Lessons and Insights gained - Oxfam Trailwalker 2008 Melbourne

Hello
The Oxfam Trailwalker 2008 event at Melbourne and our participation in it provided some valuable lessons and insights, in addition to the life-changing experience and achievement we gained.
These lessons are in the areas of:

• Teamwork ( Collaboration, Communication and Commitmen
• Individual and team psychology (personal interactions and dynamics in a team environment)
• Leadership (The importance of articulating a picture of success and mobilizing the team towards the picture of success)

While we will record these lessons in some detail in separate blogs, here is a overview document on the experience. Please record your observations as comments to this blog.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhqxbj7g_0crfn4fxs
Venki Prathivadi

Walking the Talk on Leadership and Teamwork

Here's a 6-minute Video clip illustrating the experience of our teams - during preparation, training and the actual event on April 11th 2008.
Hope you find it inspiring. Appreciate your comments on this blog.

Venki Prathivadi

We made it. Thank you.

Hello reader

Once upon a time there lived 12 brave but stupid souls who undertook one of the greatest and toughest team challenges in the world - a 100 KM gruelling walk up the hills, down the slopes and the flat but punishing Warburton to raise funds for charity...

And as they crossed the FINISH line, hand-in-hand, grinning from ear-to-ear, every nerve, sinew and bone numb with pain suppressed by ibuprofen and the adrenalin flooding the brain to raucous cheers and applause from proud families and friends, they knew they had done something special. They lived happily in pain... that weekend.

This then is the final story on this blog of 12 brave but stupid people who have perhaps achieved something we will remember for the rest of our lives.

Before we get to the story of our lives, it is really important to state this:

We dedicate this walk and the success to our fantastic support crew of wives, husbands, children, team mates and work colleagues who have now become our extended family.

Their care and support has been outstanding to say the least. Without them the beginning of this blog would have had a tragic ending. We are indebted to them and we salute them.

8:30 am Friday, 11-April-2008 (START - Jells Park)

The atmosphere was festive and charged with enthusiasm and anticipation. Hundreds of walkers decked up in their trekking gear and attire lined up to pass under the START sign at Jells Park. So were the 12 walkers from the three Satyam teams - Snails, Slugs and Sloths. Many of our family members and work colleagues and friends were there to cheer us off that single step to start the 100KM journey. Although we had trained well and knew what we would be facing, all 12 of us were nervous with excitement and anticipation. All the training and preparation, although necessary, meant nothing. We had to do the 100 KM within the next 48 hours. That was all that mattered.

A sense of pride swept into us as we got closer to the START line and we spotted our family and friends waving to us and the camera flashes going off. At that instant pride and exhilaration merged into a powerful emotion as an Oxfam staff recognizing us amongst hundreds of trailwalkers announced on the PA system "Here come the three teams from Satyam Computer Services"...

The walk from Jells Park to CP-1 (Churchill National Park) was very enjoyable. We were amongst hundreds of walkers from other teams and progress was slow due to congestion on the trail. We chit chatted with other teams about how they were feeling and how they had trained.
Congestion eased a bit as we crossed CP-1 and began the uphill ascent to CP-2 (Lysterfield Lake). Weather was picture perfect and it appeared that the rain Gods had decided to be kind to us.

We were also told that everyone in the office and also friends and family across the world - India, Singapore, Switzerland and the US were tracking our progress - live on the Oxfam site. They knew in real time when we checked in at the CP and checked out at the CP. We were amused when some of us got calls advising us that we were perhaps taking too much time at a CP and that we ought to take shorter breaks because the weather prediction for the evening was not good.

We had covered 21.5 kms when we checked in at Lysterfield Lake. Our support crew had laid out a great lunch for us and after a 40 min break we started walking again, this time towards CP-3 (Grants Picnic Grounds). There was no support crew access at this check point so we had to carry our gear with us. This section has a few difficult climbs to negotiate but we tackled them well. We refilled our water and electrolyte supplies at the CP and after a quick cup of tea got back to the trail again towards CP-4 (Olinda Reserve). The time was nearing 6:00 pm when we left Grants Picnic Grounds. We toiled our way through three difficult sections - firstly the climb through Sherbrooke forest from Grants, the dangerous and slippery trail along Sassafras Creek and the dreaded Hackett road - all in darkness. These sections started taking a toll on some of our team members with persistent back and knee problems. We arrived at (CP-4) Olinda reserve about 9:00 PM on Friday night having walked 12 hours and covering a distance of 46.5 kms. It was wonderful to see that our Support crew had reached Olinda reserve and had put up "Satyam" signs on the path leading into the Check point. The welcome for us was absolutely brilliant.

We had planned to rest the night at Olinda (in two nearby hotels) and we were all looking forward to a restful night before starting again in the morning. However, a few of us had an idea that we ought to change our plan and cover another section of 8 kms to go up to CP-5 (Silvan reservoir) before calling it a day (or night). We thought that it would reduce our workload for Saturday. The idea didn't take off as a few walkers couldn't walk any further due to injuries they had suffered on the previous section. So we stuck to our original plan and our support crew drove us into the nearby hotel. They had already brought our supplies and dinner into the hotels, which were really two country cottages one with four bedrooms and another with two. It was probably too much of a culture shock for the owner of one of them to see about 20 people including 12 walkers storm into his quaint country cottage. Although he knew perfectly well that only 8 of us would stay in his cottage for the night, he threw a tantrum and yours sincerely suffered a mild rise in blood pressure that caused a heated argument with the owner. It was good for the environment and heated up the lounge on that wintry and cold night. Poor bloke - how would he know what was happening to Australia or for that matter the rest of the world (due to outsourcing...) if all he did was live and work in the picturesque postcard town of Olinda. Not only had the Indians come to Australia and Melbourne, they had decided to walk through his sleepy little town, of course with a good intention. My imagination ran wild that night (because I couldn't get to sleep at all) thinking about how this part of the world might react to an Indian wedding in the nearby Rhododendron gardens and with the quaint country cottage booked for accommodating 8 wedding guests. Some 80 might have turned up at his cottage, each with 6 bags. Also, Indians never close the front door. They think that a closed front door is an unwelcoming sign. Yes Sir, the Indians have come and unfortunately walking through your town and guess what - they have a couple of Italians amongst them too. Ganesh help the cottage owner and his adherence to council regulations, by-laws and his relationship with the neighbours. Tschk, Tschk, Tschk.

We had covered 46.5 kms on Day-1 (Friday) and we were on track in terms of our plan.

5:00 am Saturday, 12-April-2008 (Check Point 4 - Olinda Reserve)

After a sleepless night, we were off again to the trail in the morning. We started walking from 5:20 am having left CP-4 (Olinda) on our way to CP-5 (Silvan). This section has some steep descents and that took a heavy toll on the knees of one of our walkers. His condition and suffering caused us grave concern and we thought that he might be our first casualty on the event. After having his knee checked out by the medical professionals at CP-5 and with the knowledge that there was no ligament or cartilage damage and that the crook knee was because of a crook back we decided to egg him on and so he did bravely. We made it to CP-6 (Graham Colling) almost one hour later than planned and we also spent a longer time on the break there. By the time we left CP-6 we were almost 1.5 hours behind our planned schedule. The day had started to heat up as we started to walk on the dreaded Warburton trail towards CP-7 (Woori Yallock) where we had planned to break for lunch. By now injuries, blisters and fatigue was rife in almost all of the walkers. The struggle had begun. Somehow the 12 walkers became separated on this section from CP-6 (Graham Colling) and CP-7 (Woori Yallock). We had intentionally (unfortunately) polarised ourselves into smaller groups of faster and slower walkers with those that were still fit, younger and energetic leaving behind the unfit, older and more tired walkers. So here we were at CP-7 (Woori Yallock), a tired group of walkers that somehow had managed to lose the teaming aspect and sight of the big picture. Quite a few had nasty blisters and sore knees. The feet were screaming in pain. We had walked 76 km in all and there were 2 more sections left. Fortunately, we all realized that it was a mistake to have broken up into smaller groups. We realized that it is absolutely important for us to stay together as one team of 12 walkers as walked towards CP-8 (Milwarra Primary) and beyond to the Finish at Wesburn park. So, we had a serious chat amongst ourselves about how time didn't matter any more and we recalled our primary goal that we had set ourselves almost 5 months ago when we began training.

Our goals in that order were:

1. Achieve our fund-raising commitment


2. Achieve a 100% completion and safe finish (all walkers from all three teams to complete the 100KM in the available 48 hours)


3. Aim to complete the 100KM trail in 30 hours or less

We had already achieved Goal # 1. We knew that a conflict existed between Goals # 2 and 3. It was also very obvious that Goal # 3 was unachievable because we had decided to take a 6-7 hour break on Friday night. So it was that we regrouped ourselves to achieving Goal # 2 and discarding the time goal completely.

We walked together from CP-7 (Woori Yallock) towards CP-8 (Milwarra) and we put our slower walkers in front of the pack rather than leave them behind. This achieved two objectives - one, it motivated the slower walkers quite a bit and reassured them that they were vital to achieving Goal # 2 and it helped push the pace a little because the fitter walkers pushed from behind rather than pull from front which hadn't worked before. It had also become dark and cold on this section and it helped stay together.

