For anyone who has been following my other blog, you will know that I was planning to walk The Bloody Long Walk with some friends, Purple Lady and Design Diva. Well, we did it, and here are the photos to prove it. We started at the beginning, which is a very good place to start, but a horrific ear worm. See how we are all smiling at the top of Red Hill, before we get blisters and exhaustion.
We were given caps and water bottles at the start line, which was a little annoying as we had been dropped off and I had not planned to carry anything - now I had to wear/ carry these items until our first meeting with our support crew. This is really a minor quibble. I appreciated the clear markers and signs that indicated we were on the right route. Although we have reccied it before, it was nice not to have to keep referring to a map and just follow the signs.
We had arranged for a support crew to meet us with encouragement and sustenance at regular intervals. The crew comprised Him Outdoors, The Luminosity and TT. At our first stop at Lennox Gardens, about 8km in, they provided us with cheers, energy drinks, water and TT's superb sausage rolls.
The walk potters round and about through the embassies and posh suburbs, calling past the Southern Cross Yacht Club, where we had phoned ahead for our coffee order from the support crew, much to the envy of other walkers (that's the goal, right?).
I did note that some teams were walking with loud music playing through speakers - I found this pretty annoying, and it didn't help that they were generally playing stuff I don't like. I understand that you might need music to motivate yourself, but that's what headphones are for - not everyone shares your penchant for noise pollution and it's pretty inconsiderate. That is not a point for the organisers, as there is nothing they can do about the selfishness of others, but it's a fairly large quibble. I would go so far as to say I was feeling peeved.
One team, on the other hand, had a stack of questions with which they were quizzing each other as they read them out from cards. As we passed them we heard them ask, 'How many toes have most cats got?' I love the way that question is phrased (to make allowances for three-legged felines and furry freaks, I guess), and we learned the answer is 18. I knew they had four on the back paws but had forgotten about the extra tree-climbing toe at the front. Educational exercise - what a great thing!
There is some pain here, mainly in the foot department; Purple Lady will be the first to admit that this is more of a grimace than a grin. At this point we were half way around Black Mountain Peninsula - the 25km sign says, "Hey, at least it's not a marathon". My, how we laughed! (Joke explained later.) As to why we are crouching in the photo, I've got absolutely no idea. Delirium perhaps?
The next 10km were tough. Purple Lady was in agony, almost tears, and was loosing her will to continue. She swore she would finish (actually, she just swore) and at one point asked us to just talk any old nonsense to her to take her mind off the pain in her feet. For the final 5km around the central basin of Lake Burley Griffin, we played a game whereby we picked a category and ran through the alphabet, taking a letter each. At one point we chose 'dog varieties' and we started out well: Alsatian; Beagle; Corgi; Dachshund etc. Things were flagging towards the tail end of the alphabet however (do you see what I did there?), as we got to Terrier; Ugly Dog; Very Ugly Dog; Weimaraner; Xtremely Ugly Dog; Yorkie; Ze Ozzer Dogz. Well, we were very tired...
But we finished the walk, and here is the proof - The Luminosity celebrating wildly with us as we crossed the line.
As mentioned before, Him Outdoors pointed out that if I continued for another 7.2km at the end of this Bloody Long Walk, I would have walked a marathon. I felt I had come this far, so why not? Design Diva agreed, so we walked through the finish line, went to the toilet, and carried on our merry little way. Purple Lady could not walk another step, so we arranged to meet her at the conclusion of our unofficial 42.195km at Capital Brewing.
Him Outdoors parked there and came back to meet us, jollying us along for the final stretch - as our own jollity was stretched a little fine by this point. We had to do a lap of the carpark to make up our distance, but reader, we made it. I know we look exhausted; we were. There are easier ways of getting a pint, but the beer at the end was very satisfying.
It was a long day, but very rewarding. To 'cap' it off, I soaked in the bath and had a glass of bubbles. Cheers to my walking chums and the superb support crew. Here's to us all. We achieved a thing.
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