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