100kms conquered - $6k+ raised for charity - how was it and what's next?

So we did it!!! A team of four all walked 100kms (62 miles) each, together as a team, for charity!!! Besides a couple of quick food intake breaks and one 45 minute one whilst a team member had their feet re-strapped we went straight through and accomplished the task in 25 hours and 35 minutes.

I’ve had a couple of days to reflect on the achievement and given I was so full of adrenalin on Saturday and Sunday I didn’t want to post my thoughts as they could reflect quite a bit of my delirium.

For those who aren’t familiar with Trailwalker, a team of four must start and finish together over the full 100km trail distance. Ok we averaged just under 4 kms per hour, but do not forget this was on trails, we had over 2,300 metres in elevation, at some stages the hills were astronomical (there is a section called the 1,000 steps so you get what I mean). Below is a copy of the Garmin elevation readout to give you some concept.

After going on such a massive excursion with three fellow walkers there is so much I could share with the readers here, but I don’t want to bore you, so I’ll be doing my best to keep it brief.

Although travelling 100 kms on foot is obviously a personal achievement, this was a team journey, an odyssey. Could we do it???

I learned so much about my fellow walkers (and support crew) during our 25 hour journey, and I’m not talking about now knowing their first pet’s name. I learned about their characters, their motivations, their breaking points and their commitments to a team challenge. Potentially this experience could break a range of friendships but I personally believe that with the group I was fortunate enough to walk with I now have a special bond that has only strengthened our relationships. Sounds corny doesn’t it? Let’s see if any of them talk to me over the coming months!!!!

The journey itself was tortuous, with the long Warburton Trail flat section being one of the most strenuous as it is monotonous and you’re walking it at night with only a headlamp illuminating about 10 metres ahead of you. At this stage you have been walking for about 15 hours so you are exhausted and feeling sleep deprived. This is when the cracks began to really appear – the banter was kept to a minimum and the humour was a little less appreciated than earlier in the day and even fellow trailwalkers were less willing to engage in conversation. I got through a huge section of that trail by putting on Beck’s “Guero” album via the iPod and danced, shuffled, marched along with my walking pole, getting strange looks for all around, but hey I was naturally hallucinating, why not take advantage of it???

Another highlight was the warm pumpkin and lentil soup that met us as we arrived at Graham Colling Reserve, we’d just climbed 1200 odd metres, and gone back down the mountain and the sun had set and the temperature had dropped to about 3 degrees celcius. The home made warm soup with bread was enough to refuel and hit another 16kms or so before the next scheduled refuel stop. Stops themselves not really consisting of much other than a quick banana, a couple of mouthfuls of rice or pasta, two more anti-infalm tablets, a black coffee and maybe an extra layer of clothing and off again.

The other section that was absolute pain was the last 6.7kms – this consisted of a steep climb up, another down, up again and then a massive down to the finish line. The last kilometre of this journey took our team 33 minutes to complete as one of our team member’s knees couldn’t cope with the downhill walk and he had to complete it backwards. I personally had my knee lock on me about 2 kilometres from the finish line after I’d just finished the second last climb and was waiting for one of my team mates at the top of the hill, my left leg would literally NOT bend, it took a good five minutes of leaning on team mates, attempting to stretch and bend before a click occurred and I slowly warmed up again.

All of this was being done with massive blisters, as mentioned above, one team mate had to take a 45 minute break at one of the stops to get his feet re-strapped by podiatrists. I personally self treated my blisters, which was probably not the best approach as the photo below shows.

All up a most amazing experience and one that I will never forget. The thanks go far and wide, to my fellow walkers, to our support crew, to my wife who has put up with the training and now the bandaging and bandaging of my feet, the people who donated to the charity (as at today was have raised over $6,500 and there will be more coming), the people who attended our fundraising events, those who sent us words of encouragement throughout the vent itself and I’m sure there are plenty more who I’ve missed.

