For the second year running, Fitta Bodies had a team of 4 people enter and complete the Oxfam 100km walk for charity. There was a change of team members this year with myself and Frank dropping out to make way for Rachel Newman and Matt Smith to join last year’s walkers Gwen and Mark Jenkins.
It was a gruelling walk as usual, but made all the worse for Rachel by her feet being covered in blisters by the half way mark. Add to this a tight ITB and cramping calves and you can see she was a champion for pushing through where many would have quit. Gwen also had her share of pain with her knees still undergoing physio weeks after the walk was over. Mark pushed through like a trooper making sure he tracked the whole event on his GPS watch and Matt was the wild card, only being added to the team a week before the event and not having completed any of the training walks.
Special mention has to go to Rachel’s dad Bob and sister Katie who did the majority of the support crew. They took on checkpoints 2 & 3 on Friday and 7 & 8 on Saturday. Legend! Darrin Penola offered his good humour and support at checkpoint 7 aswell. Myself, Matt and Shikha helped out on checkpoints 5 & 6 through the night, first greeting the guys at 2am for some food and stretches and then again at 8am for some more food and stretches.
Not only did they do an awesome job with the walk, but they also raised over $5000. A huge part of this money was raised by team mate Tom Carmody who had to drop out at the last minute due to a tonsil infection, but he deserves a massive wrap for his fund raising abilities!!!
I have included a few photos at the checkpoints I was at and here is a link to a couple of professional photos taken out on the trail,
The happy walkers
Smile for the camera
If you are interested in entering the Oxfam 100km walk in 2010, please let me know and we can get started on the next Team Fitta Bodies:)
