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30 August
We made it!
22.5 hours after leaving Brooklyn we arrived at Georges Heights oval at 5:30am on Saturday morning. All four of us made it to the finish line, in good health all things considered! The support from our support crew was exceptional and we looked forward to seeing them to get some hot food into us and to have someone new to talk to! The volunteers on the track were awesome and so friendly, considering we were seeing some of them early morning in what felt like Arctic conditions. Thank you to everyone who donated and also encouraged us along the way, you guys were instrumental in getting us across the line. More updates and photos to come.
26 August
The day of reckoning is near!
This time tomorrow we'll be 3hrs in to the epic 100km trailwalker journey. We're pretty pumped, it feels like ages since we first signed up for the walk, and now all the training walks and hours spent sweating it out on the track are about to come to fruition. We had a support crew afternoon tea on Sunday, to run through all the particulars for each checkpoint, and more importantly to organise a menu to keep us going! We are extremely appreciative of all the efforts that everyone has put in helping us get to this point, and hopefully sometime early Saturday morning we can crack a beer with our support crew and say we made it. You can follow our progress tomorrow on this page, so check in regularly!
02 August
Thank you to our donors
Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. It's a massive boost for us to see so much support, and we really appreciate it. We are very close to our target of $5000, hopefully we can get there before race day. Not long now!
02 August
Fifth training walk - Brooklyn to Sphinx Memorial
We made it, 50kms, and we felt every step! It took us a little under 10 hrs and a combination of running and walking to get there, but we made it. A 7am start at Brooklyn saw us hitting the Mt Everest concrete fire trail with lots of other teams. We were feeling good and settled into our pace early on. When we started encountering too much traffic on the trail, we unleashed (with some trepidation), our secret weapon, a shirtless Werner. Werner would take his shirt off, and any ladies within a 5km radius were immediately overcome and required medical attention. Mike received divorce papers from his feet when we finished, after wearing new shoes on a major walk for the second time! He felt the unweclome twinge of blisters at 40kms, and finished the last 10kms on a couple of solid blisters, which was a massive effort. Mitch was out sick and injured this week, and was probably enjoying a caffe latte at Balmoral in the sun. We hope he recovers quickly, as we're going to need the 4 of us charging on race day to get through the 100kms. We're all a little sore this morning, but even more determined now to complete the 100kms. Not long to go!
26 July
Fourth training walk - Davidson Park to Balmoral in the dark
6:30pm last Friday night saw the 4 of us get the bus to Davidson Park at Forestville for our first (and only) night walk. Dust was brushed off head torches and we set off into the night...which proved to be easier than expected, although there was a full moon that night which provided additional lumination. The rain flirted with us for a while before deciding to make it a steady relationship, despite our best protestations. Werner repeatedly tried to sprain his ankles, by falling through holes in vegetation and jumping off rocks into the night, fortunately with little success. We arrived at Balmoral at 10pm in the pouring rain, ready for a steak at Bather's Pavilion. Unfortunately the steak did not materialise, instead we reached Balmoral Oval and Mike and Mitch decided to do a few chin ups. Why not! Having now walked the whole track, we think we need to cover as much ground as we can in daylight, as the terrain in the first half of the track is really challenging. Our next walk is a second shot at 50km this Sunday, it's going to hurt but we need to nail at least one 50km before race day!
20 July
Third training walk - steep descent
This is going to be fun on race day!
14 July
Third training walk - Brooklyn to Apple Tree Bay
43kms/10hrs/3 tired mountain goats, that was Sunday! We started walking at Brooklyn at 6:30am, thank you very much to Mark for giving us a lift! The first check point is tough as the terrain is full of steep uphill and downhill sections, and the fire trails are concrete. We learnt quickly that there is a direct relationship between the amount of concrete on a fire trail and the speed at which your muscles seize up and threaten mutiny. The first 14kms took us 3.5hrs which is pretty slow based on our previous walks. This may have had something to do with us taking a 4km detour as a result of too much talking and not enough attention being paid to the signs telling us where to go. Brian met us 10hrs later, tired and a little hungry but happy to have covered the kms. Thanks for the lift Brian, walking up Bobbin Head Road was not especially appealing at that point! Although we were aiming for 50kms, we're happy with 43kms. The first two checkpoints have earnt our respect, and I think we're now a lot better prepared for the steeper sections on race day. Another great benefit of Sunday's walk was running into other groups training. All the teams we stopped to chat to had done the trailwalker before and were happy to give us advice on what works and what to watch out for. The camaraderie that we've experienced in the lead up to the race has been great, and hopefully race day is no different!
