Last year my brother-in-law attempted the 100km Oxfam trailwalk, and he said to me then, Tash next year you’ve got to do it, it’s the most amazing experience to be part of. My response back then was no thanks its not for me, there’s no way I can do something like that. Well little did I know myself.

It all started with Damian coming home one day, saying very cautiously that for the next four months his weekends were going to be consumed with training for Oxfam which he was going to do with JJ Laura and Tom. My initial reaction was, “f*&%-off”! No way am I going to be left alone entertaining my kids on the weekends while he was off enjoying himself without us! Then my second thought was, well we can all be unhappy for the next four months with me being pissed off about the whole thing, or I could jump on board and be their Support Crew. So, much to Damian’s relief, that’s what I did. The first weekend wasn’t too bad, in fact Ethan, Lachie and I joined Damian JJ and Laura for breakfast over at Manly after they completed the Spit to Manly walk as part of their training.

A week later, I took the opportunity to get some exercise in, so I went on one of their training walks. The 10km walk was going to be a challenge because I had not done any form of exercise for some time. Angela Huggins was joining the team as she was part of another team that Telcoinabox was sponsoring, called Telcoinabox Rox! During the walk we find out that two of Ange’s team mates have pulled out and she is looking for replacements. Fortunately, my Brother in law Chris Sadgrove was interested as he wanted to complete the walk which he failed to do last year, and after much encouragement, so was I. So here I am, now part of an endurance challenge I thought I could never do.

We started our training with a distance of 10km, and each week we did more and more, which allowed us to learn a lot about our strengths and weaknesses. We were encouraged to go along to a Gear and Information night held at a couple of Paddy Palin shops in Sydney. Toby Cogley, - a veteran Oxfam trailwalker and also a team member of the winning team was their guest speaker. The most important tip I got from him was that we should aim to complete a 50km walk prior to the Event. The idea was that if we could walk 50km, then we certainly could walk another 50km. After hearing this, it inspired me to achieve it, as at that stage in the game I wasn’t yet confident in myself to do the 100km.

Soon after the talk, we planned to walk 50.1km, except we failed. We only managed to walk 31km.Everyone was feeling the disappointment, so a meeting was called to discuss where we went wrong. And it became clear that one crucial ingredient for success was not present – team communication. It also became apparent that because there were two teams training together and that each team had a different level of fitness, we needed to be training on our own.

When we finally attempted another 50km walk, it felt like we were ready for it this time, and as expected we nailed it. Our team did extremely well finishing the 50km walk in 14hours. We all felt like we could have gone on another 50km. The goal was achieved, and we felt confident. The other team had a different outcome. Even though they started 2hours after us, they finished half-an-hour before us. But as they discovered, the pace at which they walked was not sustainable on a 100km distance. They learnt a big lesson that from that walk.

When the day of the event finally arrived, there was a mixed feeling of nervousness and excitement. Surviving the next 48hours was nerve wracking as there was an underlying feeling that we didn’t want to let our team down. Yet the excitement was contagious as people were rolling in with songs, banter and enthusiasm. It was obvious who the serious runners were. They were the leaner looking ones with very little to carry. Then there were the walkers, with there hiking boots, gators and backpacks. It was an interesting mix of people. When the gun went off, the crowd moved passed the starting line, but the TIAB teams were still unloading full bladders. We weren’t too concerned as we caught up when we had to cue up to get onto the uphill single file trail.

To give you an idea on what the trail is like and what we had to endure, most of it is through national parks, climbing up hills then down, over boulders, crossing creeks, bridges and railway tracks and some of it is walking through residential streets. The 100km trail is broken up into 8 check points all with varying distances between. The longest distance between a check point was 14km and the shortest distance being 7.5km. During the day, the heat gets to you, at night the cold. But overall it is exhaustion that hits you. Your muscles start to seize up when you stop for too long, so you have to keep on moving. Your mouth is feeling parched, so you drink some more, but not too much in case you get hyponatremia. Your tired and your eyelids want to shut but you are still walking. Its exhausting. It’s tough. Its gruelling. But you keep on going. Blisters are forming that you are not yet aware of, until you take your shoes only to discover what you feared. Ouch. And knees are hurting, there’s a clicking sound that doesn’t sound good, they look a little swollen. People around you are limping or hopping along. All with one goal - to cross that Finish line.

So at 11.36pm on Saturday night our team crossed the finish line after 40.35 hours with no sleep and extreme exhaustion. Damian’s team had finished exactly 3 hours earlier. Finishing the Oxfam walk is one of the greatest achievements in my life. I broke through many mental barriers during the experience and learned a lot about myself including that I am much stronger than I would have ever realised. I have pushed myself to new limits and this is an experience I will never forget.

The walk is an extreme endurance event as shown by the following statistics:

• 516 teams left the START line, but only 240 teams finished as a complete team of 4.
• 2064 individuals started, however only 1601 crossed the FINISH line
• And 492 teams finished with at least 1 walker.

So thank you to everyone that supported us and sponsored us in this amazing charity event. The Support Crew we had made it possible for us to just focus on the walk. And finally the donations we received amounted to $11056 which is a huge effort. So once again, thank you.

Author: Tash Kay