4 Things Taken Away From The Oxfam Trailwalker

4 weeks ago, I completed a 55km trail walk from Bobbin Head to Manly. I did the walk with a group of clients and we managed to raise around $4000 for a great cause. It took about 15 hours but we made it. A big thanks to everyone that donated!

The experience was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I thought I’d share 4 things that I took from it (apart from a very sore body)

IF YOU DO THE WORK, THINGS ARE EASIER AND MORE ENJOYABLE

In the lead up to the event, I quite foolishly did not do any specific training. I was of the belief that a reasonable level of fitness would get me through. I normally do strength training almost daily, run around 5km twice a week and zig zag around the golf course. To the best of my knowledge, I have never moved continuously for any further than the City 2 Surf (14km)

At around the 30km mark, I quickly learnt that my body was not at all conditioned for the length of the event as well as the difficulty of the terrain. My hips, in particular, began to become very sore, then soon after my knees. I would need to alter my gait periodically to unload these areas and at times go up stairs sideways.

The last 10km were very painful and by no means enjoyable!

I am very knowledgeable when it comes to appropriate training loads to prepare for any event and always relay the importance of this to clients. It was good to experience an event like this myself and now understand exactly what not to do!

PAIN IS WHAT YOU THINK IS HAPPENING TO YOUR BODY

The hip and knee pain at the 30km mark was familiar. I would get it after games of soccer or football in my younger years or more recently towards the end of the City 2 Surf. The familiarity of the pain meant that I was not at all worried about it. While it was not pleasant, I had no concern that it was doing me any harm. As the event went on however, the pain intensified to a level beyond what it had been in the past. I now began to think “this can’t be good” and something was triggered in my mind to protect my hips and knees in the best way possible while still trucking on.

The experience reiterated everything I have come to understand about pain as a physio. Pain is not proportionate to damage but to what damage your brain thinks is happening at the site of pain. In some cases, it would be best to limit pain but in many situations it is just your brain trying to protect you.

THINK ABOUT ONE STEP AT A TIME

15 hours of walking leaves a lot of time for thought! Mentally, the last 10km was extremely difficult. As pain and fatigue set in, it became very difficult to continue and the thought of a warm shower and some McDonald’s on the way home was at the forefront of my mind. What I found was every time I thought of finishing or asked someone with a Garmin how long there was to go, the worse I felt mentally about what was in front of me.

It was a good lesson to just focus on the step in front of you and let your mind get to far into the future or think about comfort. The contrast between what your mind is thinking about and the situation you’re in is too great. Then the situation seems worse than what it actually is and things become overwhelming.

As a physio, I often encourage people to “acknowledge” their pain and trying not to think of comfort/getting out of pain as a strategy for better managing pain. It was good to experience first-hand how difficult this strategy is to put in place when tired and in pain!

A “WHY” IS A POWERFUL THING

Everyone had their reasons for doing the event. A physical/mental challenge and to raise money for charity would be the obvious one but another powerful source of motivation arose on the journey.

One of our group members, quickly struck up a rivalry with a large group of fluoro shirt wearing, experienced trail walkers with top of the range walking poles and hiking boots. Throughout the day, we would repeatedly pass or be passed by this group. While they were very friendly people, there was no way we were letting them pass. It was a bit of a joke, something light-hearted to improve our morale, but deep down this rivalry was actually driving us to keep going. At around the 48km mark, the “Orange group”, as they were known, stormed past us (apparently walking poles were a good idea) and into the night never to be seen again. All hopes of beating them home were dashed. Needless to say, our last 7km was very slow!