It has been an exciting and taxing 48 hours, following my partner on a 100km trailwalk/run from Sydney's Central Coast through to Sydney Harbour (Mosman) as he ran for both personal triumph and to raise funds for Oxfam.
The Oxfam trailwalker (teams of four, walk/run 100km within 48 hours) involves some super-human endurance from the walker's point of view, and from mine, no sleep and lots of patience.
Sam's (probably time you met my 'partner' - meet Sam) team completed the walk in just over an unbelievable 22 hours - AND - came 50th out of 519 teams! That means his team basically overtook every team that started at 8.30am on Friday, and came first in their group which left at 10.00am on Friday.
As support crew, we met the team at each checkpoint, eight in total, with fresh food, clothing, chairs, camping utilities including hot water for soup, lighting, first aid, and encouragement. Try doing all of this under Roseville Bridge at 3am, after no sleep when it's 3 degrees! It is completely impressive that they ran for 22 hours throughout the day and night.
My advantage was coffee. I can't begin to tell you how many coffee and toilet stops (too many portaloos!) there was from the Hawkesbury to Mosman during that 22 hours! I drank coffee at 3am that I wasn't even sure was coffee ... but at that time of the morning I didn't care. Note; the best coffee stop was at Apple Tree bay, in the beautiful National Park as the sun set, from a coffee cart!
The support team's adventures started by missing the most timeliest train from the Hawkesbury to our first checkpoint (we were in the cutest cafe with our first coffee and some fantastically fresh scones!), and having to ask an Oxfam employee to drive us up the coast. We had time to kill, so indulged in hours of self-entertainment with a hackey sack.
When the boys arrived at each checkpoint, half delusional, we convinced them that food and water/powerade was critical to their success. We packed and unpacked a mini campsite eight times, mixed sport drinks and soups by candlelight, and Kirsten massaged the boy's legs to much relief.
And you get to know what really goes on inside boy's heads when they're pushed to the limit, cold, sleep deprived and in pain. It includes a lot of talk about each other's bodily gas and toilet stops, discussions on where the best place to rub Vaseline is, and how many blisters each person has, and whose hurt the most.
Sam now has chaffing, blisters, black toenails and some severe muscular issues! But it was an awesome accomplishment, and something to be very proud of.
It was great to support a team as they pushed their bodies and minds to their limits and although it will take more than a weekend for everyone to recover, it was an experience I will never forget.
It's back to bed for the sleepless.
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