All I can leave you with is……what’s the next big challenge????? I’ll need a few days to think about that (it will take me that long before I’ll be able to run again)

One more sleep and 100km on the trails awaits

One more sleep to go. The nervous anticipation of walking 100kms without a substantial break has kicked in.

After an absolutely chaotic week at work I think I’m all organised for the big event. Toenails clipped? Check. Myotherapy and chiropractic sessions finalised? Check. Spare socks, shirts etc? Check. Shoes washed? Check (Why would I wash shoes before I walk 100kms in mud and dust? Officially losing it? Check.) Gels, carb tablets, electrolyte tablets, carb drink powder, protein powder, snakes, anti inflam tablets, normal medication tablets and bananas? Check. False ID in case I get pulled over on the way to the start and they want to know what all these powders are? I’ll risk that one. Beannie, gloves, coat other warm stuff? Check. Headphones for iPhone when I can’t stand the nattering or complaining anymore? Check. Food for dinner at 50km mark? Not yet – cooking that later. Picnic chair to collapse in at checkpoints? Check. Garmin? Check. Walking poles? Check. Change of clothes for end? Check. Vaseline (don’t ask)? Check. Bandages, bandaids, blister gels, anti inflam cream, insect repelant? Check. Headlamp and spare batteries? Check. Small power station to recharge all the technology? Check. Small trailer to carry all this stuff? Don’t own one.

Think I’m ready but sure and certain I’ll be cursing the missed …..whatever….about 5kms after the start. Lucky we have a support crew. Phone call “Help we need a corkscrew”, response “You’re kidding right?” Apparently they call it Murphy’s Law – and some nutter has written a book about that, attempting to find out who “Murphy” really was. I think that writer set out with a grand ambition but soon found out that anything that can go wrong, does go wrong. He never found out who Murphy was...gold.

Now as I have people who read this blog (or visit, glance, come here by mistake…whatever) from places all over the globe, I should really explain what the weather is predicted to be like. Less than 4 weeks ago we did a training walk, the weather was 35 degrees Celsius and dry. This weekend the prediction is for a minimum of 10 degrees and a maximum of 18 and dry…in Melbourne. Now we’re not walking Melbourne, we’re walking up and over Mount Dandenong. Today the maximum there was 8 degrees less than the city and tomorrow they are saying overnight between 3 and 8 degrees with a max between 13 and 17.  WHAT’S THIS????? Scattered snow showers for ranges above 1400 metres? Better check the Garmin read out from the training walks – elevation gain 1,099 metres, max elevation 606 metres. Thank goodness, only snowing above our heads. Jumper? Check. Thermal? Check. Thicker jacket? Check. Thick track suits pants? Check. Larger trailer? Better ring local hire company.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts this event can be completed within 48 hours, you can set up a tent, use heaps of energy, toss and turn in a freezing camp ground, pack everything up (slowly because your body has locked up) and then kid yourselves that the next half will be easier. Until you suddenly realise your body won’t move. Our team has decided to not stop and rest (apart from a couple of quick meal breaks) therefore not locking up and getting the agony over and done with quicker. Our intention is to get through this in less than 24 hours and based on our training walks this is achievable. Now I may revisit that goal 70 kms into the event when my legs no longer act from brain impulse as they’ve decided to grow a mind of their own and have gone on strike. But at this stage we want to be wolfing down hot food and (maybe) champagne at 7.30am or so on Saturday morning.

Now even though I have a severe case of trepidation I am looking forward to this event, it is a new mountain for me to climb (literally as well as figuratively) and I see the challenge, the team camaraderie, the support, the mental strength and the sheer exhilaration if and when we finish as being a great adrenaline boost. I do know a few team mates are maybe not as upbeat as myself, but maybe their feet are planted a lot more firmly on the ground and they could well have a better grip on reality than myself. Only one way for us to find out how this is going to go – get those trail shoes on and put one foot in front of the other (approx. 150,000 times each).

