4 Weeks and 6 Days To Go..

51km in 10 hours 45 minutes!

Yes, it was the big one this week as we embarked on our most ambitious training session to date - the first half of the Trailwalker course. This was always going to be an interesting day - a test to see if our expectations were realistic and also if we had it in us to actually pull this off. Saturday was also the first time that we'd trained together as a team since our first training session back in March and it also featured guest appearances from Steve (our team trainer) and Kerri (of Team KRAK fame).

We had so many questions - could we go the distance? Could we improve on previous performances? Would we hit our time targets? Would we still be talking to each other by the end of it? More importantly, would we be able to walk / move by the end of it?

Date: Saturday, 21 July
Walkers: David, Kerrie, Ruth and Ian
Track: Start: Chowder Bay to CP5: Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High
Distance: 51km
David's Estimated Time: 12 hours (?!)
Everyone Else's Estimated Time: 10 hrs 50 mins (excluding breaks)
Actual Completion Time: 10 hrs 45 mins (excluding breaks)

Start - CP1
It was another cold morning as we arrived at Chowder Bay for our 7am start. David - the team optimist - decided from the outset that there was no way we'd make it back to Chowder Bay by the time the gates closed at 8pm and insisted we park outside the gates to ensure we'd actually have vehicles available to get us home at the end of the day. So outside the gates we parked and then took up residence in the car park waiting for Ian who seemed to be running on Indian time even though he was back in the country!

David cracking the whip.. or rather, waiting for Ian to arrive

Ruth and Kerrie all rugged up..

As we were waiting, we waved at many teams who were passing us by and found out that many of them had similar goals to ours for the day - to complete the first 51kms. There was even one team who recognised us from our blog (hello!!) and another team who were doing the hard yards by tackling 70kms - hope you guys made it! As time ticked over and still no Ian, we decided to make a start and meet him at Balmoral. On with the clock and off we went on the first leg.

This is the second time around for us on this section and some of the hard bits first time around suddenly didn't seem so hard after all. We actually passed a few teams for a change and made it to the top of the Gallipoli Stairs before we knew it. As we passed Seaforth Oval, we were making great time and had already incorporated a lot of running into this section which was a real bonus. Then came the ascent to Ararat Reserve which was never-ending the first time around but sooooo much easier this time. Seems that after experiencing the hard yakka of CP7-8, everything else now pales in comparison and the next thing we knew, we hit the first checkpoint in 2 hours and 27 minutes for 13.5km.

David, Ian and Ruth impersonating garden gnomes :-)

Ruth, Kerrie and David near Checkpoint 1

CP1 - CP2
This section of track is only 7.5km long but it took SO long last time (2 hrs 20 mins) with all the mud and felled trees to negotiate. Many thanks go to our friends at the NPWS who'd been through and cleaned the track up to the point that we were able to scoot through to the next checkpoint in 1 hour and 38 minutes. This put us ahead of target having completed a total of 20.5km in 4 hours and 5 minutes. Not bad going!

CP2 - CP3
On leaving Davidson Park with a few Tim Tams under our belt (thanks Ian!) and bottles of Perpetuem in hand, we set off for Acron Oval. We found during this leg that our pace slowed a lot and building speed along this type of track is something we need to practice in the next few weeks. This section is only 10km but it feels like forever as it tracks along the creek. Finally we crossed the Cascades and headed up Acron Hill to land at Checkpoint 3 in 2 hours and 25 minutes for smack bang on 6 hours 30 minutes all up. Right on target!

Ruth and David..

David - Man of Action!

CP3 - CP4
At Acron Oval we met up with the experts - Steve and Kerri - who were all fired up and ready to push us hard through this next 11km section. Off we went at a cracking pace and no mistakes this time in finding Quarry Track. On reaching the top of the fire trail, our taskmasters then decided we could run and sure enough, even though we'd covered 34kms at this point, we ended up running! Who would have thunk it? At this point, we were also marvelling at Ian's superb fitness which saw him running up hills. We are in awe! Oh, and you will also notice that there are no more photos after this point because we were working so hard there wasn't a bloody chance to take one!

Steve and Kerri were fantastic to have on this section as apart from driving the pace, they imparted a lot of knowledge on how we need to work together and motivate each other as a team during the Trailwalker as well as how we should tackle the course on the day in order to achieve our goals. So far, we've found it is very easy to slip into habits when walking so when people challenge those habits, it can only be a good thing as you can up the ante and exceed your expectations. With Steve and Kerri riding us the whole way for this section, it did us the world of good and we lobbed into St Ives Showground in 2 hours and 2 minutes - putting us at a very credible 5.4km/h pace for that section.