So it was that we arrived at CP-8 (Milwarra) as a group. This was probably only the third time on the trail that we were together as a team of 12. We were already pumped up with freely flowing adrenalin knowing we were just 9.5 KM from finish. We had decided to have a quick 10 minute break at CP-8 before moving on. We knew that this last section was really difficult - the most difficult of all sections and this is what would make or break us. It was wonderful to have our families here. The pain had been forgotten - not to say that is wasn't there. The emotion was so charged with positive energy and vibes that somehow we had gained an ability to not feel the pain anymore. Our support crew were absolutely convinced that we would make it to the finish safely - all 12 walkers!. Their encouragement and motivation was contagious and did the work. We literally started running from CP-8 - can you believe it? After 90,5 kms we were running! Brave, but stupid? Absolutely. Life would be boring otherwise.

This section has about 6 kms of steep climbs about 2 kilometres of knee grinding and bone wrenching descents. It is like being put into a torture chamber. Many of us were quietly reiterating to ourselves that we were doing this for charity to help the underprivileged people. That and the beckoning sight of family and friends at the Finish line spurred us along towards the finish. The rest is history. We had covered 100 kms in 40 hours. More importantly all 12 walkers and all 3 Satyam teams had finished - safely (with a few minor injuries that were expected in an event like this) and we had also fulfilled our fund-raising commitment. That will not stop us from seeking more funds. In fact I feel we will now be more active than before.

This blog would be incomplete without a special applause for three young walkers from the Sloths team (Sobee, Praval and Ankush) who joined us just a month ago and marvellously completed it despite very little training.

We will now spend more time with our families every weekend. We feel guilty at having taken so much time away from our families for training practically every weekend over the last 5 months.

Some of us might do this again and some might never do this again in our lives, but I am sure we will all be Support crew for someone else that might do this next year or some other time and some of us might even be volunteers for Oxfam!

So ends our 100KM story...

Please come back to this blog soon for a visual and audio experience of the Oxfam Trailwalker Melbourne 2008 event and the experience of Satyam Snails, Slugs and Sloths.

Sincere and heartfelt appreciations to our support crew (in alphabetical order):

1. Arun
2. Avinash
3. Bala (Support Leader)
4. Deepak
5. Dennis
6. Jamuna
7. KVR
8. Lucky
9. Martin
10. Mohit
11. Rinku
12. Sangeeta
13. Sekhar (Nagasekhar)
14. Srikanth
15. Sumana
16. Suresh
17. Venkat
18. Vijay

My sincere apologies if I have missed out any name. I may still be delirious and hallucinating from the ordeal.

The Satyam Snails, Slugs and Sloths salutes you and dedicates this walk to all of you.

We would also like to express our heartfelt appreciation and thank all our friends and colleagues who called us or sent SMS's on our mobile phones throughout Friday and Saturday enquiring about our well-being and wishing us success and safety.

Finally we wloould like to sincerely thank and express our gratitude to scores of Oxfam volunteers and staff who served us at Check Points, Road crossings and other places. They were marvellous. It is very moving to see how selfless they are in serving hundreds of walkers, in the cold and dark. They are an inspiration and a treasure to the community.

Please do record your feedback as a comment on this blog. It will be read by thousands of people that read this blog and might be useful to others who might do this next year...

Thanking you

Yours Sincerely

Venki Prathivadi

on behalf of Satyam Snails, Satyam Slugs and Satyam Sloths

The day of reckoning

Hello

We started this blog on 4th December 2007, a week after we started training for the Oxfam Trailwalker 100 KM walk in Melbourne to raise funds for charity. Little we did realize, then as to how quickly time would go by before we got to the actual event. Well, that day of reckoning is here. The event is on this Friday, 11th April 2008 and I am writing this behalf on behalf of the Satyam teams participating in the event to humbly seek your encouragement and best wishes.

We now have three Satyam teams participating in the event. They are the “Satyam Snails”, “Satyam Slugs” and “Satyam Sloth’s”. The “Sloths” were formed just a few weeks ago. As such 12 of us "Brave but stupid souls" are just about to undertake the most gruelling physical and mental team challenge we have ever encountered in our lives. You may ask – why would we do this? Are we crazy?

Not yet. Maybe after walking over 30+ hours in the bush to cover the 100KM, we might appear and behave in a crazy manner for a few hours. That would be because of the delirium and hallucinations the gruelling walk would cause, let alone the pain and agony. We know because we walked 70 kms during a practice session, one of those very hot weekends, on the actual trail and our minds behaved strangely.

Here’s how much money the three teams have raised so far in the fundraising campaign related to the walk, thanks to your support:

Satyam Snails - $6,793
Satyam Slugs - $4,620
Satyam Sloths - $1,293

What does this really mean? What is the big deal about $6,793? (That is the cost of say a big-screen LCD TV and a DVD player and a few movies is it?)

The money we have raised between the three teams (Totally $12,106) will establish a school for 483 children in a remote Indian village and pay for their complete education expenses for one year. Is that worthwhile? Would we walk 100 kms for that? You bet!

Do we want to raise more money to help send 12-year old girls to school instead of picking rags for a living so they can support their families? Absolutely. All it costs is $30 per child per year.

The Satyam Snails are 15th on the overall ladder of top fundraising companies. There are over 400 corporations taking part in the event through 700+ teams of 4 walkers each.

We are very grateful to your contribution and you may like to know that the fundraising campaign will still be open till end of May 2008. The organization that raises the highest amount for Oxfam through this event will get good publicity and recognition throughout Australia. Currently, the team that is leading has raised $18,900. Perhaps you will help put “Satyam” right on top.

We now approach Friday, a little nervous, but eager to start the long walk with that first step. We will start at Jells Park in Victoria at 8:30 am on Friday morning and we expect to reach the Finish point – Wesburn Park, exactly 100 km away sometime on Saturday evening – hopefully still standing on two feet with all our toe nails intact. We have trained hard every weekend under all types of conditions, hot and cold, day and night, for this tough event and we are all hopeful that we will finish. However your encouragement will motivate us significantly during those moments when our bodies might be unwilling. Do feel free to send us e-mails or call us on our mobiles to talk to us. Details are listed below.

Just as you have supported Oxfam to help the needy and underprivileged people of the world, there is a magnificent support crew consisting of several associates from Satyam and our family members that have supported us throughout our training and will continue to do so on Friday and Saturday. We are very grateful and indebted to them.

You may also be interested to read a great write-up on the event in last week’s Age newspaper - http://business.theage.com.au/long-journey-starts-with-a-single-step/20080405-23y2.html

You can donate to Oxfam through any of our teams here:

· www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/melbourne/team/636 (Satyam Snails)
· www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/melbourne/team/637 (Satyam Slugs)
· www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/melbourne/team/705 (Satyam Sloths)

Do see the photo gallery at left to see images from our training sessions.

We will update this blog site after the event on 12th April 2008. Do come back to read about our experience.

Have a great day

Venki Prathivadi

Practice Session # 13

To be updated soon...Please come back.

Practice Session # 12

To be updated soon...Please come back.

Practice Session # 11 (The longest and the toughest) - 69 km on Saturday and Sunday, 08-Mar-2008 and 09-Mar-2008

Practice session # 11 (Saturday to Sunday 08-09 March 2008) of our Oxfam Trailwalker 100 km walk/run event has been the longest and toughest training session so far. We have reached peak endurance and fitness with the conclusion of this session and we will wind down our training intensity from here on to be conserve energy and be ready for the actual event on April 11, 2008.

Session # 11 highlights

Start: Check Point 2 (Lysterfield Lake)
Start Time: 7:40 am, Saturday, 8-Mar-08

(Break in training from 5:30 pm Saturday to 7:30 am Sunday)

Finish: Check Point 8 (Milwarra Primary)

Finish time: 5:30 pm, Sunday, 9-Mar-08

Total distance: 69.0 kilometres

Session time: 19 hours 50 minutes

Average speed: 3.47 Kilometres / Hour

Temperature and conditions: Dry and very hot (30 degrees on Saturday and 34 degrees on Sunday)

This weekend's training session, in two parts, was probably the most important of all our sessions for many reasons. Firstly, this long and very difficult session tested the team's endurance as closely as possible to the real event on April 11th while still allowing enough recovery time. We had decided that a good measure of our ability to complete the 100 km event would be to try and walk two-thirds of the trail (66 kms). Secondly, we wanted to cover this distance over two days to test our bodies ability to walk over 33 kilometres on a day on the actual trail, go home and sleep for the night before going back to the trail early morning to cover the remaining distance. Thirdly, we were trying to regroup as a team after losing two of our original team members. Please see the blog entry titled "Decision Time - Saddest day yet" to understand that phase of this endeavour.

Six walkers assembled at Lysterfield Lake (Check point 2) on the morning of Saturday to tackle the 33 km hike to Olinda Reserve (Check Point 4). Four members were missing from our usual force of ten. While the absence of two - one had a wedding to go to and another was on vacations in India was understood and accepted, the absence of two regular walkers created a deep level of sadness and quiet reflection in all other walkers. We had been a team of ten in most other training sessions and the feeling of incompleteness was overwhelming.

