and lydia gave me one which had animal prints on it. including turtles. We decided that it was the evil eagle turtle.
Although we'd just lost a team member, we were totally on fire walking from Checkpoint 5 to Checkpoint 6. I'd taken some neurofen and some no-doz and I was feeling optimistic and awesome. I decided that my new strategy was to intimidate all of the other teams with my cheerfulness!
Peter had blister problems coming in to Checkpoint 6, and Lora needed some more massage therapy. My wonderful brother, James, was there waiting for us. I was very happy to see him!
I couldn't maintain the cheerfulness so well between checkpoint 6 and 7. There's only so much caffeine can do, I suppose. It was getting to be early morning (about 4am I think) by the time we headed off from Checkpoint 6 and Checkpoint 6- 7 is the longest stretch of the trail, over 20km.
Peter's blisters were slowing him down and Lora and I were feeling it to. It was really hard going and it was so difficult to stay awake. As soon as the sun came up it was much easier to stay awake!
Walking along the aqueduct was hard going. It seems to be endless and there are no landmarks so we just had no idea how far we had of it to go. Peter was slow and steady, Lora and I found that walking quickly did not hurt any more than walking slowly so we steamed on ahead and then Peter overtook us whenever we took a break. My knees absolutely crapped out walking down the hill to checkpoint 7.
There were small children with iced water on the hill down to checkpoint 7. They were totally my heroes of the morning. It must have been like 9am by that point and I'd been walking for over 24 hours. The water was delicious. Thank you small children!
I actually crawled up the steps into the building at Checkpoint 7. my knees were absolutely killing me.
Our blister pads had accidentally gone home with Cha, so I thought the best thing to do about my blisters would be to see a podiatrist. I didn't really see any other option but it took FOREVER. My knees were really my main problem but unfortunately there hadn't been a physio on duty since I'd seen one back at Checkpoint 5. One of the podiatrists had knee problems herself so she strapped up my knees for me. Eventually the podiatrist was finished on my feet. I think the strapping she did was good and really helped, but my blisters didn't really feel that comfortable. It was late morning by this point though so we were itching to get going.
Checkpoint 7 to the finish is only a measly 7km but there's a pretty big hill. Well actually it's two hills. You go up, then you go down, then you go back up and then you go back down again. During training we walked it in bang on 2hrs, we expected to take much longer as we headed off from the Golf Course yesterday. My blisters hurt with every step and I couldn't bend my left knee. Lora was in constant pain with her knees as well, and Peter's blisters must have been killing him. We made a pretty ridiculous looking group and team after team walked past us.
I know that many of the teams passing us had slept for a few hours. I was the most visibly injured of the three, and several people told me that they wouldn't have continued had they been in as much pain as I seemed to be. Knowing that Lora and Peter were just as sore as I was (even if they weren't as slow) meant that that hadn't even been something I'd considered.
Coming down the hill was absolute torture. Going up was not so bad, but I just could not walk downhill. I had to either crawl backwards on my hands and feet, or try and walk backward and not fall over, or kind of uncomfortably walk down sideways. I twittered a kilometre countdown on twitter and Lora and Peter called encouragingly from the bottom.
Then there was the second hill. Up again. Then only one kilometre to go and one big steep downhill.
Once again my backwards and sideways techniques got me to the bottom of the hill. The knowledge that my mother would be there waiting for me at the finish line kept me going.
Once we got to the bottom of the hill I took a short break. There was only a few hundred metres to the finish line. I got an sms from my mother to tell me that she'd arrived which was lucky because had she been any later, she would have totally missed it!
Lora and I put our bibs back on our fronts (we'd had them on our backpacks as we'd been putting layers on and off).
When a team member drops out, you need to have a slip of paper to show that you have a retired member when you check in and out of the rest of the checkpoints. Peter held up Cha's retirement slip and we all held hands as we ran across the finish line.
Let me say that last bit again.
We RAN across the finish line. OH FUCKING YEAH, BABY.
And then we were hugged and we checked in for the final time. and then I hugged my mum again and burst properly into tears like I'd wanted to do since we'd said goodbye to Cha nearly thirteen hours earlier.
Then there was cold water, and sausages, and a lot of congratulatory sms and @replies on twitter.
Thank you Lora, Peter and Cha. You are all amazing. Cha, I hope you want to try it again because I feel like this won't be over until I get you over the finish line!
Thank you Lucien who spent just as much time out there as we did, but instead of getting to walk he had to spend hour upon hour waiting around for os to arrive. We could NOT have done this without you!
Thank you Nicolai who also spent many many hours out on the trail and prepared our food and supplies. We could not have done it without you.
Thank you James, Lydia, Joe and Duncan who all headed out to the trail to support us and give us hugs and encouragement. We possibly could have done it without you but it would have been a lot more difficult and you never know, maybe we couldn't have.
Thank you everyone who sent twitter and sms messages during and after the event. Especially Kirsty!
Thank you everyone who donated! You can do that here if you haven't done it already! That's what this whole thing was about, after all :)
There are 4 Comments! :D
- Michael
You've done well! Are you sure you want to do it all again next year?????? Haven't you suffered enough????
Lots of Love
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