The Bloody Long Walk (35km)

Notes:
It’s been almost two weeks since my last bliggety blog update, but I’m back. And as promised in this blog entry and, as some of you may already know from my other socials, I completed my “Bloody Long Walk” after a gruelling but satisfying 35km walk.

Starting at Palm Beach, NSW and walking the beautiful North Sydney coastline south to Manly, NSW it took me a smidge under 6hrs. Not that getting a great time was even on my radar, I’m pretty happy with my time as I ended up ranking 126th out of 1230 people.

126th quickest time from a field of 1230

Surprisingly the biggest challenge of the day was actually figuring out the logistics of getting to the start line and home again. The solution ended up being a 4:15am rise to be out the door by 5:00am; an hour drive to Mona Vale Park n Ride to connect with a 6:10am bus ride (30min) to Palm Beach; the walk itself starting at 7:05am arriving in Manly 6hrs later; another 30min bus ride back to Mona Vale Park n Ride followed by another hour drive home. All in all it was a good 12hr outing including a little 35km stroll in the middle of it all of course.

So “The Bloody Long Walk – Sydney” itself was to raise funds for, and bring awareness to, those living with mitochondrial disease. A fantastic cause in its own right, so although my fundraising efforts thus far revolve around bringing awareness to Mental Health problems via the Black Dog Institute, this was a great opportunity to continue my Camino training while supporting another worthy cause.

Camino Parallels

Of the 31 stages of my intended Camino walk, six are over 30km in length with the longest being 32.6km.
The Bloody Long Walk was a well organised event with clear course directions. I had to follow “blue” arrows much like I’ll be following “yellow” arrows on the Camino-Frances.
The event start time was very similar to what I intend to do in Spain. An early start with the afternoon to recover and discover at my daily destination.
Although not in the Bloody Long Walk brochure, the terrain was undulating with some challenging elevation ascents (and descents). Of course I didn’t have to walk 1.5km into the sky like Stage 1 of my Camino, but it also wasn’t a flat track like most of my training to-date.
The surface varied from asphalt to concrete pavement, from beach sand to dirt tracks and rocky climbs along the coastline. The Camino too will offer up many walking surfaces and conditions.
I carried a 12.7kg pack and utilised my own water supply to best parallel my future overseas experience. Of course I’m really hoping to get that pack weight down a little if I can.
I recorded my entire 6hr walk on my GoPro in TimeWarp mode, Wide view, 15x speed. After a few trials now, these are the settings I feel will still be manageable while achieving a great image quality.
The feeling of achievement dragging my weary legs, sore shoulders and sorry butt across the line after 35km won’t be too dissimilar to that experienced each day on the Camino and, ultimately marching into Santiago de Compostela after 31-34 days.

What did I learn through this experience?

There was no false advertising for this event… 35km is indeed a Bloody Long Walk and I felt every bit of the 42000 steps.
My water carriage system still needs some refinement. I had previously used electrical tape to tie up the loose straps holding my two chest water bottles securely to my pack. The straps pulled loose halfway through the walk which lead to my water bottles bashing around annoyingly. I will replace the tape with zip ties for a more secure solution.
My intent for the Camino is to have one 600mL bottle of an electrolyte solution each stage. I trialled my Hydralyte tablets and the taste was pleasant enough and surprisingly effervescent which I love. Tick.
Sure my legs were feeling it after 35km, but not as much as my shoulders. I haven’t adjusted my pack since buying it so there’s definately some adjustments that will need to occur so it sits higher on my back.
Adjusting the pack as just mentioned is a must, but similarly 12.7kg is creeping up a little high and I’ll need to make some tough decisions to lighten this up a bit.
At one stage I pulled my phone out of my pocket and unbeknownst to me my credit card also tagged along and hit the pavement as I continued to walk on. An honest person behind me picked it up, alerted me and handed it back to me. I had it in my pocket for ease of access and convenience but it will be living in a zipped pocket from now on.
6hrs of GoPro recording ends up being approximately 15Gb and 24min of TimeWarp footage. The GoPro used three full batteries and 20% of my fourth one to achieve this. Given I also have the ability to recharge these on the go with my Powerbank, I’m satisfied that my four battery solution will be adequate for the Camino.
I’m still in two minds about my knock-off GoPro remote. I’m not completely happy with how it sits on my wrist. Although it performs the simple task of stopping and starting the recording well enough, I think some of the higher end remotes display more useful information on a clearer screen. Addtionally, it has a bespoke charging cable so that’s an extra cable I have to pack. I shall think on it some more.