The weather was quite chilly in the morning and this was our first experience of the Melbourne autumn chill. We walked briskly trying to warm up. Our spirits were lifted when we saw a herd of wild Kangaroos bounding across the trail. We soon crossed Wellington road with great care, vividly recalling the scare we had in an earlier session when Forrest Gump (nickname for one of our walkers) attempted to cross in front of a car travelling at 90 km/hour. We breezed through the steep climb of Broadway Street and steps to reach the Belgrave swimming pool. Many of us could recall the difficulty we had at this section during our earlier training sessions. Here was proof that we had indeed built up endurance and stamina. Although, we were tempted to we didn't stop for tea at Belgrave and decided to stop for a quick bite and tea at Grants Picnic. On that picturesque Coles Ridge Rd track we realized that we had a chance to break our previous time record for this section and as a team we decided to go for it. We were walking as fast as our 7-8 kg backpacks would allow us. We beat the record as we coasted into Grants Picnic (Check Point 3) having covered the 13.8 km length in 2 hours and 48 minutes. We treated ourselves to a delicious cup of tea at the cafe there before dragging ourselves out of the comfortable and tranquil environs.

We were soon climbing the steep trail leading out of Grants Picnic to Olinda reserve. There is a green metal railing fence along the trail that always confuses us. We had made a mistake here once in the earlier session and therefore had become wary of these railings, so much so that we are hesitant to even take the correct path. Onlookers probably find it humorous to see us going back and forth here a few times before sense prevails and we cross the bridge. We decided to blame this minor confusion on Julie, our chief navigator and map reader, because she wasn't on this session. We eventually crossed Sherbrooke forest, still feeling reasonably fresh and went through Alfred Nicolas gardens. This trail seemed so different from the last time we were on it when it was pitch dark and rained all through the night.

It must have been the serene and calming nature of Alfred Nicolas gardens that prompted a deeply psychological discussion and exploration of reasons as to why we had embarked on this mad adventure to walk 100 km. One of our lady walkers provided a wonderful observation when she said that she had decided to do the walk and training sessions to rediscover her personal self having been so engrossed and dedicated to taking care of her family, home and going to work. This training experience had given her an insight into something new, something that was outside the routine of life and also introduced interactions with people whom she would normally have not mingled for 10 hours or more at a stretch on a Saturday or Sunday. She said that the aspects of learning about new cultures to which other walkers belonged and the cultural differences between her own culture and that of others fascinated her. She also observed that although her weekends were now taken away by these training sessions, she still managed to get all the "routine" housework and her children's weekend commitments done with help from her husband. I think some of us men were thinking about our own families and the realization that perhaps we should help at home too to give our wives some private time for themselves silenced further conversation.

We were back at the dreaded Hackett Road and its 15 degree inclination. This time we scaled it reasonably well. We think we are getting stronger and Hackett doesn't scare us anymore. We made it to Olinda reserve almost on the dot at 1:00 pm. We had our lunch watching the local cricket match at the reserve. The Olinda reserve is next door to the golf course which has a great little cafe. We bought take away coffees with us on the way to Silvan (Check Point 4). By this time one of our team members, Subbu was struggling a bit because he had twisted his ankle having stepped on a stone. Subbu was in considerable pain as he hobbled and limped through the downward slopes of Predator track and Barges road. We took it slow and easy because we knew that we had another day to go and about 38 kms more to cover. Soon we reached the overflow car park at Silvan reservoir. Martin Block, our wonderful support crew for the day picked us up at 5:30 pm after 10 hours of walking to bring us back to Lysterfield where we had parked our cars. We thus ended the first phase of training on session # 11 having covered 33 kms and one walker had been injured.

We were feeling sore in the leg muscles and undersoles when we woke up at 5:30 am to be ready for a 7:30 am start from Silvan. We knew from the weather forecast that it was going to be hot. This time there were only five walkers, two men and three women. It was commendable that Subbu decided to give the gruelling 36 km it a try despite a twisted ankle. It brought a lump into our throats to see him limp out of the car park at Silvan into the Olinda creek trail. This is the type of attitude that helps teams and individuals accomplish extraordinary outcomes. It would have been so easy for him to just stay back home and put his feet up on this hot Sunday. He chose to do what champions do and we are proud of him. The morning was quite refreshing and we walked to Mt. Evelyn reserve quite briskly. This place had uncomfortable memories for us because it was here that we had given up without reaching our target during an earlier training session. It was little wonder then that we were in a hurry to leave the place after grabbing a quick bite and toilet break. Within a few minutes we were at the start of the dreaded Warburton trail. A post at the beginning of the trail is marked with a W and 32 kms written beneath it. That is how long this unrelenting trail is - 32 kilometres. The sun started to blaze on us and soon we were perspiring with the heat and load of our backpacks. On this occasion we managed to find Graham Colling reserve (Check Point 6). We had gone past it during an earlier training session. The section from Graham Colling to Woori Yallock is about 13 km and walking along this uninteresting section under the hot sun must have prompted all of us to think many times as to why the hell were we doing this. After walking for over 5.5 hours from Silvan reservoir we reached Woori Yallock (Check Point 7) and we went straight to the world-renowned Woori Yallock bakery. You will find the world's best pies at this bakery. If you don't believe us, we sincerely urge you to walk there and find it out for yourself. Patrons at the shop must have wondered as to what was going on. Here was a crazy group of five walkers inside a bakery with all their gear spread across tables gulping their home-made sandwiches, the bakery pies, coffee and tea on a quiet country afternoon. We must have caused a furore in the quite, sleepy town of Woori Yallock.

The hike from Woori Yallock to Milwarra Primary School (Check Point 8) is the toughest and most demanding we had undertaken so far in the last three months. By late afternoon the temperature had reached well over 30 degrees and the heat was really unbearable. We had all drank lots of electrolytes and water and despite that we were soon reaching exhaustion. We played the team video on a mobile phone several times and that kept us going for 20-30 minutes at a time. Our mental resolve was thoroughly tested on this hot afternoon and all of us simply wanted this session to be done with. We were literally dragging our feet as we got within 2 km of our target Check point when one of our lady walkers suffered a mild sun stroke. We were thankful that we were so close to our destination. I think we would all have been in trouble had there been more distance to cover.

We limped into the Millgrove supermarket to buy ice creams and bags of ice to cool our hot heels. We are really proud of our achievement over the two days and it seemed incredible that we had walked almost 70 kilometres under really hot and trying conditions. We are particularly proud of Subbu who was very determined to finish the distance despite a twisted ankle and we are equally proud of all three women who showed us men what they are capable of. This is the kind of steely resolve that helps teams overcome tough challenges such as the Oxfam 100 km trailwalker event.

We are grateful to Dennis and Bala for picking us up at Millwara Primary School. Without their help we wouldn't have had the energy to get into a car let alone drive it.

We have now completed the second phase of training very successfully. The first phase which we embarked on in December was to familiarize ourselves with the trail. We covered the entire 100 km trail in 6 training sessions. We then entered the second phase of training which was intended to improve our endurance. During this phase we gradually increased both the distance and time in our walks. This phase culminated in the weekend's effort of 69 kilometres in a little under 20 hours. We will now rest for a week and then commence the short third phase of training where we will cover shorter distances and try to improve our speed. Our confidence levels are high and we are now more certain than ever of finishing the actual event.

You can see pictures from this session at the photo gallery on this site.

Please do visit this site regularly to read about our experience.

Walking the Talk - Video

Here's a 6minute video clip of our Oxfam Trailwalker 2008 (Melbourne) initiative.

Decision time - Saddest day yet

Tuesday, 4th March 2008 - Decision time (Team composition)

This black Tuesday is the saddest day yet in our team's history since we came up with the "brave but stupid" idea to participate in the Oxfam TRAILWALKER 100 km walk/run event.

When we assembled our team during late November 2007, we had a small problem. We had ten members who were actively interested in participating in the 100 km fundraising walk. That was two more than the eight that we could register in two teams of four each. We had made a conscious decision at that time to have ten people in the overall team expecting that a few would drop out as we progressed with training. Time went by and although many of the ten members had privately doubted their own ability to walk 100 km at that time, everyone was drawing upon the inspiration and contagious enthusiasm from the team as a whole.

We commenced training in earnest and all ten members attended the weekend sessions on the actual trail. We instituted a weekly team meeting, every Tuesday, to discuss our progress and pain from the previous training session. Soon we started to do the really intense sessions where we walked for 10-15 hours continuously, sometimes in the dark and in the rain. Although none of us ever raised the troublesome topic of how to trim down the team of ten to two teams of four each, that problem was always on our mind.

The Oxfam Trailwalker is a team challenge. Every team can have only four members. We had registered two teams from our organization - the "Satyam Snails" and the "Satyam Slugs". Although we were ten walkers in our overall team, we could only have eight on the day that mattered - April 11, 2008. That day was looming quickly and moreover we had to soon change our team member names on the official forms to the eight that would actually walk the event.