Finally I’ll end on an a quick thank you to our wonderful support crew who used all of their Project management skills last night, at our team dinner, or what I refer to as our "Last Supper" and made lists of who was bringing what, who will be at what stop where, a sensational spreadsheet with expected arrival times and oh so much more. These guys are the unsung heroes of this journey as it would be pretty bloody hard to undertake an adventure like this without their support, both physically and mentally. Great work support crew we owe you one (do us a favour and use a filter for Instagram if you’re going to take any shots at the finish line – we’ll look terrible).

100km walk looms large - how are we preparing?

It’s been two and a half weeks since I updated this blog on my progress towards the 100kms walk that takes place in 8 days time, so I suppose it’s time for an update.

Put simply a number of injuries have kicked in. First off, after our 57km walk overnight on 22 March I was sore all over for a number of days, this wasn’t getting better over time and seeing I had to be at the doctors four days later I got her to check me out. I had a virus so it wasn’t just the pain of such a long walk, I was actually crook!! I took a few days off the running and returned with a 30 min five kilometre effort at parkrun, I was very happy with that time (as it had taken me a while to get to 6 mins per km) but all afternoon was having quite strong pain in the outer left knee and lower back. A chiro visit determined my pelvis was out and I was under strict instructions not to run the Geelong Half Marathon on 7 April if I was going to be any chance of being in shape to walk 100kms on 19 April.

The knee and lower back seemed to have settled, but stupidly (always good in hindsight) I decided that a geocache trip with my 8 year old son would be a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. So instead of running a half marathon we walked about 3 or so kilometres to a local park where a cache was hidden up a tree. The booty was too high for the little one so I took it on to scale the bottom 5 or so branches. Two branches up, I slipped (should have had my grippy trail shoes on) grabbed the branch above to steady myself, fell anyways and have damaged my ribs on the left side. I can tell you coughing is not an option at present.

So I have just over a week to go until I hit the trails with three team mates and the daunting 100kms up and down mountains awaits, whilst I have a potential dodgy knee, lower back and ribs. Looks like the anti-inflams are going to take a pounding!!!!

Our team fundraising for the trailwalker event has been monumental, with our latest event being held at “Milk The Cow” in St Kilda, a wine and cheese tasting extravaganza which raised $640 for Oxfam. Our total team funds is now over $5,000 and obviously I would like to thanks all those who have donated either their cash or their time and skills in arranging, hosting, assisting with all the events and fundraising activities. There are no more specific events scheduled but the fundraising via email, selling chocolate etc. will continue.

A quiet(ish) week awaits where I’ll put in a few 5km-10km runs, maybe throw in a long walk of 15-20kms and carb up as 23 hours or so of straight walking without a break will use plenty of energy. This week’s plans will centre more around the logistics of the event, how are we going to get to the start with minimal walking, what food do we need to pack, what is in backpack what is in the support vehicle (which can only meet you every 15kms or so), how many litres of electrolyte and carb drinks do I need, what spare clothing (there will be plenty of socks I can tell you) and all that sort of stuff.  Four of us doing the same planning concurrently is going to result in an interesting outcome – I’m sure there will be lots of heated debate, and I’m hopeful we don’t all have 20 bananas each, as the weight in the backpacks would be ridiculous.

I’ll check back in with details of our final preparation, just before we head off, and will obviously report back soon after the finish to let you know how the whole team (and support crew) fared. I’m sure there will be heaps of amusing stories and (not so happy) snaps.

Insane - a 57km all night training walk & other rantings

Do not speak unless it improves on silence. – Buddha

I opened our Trailwalker team blog with that quote as it surely resonated with a couple of my team mates. Whereas I may like to endlessly chatter along miles and miles of ceaseless trails I do believe my team mates prefer a bit of the “silence”. How we’re going to walk 100kms with a nice balance between the banter and the sounds of the environment is going to be one of the great challenges that face us as we head off at 8.30am on 19 April this year.

