For those who haven't heard of it, the Oxfam 100km Trailwalker Challenge is a charity event, where teams of 4 raise money for Oxfam (120,000 Japanese Yen for us) and then walk 100km. I joined Team Lima - give me money, a group of colleagues from Vestas in Denmark (Anna Signe, Imad and Martin), after they had problems finding the fourth member of the team. We all did a gret deal of preparation for the race. Some even did a marathon - a big enough challenge in itself! I was mainly trying to find some spots in Brazil to do the training and managed to find some small parks around the city. After a month or so I realised that my idea of training in conditions like the race was slightly naive, with little time and few places to simulate a 100km hike, let alone finding other people who wanted to go along with me! So I ramped up the tempo and started doing laps around my local park as training for the race. But looking at the course a couple of weeks before going to Japan, I realised just how hard it was going to be. Repeated climbs of 500m throughout the entire course of 100km - and I wasn't even sure if my body could go the distance! It's bad enough not knowing if I had the robustness to finish, but then the fitness level was also going to be a major issue with all of the climbs!
So off I went to Japan - 24 hours on a plane!! Not the most direct route there (from Brazil to France to Tokyo), but then again, the time difference is 12 hours! On my arrival in Tokyo I immediately became disoriented - what a city! When you hit the public transport system, you quickly have no idea of where you have been, where you are, or where you are going! With no large buildings or landmarks, it's pretty hard to get your bearings. But after meeting the rest of the team in the airport, we managed to get to the hotel and get out and explore all of the food, shopping and other attractions of the city. And I'm pretty sure that Tokyo is the cleanest big city on earth! Everything is so neat and tidy, with not a piece of garbage anywhere!
A day later, we were getting out to the race on the Shinkansen bullet train. The nerves were starting even then, but when we got to the race start, the anticipation grew. Checking out other teams while waiting at the start was interesting - what gear they were taking, their attitude to the race, which ones looked like they were going for a Sunday stroll after lunch and which ones were off on a commando special operations mission!
In the early stages of the race we hit some hills, pushed the pace hard and then witness my now almost famous mid-race breakdown! Something about electrolyte balance, nutrition, fatigue etc, but the result was extreme cramping in my legs. Martin I'll always be in your debt for taking some of the weight from my bag and towing me with that bungee!
We regathered at the next checkpoint, planned the race ahead, and then managed to run for stretches around a picturesque lake before finally heading into the mountains proper. Great team communication and planning started right then and it continued through the race as we learnt to deal with the challenges that each of us were facing. Night fell along the first 18km leg - about 30-40km into the race. It was the first experience of overnight action that some of us had experienced and it proved a big mental hurdle - it was certainly comforting to get into the checkpoints at night for some hot food.
Walking in the early morning in the steep, forested terrain with some light rain was the point that the real long-term fatigue started, but it was also a great experience with beautiful clean water mountain streams, neat little villages and the great green forest in the morning light all on display. But the pain was setting in - knees, shins, stomaches and feet. Overnight, there had been a fall or 2 which put some bruises on legs and strain on the knees, a few of us had attempted to eat some of the strange japanese food at the breaks and paid the penalty with stomach pains and all of us were feeling the pain of having walked around 80km - the most any of us had ever done!
But the finish came... albeit after what we liked to call the hills of hell! Repeated climbs and falls of up to 500m for the
last 20km of the course. I wish we had of looked a little closer at those maps before the race! But then again, so would say that it's better to be oblivious to the hell ahead. Each to their own I guess. But the sweet relief from the pain at the end and the nice japanese bath was heaven! Finished the 100km in 28.5 hours, approximately 24th out of 180 teams. There was a curious lack of facilities and food at the end, but maybe you could say that the money saved was going to those who need it most, the poor and certainly less well fed people of the planet receiving the aid from Oxfam and all those who kindly donated in support of our team.