We had all hoped and planned that two team members from our team of ten would opt out by themselves because of personal reasons, lower confidence, injury or lack of fitness. As things turned out everyone became fitter and more confident as we trained harder, making our original assumption and plan, to have two extra members, incorrect.

There were seven male members and one female member when we had first registered the two teams. Subsequently two more women joined the team to make it seven male members and three female members in the team. Recently, all seven male members unanimously decided that all three women would walk on April 11 2008 which meant that two men had to make way for two women in the final eight. This unanimous decision was made on the common belief amongst all men that the three women had shown exemplary courage and resilience on the tough walks and deserved to go through. Also every man valued, respected and promoted diversity in the team. I personally believe that had there been a fourth woman in our team of ten, another man in the team would have gladly given his place to her. Despite the potential disappointment that would set in on being excluded, this chivalrous quality amongst all the male walkers is indeed commendable.

So it was then that we had to make the difficult decision on this Black Tuesday on which two male walkers would be left out of the seven. When it looked like there was no other practical option but to pick five names from the lot of seven male names, one of the male walkers pulled out at the last minute expressing that he would be happy to sit out because it was becoming harder to stay away from his family on training days. They had a two month old baby in their household. It then came down to picking five names out of six to determine who would walk and who would be the unfortunate member to sit out.

Although everyone knew that the outcome would be painful, I cannot possibly describe the disappointment, sadness and pain that we experienced when we had to leave out one of the most deserving of all men. Not only is he a perfect gentleman, he also has the highest probability of finishing the event amongst the ten walkers. Fate had delivered one of the cruellest blows to our campaign by eliminating one of the most deserving.

After we had drawn lots to unfortunately eliminate this unlucky member, I felt like somebody in my family had died. I couldn't speak and I had great difficulty holding back my tears, so I left the room and went for a long walk to discover how I had failed. It became very apparent to me that this was a case of leadership failure on my part. I had simply focussed on the wrong thing and had made it happen. Instead of thinking positively and dreaming big, I had thought and planned in a negative manner all through. I had anticipated failure on the part of two members even before we had walked a single step on the 100 km journey. I should have foreseen and visualized that all ten would walk the distance and that would have prompted me to add one more team in the event from our organization. That would have created a different problem of finding two more walkers to fill the gap, but that problem would have been be a lot less painful to solve. It would also have meant that we would have raised more funds for Oxfam. Here was a simple but unforgettably painful lesson life had taught me. Incidentally, I have never failed whenever I have dreamed big or undertaken challenging initiatives with a positive frame of mind. I have failed whenever I have doubted myself or listened to negative people who have said something was not possible.

When I broke the news to the women later that afternoon, they were inconsolably distraught. I understood their feelings well. Two of them were feeling very guilty because they thought they had deprived the two men of their places because the men had formally joined the team ahead of them. They were probably also feeling severe pressure on themselves to finish the event because they had taken someone else's place. Troubled minds behave in strange ways. Negative situations promote more negative thoughts and it becomes a downward spiral. The next few days went by in a phase of deafening silence, sadness, disappointment and dejection. We kept thinking about how these two members who were coping and how disappointed their family members and personal friends must be feeling. After all, our family members are on a high with great pride in our endevour. How would they suddenly feel to discover that thier father, husband, son or brother would not be walking the 100 km event as they had originally thought. It will take a while for us to regroup and recover and hopefully we will rediscover our morale during our long weekend practice session. It may even take a bit longer than a week or two.

I now believe that this team member will walk on the final day. I don't know how, but I know he will and I know that the eight, nine or even ten of us will cross the finish line hand in hand on April 11, 2008 - perhaps with one or two others who haven't walked with us before. There is hope for without it there is nothing left.

Venki Prathivadi,
with great sadness and unconditional acceptance of responsibility for committing this unpardonable mistake.

Practice Session # 10 (A short one) - 16 km on Sunday, 02-Mar-2008

Practice session # 10 (Sunday 02 March 2008) of our Oxfam Trailwalker 100 km walk/run event has been a relatively short session compared to last month's long ones.

Session # 10 highlights

Start: Check Point 4 (Olinda Reserve)

Start Time: 7:00 am, Sunday, 2-Mar-08

Finish: Check Point 4 (Olinda Reserve) We went up to Silvan Reservoir (Check Point 5) and returned to Olinda reserve

Finish time: 11:25 am, Sunday, 2-Mar-08

Total distance: 16.0 kilometres
Session time: 4 hours 25 minutes
Total rest time: 15 minutes
Total walking time: 4 hours 10 minutes
Session average= 3.6 kms/Hour
Temperature and conditions: Dry and cool (about 13 degrees centigrade, although it felt a lot colder)

We had taken a 2 week break after the long 46.5 km session and many of the team members had been travelling to India on work. Therefore session # 10 was scheduled after a long 4-week break and was designed to gently ease us back into fitness again before the tough one.

This session was unusual because only 4 walkers were present and this was the first time we had started from a check point and returned to the same check point.

Only 4 walkers, Julie, Debbie, Kathy and Venki made it to the training as the others were still recovering from their trip to India. The session was pretty quiet and uneventful, maybe because of the small team size and also maybe because it was rather cold in the morning and clearly the only male member was completely outnumbered by the women who also ignored him with their girlie non-stop talk. The only time they are quiet on the trail is when they are hiking up a steep climb or the sun is blazing hot.

March officially signals the advent of autumn in Australia and the temperature can be a bit low in the mornings. The Olinda - Silvan section is one of the easiest sections on the entire 100km trail because of the continuous downward slope. This slope can usually trouble a few walkers with pre-existing knee problems, but no one experienced any difficulty this time.

Barges track ------------------------Silvan Reservoir

We reached Silvan, a distance of 8 kilometres from Olinda reserve, in less than two hours and after a quick sandwich we turned back. This time the hike was challenging because of the continuous uphill climb. We met many other teams practising on this section that morning. They must have been wondering why we were going the other way. Sometimes it is necessary to go the other way to get a different perspective! The real reason was that we had parked our cars at Olinda reserve and we had to get back there after walking up to Silvan reservoir.

We are looking forward to the next session, on Saturday / Sunday 8th and 9th March, with both enthusiasm and trepidation because it is the longest and hardest of all our training sessions. Hopefully this simple and easy session will kick-start the old bones and limbs after a long break.

Please do come back to read our experiences from the most difficult training session yet, next week.

Practice Session # 9 (The longest yet) - 46.5km on Saturday, 02-Feb-2008

Practice session # 9 (Saturday 02 February 2008) of our Oxfam Trailwalker 100 km walk/run event has been the longest session so far in our training program that started late November 2007. It has been one of our most rewarding and satisfying sessions not simply because it was the longest so far, but because it helped us overcome the lingering feeling of disappointment from the previous one.

Here are some session statistics at a glance:

Session # 9
Start: START (Jells Park Tea House) Start Time: 7:25 am, Saturday, 2-Feb-08
Finish: Check Point 4 (Olinda Reserve) Finish time: 10:25 pm, Saturday, 2-Feb-08
Total distance: 46.5 kilometres Session time: 15 hours
Total rest time: 2.5 hours Total walking time: 12.5 hours
Session average= 3.1 kms/Hour
Temperature and conditions: Dry and warm during the day (about 25 degrees centigrade, although it felt like 30) and cool during the evening (12 degrees centigrade)

Individual section timings (excludes lunch break at Lysterfield lake)

START to CP1 (Churchill National Park) 12.5 kilometres in 2.5 hours
CP1 (Churchill National Park) to CP2 (Lysterfield Lake) 9.0 kilometres in 2.25 hours
CP1 (Lysterfield Lake) to CP3 (Grants Picnic grounds) 13.3 kilometres in 5.25 hours
CP3 (Grants Picnic Grounds) to CP4 (Olinda reserve) 11.7 kilometres in 4 hours

Session # 9 was a very important session for the team. It was important for two reasons; we had to overcome the gremlins of doubt and disappointment that had crept into our team psyche after the difficult night training session on the weekend of 19th January 2008. The trying conditions of pitch darkness and incessant rain had dampened our team and individual spirit and we had cut short that session from a target of 41.2 to 27 kilometres. The second factor of importance was that of distance. The longest distance we had walked so far in our training sessions, in one stretch, was 34.8 kilometres and we needed to know whether we had it in us to endure 46.5 kilometres in this session, especially after the gruelling night session two weeks ago.

