Oxfam 2017

 

When I decided to do the Oxfam Trailwalker 100 kms walking challenge again, I knew what I was signing up for. It would not be easy and added to that, we had less than 1 month to prepare and only one practice walk of about 30 kms was the maximum that we had walked as a team. Though we all are neighbours and knew each other well, we did not know how each one of us would be during the walk.

But Chintan Singh, Neha Gupta, Rajani Durbha and I decided to take the plunge.

As the day of the walk came closer, I had butterflies in my stomach. I could not eat or sleep and had weird dreams of my legs sticking to the ground during the walk. On the flight to Bangalore, I was quite tense. I had not been doing any walking or running for 3 months and now I will be attempting 100 kms. It was not a pleasant feeling.

As a team we had decided to set ourselves a target of competing it within 35 hours. It was difficult but not impossible. We had planned and strategized and fixed how much time we should take to walk and how long our breaks should be. The planning was perfect. Now all we had to do was to execute the plan.

The first day things went as planned. Though we were battling injuries, pains, blisters and fatigue by the end of the day, we slept feeling fully satisfied as we had managed to complete 60 kms by then. Here Chintan's friend Neeraj helped us by motivating us through the last 12 kms. He made sure we completed the stretch on time....

The next day was when we lagged behind a little. We started late and the first stretch of 6 odd kms was feeling tough. We took much longer than expected to complete that stretch.

The next 10 kms was done at a decent speed and we completed it quite soon. It was a very picturesque trail and we stopped several times to take pictures…. and by the end of this stretch we had finished 75 kms. the next two stretches were smaller and comparatively easy. And finally we were left with the final stretch.

The final stretch is the most difficult one. You are so near the target. You want to finish it as soon as possible. And your legs are dragging by that time. We had already over shot our target time. We wanted to finish it at least in 37 hours. And we all walked like someone possessed. Each step was painful but somehow we kept going and finally after all the excitement, preparation, pain, tears, motivation, encouragement we finally reached the finish line. We had taken 36 hours 41 minutes to complete the 100 kms walk. We overshot our target time by 1 hour 41 minutes. But that did not keep the joy and satisfaction and pride away as we went on stage and were presented with the Medals. It was a great moment for all of us. We had finally done it.

But nothing can be achieved in isolation. We were doing the walking but we had the support of many without whom we could not have achieved this.

The running community at Pbel City, the ‘Peerumcheruvu Runners’, were always motivating and encouraging us. I doubt if we could ever have even dreamt of doing this without those guys supporting us.

Our girl gang, with some of whom I had done the walk last year, was the backbone of our planning and practise.

Our families, who supported us through crazy practice sessions and crazy practice timings, for understanding our need to do this and for being there whenever we needed them. A special mention of Rajani’s parents needs to be made here as they put up with all of us before and after the walk. And of course, the celebrations after with the wine was the icing on the cake.

A special mention of our support Chaitanya Burgupalli, Anshul Porwal and Anupama Karthik. They made sure we were always hydrated, our tummies were full and we stayed motivated. Whether it was the physiotherapy given by Chaitanya, fruits and juices being fed by Anshul or Anupama walking and singing along with us, it was absolutely fantastic having them along side us especially in the last stretch which was, personally for me, the most difficult. Every time we saw Chaitanya walk towards us we would be relieved to know the checkpoint was near. Anshul made sure I did not pause for a single moment in the last stretch and completed it in record time.