CP4 - CP5
After a quick break and watching Steve and Kerri run off into the sunset, we set off on the last 9.5km of the day to Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School with Steve's directive of 2 hours max ringing in our ears. All was going well as we hit the 5km mark within 59 minutes but with the last of the daylight having fizzled out in the sky, we had to make a quick stop at the start of the Warrimoo Fire Trail to switch into our beanies and strap on our fabulous Petzl headtorches. This was our first real experience at night-walking and off into the darkness we went...

The descent down Warrimoo Track was treacherous in daylight but it was a completely different experience at night - still slow but slightly easier given you can't see how far you could fall if you put one foot wrong! Working out where the track went and navigating the creeks slowed us down and we held the lessened pace along the fairly flat walking track until Ruth fired us up and pushed us to pick up the pace for the final ascent up the Sphinx Track. This track seemed a lot longer in the dark but that was all forgotten on reaching the top, it was amazing to think that this was the culmination of 51kms. We pulled into Ku-ring-gai Creative Arts High School at 2 hours 13 minutes for this section of track and suddnely, it was all over for the day!

Summary
Start - CP1: 13.5km - 2 hours and 27 minutes (2 hr 27 mins)
CP1 - CP2: 20.5km - 4 hours and 5 minutes (1 hr 38 mins)
CP2 - CP3: 30.5km - 6 hours and 30 minutes (2 hr 25 mins)
CP3 - CP4: 41.5km - 8 hours and 32 minutes (2 hr 2 mins)
CP4 - CP5: 51km - 10 hours and 45 minutes (2 hr 13 mins)

N.B. We didn't include break times (which totalled around 35 minutes when we had to stop and fill up our CamelBaks etc) as this is not indicative of what they will be on the day given our support crew. The time of 10 hours and 45 minutes was 5 minutes faster than our estimated completion time for the walking components and knowing where there's room for improvement, we should definitely get this down even faster on Trailwalker day. This then holds us in good stead to complete the last 49km of the course in around 13-14 hours to hit our 24 hour goal.

Next Week..
It's all hard and fast! From here on in, it's shorter sessions but more intense, power sessions. Even if we aren't running those sections of trail, we'll be running where we can and setting ambitious time goals as we power up hills and fly down the descents. Well, we'll be trying anyway! As we've now pushed ourselves to the 50km+ mark, the goal is to maintain the endurance but build stamina, speed and power which will help get us to the 100km mark. Three things we need to do - more hills on the trail to condition the legs and to improve the speed of our ascents, more trail work to cover this type of terrain faster and more night walking on the sections we'll be doing in the dark.

From here, we'll leave you with our Oxfam page so you can donate to us: http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/Sydney/team/280 and a few random photos. What else would this blog be if it weren't for the references to sausage sizzles?!

The Day After... blisters!

David's homage to the Sausage Sizzles he saw along the way.
It's a case of you can look but don't touch David until 25 August!!

At Dalwood Homes...

Seaforth Oval..

5 Weeks and 5 Days To Go..

Date: Sunday, 15 July
Walkers: David, Kerrie. Absent - Ian, Ruth.
Track: CP6: Apple Tree Bay to CP7: Berowra - Map
Distance: 13.5km
Time: Estimated 3:30 - Actual 3:29
Well, it was a depleted team this week with Ian flying back from a few weeks in Bangalore for work and Ruth doing a stairs / 10km run session a bit closer to home, but David and Kerrie braved a 6.30am start and tackled CP6-7 on Sunday morning.

As we arrived at Apple Tree Bay, the fog was lifting and it was looking like a good morning for a walk. Despite the FREEZING cold, we were amazed the resilience of the kayakers who were already on the water and having a great laugh. Man, they must of been freezing their butts off! So out of Apple Tree Bay we walked and after following the shoreline for a while, we started the ascent up Mount Ku-ring-gai Track where Kerrie, who has a bit of a hill phobia thing going on, was pleasantly surprised to finally find a hill that she liked. This is good because her team-mates won't have to listen to her complain about them for a change!

Early Morning - Apple Tree Bay

Top of Mount Ku-ring-gai Track ascent - pretty fog!

