Current location: Northern Beaches
11.11am, Walking. Today is Coastrek!!! It's a 55km walk that four of us decided to do months ago, and today's the day. We woke up at 5am, packed our bags full of protein bars and filled up our Camelbaks with litres of water. It was set to be a hot one today, and we had 15 hours of walking ahead of us!
We were all pretty excited when we got to Palm Beach; there were hundreds of others all milling around, getting their high-vis jackets on, getting their last-minutes bits packed up, strapping up knees, ankles, toes, and applying sunscreen.
As we made our way down onto the beach, none other than Ray Martin started us off! It was 7am, and we started strong, getting through the start gates fast to try and get ahead of lots of the others. There were a few hundred people starting at the same time as us, and just a few minutes in was a big set of stairs to get up a big hill, so we didn't want to get stuck queueing so early on! It turns out the big hill was a mammoth hill, which we didn't expect so early on. In fact, the first 18km was hills and cliff climbs, testing our muscles, endurance and how fit we were! Not as fit as we could be, it turns out!
We passed through our first 'checkpoint' in really good time, feeling strong and happy. Just a few kilometres on, David and Val met us with food and cold water and a change of socks (blisters were already forming!). The sun was out and the four of us were all feeling great!
We set off again, up and down more hills, and along beaches, and then we hit a tough bit: walking 5km along the beach from Narrabeen to Collaroy. The tide was coming in so we were forced to walk along the soft sand, which nearly finished me off! I know it's just walking but when people talk about endurance events, and having to 'dig deep', this was the point I had to dig. It just seemed to take so long to get across that beach, especially with blisters and no shade and full sunshine, and the beginnings of sore muscles and aching shoulders – and the prospect of not even being halfway yet!!
When we reached the end of that stretch, we were all super happy (and sweaty!) and I felt very motivated by the other walkers, especially one amazing woman who we walked along with for a while. She totally distracted me with her stories and questions, and then at the end of the beach, off we walked and I didn't see her again. But a big thank you to the stranger who kept me going!!
At our next stop, at 25km, Dave and Val brought us the best thing ever: takeaway pizza!!! We ate pizza and bananas, and stocked up on more sweets and bandaged our feet up... then off we went again.
The scenery along the walk was soooo beautiful, and I loved how we were getting to see so many parts of Sydney's coastline that I had no idea about. It's such a beautiful part of the world, and it definitely distracted me from any of the pain I was feeling. My feet were getting pretty blistered, but they weren't anything compared with Chrystal's feet, which got a bad case of blisters! Poor girl. She was a trooper and just kept going through the pain.
By the time we got to the next stop, at 43km, we had walked a marathon! We were all pretty tired and over it, although I have to admit, listening to Taylor Swift was keeping my spirits up! Thanks Taylor. At the stop, in Manly, our friend Mitch came to meet us, with ice poles (these were amazing), Gatorade, lollies and lots of encouragement. I love our friends! It was weird walking through Manly because it was Friday evening by this point, the sun was starting to go down, and everyone was out on the wharf having drinks to celebrate the start of the weekend... And we were traipsing past, tired and dirty and sweaty!
Andy and I went on ahead for a while as every time he stopped he was cramping up, and before too long, the sun had gone down. It was very bizarre walking through the bush in the pitch black, with only our headtorches to help us see. It was actually really mentally draining because, even though we were so exhausted by this point, you couldn't just tune out and get in the zone... You had to keep concentrating and looking where you were going and making sure you were going the right way and weren't about to fall over!
When we emerged from the bus, we were at the Spit Bridge. Both feeling so achy and in pain, Andy and I decided to try and run a bit, just to get our bodies moving in a slightly different way (this was actually a bit of advice from the woman who walked along the Narrabeen stretch of coast with me). It helped but we both felt a bit bonkers shuffling along!
We waited about 10 minutes for Chrystal and Marc (who had taken a slight wrong turn in the dark, oops!) and while we were waiting, we both lost our minds a bit. Andy tried to fall asleep, while I lay on my back and could not stop laughing. Then we saw some rabbits, which very quickly disappeared... It was all a bit weird!! But then Chrystal and Marc arrived, looking as tired but hopeful as we were feeling, and off we went. There were 3km left! We can do this!
Our aim for the walk was to finish it in between 12 and 15 hours, and we were on track to finish it in under 15. However, as we got closer, and clearly got slower, time was ticking away. Our spirits were up and we managed a couple of songs along the way, but what helped the most in these last bits were the AWESOME people cheering us on. It was mainly children, and I wonder if they have any idea how much it carried us along, having their high-fives and encouraging words. What amazing people.
We reached Balmoral Beach, where the walk was ending, with 13 minutes to go until 10pm, which was our deadline for a 15-hour finish. We were so close to the finish line, but even at this point, there were still people who weren't sure if they could make it. I walked for a few hundred metres with a woman who I'm pretty sure was suffering from pretty severe dehydration, but was determined to finish. The human spirit is amazing!
Seven minutes before 10pm, and we were still walking along the bloody beach! We started to realise we might not actually make or 10pm deadline, but with the end in sight (literally), we rallied on... and managed to cross the finish line in 14 hours, 59 minutes and 41 seconds. Go team CLAM!
Amazing Bree was at the end to meet us with treats, then drove us home where we all fell promptly asleep.
Lots of emotions... I didn't really see it as an 'achievement', as people do much more impressive things every day but once we had finished, I was so proud of our resilience and capacity to keep going when everything was hurting. Our spirits stayed up (for the most part) and our bodies were strong and wonderful.
I'm so glad we did the walk, and managed to finish it, and do it together. Chrystal, Marc and Andy are three of my favourite people, and it was ace to experience such a challenge together, but the best bit is that we managed to raise over $3000 for the Fred Hollows Foundation, and I am so thankful to all our generous friends and family who sponsored us. THANK YOU.
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