Brett Saxon’s report on the Melbourne Trailwalker

Hi All

Well We Made it OXFAM TRAILWALKER 100KM in 48 Hours See Below for more detail

Thanks very much for your support: we have raised over $2000 dollars . The knowledge of your support was a real contributing factor during a very trying event. The whole team (4) made it to the end of the event, many other teams had one or two members drop out during the trying conditions. (As per below article –just over half of the teams completed the event with all 4 members)

Due to severe heat (+37.4º) and wind, one section of the course was closed due to high bush fire danger. The official event was therefore shortened to 88.5 km.

Our team came in officially at 70th amongst 597 teams.

The day started off hot and rose up to +37ºC during most of the day: we started at 10am and had to endure the heat for most of the daylight hours. The team was really doing well for the first section, but Andrew was plagued by an upset stomach, probably as a result of the hot weather and not doing any daylight training. He struggled for the 2nd section and then the 3rd section really hit him hard – both mentally and physically – we lost some time by just walking. We were nearing the 33km mark and He was seriously ready to pull out, but thanks to the support of his team mates who were prepared to walk if needed to get him to the end and some encouraging SMS and phone messages. Andrew committed to at least another section. The team put Andrew on rations to settle his stomach. Just drink and jelly beans.

Guess what – it worked! – his stomach came good and the weather changed – cool conditions and the rain was coming – this was his element. A new lease of life – He was able to push on during the next sections running for the majority and as a team we gained approx 50 spots through the next two sections. – Down came the rain and did it pour. We had a break and let most of it pass over. A change of clothes to some warmer night time gear and head torches and we were off again.

At this Stage Brett, Brendan and Henning were generally doing pretty good at least by comparison to Andrew with what may have almost been heatstroke, Brett Took the option to have a leg massage at this point, this proved to be a very wise decision.

Two long sections came next – After the 1st (15 .5 km) section we checked out our feet and the sight was not pretty – Here come the blisters , additional padding and new socks were the need at this pit-stop. Then another long & straight 14 .5 km to the last checkpoint before the last & “easy” 9km section. Andrew’s feet were so sore here, that he did not want to take his shoes off. Henning was showing signs of blisters while Brendan and Brett were Ok at this stage.

Final stage – The rain came pouring down! We set off as a tight unit and “running” was the order of the stage – everyone wanted to finish on a high. We ran for approx 3km or 4km when suddenly, we hit a wall – literally !. I very steep incline, single file in slippery mud!!

The rain was coming down heavier & heavier, our spirit also went into a rapid decline. As we got to the top of the mountain – the fog and wind-chill settled in – it was the opposite extremity from the morning heat in bright sunlight. Dark, raining, foggy, muddy – alpine conditions !. I could hardly see the ground and had flat batteries in my torch , scanning from side to side to make sure that I was in the middle of the track. We got to the top and then – we were on the way down , through the mud. The nice thing was that the mud was kind of soothing for the guys with blisters. We have spread out a little during this point, probably 200-300 metres between us, again we finish a down hill, thinking it would be the last, But

No – Up the mountain again – the hill was so steep that the torches of the other teams ahead of us looked like stars in the sky – straight up! I wanted them to turn their torches off so I could not see the top. Anyway – we got to the top and begin the final decent. The last 10 m of the hill was very slippery with no visible navigable way down, so I t was hit the deck and slide down through the mud for some

Another couple of hundred metres and we crossed the finish line together. 18hrs & 15 minutes : That last 9km took approximately 3 hours to complete due to the difficult terrain and conditions.

Anyway none of this could have been achieved without the help of our support crew , A big thank you to Robyn, Sharon, James and Michael, especially Michael who endured his own endurance effort with minimal sleep doing two support stints to the early hours, both which included long cold wet waits, thanks Michael much appreciated.

– it was a real team effort – thanks guys.