Fast forward a few months of vigorous training and carb loading and one horrible bloody exam and the big day had finally arrived.
I was feeling rather nervous having had close to two weeks off exercise to give the neck and dicky hamstrings a rest pre walk day. Add to that the fact that my running buddy Von (no we don't actually run together - she's just my buddy who runs) was joining me. Von runs all the time, and had run a 15km run the day before the walk. She is also known for covering at least 25km per trip to Garden City so I was so worried she'd either trick me into jogging or leave me struggling for breath with too much chatter and not enough oxygen intake!
Michelle had roped in a few extras while all my wannabe walkers were dropping like flies in the weeks leading up to the event. In all honesty, I was also worried about walking with Michelle. The girl excels at everything, including falling over and I decided to pack some bandaids for her just in case she did her usual trip! We ended up with seven starters and decided to cram into one car for the trip and hope that it wasn't too smelly on the way home!
Back to front: Renae, Mairead, Melissa, Tracey, Michelle, Von and Me!
Much to our delight (or horror) we had to do a Zumba session for our warm up? Zumba is a challenge for me at the best of times but without any alcohol under my belt lets just say I was far more unco than fabulous and the only move I perfected was the Miley twerk! So we skipped out of the session early and headed towards the start line to get a good posi. Within a few minutes the walk was underway and we were down a man! Our little pocket rocket Von had ducked off to grab a Powerade and I wondered if we had any chance of finding her in the surging crowd! Luckily we had our phones, and someone decided to dress as a cow to be a focus point for us to gather our bearings.
The crowd was thick but we soon broke off into groups and focused on the walk. Now the organisers had made it clear that it was not a race but Von and I were on a misson. We zigged and zagged our way into pole position and kept the pace as quick as the thick crowds would allow. In fact, the only time we stopped during the 15km was to take this selfie! There was supposed to be a lot more water in that pic but unfortunately my big head took over!
Selfie over it was back to the walking and our crowd dodging efforts came into play. The 6km walkers soon met up with us other distances and created a huge bottle neck. I used my adequate thighs to clear a safe path for the pocket rocket Von to follow, and almost tripped over a kick arse tree root trying to overtake a pram!
It was about this time we noticed a small baby in his pram and overhead his Mum talking about his chemo two days before the walk. We had been so focused on the walk, the beautiful surroundings and our general chit chat that for a fair part of it, I had forgotten why I was there. This little guy was all the motivation we needed to finish strong and a good reminder of why were walking the 15km in the first place!
We stopped for a quick selfie at the finish line before realising we hadn't even crossed it yet! We clocked off at 2 hours, 10 minutes and headed to the Powerade stand to start the rehydration process.
The other girls crossed soon after and filled us in on their adventures. A man went down - hope he was OK? And they had two loo stops and a few stretch stops on their 15km!
Soon enough it was time to jump back in the car and get the fun part underway. A quick stop off here...
And for some of us...here...
And then it was back to South Yunderup for a shower and some much needed refreshments at the Sandy Cove with our support crews! The kids got feral and the beers flowed. A quick kick of the footy and it was time to call it a day.
Hmmm - not looking much like someone low on drinking form am I?
So the cherry popping continues for 2013 and I'm a 15km virgin no more! What a great way to spend a glorious Sunday in the sunshine with some fabulous girls! Hope we get to do it again!!
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