Friends of the Keep On Moving Girls

You know even though it's only going to be us dragging ourselves through the bush for this mad event, we are doing it with a team of fabulous, inspirational, supporters behind us. Leonie Cheetham from Pinkfit http://www.pinkfit.com.au/ is one of our bestest Keep On Moving friends. Leonie trains Mia and I, and well we actually feel that it's all due to her that we're actually doing this thing as she inspired and encouraged a group of "Pinkies" from her Pinkfit Outdoor training group to sign up for the Newport Arms Pub to Pub 13km run, last August, and Mia and I were part of this group, and from there it was next challenge (Bridge Run) and the next (Mia's Half Marathon), then the next (gulp, Oxfam.) Sometimes people have no idea that they've made a big difference in your life. Leonie has also provided us with strength and core exercises and will be helping us out with some much needed stretching advice (which we will listen to, even me!) before the event. So thanks for being a friend Leonie, and we'll introduce some more fabulous friends along the way.....

Katie and Lisa's Training Weekend

Seen enough? Hmmm, hope the other girls put in a better effort than we did! Although in fairness we did have a scare in the bush in our morning run involving a man, a large knife and the police. Would drive anyone to drink. And wearing ridiculously large sunglasses at night. And a head band.

Katie's Story

Well, Lisa has been asking me to write a note for the blog for weeks now. Blogging ain't my thing. When it comes to talking - I can talk faster than most and about more random shit than most (the girls are up for a treat - we haven't yet trained together and I can ramble on for hours about really uninteresting stuff! Maybe I should save it all up for the actual event... - don't know anything about gardening though!).

So, I am the sole team member in New Zealand and I can tell you I am feeling the distance. I look at these blogs and see the emails from Lisa and worry about the fact that I am doing a FRACTION of the training my team mates are doing! So, event day hopefully I won't piss my team mates off with the random bullshit which comes out of my mouth along with the lack of performance coming from my legs!

We have a weekend date planned to train together in late July, a month out from the race. I am going over to Sydney and hope we can do some evenning/night walking during that time because, as yet, that's something I haven't managed to do. I am not that keen on walking or running in the bush in the dark by myself at night which I think is fair enough. Oh, actually, now that I think about it, I did venture into the bush once after dark. There was that time about 6 weeks ago when my sister in law, Tash, and I decided to go for a run through Ross Creek in Dunedin (I was down visiting for the night). Suffice it to say I've made a mental note: do not go into a bush track at dusk, with no night lighting, not particularly sure of the way and wearing a cap. Sorry Lise, Mia and Trace - you might be thinking at this time of swapping team mates!

So what I have been doing here in NZ by way of training is cutting my toenails real short (you wouldn't want long toenails during long runs - I've made that mistake before and lost many a toenail); changing my socks regularly (apparently that's important too); eating at regular intervals; keeping my fluids and carb levels up; trying to be very efficient in my movements (easier when you have a low centre of gravity like me); a bit of walking (taking the boys to school and kindy on the walking school bus each Wednesday); and a bit of running. I am hoping to pick up a bit of run fitness through osmosis too since Alan, my husband, recently completed the Comrades ultramarathon in South Africa. 89km in 7 hours 58. So by hanging out with him, I am sure I am building my stamina daily.

We are going to get a bit of a joint run in this weekend too - Lisa is going to be in New Zealand and we are going to have an early morning run in the bush in Wellington. Bet Lisa's forgotten just how cold it can be in Wellington in winter. At least we don't have spider and snakes though!

