Wrapping up the Hundred K Hike

Day 1

Well, the inaugural Hundred K hike is over, and without too many hitches, but certainly with a few. Saturday 22 May dawned bright and … overcast. The starting walkers (Tori, Katie, Eric, Karen. Kate, Kyle and Tracy – next year we might add a quota for names beginning with ‘K’) assembled outside the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Buranda at 6:30am for breakfast, last minute instructions and to meet each other. All three of our support vehicle drivers were also present, and supplies were checked and moved between cars prior to the Hike start at 7am.

At 7am, filled with coffee, tea, orange juice and ham and cheese croissants, the walkers set off. We were very lucky with the weather. For all of day one, the sky was overcast, the weather fine and temperature mild, and we had a breeze. Very pleasant walking conditions indeed. Our support drivers were playing “leapfrog” at each 2km mark, so that we were never far from help, water, clothes, a lift to a loo, first aid, or anything else we needed. At 3.5km, Karen and Kate (who are teachers at Katie’s school) said “Gosh! We’ve already done 3.5km! That’s gone quickly.” At the 8.5km mark, their comment was “Already 8.5km? Wow!” After that, no more comments from the ladies at all ….. and we had been walking for a little over two hours by the time we reached 10km. We had a number of delays at various points, many of which were unavoidable (waiting for traffic lights, waiting for traffic to pass by), but some of which were. Next year we will not have cars at every 2km marker, as it’s just too inviting to stop every 2km or 4km to refill water bottles, discard clothing etc! Forcing stops and swaps each 5km – which is how we handled the second day, is a far better – and faster – way of achieving our goals.

As the day progressed, Tori had to sit an hour out (5km) due to a persistent hypo and blisters, we were joined by Alice (one of Katie’s school-friends) and 15yo Kyle somehow found the energy to run some sections – up to 2km at a time. By midday, everyone was starting to feel weary, and still we pressed on. At 3pm ‘the teachers’ sent out a cry for chocolate, which was delivered by Andrew quickly to keep them going. By the time we reached Yatala Pies at 36km, Alice was due to be collected and Katie cadged a lift back to Brisbane with her; the teachers also decided to opt out at this point, and the remaining four walkers – Tracy, Tori, Kyle and Eric – decided to press on for another 4km. We had been on our feet (mostly) for 9 hours at that point, as we had lost a lot of time with unscheduled stops. At 38km Tracy’s knee was swelling up and she traveled the last little bit in one of the cars while Kyle, Eric and Tori cracked open the light sticks and acted like kids while continuing to plod. At 40km, with the sun setting behind us, we called it quits for the day, feeling battered and bruised, and very very tired.

Day 2

Day two was an early start. Our starting point was almost 50km from home, so everyone was up early. Joining Eric, Tracy, Kyle, Tori and Katie was another of Katie’s friends, Marjorie (“Midge”). With aching muscles, the decision had been made late on day one that day two would be managed differently. Day two would involve two teams of three walkers; each team would walk for an hour (5km) and then sit an hour out while the other team completed a 5km leg. Although Tori had strapped up her feet with bandaids galore, the blistering on little toes was severe, and within 2km of her second walking leg she had to stop walking for the day. A subsequent visit to the doctor confirmed it was the right decision as the damage was quite extensive. The two girls on her team (Katie and Midge) powered on, and made up significant lost time in that leg. At the next handover, at McDonalds, Tracy, Kyle and Eric hit the road after a Maccas breakfast, and the girls stopped for brunch. Kyle again decided to run part of this section and rocked into Labrador about ten minutes before his Mum and Eric. As the girls set off yet again, we called an impromptu meeting to discuss injuries and decided that due to Tracy’s knee continuing to swell, Eric’s leg having spasms (following surgery some little while ago), and the blisters and bruises the girls were experiencing (Katie from walking and Midge from having run a cross-country the day before), the Hike should be stopped.

By clever planning, or more likely by pure accident, all of our support vehicles and drivers – Andrew, Rayma (Eric’s wife) and Kristyn – were present when we decided to halt the Hike. While Andrew took Tori off to find an after-hours doctor, everyone else went to Gloria Jeans for restorative coffee and chocolate. When we all met up again later, Eric and Rayma had headed for home and the rest of us went to “The Blue Onion” for a slap-up lunch and post-mortem.

At this point, it looks as if we have raised close to $3,000 from the Hike over and above costs, which is an incredible effort. Special mention must be made of Tracy’s sterling efforts in fundraising; single-handedly she raised almost $1,000. Our thanks are also extended to our corporate sponsors: Novo Nordisk, CareerOne and Decina Bathroomware. We also received a number of corporate donations, both financial and in-kind, from Avon, Kraft, Roche, Harvey Norman, Lennon Heavy Earthmoving and Dick Smith Foods. Thank you to all who helped make this event the success it has been.

A specially big thanks to the people who gave us their time and bodies to help raise money and awareness of type 1 diabetes; and to the numerous car drivers and passengers who yelled or honked support for us. See you all again next year on May 21/22!