08 July
Update - 50km training walk this Sunday
It's time! Time for The Mountain Goats to step up to Checkpoints 1 - 4, Brooklyn to North Turramurra and potentially get punished in the process. We are under no illusions about this walk, two of the steepest sections of the track coupled with increased distance and the chance of rain are promising to make Sunday memorable. We have also started applying metho to our feet, in an effort to reduce blisters and any other nasties that will slow us down on race day. Here's hoping. Check back next week for a full report on Sunday's walk!
22 June
Second training walk
Scenic shot on the way to Checkpoint 7, Mike leading the charge.
22 June
Second training walk - North Turrumurra to Roseville Bridge
We met late Sunday morning at the Sphinx Memorial, with 2 of us recovering from Mike's bday celebrations the night before. The birthday boy himself was a little worse for wear but still pumped for the walk. We met our new team mate Werner at the start. We later found out that Werner likes to walk in his old rowing "zoot"suit. Some may say he's channelling the determination, grit and pride from his old rowing days. While that might be true, I can also say this, ladies watch out! The plan was to do 30km, by covering Checkpoints 4 - 7. Our strategy was to walk at 5kms an hr which we managed to complete successfully, finishing in 6hrs on the nose. A lot of the walk was on fire trails this time, which was much easier than the donkey trail stuff between Roseville Bridge and the Spit. Nutrition was a smashing success, with Mike bringing gourmet sambos and Mitch bringing his homemade date loaf. I however managed a complete sandwich FAIL this time, when I managed to pack snakes, muesli bars and chocolates but forgot to pack 6 sandwiches that I made that morning. Not my best. Our next walk will be 50kms on July 11, from Checkpoint 1 in Brooklyn to Checkpoint 4 at North Turrumurra. That's going to be a great test of our endurance, but based on our training to date I think we'll smash it. I am definitely bringing sambos for that!
21 June
Thank you
Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. Seeing the donations come in gives us a big boost in motivation and is greatly appreciated. We survived our second training walk yesterday, more details on that adventure in the next few days!
24 May
First training walk - Spit to Lindfield
Wasn't Saturday morning a lovely time for a bush walk! The sun was trying to break through the ominous looking rain clouds at 8:30am as we assembled at the Spit for our first training walk together. I discovered that although I remembered to bring packets of snakes and muesli bars, I had forgotten to print out the track notes. Planning FAIL. Fortunately an iphone was on hand to guide us, although electronics and rain do not necessarily form a healthy relationship. We set a cracking pace early on and despite taking a few wrong turns (adding a few kms onto the total), we managed to cover the 24kms to Lindifeld in around 4hrs 45mins. At first we tried to dodge the streams of water pouring down the trail, but we quickly discarded this approach after having to cross a few creek beds that had turned into raging rivers. And as Mike discovered, although it is fun to continually jump in puddles, the water already in your shoes does actually warm up, and replacing it with cold water is not ideal. It was a great opportunity to test our respective walking paces, and we're talking about making the next walk a 30k'er.
12 April
First meeting
We had our first team meeting at the end of March. Main points we covered were training and what to wear and eat in the race, although food seemed to be the main topic of conversation. It's becoming clear that for some of us it may be an excuse to continually eat for 30hours, whilst safe in the knowledge that we'll be burning it all off with the small walk that we have signed ourselves up for. Jen has offered to be our first support crew member which is awesome. We're going to have to think of a suitable reward for the pain we're no doubt going to put her through! Although if there are any prospective support crew members reading this, don't worry, the reward will be something really good, promise.
