100km walk update

Update time – you may have noticed that I’ve changed the title of this blog – no point in it being titled “Can a 50 year old run a marathon” when I’ve already done so and the intention was to keep the blog going to see if I slipped back into a couch potato lifestyle or kept the activity going and given the content was also about charity insanities that I perform the new title is “50 years of age and I ran a marathon – what charity challenges are ahead?”

As you know from the last two updates, I am participating in the Oxfam Trailwalker Melbourne event that starts on 19 April this year. They say the event is one of the toughest charity endurance events on the planet, so why not give it a try. Basically it entails a team of four all starting and finishing together and walking a trail of 100kms through the Dandenongs on the South East of Melbourne. Some of the criteria – you need to complete it in under 48 hours (we plan on roughly 24 hours as we’re not stopping to sleep, just straight through until the end), you must raise at least $1,000 for Oxfam (we’ve got that covered as we have $430 so far, 94 people booked into our trivia night at $10 per head and CGU kindly matching us $ for $ up to $1k), entry fee was $750 for the team so not cheap, you do need to be committed. Speaking of being committed you can’t just wake up on April 19 and say I think I’ll walk 100kms – the amount of training will be significant to get us through this both mentally and physically. Suppose we better start ramping it up then.

As mentioned above we have arranged a trivia and games night for 14 March, at the Duke of Kent Hotel in Latrobe Street Melbourne, $10 entry fee, fun starts at 7.30pm, the pub has kindly agreed to have $15 meal specials for us between 6pm and 7pm and there are heaps of prizes on offer – of course the bar will be open. This is a public event so anybody who is in Melbourne and free on that night just direct message me via twitter @messy_tony and I’ll get back to you asap. Another part of the evening will be memorabilia auction where profits will also go to our fundraising, but it gets even better – CGU, as a major sponsor of the Collingwood Football Club, have donated a 2012 club football signed by the whole Collingwood team AND a jumper signed by Nick Maxwell and Harry O’Brien. Now as most Melbournian’s know you either love or hate Collingwood Football Club, but given the full proceeds from these items will be going to our team fundraising I’m hoping there are quite a few Magpie supporters there on the night to boost the coffers.

We also have team tee shirts arranged, courtesy of Primary School Wear ("PSW"), as well as flogging blocks of Oxfam Fair Trade Organic chocolate in the office, with all profits from that venture also going to the team. Again contact me via twitter or a comment in this blog if you're after some.

Training for myself has consisted of a few runs but nothing major as I’m still a little tight in a few muscles after the marathon, but did 6.7kms on Tuesday and will do 10kms or so on Saturday before long walk training ramps up. A couple of the other team members have been giving the 1000 steps at Upper Ferntree Gully a good working over, which is great to see and the other has been running a marathon training program. Looks like I could well be the one to let the team down unless I start amping up my physical activity. Looks like the snooze button will not be in use for the next couple of months (again!!!)