A casualty

Sunday saw yet again another training walk - this time tackling another 3 stages - we headed off at the reasonable hour of 8.30am from St Ives show grounds, heading off with a large group of walkers. One thing we've noticed about Oxfam is you see all shapes, ages and sizes out training, and this group had a bit of everything. We did the old "we're jogging as much as we can.." line, they made lots of comments and we headed off on our own only to bottle neck at a high barbed wire fence that we needed to scale and jump over, very clumsily. We left them and headed off, retracing the steps we got lost in St Ives the previous week. All good with steady running, and Mia and Tracy having a good chat about gardening and gardening techniques......being a non gardener I studied the map, my feet and anything else of interest, thinking "she's going to be a long day". Seriously though, whatever it takes, even if it means gardening chat to get us through... After a bit of civilisation as we were about to reenter the bush we saw...that same pack of walkers. Hmmm, we tried to work out how they could have got past us WITHOUT TAKING A SHORTCUT, and had to listen to them mocking us as we ran past them. "Keep ahead of them at all costs" became our mantra for the day...even when we took a wrong turn, like a pack of scalded cats we retraced our steps and bolted on - anything to keep ahead. This leg saw 4 stream crossings - too deep to walk through without saturating our shoes (with 25+kms to walk) and too wide to jump. We resorted to the girlie girl tactic of taking our shoes and socks off, which although a pain, we thought would prevent soggy feet and the dreaded blisters. At our 4th stream crossing who should come charging past us, bounding ankle deep through the water? those soddin' walkers again, and more snide comments. So it raises a couple of questions...that old chestnut - is (our) running actually slower than walking(gulp) and should we walk through streams rather than faff with shoes and socks. Everything about these walks is a learning - about ourselves, about techniques, about our bodies, so we clocked these two up for discussion and researching with experienced Oxfam'ers.
Stage 2 saw a nice run from Kambora school to Davidson park - reasonably steady and uneventful, or so we thought, until I slipped a little, brushed up against a tree stump and....ripped my stinking uber-expensive Skins. And not just a little hole, but a big flappy, unsalvagable-need-to-buy-a-new-pair-of-Skins kind of hole. Tracy made me feel better by saying I looked really "hard core". It helped a little but still didn't stop me sulking!. A short break at Davidson saw us heading into the bush for a tough 7.5kms to Ararat, where Tracy was to leave us and Mia and I to wander home. This leg is tough with a smoothish 3.5km's in, then a tough second half, with lots of climbing. We kind of went into silent mode as we toughed it out, listening to Ipods and just moving forward. We ran into a family out strolling in a place that wasn't really strollable - the mother was 7 months prergnant and the dad was carrying 2 young boys. We were struggling up the climbs which were not only steep but slippery and muddy as well, and this family was going to be taking the same route as us. We tried to help, and Mia was able to at one stage, but they said they were fine, although as we ran on with more climbing over rough slippery stuff we couldn't stop thinking of them and whether we should have done more. So 29km's on, we hobbled to the checkpoint at Ararat where Vic and Evey were waiting for Tracy. Mia and I walked on for another few kms home, and it felt a nice change not to have to run. So a good day and a long day, and apart from the second half of the last leg, we have covered the whole course now. Mia's feet were better this week with a sock/shoe change strategy at each stop. As for my Skins, well hopefully they are our first and only casualty of the event.

Stages St Ives to Kambora (12kms)difficulty 2 2hours 15 mins, Kambora to Davidson (10kms)difficulty 3; 1 hour 30mins, Davidson to Ararat (7.5kms) difficulty 2 (although we think should be more); 1 hour 15mins

Thankyou!!!!!

We just thought we'd take a moment to say a BIG BIG thank you to everyone who have been so kind and generous to make a donation to Oxfam on behalf of our Keep On Moving team. Because even though for us this is about the physical and emtional challenge, the goal is not just 100kms. It's also about raising as much as we can for Oxfam and all the wonderful work they do around the world. And you've just made a difference. Thank you

