Let's Take a Walk 2010

A couple of months ago my co-worker invited me to join in on a long distance walk. Now, never having done any sort of long distance run/walk I figured a good place to start would be a walk rather than a run. I asked about the length of the walk, and found out it was 100km. Now, since at that point I was still new to the whole notion of the "metric system" I figured, "that can't be far at all" and decided to sign up, and make the conversion from kilometers to miles at a later time.

The official name of the event is Let's Take a Walk which in retrospect is a bit arrogant, I mean to call a 100km monstrosity of a thing [which I found out to be 62 miles] a "walk" and then not only are they calling it a walk but they're addressing it like you're walking to the store, "let's take a walk" the gumption.

The Start

Before the big day I decided I would do some "training" by walking home from work, which is about 9km. I figured, I'm a reasonably in shape, I play football from time to time, I should be good right? Wrong. Way wrong.

The format was pretty simple, 100km and there'd be 10 checkpoints. Now, before the whole thing started I was told that to complete the whole race would be 30 hours, but that wouldn't be a problem because before the race even started I had decided that I would only be doing half the walk, so my real target was 50km.

Everything went smoothly for the first leg of the event, since that was similar to my walks home from work, we reached the first checkpoint and I was confident that I would see 50km through. However, soon enough I realized the breath of my ignorance regarding the metric system, walking, and proper footwear.

As you get farther and farther, red light become your enemy. Basically shortly after leaving the second checkpoint, the only thing that was keeping me going forward was physics, momentum. Having to come to a complete stop and then keep moving was ridiculously painful. I must have looked like a zombie as I trudged along the sidewalk, doing less of a walk and more of a glorified shuffle. The leg between checkpoint 2 and 3 was the longest leg of my planned walk, 15km.

Halfway through we stopped for lunch and a rest. Again, after eating my meal I could no longer feel any pain in my legs, so I gained some confidence. Confidence that came crashing down as soon as I took my first step, I was not going to make it to the 5th checkpoint.

I trudged along past the third checkpoint, which was far enough north that we could see Malaysia. Something gave during the fourth leg and at the first sight of a vacant cab, I left my walking buddy alone. He would eventually finish all 100km.

I managed to collect three sad looking stickers and although my legs healed eventually, my pride remain damaged. I plan to try this again next year, if they hold the walk, and this time see the 50km through.

The Empty Spots Mock Me