Martin had already decided it was too far to drive down and decided he'd rather stay and watch the footie. Lee knowing his issues with timekeeping had driven down the night before with Polly and Simon had stayed overnight in Banbury. Mark decided to drive the 200miles on the morning and arrived bright and early at the Visitor Centre at 8.30am and was shortly joined by Simon. No sign of Red Leader and Polly but theres was still plenty of time for him to make an entrance, though we weren't expecting it to be at 10:15am due to breakfast being served late and a 'navigational time issue'. Lets hope things are smoother the next time we come here!
The running order was Tom from Oxfam, followed by Gurkha Gopal and then Tony, Mark and Jo from the Brixham Badgers.
Tom is doing Trailwaker with a team himself and has been training on the course. He ran through training schedules, team roles and the support team role and then it was over to Gurkha Gopal .
There he was stood in combat gear, a little guy with a great smile and sense of humour but obviously as hard as nails. He explained that he'd done Trailwalker four times, three times in the UK and once in Australia. His fastest time was just over 11 hours and his slowest around 14hours though this year he doesn't have a team - yet.
He went on to explain how the Gurkha's approach this 'run' (a term he continued to use much to our amusement). He explained that they spend no more than 2 minutes at a checkpoint enough to charge themselves with fuel and change socks though he confessed he wears the same pair throughout often wearing a hole through them! This F1 style of pitstop was made more interesting when he added that their Support Team have to point their vehicle in the direction of the exit to ensure they make it to the next checkpoint before them! By all accounts they don't drink a great deal as he indicated the team go through about 30litres of water between them. For salt replacement, they use sliced apple sprinkled with salt.
He ran through the timings of the starts and the need to register on the Friday evening and that the Gurkha Cultural Event is a must attend to get into the spirit of Trailwalker. He did also say that while camping is available at the start this may not result in a decent nights sleep which is why the Gurkhas stay away. Interesting to note was that camping is available at Brighton Race Course from Saturday evening so the Support Team can set themselves a base.
Water is available at checkpoints to top up bottles and camelbaks though this may mean queueing so perhaps sticking with Plan A and carrying our own water is best advised. Sometimes food or chocolate bar treats are available at intermediate checkpoints along with hot/cold drinks and at checkpoint 7 there is a hot meal though he cautioned that a lot of people drop out here. This he put down to a combination of it being night, tiredness and then taking on board a meal so perhaps caution advised not to eat too much or linger too long. The Gurkhas will be there to applaud us in at each checkpoint and motivate us with the sound of the pipes at the finish line.
Next up were Tony, Mark and Jo of the Brixham Badgers. Like us they had lost a teammate in training and had to replace him and they stressed the importance of training on hills to prepare for Trailwalker. Their training adopted the '10% Rule' gradually increasing the distance each week in the run up to the event. Their plan was to build in time in the second half of the walk and gain encouragement from beating their plan which included blitzing the hill in the final stages.
The support team were very well organised. Each walker had their own box of clothing and gear. At each checkpoint, the walkers were greeted by the support team and lead to the vehicle where 4 chairs were arranged around a square blanket with their stuff infront. Pit stops were kept to a minimum 20-25mins with the exception of one afforded half way of nearly an hour because the team were well ahead of schedule. The Support Team used a flag mounted above the vehicle so it could easily be found at each checkpoint and this was handed to the team at the last checkpoint so the support team could see them coming and cheer them in at Brighton.
It was also interesting to note that Support Team members can walk down the trail to meet the walkers, take instructions and run back to the Support Team. They can also walk with the team up the trail from the checkpoint as a boost before turning round and coming back.
Last year they explained it rained for the first 10 hours and suggested that 'waterproof' is a relative term. Beyond the halfway stage two of their teammates started to suffer with knee and foot problems including monumental blisters and continued the rest of Trailwalker in pain which apparently was only eased with the use of walking poles. On the same subject, they recommended anticipating pain management and alternate between nurofen and paracetamol over the duration of the walk. Despite the adversity of injuries and bad weather, they managed to complete the walk in 27hours 53minutes raising £2,770.50 for Oxfam and The Gurkha Welfare Trust. To read their blog in full you can find it here.
The Prep Session ended and we agreed it had been a useful experience especially to listen to those who had been there and done it. One thing that doesn't really come out in blogs is the mental and emotional side of doing this as everyone expects physical pain. The Brixham Badgers managed to reduce a few members of the audience to tears as they described their highs and lows - we need to prepare for that. Thanks to Mark, Tony and Jo for putting it together and getting up at 5am to be there.
We headed for the cars for the next phase of the day - training on the Trailwalker Route at last.
Many thanks for the kind comments. We'd like to wish you all the best in your training leading up to the event and all the best for on the day!
ReplyDeleteYou can do it!
Brixham Badgers