Our First 30kms

We decided that this was the weekend to up our distance and start to crank it up a bit to see how we held up physically and mentally. 30km over 3 stages was the plan with 2 of those stages not yet tackled so we'd need to rely on our maps. After a 5.30am drive out to Berowa, we had a moment where we realised it was still dark and we had no lights, but after 10 or so minutes of running we were able to read the maps and kick on. Now 30kms is a long way so I won't bore you with every nook and cranny we ran up and down...but I'll break it into stages and some highlights and lowlights. Stage 3 from Bewora to Apple Tree Bay, was 13.5km of ok'ish running with a big flat run along a creekbed (although we were freezing down in the valley), a big road climb up out of the valley and then a smidge of civilisation before hitting some easy firetrails to the checkpoint at Apple Tree Bay where we stopped for a stretch and some food. Stage 4 Apple Tree Bay to Ku-ring-ai Creative Arts School was also a good stretch of solid running with both of these stages seeming relatively more easy than the first 2 stages, not as much clambouring and more running and strong walking. We started to feel some "hot spots" on our feet and "the Blister police" ie whoever didn't have the blister, would make sure plasters and tape was quickly applied. This training was about experimenting with food, and clothing and really understanding the strains our bodies would start to feel. A short break at the end of this stage brought a personal highlight for me with a cheese and marmite sandwich on fresh bread. This was quickly followed by a lowlight when I dropped it in the dirt. Mia was starting to get a few problems with her feet by now too. It was cold with none of us really warming up, and Mia's feet started to suffer from circulation problems. Stage 5 from the Ku-ring-ai Creative Arts School to St Ives, should have been a good one but we stuffed it up a bit and ended up feeling a tad disappointed with ourselves as a couple of mistakes with the map caused extra kms to be added, including an extra big fat climb. We did meet a group of amazing women in their 60's and 70's who we walked with for a while - they had done many Oxfams, including NZ (completed in 22 hours) and were going to England for the UK Oxfam. They were doing a 12 hour walk when we met them and gave us lots of advice and looked very skeptical when we said what we were doing...ie running as much of the event as we felt we could, maybe sleeping for a few hours, having meal stops and other stuff we thought was sensible. We decided that having met a few people out on the track you take what advice you want from people and discard the stuff we don't agree with for our team. Somehow in the rain with aching legs, sore feet and a bit grumpy that we'd made a bit of a hash of the last leg, our black car waiting for us with John, the boys and heaters was a welcome sight. A fabulous effort and an eye opener at the same time!! Low Lights... Mia's sore feet, my fat fingers, cold (not enough clothes then too many)getting a bit lost to St Ives, Tracy snagging her Skins while bushbashing (to try and find our way to the track)...High Lights ...Successfully running/walking 33+kms!!!!!!,team hugs at the end of each stage, Tracy's Fruit Tingles, seeing our car at the end!

Completed Checkpoint 2 (Bewora) to CP3 (Apple Tree Bay) 2 Hours 45 mins, 13.5kms difficulty 4; CP3 (Apple Tree Bay) to CP4 (Ku-ring-ai Creative Arts School) 8kms 1 hour 15 mins , difficulty 3; CP4 to CP5 (St Ives Show Ground) 1 hour 30 mins 9kms (+ extra 2kms!), difficulty 3

Feet

Feet will be a regular topic for chatting about over the next 12 weeks. Specifically the horror stories we've heard about feet. As an example, Katie had a friend walk the NZ Oxfam Trailwalker in March at Taupo, her description of the feet of her team sent shudders...to quote...
"...our mate got blisters that she didn't treat properly (she also used brand new socks on the day and that's the number one piece of advice, don't try anything new for the event). They got worse and she had to pull out at 50kms. My big toe nails have gone black and I'm likely to lose them. It also took me a week to be able to sleep without my feet hanging off the mattress (was even too sore to have the duvet touch them!).We did it in 30 hours. We had a 2 hour break for breakfast before the last leg and were basically granny stepping/shuffling to the finish line. We had to go straight to St Johns as one of us had poisoning from a blister that looked like a HUGE growth out the side of her ankle from a support brace, you could see the fluid wobble as she walked, the ambulance guys said it was by far the worse they saw out of the entire event...."

OK, get the picture...so we are stocking up on gear, specifically socks and soon blister tape, bandages. Here's a photo of my sock collection so far, as you can see there's nothing glamorous about them, comfort, protection being the priorities. This sure isn't going to be a fashion contest Skins, thermals, sweat and ugly socks. That will be our wardrobe for 30+ hours. And grimaces. And maybe some tears. And hopefully plenty of smiles.

Going Solo - Confronting a demon.

Monday, a long weekend and no offical team walk planned, I decided to head out and do a short stage of the walk - 7.5kms (plus another 3.5 to home) from Davidson to Ararat. Mia and I have done this walk a couple of time before - the first was a reality check of how much longer it takes to run in the bush compared with the road. We'd thought 7.5 km, probably 45 mins or so, but no, 1.5 hours later, we struggled out. In fact Tracy had one of these revelations on our first walk, where she asked how long it was going to take us for that 15kms, we guessed about 3 hours, and Tracy was like "nooooo, we'll be able to do it much quicker than that", 3 hours or so later, she understood where we were coming from. The second time we walked Ararat, we'd done the 10km stage to Davidson (which we'd run most of) followed by the Ararat 7.5km, all in about 30C Sydney summer heat. Mia, bless, was singing and kicking up her heels a km or so from the finish (but then that's just Mia, who calls out "good morning to startled people we meet along our way), whereas I'd sunk into my normal silent brooding self, battling those inner voices "you can't do this...you'll never finish....".
So on this lovely sunny morning, John and the boys dropped me off at the start of the stage at Davidson, I popped on the ipod and happily jogged this stage. Now I know that on the day of the event, as this is the second last stage, with 80+kms already walked, and probably with sore everythings, there is absolutely no hope at all that we'll be jogging this, let alone happily. But for an hour or so, on a sunny Monday morning, I did just that, and showed those demons in my head that I can ignore them.
Stage: Davidson to Ararat (and 3kms along final stage), 10kms, difficulty 2, time 2hours