At the end of the track lay the suburb of Mt Ku-ring-gai and although we tried to be quiet given it was so early on a Sunday morning, the local dogs thought otherwise and proceeded to howl the suburb down as they could hear us passing by their gates. Over the Pacific Highway we went and straight down Lyrebird Gully where we walked along the creek and some very pretty track for quite a while. Yes, this picture makes it look easy but these sections were few and far between. What was really lovely about this section of track was that there was very little pollution along the creek and that the water was so clear, you could see the bottom of it very easily.

David crossing the creek yet again! Calna Creek - so clear and lovely!
Great view - NOT! Kerrie attempting to run. 'Steam' coming off the Marshes

At the end of this section of track was the marshes and we crossed a boardwalk to head towards Sams Creek where the next ascent began. Given it was still early morning and a Sunday to boot, we did get a bit of a surprise to come across a Japanese tour group who were checking out the area. Very cool! Over Sams Creek we go and so the big ascent begins - this section of track was graded a 5 last year but it's only marked a 4 this time around. We're pleased to say we managed it without any real difficulty - but that's probably because we know how tough the next section is which makes this one pale in comparison!

Looking Back from First Climb Up Berowra

David a.k.a. Papa Smurf..

Kerrie - this is definitely not a glamour event!

Finally, we made the last ascent into Berowra with some other Trailwalkers following hot on our heels. What's with all the runners? Sometimes we struggle to understand them but at this point we realised that we only had about 400m to go and about 4 minutes to hit our estimated time for this section of track and so with thoughts of pleasing Ruth, we broke into a run and joined the crazies in the mad dash to the checkpoint. The best news was that yes, we made it with about 5 seconds to spare and FINALLY after all these weeks, we actually came in right on time. and yes, Ruth was very happy with us. :-)

Donations
Thank you to our donors this week including some wonderful donations from our gym buddies - we'll do you proud!! Including online and paper donations, we're at $2 800 out of our $5 000 target. Only 5 weeks left now folks.. time to dig deep and get us across the line on this one.. donate now at the Bush Bashers - Oxfam Page. Thank yooooo!

Next Week..
.. we tackle a 51km walk! Yes, it's the big one as we undertake the first half of the course. Time expectations are somewhat fluctuating within the group around potentially how fast (or slow) we will go but right now, we're hoping it will be around 10.5 - 11 hours! Tune in next week to read about how we got on for our first full team training for quite a while...

6 Weeks and 6 Days To Go..

Date: Saturday, 7 July
Walkers: Ruth, David, Kerrie plus temporary stand-in Noel. Absent - Ian.
Track: CP7: Berowra to CP8: Cowan to End: Brooklyn
Distance: 27.5km
Time: Estimated 7:30 - Actual 8:10
Last week, the team all pulled up remarkably well after extending ourselves to 30.5km and so, armed with the knowledge that our legs would at least carry us the distance, this week we dropped the kilometres slightly and tackled the hardest sections of the course from Berowra to Brooklyn. As we'd be walking these sections in the dark after completing 72.5kms on the day, we were interested to see exactly how we'd go given all our training to date!

This week also featured a temporary addition to the team - Noel - who came along for the thrills and spills and unfortunately proved to be better at climbing hills than most of the actual team members. ARGH!

Ta-da.... it's Noel!

Checkpoint 7 - Checkpoint 8: Map
Distance: 14km
Time Taken: 4 hours and 10 minutes
Before we started, David encountered a few problems in locating Berowra and somehow ended up in Gosford at 8am having missed the three big signs that indicated the turn off. He insisted that the signs didn't not exist, but we've managed to capture an image of one as proof...

After he finally found us, we set off around 8.30am expecting the worst but then being pleasantly surprised by the picturesque views and gentle, undulating fire trail for the first few kilometres. Little did we know what lay ahead! This section of trail is graded 5 (i.e. hardest) and as we discovered, it certainly deserves it's grading! It's got it all - the steep climbs, sharp descents, stairs, flat, fire trail, more stairs, road, footpath, trail, sand, rocks, water, stairs.. you name it, it's there.

The climbs in this section were tough going - steep rises, uneven steps and just up, up, up. It was a bit reminiscient of 'Picnic At Hanging Rock' at times as we climbed up through the rocks in a bit of a trance. Progress was slow and the legs took a beating from the effort but every time we reached the top of a climb, recovery was quick and the view was always worth it. Given that we're going to be doing this in the dark, it's probably good that we appreciated the view when we did as we probably won't see it again! The track itself is fairly good for the most part through this section but it does require sure-footedness and concentration on the descents and Lance Armstrong's thighs on the way up.

