Sorry – this is a long post and reflects my thoughts across the Oxfam Trailwalker event.
The vital stats:
- Distance: 55.9km
- Time: 11 hours and 4 minutes
- Average pace: 5.05km/h (inclusive of breaks)
- Vertical elevation: 2,110 metres climbed
- Steps: >70,000
- 5th Place Team of 4
Saturday morning started early with an alarm that woke me with a shock a little before 3am. One of the joys of living outside of Brisbane is that the car travel is always a decent chunk of time – something I’m more than used to with a daily commute into the city, but it still hits you hard on these sort of mornings.
Breakfast, coffee, shower, tape the toes and get dressed. As always, I’ve ended up leaving home a bit later than planned so have to hustle to be on-time to pick up one of my team mates before heading into the city to meet up with the rest of the team. Traffic at 4am on a Saturday morning is not surprisingly light and the peace of the morning is a contrast to the rolling thoughts in my head about the walk, gear, food, water, times – cycle, repeat…
Once the team is together it’s now reached 5am and it’s time to get into the cars and head out to Lake Manchester. Traffic in the city is still almost non-existent – too late for those returning home from a night out, too early for everyone else. Until we get close to the start point – when we find ourselves in a queue of traffic, and this is largely how the day will now continue with a permanent visible reminder of teams in front and teams behind that help remind you this is not a training walk anymore.
Arriving into Lake Manchester the sun is now starting to cross the horizon and the dawn light is growing in intensity. A combination of nerves and excitement rest across the open fields as more than 100 teams congregate for registration and to say goodbyes to their support crews, families and friends. The 5 QUT MBA teams are together for a photo, and then we’re separate again – small groups of 4 going through our final preparations and readying for the walk.
To be honest, our team is exceptionally relaxed. With only 5 minutes to go one of us is lining up for the toilets and the other 3 are enjoying a morning coffee – not quite a focus on peak performance but this reflects our relaxed approach to the whole event. What’s interesting is that this relaxed approach has still seen us exceed our fundraising target (by this point we’ve raised over $3,200 of our $3,000 target), we’re together as a group of 4 (despite some significant concerns and a last minute hospitalisation), and we’ve got a rough plan for the day.
The walk commences…
In the final few minutes before the start we’re still waiting for Ian to get back from his last minute toilet break (not surprisingly the toilet line for 400 over-hydrated people is long) and then he has to drink his coffee (did I mention the high performance focus of our team J?). I also realise I haven’t filled my water bottle so it’s a quick run to get some water.
By the time of the hooter we’re almost at the back of 106 teams to walk under the arch that marks the commencement of our 55km climax of a 4 month journey for both Adaptive Leadership as a Unit and the Oxfam Trailwalker event.
What we quickly learn is that the first section of course is different to what we had anticipated – we turn right rather than left. Does this mean it will be less than 55km? Does that matter if we don’t get the full 55km experience? Will there be a later change to make up the distance? Is it because of the course change between Bellbird and Enoggera? So many unanswered questions.
The other major thing we learn is that the walking pace at the back is quite a bit slower than we are both comfortable with and were planning on. A quick team check that everyone is ok to jog a bit and we’re suddenly hurdling over the scotch thistles and traversing the uneven rocks on the very edge of the 4wd trail to make our way through the field. The team is comfortable with a run so we jog our way past the other 4 QUT teams in this first few km before settling in for a steady walk on the flats.
When we eventually hit the creeks the impact of the recent rains are obvious as what were dry creek beds and shallow crossings a month or so ago on our training walk are much deeper. As a result, a bit of time is spent traversing the crossings and finding dry rocks to dance across without falling in. As a result, we lose our leadership spot of the QUT teams with Happy Feet finding a quicker way over one of the crossings and jumping us in the rankings. It’s a long day though, and at this point no one is that fussed with competing.
Hill time!!
Then we hit the hills – and remind ourselves just how long they can be. Fortunately the boggy mud of the first section disappears and we hit dry, compact gravel for the climbs. The one advantage of the hills is that as a team we’re quite comfortable running down the hills, so get some good time back on the downs. I manage to catch Happy Feet on the big descent but by the time the rest of the team catches up at the bottom of the hill they’ve already started the ascent of the 2nd climb, but we know we’re close.