The team interaction of walking with the same three people (yourself and three others) who are tired, grumpy, smelly and hungry would test the most solid of any relationship. The check in points where we’ll meet the smiling faces of our support crew will break it up a little more than the training walks, where we’ve hit the trails with just ourselves and over stacked backpacks.  Last Friday we headed on another long training walk, intending to walk from Olinda to the end of the course in Wesburn (according to the guide book 55kms or so).  You can’t accurately gauge how far your training walk will be as there will certainly be a few times where you get lost, considering you’re walking through the night with head lamps your only source of light, your Garmin only has enough power for endurance events that last 7 hours or so, and the staggering that kicks in after 50kms or so adds a bit of distance to your travels.

All up we ended walking about 57.2kms and didn’t even get to do the final 6.7km section, which we cut out as our support crew member who was meeting us to take us back to the start point, or home to warm showers and crisp sheets, needed to be back in Melbourne at a certain time and pushing out the last tough section was going to cut it a bit fine. We ended up re-joining the Warburton Trail at the Warburton Golf Course and walking back to Millgrove, the third side of the triangle as we’d gone through Millgrove a few hours earlier before heading up into the mountains for a final 8+ kilometres of pain as you push through elevation gain on bitumen roads before joining up with the Aqueduct Trail in the Yarra Ranges National Park.

Now this blog isn’t just about keeping you up to date with training insanities it also serves as a reminder that anybody who wants to put their mind to it can achieve or perform quite extraordinary things. I’m not putting tickets on myself by putting myself in a category to help people do great things, but I would like to be able to motivate anybody who believes they can’t do something, to at least stop and dwell and ask themselves “why not?” Not that long ago I struggled to run 5kms without needing a break, and within a year or so I’ve finished a marathon and am now training for another as well as training and finalising plans to do a 100km non-stop walk, with three amazing people who are also on that same journey, all to assist people who are less fortunate than ourselves as well as learning quite a bit about ourselves along the way. There is no way a team based endurance event could be completed without a solid team interaction, each team member would all go through doubts, have periods of pain, have times where they need self-reflection (where the words of others are not welcome) and without the support of each other the whole event could not be completed. This event is not just about your body’s ability to finish 100kms it is also about your mind’s ability to handle 24 hours of constant movement and team interaction. This is where our support crew will be angels from above, they’ll know to feed us, even if we don’t want it, they’ll know to encourage us, when we are feeling like we can’t go on, they’ll know to pamper us with strange food requests or long black coffees at 4am, and most of all they’ll be the glue that holds our team together when we get to the stage of falling apart.

The image below is a little hard to make out but it is of the hill that awaits you once you've completed 93kms - you have to have a final push over that - to give you some perspective the light in the middle is a street light so this ain't no little hill. I can tell you that when we saw this at 6.30am on Saturday (as the sun was about to rise) we were a little bit concerned, I don't know about the others but if I'd had any fluids left in my body I may well have cried.

At this stage we’ve managed to raise $3,863 for Oxfam through our events, sales and generous donations. And with one more event to come and some memorabilia to sell we could well push the $5k funds raised, which is a massive effort – works out as $50 per kilometre or $12.50 each per km or about 1 cent per step we each take. Not that I’ll be counting them (not out loud that is – that would certainly drive my team mates bananas).

Other training plans are centered on a marathon plan for late May (which I am yet to commit to) and includes running the Geelong Half Marathon on 7 April with a few fellow runners from Albert Melbourne parkrun. So besides the insanity of 57km all night walks I’ve been putting in a number of 7km, training runs and the weekend before last put in a 17.7km training effort. As you may know the weather in Melbourne went through a heat wave and that threw running training plans into chaos with it being too hot to run at night (35 degrees Celsius or so) and then you’d be way too tired to run in the mornings after a restless night’s sleep. Things have now returned to normal, for the time being, so the training plan will return to normal also, with an average of 40kms+ of training kicking in. Surely that will help me shed those last few kilos, you know the ones, the ones that I’ve been wondering why they won’t budge?

100km walk training update & more

I've definitely filled that "what shall I do after the marathon's complete" void, with plans now in place to walk the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker in under 24 hours (we are entered as a team and the cutoff is 48 hours but I want a boundary I can push) and visions of a further long run (marathon or half marathon tba) in late May in the Barossa Valley.