All up, things generally went smoothly in this leg despite the difficult climbs and we pulled in to our checkpoint only 10 minutes behind the scheduled 4 hours. Oh, and David even managed to spot an echidna on the trail!

Naa Badu Lookout - David, Kerrie and Ruth Berowra Waters

David found a friend in Eric the Echidna

Top of the Big Climb - Noel, Ruth and David

Looking north after a big climb

Ruth and Noel at Cowan Public School - Checkpoint 8

David at Checkpoint 8 gearing up for more action!

Checkpoint 8 - End: Map
Distance: 13.5km
Time Taken: 4 hours
Okay.. so we started out on this leg by crossing over the Cowan Station train tracks and then the Pacific Highway and look, it's another sign to Berowra!

Crossing the Pacific Highway

After crossing the highway, the descent down to Jerusalem Bay was long, rocky and steep. Heading down the hill, we got overtaken by three younger Trailwalkers who must of thought the bush was a bit boring. To alleviate the silence, they'd managed to rig up their iPod to a set of speakers so they could walk to the sounds of techno where ever they went. Mmmmmm....

And as we're still going downhill at this stage, we pass on the left a sports jacket spread out over a bush... followed by a hat hanging on a branch... then a T-shirt spread over a large rock. Hang on, what does this mean? Is the Streaker on the prowl again? Could it really be? Fortunately, we didn't see anyone in any state of disrobe but if you're looking for some second-hand clothes, highly recommend that section of trail for some freebies!

Could this belong to the Streaker?!

Of course, what goes down, must come up and a 230m climb after Jerusalem Bay ensued. A fraction easier than the climbs of the previous leg but hard work all the same, we finally got to the top and were treated to some spectacular views over Brooklyn and the Hawkesbury River. From here, we embarked on the final 6km which although mostly fire trail, seemed to take an eternity to get through. Finally, we were closing in on the end of our hike and the final couple of kilometres were marked by an extremely rocky, ankle-breaking descent into Brooklyn.

On reaching Brooklyn, we were pretty happy to see Brooklyn Park which was not only the end of our hike but also the end of the 100kms course on the day. As it happened, there was a soccer match in action at the time and David's hopes went soaring that a sausage sizzle was in progress but unfortunately, hopes were dashed as he soon discovered there wasn't a sausage to be seen. No sausage sandwiches this week!!

Jerusalem Bay Brooklyn Bridge in the Distance - approx 6kms to finish

We appreciated the sentiment even if the spelling wasn't quite there..

Well, we knew he was always a bit of a tree hugger... but a sign hugger? The End is In Sight!

Brooklyn Park - The End!

Donations
Thank you to our donors this week - we really are putting in the hard yards for every dollar donated! Including online and paper donations, we're nearly at $2 700 out of our $5 000 target. This is good.. but we're not there yet. If you're thinking of donating, do it now at the Bush Bashers - Oxfam Page.

Next Week..
Not 100% sure what next weekend's long walk will hold but we're pretty happy right now knowing we've covered all sections of the trail except for CP6-7. This means we can now get that out of the way and in the run up to the event, we can concentrate on some of the difficult sections, work on hill climbing and practise walking at night. It might be a quieter week this week but we'll let you know what we do regardless! Mid-week training continues... :-)

7 Weeks and 5 Days to Go

Date: Sunday, 1 July
Walkers: Ruth, David, Kerrie. Absent - Ian.
Track: Start: Chowder Bay to Checkpoint 3: Acron Oval, St Ives
Distance: 30.5km
Time: Estimated 6:30 - Actual 8:14
After last week's 17.5km effort, we were feeling brave enough to tackle a longer and a seemingly easier walk on the first three sections of the trail. These three sections are graded a 2, 1 and 3 which gave us hope of being able to whiz through them without too many problems and therefore setting us up in plenty of time to complete the rest of the event within 24 hours. Oh, how wrong we were... our biggest assumption was that these sections of trail would be relatively 'easy' compared to what we've already hiked on.

Read on and check out the fashion, the spectacular sights, and David's final glory at a sausage sizzle! Oh.. and in case you missed it during the week, it seems we have our very own streaker!