The 2nd climb also starts to take a toll on the legs and Tom elects to make use of the walking poles and this proves to be a great relief and he makes use of them for the remaining 40km. It’s a long and steady climb but before too long we find ourselves arriving into CP1 at Scrub Road and it’s only 10.30am.
Check Point #1 – 8th place?!?
We’ve covered the first 19.7km in 3.5 hour and are well ahead of our schedule. Our biggest surprise comes as we check the live timing – we’re in the top 10! We never anticipated this and it gives us all an extra boost of energy. We’d already planned for a quick stop at Scrub Road with a sock change the only time constraint. So it’s only a few minutes before we’re back on the feet and on the trails a few minutes behind the Happy Feet team.
Funnily, I get a phone call from Kim at this point who has seen our result and called to wish us well. She doesn’t realise we’re not stopping at Scrub Road and are already back on the trail – between the poor reception and the steady pace it’s not a long conversation! It’s also time to update the Support Crew (Tom’s parents) that our pace is better than expected so we’re updating our CP2 arrival time from 2.00/2.30pm to closer to 1.00pm. It’s a bit after 10.30am, we’ve got 15km between us and Bellbird Grove and now we’re keen to catch Happy Feet (partly because I hadn’t recognised them to this point and we’re disagreeing that it’s a QUT team ahead of us).
Luckily there’s some downhills so we can get some decent pace going. We’re also starting to pass some of the slower 100km teams now and they are truly inspiring seeing how much discomfort some of them are in and still soldering on.
We’re also adding to the social media banter with the QUT leadership team at this point who are a great support at the start and the Check Points. They’re setup at the next CP and we’re letting them know we’re on our way – put the kettle on for 1:30pm!
A combination of steady walking, downhill running and not stopping along the way sees our average pace up around 5.2km/h as we’re getting closer to the Bellbird CP. Some evil short/sharp hills in the final trails before the turn onto the bitumen road are really hitting the 100km teams hard but we’re still reasonably comfortable although the distance is starting to impact Ian (his longest event to this point was a 20km Tough Mudder) as we’re now past halfway and on our way into the 35km checkpoint.
The volunteers along the way are exceptional. They have a mixture of lollies, mints and some great words of encouragement. It’s always the volunteers that make these events and the team at the turn toward CP2 are one of the best we come across.
As we cross the road to head towards Bellbird we’re greeted by Glen who has phone in hand ready to call in our coffee orders (again, high performance team stuff). Time to get a jog on for the long slow descent to the CP and our first, and only, support crew stop. Although the 3rd CP at Enoggera is a supported CP we’ve already agreed as a team we won’t be stopping there as with only 10km between there and the finish we don’t see the need.
Check Point #2 – The Support Crew
Upon arrival into the CP we’re greeted by our support crew and also the QUT team who have a great little tent set up and offer both friendly faces and encouragement. By this point our competitive juices are flowing – we’re in #1 place for the QUT teams and we’re keen to keep this ranking. We assume Happy Feet isn’t too far behind (having passed them mid-way between CP1 and CP2) and earlier as we’d departed CP1 we’d passed both Thread Bare Grylls and Good Will Hiking. So we know they’re not too far behind. The team from Between a Walk and a Hard Place seem to be well behind and we hope they’re still travelling ok.
The live timing only gives updates as each CP so keeping track of the teams isn’t easy. TBG is showing as still resting at CP1 (we are pretty sure they aren’t), so we know it’s not a reliable indicator.
Our support crew stop is pretty brief – reload the food bags, change socks and shirts, eat some solid food and fruit, check strapping and refill the camelbaks. As we’re resting we get word that apparently Happy Feet has departed CP2 – this get’s us moving and we’re quickly back on our way. As we refill the waters we can see Happy Feet still resting (clearly our spy, Glen’s daughter, has given us bad intelligence, but it did get us moving!).
On the climb out we pass TBG and then Good Will Hiking. Interestingly when we pass Glen he is concerned as he hasn’t seen any of the other QUT teams – either he was asleep or they took the shortcut (that many of the 100km teams were taking to avoid the steep descents). Bastards.
As we settle back into a steady pace we’re now with 20km of the end and a bit over 3 hour until sunset – how close to the end can we get before dark? Suddenly our initial target of finishing by sunset is actually within reach. It’s also more and more serene on this section. As we navigate around Enoggera Dam we have long sections where we aren’t within sight of any other teams. Just 4 guys, some Australian bush and the awareness of a time pressure to keep moving.
