Finished the OXFAM Trailwalker

CP2, Lysterfield Lake, was the first checkpoint with the support crew. The sandwiches Brett and his dad made on Thursday were great; Chicken and Avocado was the most popular. We had a great shady spot under the trees. I saw Ged and his mates heading out as were were coming in.

After a fair amount of “ginning” around we headed off on the next leg to CP3; “Grants Picnic Ground”. This was to be the first challenging leg, with a long gradual climb of four klms to Wellington Rd and the first highpoint, a few up’s and down’s into Tecoma and then the climb up to Belgrave and then again to Grants; a total of 13.3 klms. The first section was a long slog, the monotony broken only by a snake in the grass beside the trail. By the time we reached the picnic ground about halfway, I was starting to feel fatigued. The long climb up Broadway spread the team out, as did the climb up past the Puffing Billy station.

I was starting to feel a lot of pain in my heels. I was disappointed that my socks and shoes weren’t looking after me as they had done during the training walks. I put it down to the thigh injury a few weeks before perhaps making me walk slightly differently. There was discomfort across to top of my right foot as if the laces were too tight. I was in real pain coming up the last few klms into Grants and I think I upset my teammates (Fi and Matt) by asking for my own space for a while.

By the time I’d reached Grants I was in a bad place psychologically; I was willing to give up. I’d wished I’d packed some clean socks in my backpack (both pairs were in the support car). After some convincing I went to the physio and explained the problem with my foot. She had a look but couldn’t really offer any fix other than some massaging and repacking my heels. I did feel a lot better after this. A few of the others also visited the massage table or podiatrist.

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