A Story About The Jacket

Saturday saw rain like you wouldn't believe, the kind of rain you're not sure if it's safe to be driving in. But we were. On our way out for a late walk, probably in the rain and definitely in the dark. Poor Tracy was on Worried Mum duty with wee Evey sick so Mia and I roped in Andy, a fellow Oxfam walker (Knee Sweat, team 255). We've done a few training walks with Andy and he's well used to us. We think he probably finds it a relief to train with us as his team is full of serious men who probably don't giggle much. This walk was the longest, apparently hardest leg, 15kms from Cowan to Bewowra. Mia had her jacket on, Andy and I thought we'd just grunt it out and get wet. And so for the next 15kms it rained on and off intermitently. And Mia's jacket would come on and off when this happened. Except Mia's jacket is a big, long jacket, and she has a small camelbak packpack. So every time the jacket came off, the process of squeezing it into her bag would start. I think at one stage, Andy took her bag off her so he could do it. Faster.
So we clambered down rock faces, ran lovely ridges, admired stunning views, took a couple of wrong turns (what's an extra 1km in the dark and wet?)and meandered our way to the end in 31/2 hours. Highlights included the climb down to Bewowra Waters, Mia deciding to keep her jacket on for the rest of the walk, putting on a thermal top at about 10kms and the big one, wearing our head lights for the first time. Lowlights - our first casualty - Andy's Skins, he had a nasty skid in the FIRST 200 METRES, and fell over. Learnings of this walk.... I LOVE to walk in light rain, I felt great on this walk (probably as we got so many breaks with Mia stopping to do squeeze her jacket into her bag), Mia isn't so sure of the rain, we enjoyed transitioning to the dark, we need gloves, and the more hamstring work we can do the better - there were some steep climbs on this one. And folks, there are many fabulous feelings in life, but not much beats getting to a car when cold, wet and tired, putting on some dry clothes and knowing we were done. Andy and I hugged the car heaters the whole drive home.
Checkpoint 1 to Checkpoint 2 Cowan to Bewowra Waters
15kms, 3 1/2 hours, difficulty 5

Our First Almost Team Walk

Early last Sunday morning we headed out early for the long drive to the starting point of the Oxfam walk at Parsley Bay. It was our first official team walk with Tracy and without Katie. Wearing our new Skins we headed off encouraged by the number of toilet facilities around the start point (knowing that nerves can make for some early issues in the bush otherwise). We planned a short 14 km run - just the first leg of the walk, with Tracy and me just back from overseas having enjoyed too much food and alcohol, and Mia fresh from her half marathon with tired legs. this was about familiarising ourselves with the first leg, with each other and with our different abilities. This was going to be a walk of two halves. We jogged the first 7 kms of this stage - largely along wide, easy firetrails but with plenty of undulation. Just when we were getting complacent, we hit the second half, and started clambering down boulder faces, squeezing ourselves through gaps, jumping over streams and waterfalls, and generally the kind of terrain we were expecting. There was a very long slippery,downhill that meant running was next to impossible, and then a steady tough climb back up, which also meant running was tough. The track was the most populated we've seen it with lots of Oxfam people, and day walkers as well. We overtook an Oxfam team (which is difficult and usually requires running in places we wouldn't normally run just to get past and ahead.) We saw that group later and they said "you girls are like gazelles", (noone has ever called me a gazelle, although I think they may have been referring to Mia and Tracy) whereas this group were carrying on to do the next 15kms and were getting a long at a good pace (had only started the track a little while before us and finished about the same time), which raises the question, how much faster can you be when you're running? On this stage of the track, not much would be my guess. Overall Mia and Tracy were really strong and I lagged a bit at times going a tad silent on it (which usually means I'm struggling mentally or physically or both), Anyhow it was great to get out there as a team and was a good gauge of each others abilities. Bring it on!!!
Countdown: 14 weeks
Start to Checkpoint 1, Cowan, 14kms, difficulty 4

Hmm, this may be more like it...