These two reasons were playing in our mind when we departed Jells Park at 7:25 am on Saturday morning. Many of us hadn't slept well because we had been to watch the 20/20 cricket match between Australia and India at the MCG. It was a thrashing that Indian supporters would like to forget in a hurry. Thus the groggy team set off from Jells Park minus its usual contingent of 10 members. One of the members had to work, yes on a Saturday, to complete a deliverable due on Monday. Another had rejoined us after a break of almost 4 weeks. The weather was pleasant at this stage and we made it to CP1 (Churchill Park) in a good time of 2.5 hours. We walked briskly despite carrying heavy loads in our back pack (Water and electrolytes).
We were feeling strong and decided to carry on the CP2 (Lysterfield lake) without stopping. We met two other teams on their practice sessions at the top of Hills track. They were from the CASH and M3 teams. It was good to meet others and exchange tips and information. We soon reached Lysterfield lake and it felt good to take a well-earned break here. Rinku, our support crew member, brought us lunch and other supplies here. We are grateful to her for having sacrificed her precious time on a weekend to cart us supplies. Debbie had baked delicious Walnut muffins and I still can't believe that 30 muffins disappeared into our stomachs and backpacks in seconds. In contrast Julie gave me just a tiny piece of the delicious banana cake she wolfed down in a hurry. Maybe for the next practice session we will have banana cake instead of the boring energy gels.

The temperature had been rising all morning and before we had realized it we had overeaten and had drunk too much fluids. So the planned short break at Lysterfield park became a sluggish and sumptuous one and half hour picnic lunch! We had to drag ourselves away and get on to Logan park trail towards Grants Picnic. By now the sun was blazing on us and soon we were sweating away the muffins, rotis and sandwiches. I then imagined that this was what it was like for the muffins in the oven. Maybe I was becoming delirious. Whose idea was this walk?

When we got to Birds land reserve a shady picnic spot, 7.3 kms from Lysterfield lake, the cool sheltered benches there were difficult to resist a brief reprieve from the heat and before we knew it we had spent 30 minutes relaxing there. We also met another team of three girls there on their training walk. The poor walkers hadn't planned their session well and were starving because they hadn't carried food with them. We felt guilty at having wolfed down so much food at Lysterfield. Although we offered them food they refused politely and decided to carry on to Grants picnic. Soon we were huffing and puffing on the steep climb of Broadway street before stopping to regain our breath in the car park of Belgrave swimming pool.

The prospect of a hot cup of tea at the local cafe in Belgrave was too difficult to resist and we lost another 30-40 minutes. We were wondering whether we were on a training session or a picnic jaunt. We had gorged ourselves on muffins at Lysterfield and here we were indulging in Devonshore tea. By this time we had covered 30 kilometres and we knew that Grants Picnic was nearby. We arrived at Grants picnic about one and half hours behind schedule, possibly because of the heat and longer breaks. By this time two members were suffering from knee and back problems and the thought of retirement from this training session at Grants Picnic began to cross their minds and perhaps a few others. We decided to egg them on and it was magnificent to see the entire team motivate each other and decide to carry on towards our goal - Olinda reserve. We knew it was going to be difficult ahead. We also knew that more than half of this 11.7 km section had to be completed in the dark and this would be the most difficult stretch. Memories from the night-training session on this treacherous stretch was still very fresh in all of us.

Soon we were climbing the winding pathway on Clematis track and breaking into a sweat. Although we had been here a few times, this stretch continues to fascinate us with its rich foliage of ferns and other thick native vegetation. It is always 5 degrees cooler in this undergrowth and the sounds of swirling waters of the creek and laughter of the Kookaburras introduced a renewed energy into all of us. We were also on a high to have kept the entire team intact for this long and trying stretch. In my view this is the best part of nature along the entire 100km trail and it is impossible not to appreciate this nature regardless of how tired one is.

It soon became dark as we navigated the really dangerous Sassafras creek track. We always wonder as to what might happen if a bushwalker lost his footing and fell into ridge or the creek. One cannot help avoiding such negative thoughts at night. It didn't help that some of us had forgotten our headlights because we didn't think we would be walking here at night. The long rests at Lysterfield and Belgrave for lunch and tea had caused this situation of having to walk in the dark. We were thankful to get out of Sassafras creek trail into Perrins creek road. That brought us into the much hated Hacketts road. I personally think that this is the most difficult and ugly section of the entire trail. It is an unrelenting steep dirt trail climb that takes 20 minutes and saps all energy left in the body. At this point we had walked for over 42 kilometres and it was pitch dark by this stage.

We made it finally to Olinda reserve! A distance of 46.5 kilometres after walking for 15 hours. It brought a great sense of achievement to all of us. We had conquered one-half of the world's toughest team challenge of 100 kms. It reinforced in us a belief that we could do it if we applied our minds to it.

The team is very proud of Gurpreet Verma and Subbu Pithani who believed in themselves and despite excruciating back and knee pain pushed on and managed to stay on the trail and achieve the session goal. Their courage is commendable. The team camaraderie and closeness provided 50% of the mental energies to the endeavour. We have a great team and we are proud of ourselves. For all 9 of us on this walk, it was the longest we had ever walked in our lives - 46.5 kilometres! Our women walkers Kathy, Julie and Debbie were again magnificent and leading from the front.

The sight of Martin Block and Dennis Biasotto who had volunteered to pick us up, was a great relief to our bruised and battered bodies and minds. We could have hugged them but we stayed a few metres away. We had reached a stage where we could smell our own stink of sweat. Thanks to our tremendous support crew we were dropped home in one piece. Thanks a lot Martin and Dennis.

Poor Gurpreet had another 40 kilometres to drive back home. He is a champion because most others would have long given up on this challenge if they had to drive across town to get to the trail and the drive back after a gruelling walk.

Unfortunately we don't have many photos from this session because the official photographer forgot to carry his equipment. However thanks to Julie we do have a few photos she took from the camera on her mobile phone. Enjoy the images.

Our next big session is scheduled for March 7th. Have a great day and do come back to encourage us. We appreciate your comments on this blog.

Venki Prathivadi for the
Satyam Snails and Satyam Slugs

Practice Session # 8 (The hardest yet)

Practice session # 8 (Saturday/Sunday 19-20 January 2008 night) of our Oxfam Trailwalker 100 km walk/run event has been the hardest session so far in our training program that started late November 2007. It has also been one of our most productive sessions with a significant number of achievements. We will always remember it for these wonderful aspects:

1. Most number of walkers that participated in any training session so far (We were 11 walkers, 4 from Satyam Snails - Venki Prathivadi, Harish Singla, Subbu Pithani, Debbie Block and 5 from Satyam Slugs - Kathy Gatti, Gurpreet Verma, Ananthan Mukundan, Anand Vyas, Julie Biasotto and two guest participants in Tom George and Iftekhar Alam. Vijay Athar couldn't make it to this session. Otherwise we would have been the "Dirty Dozen".
2. Longest distance any of the 11 walkers had ever covered, in one night, in their lifetime - 28.4 kilometres from 8:30 pm to 5.30 am (9 hours of continuous walking in the wild bush, in pitch darkness, at an average speed of 3.15 kms/hour)
3. The gruelling conditions of the session - It rained continuously along the treacherous uphill and downhill section. This experience of extreme weather is really invaluable for our preparation.
4. The wonderful team spirit and sense of purpose - Sustenance of a good team spirit and can-do attitude throughout despite trying conditions has forged a stronger bond amongst all walkers, two of whom had never participated in any earlier sessions.
5. The birth of a healthy baby girl to one of our team members - Congratulations to the Athar family and welcome to "baby girl Athar" to the world and welcome to the "Brave but stupid" world of Satyam Snails and Slugs.
6. India won the 3rd Cricket test match against Australia at Perth. - Probably why we survived the walk this night.

It had to happen. The Melbourne sky decided to rain on our night parade as we had feared. It is commendable that we survived the trying conditions of continuous wet weather, pitch darkness, difficult trail - relentless uphill and downhill, yabbies, confusing tracks and sore legs and backs.

We left Checkpoint 3 (Grants Picnic Grounds) at 8:30 pm on Saturday night in high spirits despite threatening showers. It was dusk and the Indian walkers were all on a high after having celebrated India's historic win against Australia at Perth. I offer commiserations to our Australian walkers. As always, nothing dampens their enthusiasm for adventure and one swallow doesn't make an Indian summer. Soon we were huffing and puffing our way up Clematis Track, having crossed Monbulk Road. It was an eerie experience walking in thick forest in complete darkness. Of course we all had our headlights to see our way around. We walked through Sherbrooke forest as it became darker and the intensity of the showers increased. We came across huge Yabbies scouring the forest floor for bush tucker. They are revolting and quite a sight to behold when our headlights shone on them. Do see the photos in the "Images of the Trail" section to the right of this article.

It was a reasonably easy walk for the first 5 kilometres through Sherbrooke Forest despite the annoying rain. We had overcome the initial 1.5 km climb quite well and several of us recalled how easy this session seemed compared to a previous session on this trail a few weeks ago. We are all certainly enduring better with each training session. We took a detour around Alfred Nicholas gardens (through Nobles Lane) because the park gates were shut, being night time. Slowly the rain and dark had started to wear us down as we neared the 9 km mark near Pirianda Garden. Soon we started the gruelling climb on Hackett track. It is an unforgiving section that simply seems to go on and on and it feels like crawling up a slippery wall in pouring rain and darkness with the occasional street light throwing up diffused light through the fog. Every breath creates an eerie ball of white cloud in the fog. I was reminded of the first chapter of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Then we were on the slow gradual uphill climb on Old road. We passed by a house in the middle of nowhere with its doors wide open at 12:00 am in the cold and wet night with a gentleman still working. We checked with him to see if we were on the right track. He must have thought we were a bunch of nuts.