Start to Checkpoint 1: Map
Distance: 13km
Time Taken: 2 hours 45 mins
It was a gorgeous, clear morning at Chowder Bay when we set out - some of us sporting new gear to trial for the big day itself and two of us battling the remanants of head colds. Up the hill and down across Balmoral Beach, everything was looking good. The map was easy to follow and before you know it, we'd crossed the Spit Bridge and had climbed up the torturous Gallipoli Stairs to be greeted with an amazing view back over The Spit to Mosman. Through some back streets of Seaforth and into the bush, we were making excellent time and had even run a few easy sections of the trail along the way.

After a descent via the Timbercutters Track and a brief wander by the waterside, we were a bit taken aback when the climb up Bluff Track to the checkpoint proved to be quite the challenge indeed! As we entered Checkpoint 1 at Ararat Reserve in 15 minutes over our estimated time, some of us (okay, me) were suddenly wondering what on earth we'd got ourselves into considering this was only the 13.5km mark out of 100km and already our legs were on fire!

Chowder Bay - Early Morning

Balmoral Beach

Balgowlah looking back to Mosman - Top of Gallipoli Stairs

Ruth's Skins - Sexy! David's Kit including the new pole!

Bantry Bay and the decommissioned Magazine Buildings

Start to Checkpoint 1: Map
Distance: 7.5km
Time Taken: 2 hours 18 mins
Okay.. so this section was marked as grade one (easiest) and we thought we'd whip through this very quickly given the majority of it appeared to be downhill. What we didn't count on was:

1. We spent 20-25 minutes lost and trying to find the track after exiting Ararat Reserve
2. The downhill bits we thought we'd run were actually steep, rocky descents that has us sliding down on our backsides at some points!
3. That the 20-30 fallen trees on Magazine Track would cause us a lot of trouble and lengthy delays.

It was almost as if a mini-cyclone had torn through this section of track and our pace slowed to a crawl as we we spent a considerable amount of time working our way around or over fallen trees. The branches were all facing oncoming traffic (i.e. us!) but that was also complicated by the wire (and sometimes bared wire) fence on our left.

We managed to get through relatively unscathed in the end with only a few scratches and banged heads, but we were quite behind schedule by the time we reached the checkpoint having completed 20.5km in around 5 hours and 10 minutes. Oh.. and did we mentioned that the girls FINALLY got to see some decent male Trailwalker talent?! :-)

Looking back down Bantry Bay to SydneyThrough the bush to Killarney HeightsKerrie looking thrilled at the 20.5km mark

Checkpoint 2 - 3: Map
Distance: 10km
Time: Too long!
After a brief stop at Davidson Park, we set out on the last section of trail for today and having walked this track previously and got lost, the aim this time was to stay on track and actually end up at Acron Oval! This leg of the trip was also where we all started to notice the little aches and pains in our legs and our feet and it gave us the opportunity to exercise the 'mind over matter' principle as we stretched ourselves in the distance and endurance stakes.

This section of trail is named the Lyrebird Track and as luck would have it, Ruth and Kerrie actually saw a lyrebird very briefly in the underbrush scratching around! After following Middle Harbour Creek for seemingly ages, we ended up at The Cascades - a wide rock platform where a number of tributaries pool together to form the start of Middle Harbour Creek. Just beautiful..

The last and final stage of the day involved crossing the creek and embarking on the final 1.5km climb up to Acron Oval. This was a real slog but we made it, reaching our final destination with the support of a cheering crowd... well, they were actually cheering for an AFL match in progress but the main attraction to us was the unbelievably good sausage sizzle that was going on at the same time! What is it with the sausage sizzles? We keep finding them. And although we'd told David that there'd be no sausages until 25 August after the finish line, some of us crumbled and enjoyed every last bite!

Ruth leaving us in her wake!

The Cascades

Acron Oval, St Ives - AFL match in action

Can you believe it? Another sausage sizzle!

Yes, David did partake.. So much for no sausages until the 100km mark!

Donations
We had a wonderful response to our call for donations last week given the end of financial year was approaching and we're now sitting at $2 450 out of our $5 000 target. This is good.. but we're not there yet. If you're thinking of donating, do it now at the Bush Bashers - Oxfam Page.

Next Week..
We're tackling the two hardest sections of trail marked a grade 4 and 5. We're preparing for burning thighs, sore calves and we're just holding on to hope that it doesn't quite take as long as this week...