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Oxfam Trailwalker 2015

Kiwi-family

{Rachael, the Mama of the family}
Time of past OR future Camino
walking every day for the rest of my life
I have been invited to do the Oxfam walk in March. 100km in under 36 hours. My sole qualification was that I am "crazy and already walked much further". Obviously walking 30km a day is quite different to walking 100km in one hit. I am currently uncertain, but know I thrive on doing projects and this would be a great goal to work towards.
I'm sure some of you have probably done something similar and I'm wondering if you have any advice. Obviously we have six months to prepare so that is a positive. Also, we would be walking in a team of four (all together, not relay!) and that can be beneficial if we learn how to walk together.
I'm all ears for nuggets of wisdom that might help me make this a possibility.
 
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€83,-
I have no idea of the terrain for the actual walk, which for you I assume is, Lake Taupo, NZ, but if you assume an 8 hour rest in the middle you have 28 hours to complete 100 km.

It's do able and you probably have done something similar in the past without thinking about it.

Stolen from Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naismith's_rule

Naismith's rule is a rule of thumb that helps in the planning of a walking or hiking expedition by calculating how long it will take to walk the route, including ascents. This rule applies only to hikes rated Class 1 on the Yosemite Decimal System, and not to Class 2 or higher. The rule was devised by William W. Naismith, a Scottish mountaineer, in 1892.[4] The basic rule is as follows:

  • Allow 1 hour for every 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) forward, plus 1 hour for every 600 metres (2,000 ft) of ascent.
  • When walking in groups, calculate for the speed of the slowest person.
Good luck.
 
Hola

Sounds like very hard walk, but to be positive I assume you only will be carrying water and food?
If so, maybe practicing with 5-8 kg or so in a backpack, so when you actually go for it, you will feel lighter and faster?
On a Camino I walked 75+ km over two days, with a full pack of course, but still and extra 25 km would not be super easy.
Terrain is also a huge issue.. 100 km downhill should not be to bad, but 100 km uphill.....
Anyhow. I sense I am not helping much.
Best of luck.
Lettinggo
 
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As you can see the terrain is virtually flat! Biggest ascent is not even 250m. Houlet your comments are very useful - I hadn't consider that I have achieved similar before. Not quite the same in that I have never gone over 40km in a day but our training would include getting us up to a comfortable 50km in a day and then doing it two days running so that will be close! The organisers advise NOT sleeping during the event and structure the closing times of various points to ensure you probably won't, but that would be worth considering.
lettinggo, you are right.In fact we don't even have to carry food and water for the complete walk as each team is required to have a support team which provides food and water at various stations. Of course we would always carry SOMETHING to eat and raingear and extra layers for the night portion, but nothing like a 10kg pack! I had forgotten this would make it easier. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
Hola Kiwi-Family,

I did the Oxfam Trailwalker in Melbourne 2 years ago and had very similar thoughts to yourself when deciding to do it. Having done the Camino it certainly helped physically and mentally, however it's a very different experience!

I completed the 100km in 37 hours, 15 minutes with the full team still walking which was really great. The biggest piece of advise I have is to prep and train as much as possible if you decide to do it...

A few thoughts:

- Train with your team together as often as you can to get the feel of walking with each other, and set some ground rules for the day. eg. You can only go as fast as your slowest person (and that's ok), always stay in sight of one another, if someone drops out will the rest of the team? etc . so on the day it's really clear what the expectations are.

- Try to train on as much of the trail as possible, particularly the sections you'll walk overnight. If you can also train on those in the dark it makes a huge difference during the challenge as it's not a surprise and you know exactly where you're going with your little pool of light from the headlamp. We encountered a few teams battling overnight because they had never trained in the dark and it was really hard for them.

- We all carried a small backpack with water, fruit, trail mix etc. and any weather related gear we might need. So for us it was a Goretex jacket (we had some rain), gloves, beanies, headlamp (for the evening) and loads of sunscreen for the daytime. A small first aid kit with strong painkillers was well worth carrying too as your legs/feet will probably start to ache towards the end. The packs didn't exceed 2-3kg as you're carrying them for so long, and I had a small Aarn pack with a waist strap to keep the load on my hips which helped a lot.

- Your support crew will mean everything to you! Unlike the Camino where after 30km you can stop, shower, eat and rest up for 8-10 hours on Oxfam you have to keep going and having a friendly face at each checkpoint goes a long way particularly in the final stages. Make sure they're well stocked with food, water, chairs and anything else you might need (a change of clothes is fantastic!)

Overall it's a really fun and rewarding experience, but I wasn't quite prepared for how difficult the final 30km was when it changed from a physical challenge to a mental one as sleep deprivation kicked in. Not to mention the fact your body has been going non-stop for over 24 hours so it does hurt a bit! But crossing that finish line is an amazing feeling and I do recommend giving it a shot.

And at the end of the day, it's for an awesome cause and helps people in need which we used to motivate us a lot in the final stages :)

If you have any questions let me know,
Kat
 
I have been invited to do the Oxfam walk in March. 100km in under 36 hours. My sole qualification was that I am "crazy and already walked much further". Obviously walking 30km a day is quite different to walking 100km in one hit. I am currently uncertain, but know I thrive on doing projects and this would be a great goal to work towards.
I'm sure some of you have probably done something similar and I'm wondering if you have any advice. Obviously we have six months to prepare so that is a positive. Also, we would be walking in a team of four (all together, not relay!) and that can be beneficial if we learn how to walk together.
I'm all ears for nuggets of wisdom that might help me make this a possibility.
I did the Oxfam (31hrs 15m) a few years back and now the Camino this year. Cant imagine much worse than the Oxfam walk! Good luck with both!
 
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€60,-
Hmmmmmm. Not sure if I'll take your penultimate sentence with me when we walk in eleven days! I've loved my caminos, but not enjoyed the really long training days for Oxfam (done a few over 50km). Now I just want it to be over!
 
The organisers advise NOT sleeping during the event and structure the closing times of various points to ensure you probably won't, but that would be worth considering.
I did Oxfam Perth recently which is basically up and down the escarpment for about half of it so definitely not flat. We did it in just under 30 hours which included meal breaks and a 3 hour sleep. That 3 hour sleep was sanity saving. We were all buggered and the rest let our bodies not cave. I had an old ankle sprain reactivate on me after the 4/5 difficulty second segment and being able to stop and tape it up properly and just rest it (as well as let the painkillers kick in). Everyone felt much more human. We managed to catch up with people that hadn't stopped to rest and pass them because they were really struggling.
Our average speed was about 5km/hr.
When I trained I tried to keep up a pace over 6.3km/hr for big sections of it. I live in Darwin which is very very flat so between keeping up the pace and the Top End heat it substituted a little for the hills.
One of my teammates was thanking her trainer for making her do squats etc on a Bosu ball to train up all those small muscles for uneven terrain.
Take painkillers and I recommend capsules rather than tablets for anti-inflammatories - if you keep them in your mouth too long they BURN. Those Clif caffeine bloks are worth trying - and try them all during training so there are no surprises.
Compression gear too. Stops the DOMS really well. I went for calf sleeves and compression shorts which allowed me to change my socks easily.
You will only eat about 1/3 of what you think you will eat.
 

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