We came across a restaurant on the Olinda-Monbulk Road and although they were closing for the day they were kind enough to let our lady walkers use their toilets. It must have been a great relief. Imagine how hard it must be for women on a cold and wet night out in the forest. As always the men have no problems about their bio-breaks and have one every 30 minutes wherever they please.

We crossed Checkpoint 4 (Olinda Reserve) about 1:30 am (4 hours after we started). We rested for a few minutes for a quick snack before proceeding on Rock track through Chalet Road. If the previous section troubled us with the uphill climbs, this section tortured us with its continuous rough-terrain downhill peppered with tree roots and fallen tree trunks. Many of us will take an uphill climb any time instead of these knee-tearing downhill tracks. One of our lady walkers suffered here in this section, with excruciating pain in her knee. She is a true champion. Despite knowing before hand what she would go through in this stretch, she didn't chicken out. Most men would pack up here. It is something about the spirit of women and the mental ability to overcome difficulty that we men will find it hard to understand. All the male members of Satyam Snails and Slugs salute our three women walkers. Debbie, Julie and Kathy are incredibly brave and resilient. They are without doubt the most powerful motivators for the entire team to complete this event labelled as the "World's toughest and most challenging". Julie interrupted her family holidays in Apollo Bay to do tonight's training session. She arrived in Melbourne from Apollo Bay where she is vacationing and will go back on Sunday afternoon after having walked all night in the bloody rain without a wink of sleep, to resume her holiday with her family. The dictionary may not tell you this, but Julie is another name for "commitment". If all teams had people like Debbie, Julie and Kathy, there would be no such thing as a "failed task or project".

We trundled on one foot after another, the rain pouring down on us. Our clothes were soaked wet, right through the outer wear, including underwear and socks. It is very painful to walk with wet clothes, shoes and socks. Hands and Feet become wriggly and the mind becomes numb with the monotony and drudgery. Even with the headlights it is not possible to see beyond a couple of metres. We arrived at Checkpoint 5 (Silvan reservoir) and it took us more than an hour to find Olinda creek trail that would take us beyond Silvan to the next Checkpoint. It is really difficult to read maps under our headlights with rain drenching the maps. Soon we were on our way to Checkpoint 6 with the rain increasing and our legs really starting to hurt by then.

Our bodies were aching everywhere and we were desperate for some shelter - somewhere to sit for a while, remove our shoes and socks and put down our heavy backpacks for a few minutes. After walking continuously for 27 kilometres we came across Mt. Evelyn reserve, a football ground with a large shelter and some benches to sit down. It seemed like the lobby of a 5-star hotel to us. We settled in for a rest to take off the wet outer gear and shoes for a few minutes. Soon that brief stop turned into a longer rest and our aching bodies and weakened mind gave way for the night. As dawn broke out (about 5:30 am) we as a team decided to call it a night although we had originally planned to continue past Check Point 6 (Graham Colling Reserve) and finish our session at Check Point 7 (Woori Yallock Primary School). I think our plan was too ambitious and didn't take into account the impact of rain and darkness. We were disappointed with ourselves that we fell significantly short of our planned target of 41.2 kilometres by about 13 kilometres. We finally went on to complete about 28.4 kilometres to the start of Warburton trail before we called it quits. It is indeed a remarkable achievement for a team that trained in the dark and wet weather for the first time. The sections we did were really hard. Our focus was on experiencing walking, in the forest, in dark and we had the bonus of doing that through incessant rain too. We learnt a lesson that darkness and rain impose a 25-30% toll on speed and distance goals. Simply put, walking in the dark is simply not the same as walking during day time despite temperatures being cooler. In fact cold weather creates a different set of problems through muscle cramps and soreness. Also, recovery seems to be slower. It seemed strange that we had done more than 33 kilometres a fortnight ago and felt a lot stronger after that session than we did on this.

We dragged ourselves away from the football reserve, because there was no mobile phone reception around that area and we needed to contact our support crew to pick us up. All of us dragged our feet to the corner of Monbulk and Clegg Roads where we discovered Mt. Evelyn Supermarket. Any store that sells more than newspapers, milk, bread and tobacco in the country is called a supermarket. The owner may have been a little irritated to find us sprawled across his shopfront with our backpacks, shoes and walking poles strewn everywhere, when he came in at 7:30 am to open the store. Perhaps we should ask him to build a changing room for us at the back, don't we Kathy?

Finally, I would like to congratulate Tom George and Ifti Alam for their wonderful spirit, courage and perseverance they demonstrated in tonight's walk. Most people would think that the idea of walking about 10 hours in the dark, in the forest, on a Saturday night when great cricket and Tennis was on - utterly and plain stupid. No, Tom and Ifti are not "most people". They were very warmly welcomed by our team when they expressed a desire to try and experience one of our training sessions. I will always cherish and value a statement Tom made to me during that unearthly hour of 3.30 am on the punishing Olinda Creek Trail. He said that he wanted to experience and feel what we (Snails and Slugs) would go through during our 100 km walk on April 12th and to do that he felt compelled to join us for a session. He said he would call us on the night of the event, from India, to encourage and egg us on, now that he understood the degree of difficulty, both mental and physical. I was moved. I wish we have more supporters like Tom and Ifti. They probably didn't see much of the Australian bush through their eyes, because of the darkness, but I am sure they understood a lot through their mind.

Anybody think we don't fit the "Brave, but stupid" tag?

Based on the lessons we learnt, we might now modify our training plan for the next session on Feb 2, 2008. Instead of attempting another night and day session with a distance objective, we might focus on a longer day session, say a 12-hour continuous walk to see how much distance we might cover.

To conclude this article, we would like to express our sincere thanks to our wonderful volunteers for this session - Kathy's mum and sister, Arun Doraiswamy and Sumana Prathivadi. They dropped and picked us up and brought us home safely. Obviously we were in no shape to drive anywhere after a night out in the forest.

Have a great day!

Venki Prathivadi for Satyam Snails and Satyam Slugs

Practice Session # 7 (Are we there yet?)

Hello and Welcome to the first post of 2008!

After a 2-week break for Christmas and New year and the fading memories of pain from our previous 2-section training session, our feet were itching for another demanding session. No wonder some people call us "Brave but stupid". I understand what they mean, now, after coming back from today's gruelling session.

We started our more intensive training phase today, Sunday, 06-January-2008 at 7:30 am, from the START point at Jells Park in Wheelers Hill, Victoria. We were one member short from our usual contingent of 10. The lucky one, we are told is having a fun time with her family holidays up on the Murray at Echuca. Enjoy your holidays, for the big one is coming up in a couple of weeks time and a fresh, relaxed mind is what will be needed to motivate other tired legs.

The weather was pleasant in the morning and we covered the 12.5 kms section from Jells Park to Churchill National Park at a reasonable pace and within 2.5 hours. Our backpacks were pulling us down because we were each carrying about 3 litres of water in our hydration pack and another 2 litres of electrolytes in bottles, apart from snacks and walking poles. I guess we were carrying a load of 5-7 kgs on us and that can get pretty weary when you walk 12.5 kms at a brisk pace. Our average walking speed was 5.7 kms on this section.We stopped for about 10 minutes at Check Point 1 - Churchill National Park for a quick bite before embarking on the more challenging section to Lysterfield lake.

By the time we left Churchill park, the weather started to heat up and we were all soon sweating it out on the steep climb with the heavy backpacks. You can see how steep some of these climbs can be in the photo. Surprisingly we didn't see any Kangaroos in Kangaroo land. Maybe it was too hot for them. All we saw was Kangaroo poo on the trail.

A typical uphill track (Churchill National Park to Lysterfield Lake)

As usual three members of our team had already had 4 bio-breaks (trackside convinience pitstops) in 3 hours. We keep wondering what is it that makes them pee so much. Some of us worry whether there is a problem with their bladders or ours, because we don't need to go so often. I guess that will remain one of the mysteries of this initiative. If they weren't the younger and faster bunch amongst us, we would have imposed some sort of limitations and fines on pee-breaks. I guess the dry, draught-stricken environment can do with some help along the way by walkers. I have always wondered what Formula 1 drivers or Marathon runners or cyclists on Tour De France do when they get the urge. Before you think I am obsessed with the act of peeing - a natural human process, let me move on.

We were soon puffing and panting and cursing because the temperature was climbing up beyond 26 degrees. That can be quite warm in the Australian bush. We arrived at Lysterfield lake at about 12.30 after walking continously for another 2.5 hours. We had walked a total of 21.5 kms in 5 hours. Our average speed had dropped to less than 4.3 kms/hour due to the heat and exhaustion. We were also hungry and the sight of all those families cooking feasts on the barbeque at Lysterfield Lake Park was driving us nuts. We stopped for 15 minutes to have a quick lunch, change of socks and refills for our hydration packs before moving on. You can see the anguish of one teammember when he discovered that his carefully packed lunch was still fresh in the fridge at home. We know what he is going to have for dinner tonight.