Stupidly I’ve been thinking “if I can run 42.2kms surely I can walk 100kms”, I really put that theory to the test on Friday night where myself and my fellow Trailwalker Team mates pulled an all-nighter and walked from Olinda to Warburton in the Dandenong’s a total of 48kms . With backpacks stacked with supplies, spare socks, jumpers, long pants, gloves and beannies in case it got cold, as well as gels, anti infalm tablets, band-aids and more we loaded up on carbs at a local Olinda restaurant and then chucked the laden backpacks on, adjusted our headlamps, checked our maps and headed off into the moonrise (sun hadn’t quite set).

The first trail, as soon as it was becoming dark, was a little gnarly, with tree roots and rocks and I was seriously thinking “how the hell am I going to go 11 or so hours with this little lamp” as my 50 year old eyes were struggling to see 5 metres in front of myself. Our navigator was top class, firmly reading all instructions at each turn and making sure we didn’t wander off track in any way (although we did get lost a couple of times it wasn’t her fault the instructions left a lot to be desired in one or two places). The first section of the trail was quite narrow so you couldn’t walk 2 abreast, and our leader took control of a decent sized stick, once she became sick of walking into cobwebs, to clear the way for the tail enders. There were a number of fallen trees to clamber over and we could only really imagine to remoteness and the beauty of the place as it was pretty bloody dark.

Once we got to Mt Evelyn only to wander around aimlessly for a while at the local sports ground trying to find a “bridge to our right” and then eventually onto the Warburton trail things eased up a bit. Even though the first 30 minutes of that trek was taken up by our navigator debating the poor instructions to find the trail, at least we now know our right from left and we are grateful to another team who were resting in a car park who told us we were going the wrong way and most helpfully put us back on track.

The Warburton Trail is easy for walking with a gravel surface which is flat and wide enough to take all four of us abreast if we’d have wanted it that way. It would be a great trail to run, and something I may do one day. We generally split into pairs for the majority of the trail, swapping around at intervals and chatting to keep ourselves on the job at hand. We did have a few repair stops where socks and/or shoes were changed, snakes consumed, bread rolls and bananas devoured and drinks of various types guzzled. I did have a burning desire for a coffee about 3am and may have to ask our ever helpful support crew to carry a thermos or two to keep us caffeinated during the night.

Once we hit the 30km mark a few blister injuries did kick in for my team mates (thankfully I was blister free – the legacy of working that out during my marathon training) so the remaining 18kms was a struggle for some. But full credit to all of them, they soldiered on under duress to fulfil the planned 48km hike. Even though our support crew member, who had risen at 4.40am, must have been laughing at the sight of us staggering up the hill as sunrise beckoned, she was kind enough to hold back the laughter until we all groaned about the pain, moaned as we tried to stretch, and generally whined about the various ailments.

Recovery at home was not ideal with a sleepless night not a wonderful mix with an 8 and 10 year old wanting their due attention, and them being booked into a birthday party. But the duties required added to my training and I am now mentally stronger for the effort (although probably physically weaker).

The theory of do Radox baths actually work was put to the test, and I don’t care if the whole salt bath theory is total bunkum the bath I did have was the most enjoyable I’ve ever had, and that include the ice cold bath I had after my marathon. There is probably nothing better than a nice water based relaxation after an endurance activity and this bath break was probably one of the highlights of my week (throw in the added bonus of one kid being on the playstation3 and the other playing on the pc so there was silence, I could well have thrown in a meditation session).

Other training has consisted of following the Gold Coast Marathon Beginners Training plan and I’ve run each recommended run for weeks six and seven, although skipping today’s planned long run as I think a 48km walk equates to 17.5 km jog, and even if it actually doesn’t I’m not really in any state to go running today. But plans are in place to hit the running track with sprint training on Tuesday, and to ensure I’m in tip top shape I spend 30 minutes the morning going through a full stretch routine, I can’t be in that great a shape though as it did raise a sweat at one stage – I’m blaming the 32 degrees Celsius temperatures and no amount of convincing will make me change my mind – just the same as “it said left at the traffic lights” is not a clear instruction.