Our pace is slowing a bit with Ian starting to show the effects of almost 40km of walking and it’s a constant push to keep the pace up where we think it needs to be in order to keep our lead over Happy Feet. Late into this section we get passed by an all-female team who look incredibly fresh. We try to keep up in the last 2km before CP3 but they are clearly travelling much better than we are and although we keep up we start to accept they are going to beat us to the end.
Check Point #3 – no time for stopping now!
CP3 is another lightning stop. No one has to refuel as we still have supplies from CP2 so we check-in and out in one go. Tom wants to change socks and check his feet as there’s some pain creeping in, but we’re only in the CP for a few minutes. We get sent out with a couple of 100km walkers who have lost 2 team members, but they quickly drop off our pace and settle in with another 100km team. As we climb the small hill out of CP3 we pass Happy Feet and it’s seemingly game-on for the final 10km push.
Checking the live timing it shows Happy Feet having departed CP3 10 mins behind us. At our pace that’s 1km. Not much and easy to close over the next 2 hours. Although everyone is clearly fatigued we manage to find some running legs for the downhills. I’m pushing the team for a bit of pace and a few times my encouragement is clearly a bit much with a few short responses about whether it matters if they catch us. Despite this, we make great time on the first 4km out CP3 and get the pace on this section up to 6km/h. We also get some great views of Enoggera Dam and out to Mt Coot-tha where we will be in the next 2 hours.
Soon we find ourselves on the suburban streets of Chapel Hill and the other areas around the base of Mt Coot-tha. This is also Red Bull time as we’re within the final 4km and it’s getting close now. There’s no more running once we hit the suburban streets and it’s walking only. I’m counting Ian down through the final few km and you can see the effect of ‘3km to go’, ‘2km’ to go etc as we get closer to the end.
As we cross onto the trails for the final climb the darkness is falling upon us both literally and figuratively. By the Garmin GPS, we’re at 54.1km as we hit this final section and I’ve only just told Ian that it’s 1km to go. Then we hit a sign that reads ‘1.9km to go’ – deflation! The sense of negativity and disappointment is obvious – the final 10 minutes of the event has been stretched to a final 20 minutes, and we’re looking at a decent climb ahead of us.
This final climb ascends as the dusk descends. Views to the hills slowly dissolve to darkness and by the time we’re nearing the top the only lights we have are our headlamps and the lamps of the 100km team we’ve just passed. Step, step, step. It’s nothing more at this point than a single step after a single step. The altimeter shows we’ve just cracked 2000m vertical for the day, we’ve just hit 55km and we have a stunning view ahead of us – a volunteer marshal who is channelling their inner Christmas tree (1000s of lights) and then the appearance of the twinkling lights of the city of Brisbane.
Spectacular, clear, still. The twinkling city lights are perfect as we feel the relief of cresting this final climb and now have a 900m trudge to the finish. Keeping a careful eye on the trails behind us (no one wants to get passed this close to the end), we’re focused on getting all 4 of us to the end. Encouragement, a few songs and counting down the 100m sections (and hoping that this time it’s accurate).
We can now see the finish chute before painfully turning away from it for the final twist of the knife, and trail. We resolve that we’re going to jog into the finish as a team. Finally, we reach final milestone – the final volunteer post where they ask if we have a song preference for our finish! No surprises here – as long as it’s the Nancy Sinatra version and not Jessica Simpson’s effort of ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.
Our feet leave the trails for the final time and touch the bitumen of the finish chute. A quick check of the team and we’re “jogging” (shuffling is probably more accurate) and our song is blasting as they announce our team. We see family and friends and the QUT team to welcome us home. Hugs, handshakes, congratulations and photos before the final check-in of the event.
And we’re done. We’re told that we are 6th team across the line – later we can see that we’re 8th, but 5th of the teams of 4. Unexpected. A great sense of accomplishment and triumph.
It was only 2 weeks earlier that we’d joked (half joke, half genuine concern) that we might not have 4 at the start and were still $46 short of the minimum fundraising to even start. There had been lots of jokes about whether Ian existed (since neither Tom nor Jon had met him or spoken with him) and we even had Glen lacing up the trail shoes as our risk mitigation. Suddenly we had exceeded the expectations we had of ourselves and undoubtedly others had of us – first QUT team to finish, 5th team of 4, well over our fundraising target, and most importantly we were still talking to each other!
These Suits Are Made for Walkin 
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