Soon we were on the track to Check Point 3, Grants Picnic ground. We walked wearily on the 3-km long Logan Park Track to reach the road crossing at Wellington Road. This is a very dangerous road crossing because it is impossible to see cars come up a slope in the road on to the flat and they do come up at a high speed at the crossing. One of our walkers almost got hit by a car travelling at 90 kms/hour while crossing the road because he failed to see it coming and he was concentrating on vehicles coming from the other side. You can imagine from the photo below as to what might happen if this walker suddenly decided to cross the road after the car on his left had passed him. He would step into the path of a car, on his right, travelling at high speed that wouldn't be visible because of a slope in the road about 100 metres away on his right side. This is what happened with one walker when he suddenly decided to cross the road, while all others were waiting. Although most of us were aware of the danger we hadn't spoken out loud about it at that instant. It was only when we saw him starting to cross the road and saw a car coming out of the hill at breakneck speed did we realize the dnager to our horror. Our screams and his sixth sense must have willed this walker to dash across the road to safety. It was a frightening and unnerving experience that left a few of us shaken for a while after that. Fortunately nothing untoward had happened other than the sudden increase of our blood pressure and heartbeats to extreme levels. It was a shocking reminder to all of us to be extra careful when we come off the relatively safe bush trails on to urban road crossings that carry speeding vehicles. Also, in situations like this, our bodies don't react as fast, as it does at normal times and in city roads, when we see a car coming down the street and we can run across quickly if need be. Our legs would be heavy and stiff and we would not be able to dash across the road. This experience has taught us a really important survival lesson and none of us who experienced this near miss will ever forget this lesson in our lives. Forrest Gump, go buy a lottery ticket today, for you are incredibly lucky to have survived. Today's session might have become plain stupid instead of brave, but stupid.

There are some very steep sections that we had to overcome before getting to Belgrave and Puffing Billy station. By this time one of our lady walkers started to experience pain in her knee and so we all slowed down a bit. To her credit she kept going despite the pain, after drowning a couple of Panadols. After more huffing and puffing we reached Grants Picnic at 4:30 pm, about 9 hours after we had started. It seemed incredible that we had walked or had been on our feet continously for 9 hours and covered a total of 34.8 kms in the process. Most of us had never walked for this long or this far in one session. Indeed we felt proud of ourselves. We knew it was a small achievement compared to the real 100 km walk we need to do on April 11th. However, for today, it was enough and it was worthwhile. This is how we have planned to build endurance - 3 sections at a time, which is what we did today and increasing it to 4-sections (approx. 46.5 kms) on the next practice session at night.

So here we are, aching feet and happy minds, back in the confines of our cosy homes. We should never forget that there are millions of people in this world with no homes to go back to, no children that can massage their tired feet that have gone miles looking for food, no back packs and walking poles to hang up. This is why we are doing this - to raise funds for charity to help such people. So please contribute generously. We will train hard and hopefully become stronger to finish the 100 kms on April 11th 2008.

We would like to thank our splendid support crew for today - Sumana Prathivadi and Bala Kalimuthu who graciously sacrificed their personal time on a Sunday afternoon to pick us up at Grant's Picnic Area to bring us back to our cars parked at Jells Park.

Please see more photos of our session in the "Our training sessions" area to the right of this page.

Have a great week ahead. Our next session is on 19th January 08. See you then.

Venki Prathivadi, for
Satyam Snails and Satyam Slugs

Season's greetings

We wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Satyam Snails (Venki Prathivadi, Debbie Block, Subbu Pithani, Harish Singla, Vijay Athar)

Satyam Slugs (Kathy Gatti, Anand Vyas, Julie Biasotto, Gurpreet Verma, Ananthan Mukundan)

Next blog update: After training session # 7 on 6-January-2008

Our Training Sessions (December 2007)

Welcome to the experiences of our training sessions (Satyam Snails and Slugs)

When the ten of us from Satyam Snails and Slugs signed up in late November 2007 to do the Oxfam Trailwalker event 2008, we all decided on one thing and that was to train every weekend on the actual trail.

Our training plan details can be found in the blog entry titled "Our Training Plan" dated 3 December 2007.

This section gives a glimpse of what we see and feel during our training session.
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Practice Session 6 (Sections 8 and 9)
CP 7 (Woori Yallock Primary School) to Finish (Wesburn Park)
Date : 23 December 2007 (Sunday) 7:15 am to 13:35 pm (24.0 kilometres)

Weather condition :

Mostly wet and cold, 10-17 degrees centigrade, misty, cold and wet in the morning. The drizzle stopped in the afternoon

Trail condition :

Slippery and difficult, Difficulty rating 6/10

Trail experience :

Long, Straight, Uneventful, Dreary, Unrelenting (Warburton trail) , The last section from Milwarra Primary school to Wesburn Park is quite difficult and demanding, even when attempted as part of just a 2 section workload.

Session story:

After last weekend's long and unrelenting Warburton Trail experience, we were looking forward to a good strong 2-section training session from Woori Yallock Primary School to the finish at Wesburn Park. We had a full strength team with all 10 walkers present at Woori Yallock. We were worried about the weather because it had rained continuously and heavily for over three days here in Melbourne. Fortunately, the rains had eased overnight and we started our session in reasonably good weather (light drizzle). You can see many of us decked in ponchos flimsy raincoats) and plastic sheets. Someday, we will become a little more sophisticated and spend more money acquiring water-proof Gore Tex Jackets and pants. But for now, all we can afford is some plastic sheet to keep the water out.

We made good progress on the section from Woori Yallock to Milwarra Primary School, walking at about 5.6 to 5.8 km/h speed on a constant gradient trail. You can see photos of the terrain and surroundings in the section titled "Our training sessions" to the right of this page.
There were quite a few pit stops by the male members of our team along this 13.5 km stretch (must have been the cold weather) and as usual the women had to suffer in silence till they got to Milwarra which had public toilet facilities. We stopped for about 20 minutes at Check Point 8 and a few walkers bought some doughnuts (instant energy) at the local bakery next to the sawmill.

We then commenced the long hard uphill climb having left the Warburton trail to our left. We could see the strongly flowing Yarra to our left. Obviously the rain had done a lot of good to the parched country side. The trail was very narrow, muddy and slippery - very different to the long, straight and flat Warburton trail. Within minutes many walkers had their walking poles out of their backpacks and were using them effectively to leverage strength and balance from the upper body. The uphill climb continued for about 5-6 kilometres along Mount Little Joe. The winding, thick, wet and slippery trail took us through Dolly Gray Picnic grounds. This is a beautiful place to behold and enjoy and took our minds off the dreaded thought of how our tired legs, body and beaten mind would cope on actual event day. It is one thing to trundle along this difficult path having started off fresh, just 4 hours before at Milwarra Primary and quite another thing to get this far having walked for over 24 hours and covered almost 90 kilometres. Apparently many walkers give up at Milwarra Primary having been broken by the Warburton section. We hope our experience will stand us in good stead.

Soon we experienced a 2 kilometre downhill section that gave us some eagerly accepted respite from the climb. The rest was short-lived as we started the final ascent over steep, rocky and challenging trail. We kept wondering what fate might have in store for us here on actual event day. We hope our practice sessions will build enough endurance in us to withstand this torture after 97 kilometres.

We finally arrived at Wesburn Park Oval having tackled the Conduit track with renewed energy (the end was in sight). It was a great feeling having accomplished our first goal of "The complete 100 km trail familiarization". It had taken us 6 practice sessions over 6 Sundays to get from Start to Finish at an average rate of 16 km/training session. Today, was the longest session we had walked (24 kilometres in 6 hours and 20 minutes) since we started to practice in late November 2007.

I had expended almost 2000 calories in walking the 24 kilometres today and I drank 2 litres of water and 1 litre of electrolytes in the process. I also ate 2 muesli bars, a banana and had 2 energy gels during the walk. A rough calculation tells me that I probably created a deficit of about 500 calories. Hurray, I lost 50 grams!. This goes to show why even after all this walking I still look the same - I tend to eat more and then blame it on increased metabolism or the silly season.

We are having a well deserved rest next Sunday over the Christmas period and we will resume training on 6/1/2008. We intend to cover 3 sections (35 kilometres) in one session starting from Jells Park and finishing up at Grants Picnic. We are aiming to increase our endurance during this phase of training. Our training goal is to be able to cover the 100 kms in 3 training sessions by end of January 2008 and in 2 sessions by end of February and hopefully, eventually in 1 "real" session on April 11th 2008.

We invite you to view the photos from today's session. Unfortunately we didn't carry a video camera today because of the wet weather and therefore we don't have a video to share our experience. Perhaps we will have one in the next session update on 6/1/2008.

Finally, we would like to thank Sumana Prathivadi and Dennis Biasotto for the wonderful support they provided in driving 80 kilomteres to pick us up from Wesburn Park and bring us back to Woori Yallock where we had parked our cars. We are very grateful to our support crew. Without them we wouldn't be able to hold any practice sessions.

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of us at Satyam Snails and Satyam Slugs.

Have a great day and do write to us on this blog.