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!!!)

Oxfam 100km training starts and Wiggle affiliation

It's been a busy week here at messcharityrun.

First up I finally got back on the horse post Hobart, even though the physio said to take two weeks off. I decided that the ankle was feeling ok and I’d test it out with a vigorous walk. Now I know that’s the sure fired way to exacerbate an injury but after you’ve trained for 6 months or so, and an upcoming 100km trail walk is niggling at your cortex, sitting around waiting to come good really isn’t an option. After 5kms of walking at a 9-10 min per kilometre pace, the usual “ants in my pants” syndrome kicked in and I jogged the last km or so at 6.40 pace. This was total insanity as I had a physio appointment early the next morning so could get treatment if the body did blow up. Good news is I pulled up fine, had a light treatment and am now getting on with things. That translated into another 6.85km vigorous walk/run on Wednesday evening as a warm up to the team trail walk on Friday night.

Our first team excursion with backpacks and runners took place on Friday evening (the get together to plan our training, fund raising, support crew etc. over pizza and a few glasses of wine doesn’t really count as an “excursion”). Three of us (one from another team) took the monster train trip into the Dandenongs and were met by two of our other team mates at the bottom of the Kokoda Memorial Walk, more commonly known as the 1,000 steps. This is the start of Section 3 of the Oxfam Trailwalker and is rated the hardest section of the course due to the 1,000 step and the steep hills. Backpacks stocked, trail shoes attached, drink bottles full, we headed off stopping every so often to refer to the map instructions and to take a few happy snaps. Personally I had a great time as I have had months and months of training pretty much on my lonesome for most of the time and it was great to have a few people to banter with and to share a laugh or two. We took 2 hours 46 mins and 17 seconds to cover the 10.52km course, so a tad slow but given about 30 mins was consumed by stops, the fact that it was pretty dark at the end and the 733 metre elevation gain it wasn’t a bad first outing for the team. Just watch out for single armed or legged characters wandering the streets of Melbourne, it could well be one of our crew missing the limb.

I followed up that late night with a very early rise on Saturday morning to attend the usual parkrun at Albert Park and ran my 2^nd fastest official time of 30.09 for the 5kms so was quite happy with that result too. No ankle problems yet so am certainly all good post Hobart Marathon.

Earlier this week I also arranged for an affiliation with wiggle.com – you will notice their banner on the right hand side of this blog – and what that means is, if you go to their site using my banner and purchase something I will receive up to 4% commission from the sale. You pay no more than usual they just track your click from my site and credit me with a portion of the sale. As per ALL of my links, any commission earned is donated straight back to a featured charity. On my book blog (messybooker.blogspot.com) I have affiliations with The Book Depository and Amazon and have donated the US$47.52 earned to various charities (Indigenous Literacy Foundation, CARE, Ultra Spirit and more), generally tipping in a few extra personal $ to make the donation a nice round amount. Any earnings from my affiliation with Wiggle will also go straight to charity with the amounts earned between now and mid April being tipped into our Oxfam Trailwalker Team at http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/melbourne/teams/team/?team_id=14113

We have also arranged a fundraising night for 14/3/13, with trivia, games and memorabilia to feature. This night is being held at the Duke of Kent Hotel in Latrobe Street in Melbourne, a special meal deal of $15 for a burger, steak sanga, parma or fish and chips and only $10 entry (if pre booked) and a full bar at bar prices the night is sure to be a huge success.  All proceeds will to go to our Trailwalker team. Any Melbourne based readers who would like to attend please leave a comment on the blog with contact details and I’ll get back to you asap.

This week will be a little quieter on the organisation front but will consist of some training but nothing back on the trails until 22 February where we are kicking off a 27.7km walk at 9pm to test out our night walking on trails skills.