The Keep On Moving Girls

<


Well as promised I thought I'd add a bit of detail about us as well as some pix to introduce ourselves so you can get to know us and our personal foibles along the way (just like we are doing with each other). I'm going to take the liberty of doing it on everyones behalf because I can, although Tracy who is so much more cleverer at this sort of technical stuff will always have the right of editing, because she knows how, as for Katie and Mia, well sorry girl.

Mia

Mia is a superhuman, super gorgeous mum of 3, Jack 5, Luke 4 and Olivia 2, wife of the very patient and understanding Ben and one of the two in the girls in their thirties. Mia is in Physical Education, teaching for the last 15 years and now lecturing at NSW Uni teaching the Concepts of Physical Fitness and Health. (See my theory is she looks so good in a tracksuit that's why she followed a career here, I may be wrong, but she doesn't look anything like me in her Skins.) Mia is keen to give Oxfam a go and has been inspired to do something crazy in her life so this is it. Mentally it will be challenging and physically exhausting but as a team of women she knows we will pull each other through. Mia also loves a good party and great wine, both of which she now realises might not be on the agenda until September. Sad.

Katie

Katie has been my friend for about a zillion years so I have PLENTY of material about her. I'll keep it short for the moment... Katie works for a health and wellness company in Auckland called Vitality Works which provides health, exercise and wellness services to corporates, this is a massive change for Kate as her background is actually in science (she's a phd), prior to which she was a patent attorney. She's married to the super ultra marathon man Alan (who just ran 89 kms in under 8 hours in South Africa) and has 2 sons, Sam and Joel (6 and 4). Katie has competed in many events most of us would shudder at the thought of such as Coast to Coast, Auckland marathon and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. She's actually using Oxfam as training for the Auckland marathon in October. Katie is doing Oxfam because she likes to have something to train for/work toward, she's really keen to do something odd with me, her oldest friend (since 5 years old!). Success for Katie will look like getting through the event without breaking down (as individuals and as a team). Like all of us, Katie doesn't really care about the time; it's all about the experience. She want us to finish and say "that was totally awesome", which is her philosophy about lots of things; it's about the process not the prize.

Tracy

Tracy is our gorgeous baby of our team, she has been such a trooper and stepped up to the mark to train with 3 complete strangers and has fitted in like a glove. Tracy is also a super fit, adventure junky super mum. Vic is her very understanding husband and she has a beautiful daughter Evey, who is 18 months old. Tracy works part time at Fairfax managing their MyCareer website and is also creating her own online business. Tracy is doing Oxfam because she is looking for a new adventure and challenge. The 100km challenge is something she's always thought about doing but never really got around to! Now is the time!!! She says she has everything to gain from doing it such as an amazing experience, fitness, raising money for Oxfam, blisters (bring'em on), meeting spirited women who are also willing to give this ago and confidence and achievement.

Me, Lisa

OK, I'm the oldest member of our group at a very matronly 42 years old. There, its out there.

Seriously I'm lucky to have 3 beautiful boys, Smith (3), Rafe (5) and Will (8) and a gorgeous husband John, and I'm lucky to have lived in stunning Sydney for 2.5 years and lucky to have friends as mad as me to want to do this event! For me, doing Oxfam is all about having a real challenge, not just a "can-I-run-10km-without-stopping" kind of challenge but one where it hurts outside and in and I put myself to a test. It's also about my journey with Katie on our very long friendship, Katie has put other very exotic events on hold to do this experience together and I'm grateful to her for prioritising us. Doing any event is a biggie for me to get over my nerves and my apathy, and having Mia and I challenging ourselves together is also another reason to do this - so I guess it's about celebrating new and old friendships (in an extreme way). Goddammit, this is also about a bit of "I'm doing the Oxfam walk" glory - I want to feel proud of me and I want my family and friends to be proud as well. Success for me looks like finishing, with body, friendships and a little dignity still intact. And having such an amazing time that I find something else to challenge myself

So that's us and this is what we look like. I've gone remarkably easy on us, just wait, the time will come when a few beans get spilled...