Awesome foursome take a walk on the wild side
An extraordinary challenge combining stamina and teamwork as teams of four cover 100km within 48 hours, the Melbourne event was held from Friday 23 March to Sunday 25 March 2007 with 600 teams taking part, making this the biggest Trailwalker ever held in Australia.
Jack Starnawski, Systems Consultant and his three team mates, Shayla Tracey, Systems Trainer, Stefan Feuerstein, Service Product Manager, and John Cowley, Professional Services & Support Group Manager, were all new to Oxfam Trailwalker. Jack heard about the Trailwalker event and decided he just had to give it a go!
But it wasn't all easy.
On Friday, the temperature soared to a very uncomfortable 37.4°C (99.3°F) accompanied by hot, gusty winds and later that evening by torrential rain and a nearly 50 percent drop in temperature.
Océ Footprint has pledged to raise more than $5,000.00 for Oxfam Australia, and will continue to raise money following the event.
The Trail
John Cowley gave the Oxfam Trailwalker his best and lived to write the tale. Here's how it unfolded.
After five months, many blisters, and hundreds of kilometers of training, the day had finally arrived.
We left the start line at 0830 on Friday not long after learning that the nasty 1000 steps section from Ferntree Gully to Olinda had been removed from the event for fire safety reasons! It was a slow start as there were close to 800 people crossing the line, in this the second of three start windows, and winding their way through Jells Park, winding their way in to what became a 37.4 degree scorcher with North winds up to 60 kmh.
Not far from the start line the temperature hit 28 and we were starting to wonder why we had chosen "Black" team T-shirts, we pressed on through Churchill National Park and down to Lysterfield lake where we met up with Janine and Jackie, our support crew for the morning. After being waited on hand and foot by the J & J support team we set-off to check point 3, a journey of 15.5 km's in the middle of the day and it was damn hot.
Jackie came along for a stroll, bought us an icy pole, stretched leg muscles while we collapsed on the grass, and generally helped keep us going and heading in the right direction. Between Cpt2 and Cpt3, Janine and Lorna (Stefan's better half) had re-shuffled all the gear so Lorna could meet us at the 1000 steps in Ferntree Gully and transport us to Cpt4 where she made us comfortable and fed us, we had some vegetarian pasta (with ham), and by now we were all looking forward to some cooler weather. After a rest and recuperation period and re-stocking our packs for the expected cool change we headed off on the 8.5 km's to Cpt 5, Silvan Reservoir.
Janine, Gary and Mark (the night shift support crew) met us at Cpt 5, after re-taping toes and feet, changing clothes, which were by now starting to get wet due to the light rain, we headed off to Mt. Evelyn with Gary providing support and motivation while Mark drove on ahead to meet us at the next stop, it was dark and raining, but not cold. This was a short hop of 5 km's and we completed it in about one hour. At Mt. Evelyn John had to pull out on medical grounds, and Gary completed the next 16.5 km's with the team to motivate and support them in this the longest leg of the journey. By this time the weather had turned foul, what started as a stinking hot day had turned in to an evening of torrential rain, 27 mm between midnight and midday.
The Woori Yallock Primary School First Aid and Ambulance team were kept busy treating blisters, heat rash (surprising how bad it can look!), and more disturbingly Hypothermia, several cases were brought in by stretcher and more than one hobbled in with the aid of their team and support crew. We spent 4 hours at Cpt7 (Woori Yallock) waiting for the weather to break, by 7.00 am it was looking a bit better so Shayla, Jack, and Stefan set off with Mark for company. As we moved along the trail we were rating how we felt on a scale of 1 to 10, as they left Woori Yallock after 64.5 km's in appalling conditions, Shayla said "John, I'm 9 out of 10, I feel great", it's this kind of spirit that maintains the teams momentum.
After being awake for 26 hours Gary though it would be a good time for a nap so John dropped him home and then headed back to Millgrove, on the way he dropped off a couple of Nurofen to Jack who's feet were starting to look like they had been subjected to some kind of evil torture. After one hour in the first aid booth where the St. Johns team were gathering around Jack's feet with an "Oh My God" look on their face, his pace had 'dropped' to about 5.5 kmh, unbelievable, trying doing that on healthy feet after 60 km's and you will realise just how amazing this is.
After several hours of recuperation John was starting to feel normal again so he kitted up and awaited the arrival of the team at Cpt8 (Millgrove), the team arrived shortly after 9.00 AM and headed off in different directions, podiatry, toiletry, and cup of tea. Lorna and the boys arrived to see how Stefan was going, it was good timing as his colour was back to normal and he had hit his second or third wind. The team set-off with John re-joining, along with Steve Wilson, to support them in the grueling push for the finish line.
The final section was 9.5 km's, 3 km's of nice paved walking track followed by 6.5 km's of steep muddy slime, the slime started with a vertical rise of 200 metres over a distance of 1.2 km's (very steep), in parts they had placed ropes to assist with dragging yourself up the hill. The downhill sections were equally challenging, with lots of slime to get you sliding and rocks to trip you over. The final descent to the finish line was a muddy wet drop that would have made a beautiful black diamond run if covered with a nice layer of slow, however the team completed this last kilometre through a steady downpour that was soon drowned out by the sound of the finish siren and a round of applause.
After 88 km's of hard work the team officially completed the Oxfam Trailwalker 2007 event at 1.25 PM Saturday, finishing in equal 294th place out of a remaining field of 592.
There is of course one small problem; for fire safety reasons one leg of the event was omitted, so we are going to have to do it again! Next year!
Although the event is over the need for fund raising continues, donations to the Océ Footprint Team can be made at the following location:
www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/Melbourne/team/293
All donations over $2.00 are tax deductible.
