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:)

After our long and arduous 100km trek last year from Brooklyn to Sydney for Oxfam Australia, we have decided to put together a team for 2009.

This year’s team will consist of Tom Carmody, Gwen Jenkins, Mark Jenkins and Rachel Newman.

I will be head of support crew maing sure they are fed and watered, in clean clothes and in high spirits. I am also the team reserve in the odd chance that somebody has to pull out.

The team has already started training by walking various sections of the 100km track each weekend.

Now the walk is a fund raising event and a very worthy one at that, so please log onto the oxfam site Fitta Bodies page and give generously. See link below.

http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/Sydney/team/243

100km is not easy and deserves your sponsorship!

The 2008 Oxfam Fitta Bodies Team

Firstly, Thank you to everyone who sponsored us. Your generosity helps us to raise over $2500.

I’ll give you a brief run down on what your donation bought from the Fitta Bodies Team.

As a lot of you know, I had a severe case of food poisoning 4 days before the event which saw me taken to hospital by ambulance, so the the week leading up to the event wasn’t optimal for me, as I couldn’t eat anything more than toast and crackers. I did eat some fruit and protein the day before the event though! The night before the event, I weighted 3.4kg’s less than I weighed just before the food poisoning.

We kicked off at 8:30am Friday morning. We were in great spirits…

The terrain is tough, but interesting and beautiful.

At 5pm we reached our support crew for dinner. Spaghetti bolognaise, mmm…did somebody forget to tell the support crew what I had thrown up last week (spaghetti bolognaise).  

Tom and Mary did an awesome job at making sure were were fed and then we were back out on the track by 6pm. This time with headlamps to guide the way. By 6:30pm, my spaghetti is back in my throat. It appears all the vomiting I did has damaged the sphincter at the base of my oesophagus! The night walk is tough, staring at the ground for 12 hours was never going to be easy, but we got through it. We kept each other awake with lots of mind games, generally involving old TV trivia. I spent the early hours of the morning with stomach cramps and reflux. Neither of which I have ever had in my life before. 

At 5am, we met our support crew Danny and Lisa, who had hot soup awaiting. I only wish I could have eaten it. I managed to squeeze in a half bowl and by 6:30am, we were on our way again. This was definitely the toughest check point to leave, especially for me. I was nearly physically done at this point, but my team mates kept me going. Everybody else is tired at this point, but physically ok.

The sunrise helped to lift spirits more than you could imagine. We seemed to have a new found energy.

Porridge at 11am was great fuel to keep us going for the next few hours, thanks Danny and Lisa!

It was around this time that Mark’s hamstring decided to blow. His knee is giving him a lot of grief and our walking pace slows down to accommodate. Thankfully there is a physio at the next checkpoint to help out a little with it. Nurofen is being taken by all of us except Frank now.

Lorena and Shikha had chicken and salad awaiting. Once again, I wish I could have enjoyed it, but my stomach is still turning circles. We push on to the next checkpoint and don our headlamps as the night sets in once again. We are now heading to the final checkpoint before the finish.

We arrive at the checkpoint to find Lorena and Shikha with hot chocolates and sandwiches. Shikha is so kind to give Frank and myself a calf massage and Lorena did the same for Gwen and Mark. True commitment that is! They also have some Zantac for my reflux. Thank goodness for that, after 23 hours of reflux, I finally start to feel better. I wish I had known about it before! Mark also manages to get some more physio treatment at this checkpoint, which seems to be helping a little.

We kick off the home stretch. We have 3km of bush tracks then 9km through the streets of Seaforth and Balmoral. We knock over the bush section easily, as spirits are high at the moment, knowing loved ones and a bed are only hours away. When we hit the streets, disaster struck. Frank’s knee has packed up completely…We walk the next 9km’s at snail pace. Frank is an absolute trooper, I think anybody else would have quit at this point, but he hobbled the final 9km’s using his walking pole for support. It started to spit rain at 6pm and it got somewhat heavier around 10pm, but nothing too bad.

We finally crossed the line around midnight Saturday night.

What an adventure! Please don’t anybody ever ask me to do it again. Ever!

On Friday 29th August, Team Fitta Bodies will participate in the Oxfam 100km Trailwalker, From Brooklyn to Mosman.

This walk is going to be intense to say the least. We estimate it will take us approximately 36 hours!

If you haven’t already sponsored us by now, you can do so by visiting

<http://www2.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/sydney/team/158>

Remember, it is for a great charity.

To learn more about what Oxfam does for the community and abroad, browse the oxfam site whilst you are on there making a donation:)

Troy Shipsey

Fitta Bodies Personal Training

Group Training Centennial Park, Sydney