OMG I am starting to doubt!!!!

Yesterday we chose to do Nerang Forest (14 and return - total 28km) when you start talking about walks in comparison to 96km you think 28km should be easy. You forget that it is longer than a half marathon through serious terrain.

So why was i so shocked as to how hard i found it, i just thought we have done 18km what's another 10km? Well an extra 10k on these feet make a big difference.

the first section was "moderate" undulating hills - it was constant up and down with large rocks over the fire trail, so you could get any speed up and the first 1.5km took us almost an hour, we thought we werent going to make it in the time we had. it did get flatter after 2 hours and the inclines were smoother so we got some pace up, but still took us almost 5 hrs to get to the halfway point (the finish line on the day).

we had some lunch, i retapped my feet to try and give them some support, but could feel the beginings of some blisters. i felt okay but realised i didnt have as much water left as i hoped (about 1L) to get back.

so we set off back, thinking right lets put some speed into the journey home, we charged off and did well for the first hour, making some good headway, we met up with another team (team sai) that we had met before and had a chat, i was abit sore by then but thought we only had another 4km to go. it was probably more like 6km and both me and majella were stuggling, brad took the lead and seemed very comfortable. by the last 2km (which took almost 2hrs) i was crying when no one was looking, my left knee was hurting, left hip, lower back, feet were screaming in pain with every step and we had the worst section to do.

i put my ipod on and listened to songs like "relax, born to run, and other motivating songs" helped alittle to distract from the pain, i think we had all forgotten how bad the first section was because on the way back it seemed to be twice as steep and took forever, i had run out of water and thought if this was the event i would be pulling out after only 30km.

i had to keep telling myself, no point stopping as you have to get to the car to get home and i have the keys, we finally got to where we had parked the car in 9H45mins.

the photos show majella sitting by the car in shock and a photo of the blisters i got between my toes (i didnt ever feel them til i stopped)

so how do i feel this morning, not too bad physically a few sore muscles but emotionally abit down hearted. i have to keep telling myself this is the training that will help you get stronger, so it has to hurt and push yourself and that next time??? it will be easier.

so bring on next saturday and kudos to my team mates for completing yesterdays walk!!