So. I completed the 100 km walk and did so at an average speed of 5+ km per hour. It was easier than I had thought - I never ran out of energy, but blisters on my feet sort of made things much harder, and there were definitely moments when willpower was the only thing powering me through.
We followed the path of a river, more or less, and there were times when we were walking on dirt roads...which was pretty fun after it had rained/while it was raining. The night before the event, there was thunder, lightning, and heavy rain...idek how the people who were camping out at the start point got through it, as the wind was so strong that I was woken up by it, lulz.
The first day went alright, although we all got sunburnt because none of us thought that being out in the sun for like 7 hours straight would do anything when it was only in the 20s temperature-wise. I ended up being the only person whose skin didn't peel - my right arm hurt where the skin was burnt, but I slathered sunscreen on my face every hour because of the IPL treatment I did, so at least that stayed okay, more or less, thankfully ~_~
The second day, lol...so, after walking an hour or so, I was pretty sure I had developed a blister on my foot, and I was right. There was a huge one (like half as big as a piece of Werther's) near my right heel, which I. drained for me, after which I told him, "Now we are really comrades-in-arms", lol. And then two medical points later, it turned out that that blister had filled up with liquid...and two more had developed, both as big as the first. The dude treating me was like OOOOO: and was scared to drain it, lol, ide. And then I ended up having to drain them again once I had finished the event, lulz.
And by the time I was at L.'s place Sunday night (because I had forgotten to bring my keys, lulz)...I drained them again, plus two more that had developed. ikr. And then my father ended up cutting pieces of skin off from them once I had arrived home so that they couldn't fill up again (and I'm sure that they would have otherwise). I pretty much could not walk without pain for the last 40 km or so, and it turned out that walking quickly made it hurt less than walking slowly did, which probably contributed to the speed.
I also hadn't realized that hiking poles really can give a great workout - I brought one along, and I was depending pretty heavily on it to set my pace and take some pressure off my feet, so much so that I ended up with sore biceps for two days after, whilst my legs and thighs weren't affected at all, lulz. And omg knee sleeves, why had no-one told me about them before?
My feet are finally healed now, though, and just in time for the company-sponsored holiday from Sunday to Tuesday, thankfully. I'd definitely do it again, although I don't really want to do the same route again (and lol, some other colleagues who were too late to sign up told me that they want to come along the next time I do something like this...dying)...there's another one in half a year, but it seems to require camping, which I refuse to do. S:
We started as a group of six and ended up as a group of four. The four of us consider ourselves comrades-in-arms now, which is something that I had never thought that I would have. It's nice knowing that I've found people who are willing to accompany me on my outdoors ~adventures now - last August/September there was a short 14 km walk around a part of town, yet none of my friends wanted to do it, giving excuses of how it would be too hot or definitely would be longer than 14 km. When I brought it up to C. (who only walked with us on the first day), he was like, "I would find a 14 km walk boring now!", which, so true, but I'd still be up for it, I think, since walking on a mountain would be different in some ways. We'll see if the event happens again this year....
sad