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Practice Session 5 (Sections 6 and 7 )

CP 5 (Silvan Reservoir) to CP 7 (Woori Yallock Primary School)
Date : 16 December 2007 (Sunday) 7:00 am to 12:15 pm (21.5 kilometres)

Weather condition : Mostly Sunny, 13-21 degrees centigrade, fresh and invigorating in the morning, changed to warmer and sultry conditions in the afternoon

Trail condition : Good, Difficulty rating 4/10

Trail experience : Long, Straight, Uneventful, Dreary, Unrelenting (Warburton trail)

Session story:

All of us assembled at the Overflow car park in Silvan Reservoir at 7:00 am. We were all relaxed and cheerful having enjoyed the Satyam@Telstra annual Christmas party yesterday at Gumbuya Park. We were looking forward to an easier session after last week's gruelling uphill climb from Grant's picnic grounds and knee crushing downhill trail from Olinda Reserve.

Silvan Reservoir Park is set in the foothills of the Dandenongs. Established in 1931, the park is home to exotic trees including cypress, spruce, liquid amber, poplar and maple, and local fauna such as beaked echidnas, sugar gliders and wombats. We had a relatively easier time finding the trails, compared to last week, and we were soon on our merry way walking the "Olinda Creek Trail". We were soon into the dense forest valley and the sounds of honeyeaters, blue wrens, wattle birds, fantails, willy wag tails, thornbills, grebes and other birds was enchanting and mesmerising.

This trail then led us into "Track 10" and "Aqueduct Borang Avenue" leading us away from the forest into less endearing bush. This change in the landscape also caused a slight change in the mood of the team. We became quieter and a few male members went off into the bush for their "bio-breaks". We felt sorry for our uncomplaining lady walkers. On these walks, our lady team members have to hold on till they find a public toilet in park facilities or a reserve. Unfortunately there aren't many. We do feel for them. As someone said, they are "Brave, but stupid". That is what we will call ourselves next year - if we survive this year - "Brave, but stupid"!

We were soon on the dreaded and weary "Warburton Trail". We had heard from many previous Oxfam walkers to watch out for this section. Apparently, most people drop out at this section, firstly because it goes for over 15 kilometres starting around the 65 km mark of the entire trail and secondly because it is a dull, boring, flat and tiring trail. There is nothing much to see or do here other than just put one foot ahead of the other. There is nothing to hear other than the sound of our hiking shoes crunching the gravel path.

To avoid boredom, we spoke a lot to each other and we even discussed the objectives of why we were doing this event and how we might feel at this stretch on actual event day (April 11, 2008).
Although we were practising this stretch during day time, we will be grinding along at night on this section. Fortunately, there is nothing to see and we won't be able to see much either at night.

Occasionally we came across cyclists on the trail and one or two runners that looked like seasoned marathon runners that wore no flesh on their bones. The cyclists were a nuisance though because we had to break up our strides and group to give them enough way on the trail. Some of them appear crazy because they would zoom past us on a slope at a furious pace.

We decided to continue past Check Point 6 (Graham Colling Reserve) having covered the 8.5 kilometre section in about 2 hours.

The stretch between Check point 6 and Check Point 7 is really boring and uneventful. This is where the Warburton trail begins. It is impossible to get lost on this section because it is just one long straight path. There is a beautiful view of the mountain top merging into thick clouds, but apart from that there really is nothing much here other than some horse shit, cyclists and a few locals walking their dogs. It took us about 3 hours to complete the 13 kilometre stretch and we reached Woori Yallock Primary school at 12:15 pm, hungry, thirsty and tired. We had walked continously for about 5 hours and covered 21.5 kilometres.

We went to the local bakery at the Woori Yallock shopping centre to have a coffee while waiting for our support crew to pick us up and take us back to Silvan reservoir where we had parked our cars.

That's it for today, two more sections covered and crossed off - a total distance of 21.5 kms in 5 hours, almost exactly as per estimate. We have now covered the cumulative distance of 76.0 kilometres of the 100 kms trail in 5 training sessions. Sometimes, we cannot stop wondering as to how the hell will we do the entire stretch in one go on April 11th? Brave, but stupid!

You can see photos from our session to the right of this section. Clicking on a photo will launch them in a seperate window.

Let us remember that the driving force of why we are doing this is to raise money for charity. So please help us raise funds for Oxfam.

Finally, we would like to thank Martin Block and Srikanth Parna for graciously sacrificing their personal time this Sunday afternoon to drive up to Woori Yallock to pick us up after a long hard walk.

Have a great day.
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Our Training Plan

We read somewhere that "Failing to plan is planning to fail". We also learned that many teams and walkers attempt the 100 kilometre trailwalk without much preparation or training. We were told that not many finish the distance (not surprisingly). We don't know what our outcome will be, but we are sure of one thing. We will not let "lack of planning, preparation or training" as causes that let us down.

We have decided to practice on the actual trail every weekend (at least most weekends) with the objective to familiarize ourselves with the actual terrain, conditions and varying weather (heat, cold, wind and rain). Here is our training plan.

As you can see we will train regularly leading up to March 2008 and then start winding down the intensity of our training to conserve our energy for the big day. We plan to train at nights too because we will be walking Check Point 3 (Grants Picnic grounds) to Check Point 7 (Woori Yallock Primary School) during darkness on the actual day. That is a distance of 41.2 kilometres in the dark, possibly rain and cold and up and down back breaking uphill and knee crunching downhill sections.

We also aim to peak in our training sessions, on February 9th 2008, doing 6 sections from Check Point 3 (Grants Picnic grounds) to Finish (Wesburn Park) in one session over an estimated duration of 20 hours. Don't even come near us the following Monday and don't talk about walking or training.

Hopefully we will build familiarity and endurance on these sections - through two training sessions on these areas.

We would love to invite your comments and suggestions on the above training plan.

The 100 Kilometre Trail

The Melbourne Trail

The Oxfam Trailwalker challenge requires teams to complete the 100 Kilometres walk / run event (62.5 miles) from Jells Park in Wheelers Hill (a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia) to Wesburn Park in the Yarra Valley (Victoria), within a total time 48 hours .

The entire trail is along parkland and bush with very few road crossings. The trail begins with the wide open spaces of Jells Park in Wheelers Hill. Passing south-east through the Corhanwarrabul Wetlands then east through the Churchill and Lysterfield National Parks. The trail heads north through Belgrave and into the beautiful Dandenong Ranges National Park.
From here it travels east along the Warburton Trail before looping south of Warburton to the ups and downs of Mt Little Joe, finishing in the expansive Wesburn Park. There are eight checkpoints between the start and finish located approximately every 11 kilometres along the trail.

Here's an overview of the trail with the check points labelled:

The Oxfam 100 km Trail (Melbourne 2008)

Here's some detailed information for the more technically minded readers and those that want to explore the trail, virtually or really! For our offshore readers, I have included a map of Australia to show where the state of Victoria is (it is in the South-East). The map next to it shows you where Yarra Valley is with reference to Melbourne CBD (also in the South-East of Victoria).

North-West

South-East

Australia and the states

Victoria and Yarra Valley

Information about the trail sections and check points.

1. Start to Check Point 1 - (Jells Park Tea House, Wheelers Hill to Churchill National Park Picnic Grounds) - 12.5 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 12.5 kilometres)


2. Check Point 1 to Check Point 2 (Churchill National Park Picnic Grounds to Lysterfield Lake Picnic Area) - 9 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 21.5 kilometres)


3. Check Point 2 to Check Point 3 (Lysterfield Lake Picnic Area to Grants Picnic Ground) 13.3 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 34.8 kilometres)


4. Check Point 3 to Check Point 4 (Grants Picnic Ground to Olinda Reserve) 11.7 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 46.5 kilometres)


5. Check Point 4 to Check Point 5 (Olinda Reserve to Silvan Reservoir Park) 8 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 54.5 kilometres)


6. Check Point 5 to Check Point 6 (Silvan Reservoir Park to Graham Colling Reservc) 8.5 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 63.0 kilometres)


7. Check Point 6 to Check Point 7 (Graham Colling Reservc to Worri Yallock Primary School) 13.0 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 76.0 kilometres)


8. Check Point 7 to Check Point 8 (Worri Yallock Primary School to Milwarra Primary School) 14.5 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 90.5 kilometres)


9. Check Point 9 to Fnish (Milwarra Primary School to Wesburn Park) 9.5 kilometres (Cumulative distance : 100.0 kilometres)

You can watch a fascinating tour of the entire trail on Google Earth. You will need the Google Earth application to view the tour in three dimensions - Terrain, buildings and all. Please download Google Earth here - It's free. You will also need the tour file, created by Oxfam. That can be downloaded here - Google Earth Tour of Jells Park to Wesburn Park.

Enjoy the virtual tour. That is the closest I can bring you to experiencing the 100 km walk across the bush, without leaving your comfortable seat.

Do visit this site often and check out our posts to the upper-left of this screen.

In conclusion, we leave you wih this wonderful image from Google Earth showing the terrain, check points and other detail. You can view all this in 3-D animation with Google Earth and the file.

Looking forward to your comments on this post.

Have a great day!