Sydney Trailwalker 1999 - Gurkins Team
By Fred Chang
The first Sydney Trailwalker commenced at 10am on 28 May 1999 in crisp, sunny 20 degree weather in a lovely suburb north of Sydney. There were 100 teams of 4, each to be met at various points in the 100-km course by their "support" teams. We (Sark the dealer in Chinese antiques, Dan the lawyer, Jeff the computer programmer, and myself) lined up near the front of the pack at the start tape, not far from the Gurkha team flown in specially from their London duty. As far as I am aware, the Gurkhas have never failed to win a Trailwalker (a decade or more in HK) they have entered, notwithstanding challenges from the likes of the Pat Farmer-led "Moonbats" (consisting of 4 ultra super duper marathoners, e.g. Pat has run across the United States in consecutive days, running 50 or so miles each day) in previous years. I can tell you their record remains intact. More below.
So you have the Gurkhas lined up rather to the far right. Some pretenders in between. Then us....the Gurkhins. That was the name Sark came up with and had emblazoned on our nice tee shirts. The highlight of my experience (I'll speak only for myself not my teammates) in Sydney was when various entrants and media came up to us (me, usually, since the other three do not look even vaguely Nepalese), fawning and awestruck thinking we were the real Gurkhas, asking whether we would break 15 hours, trying to elicit strategies and anecdotes from our illustrious past, until we told them we were the real Gurkhins and how dare they confuse us with the Gurkhas. Evidently the Gurkhas (whether based in HK as in the past or in England now), a division of the UK military, choose their 100 fittest persons annually and subject them to rigorous training in preparation for the next Trailwalker that comes down the pipe (there's one at October-end in the Adelaide Hills). Of these 100, 92 are weeded out eventually to identify the 8 ubermensch that will compose the two teams they submit. (Interestingly, the Gurkha support teams usually contain at least one or two members who themselves could finish a Trailwalker in the time it takes me to do half).
Our strategy was to run 2 km to put some distance between us and the crowds before the Trail narrowed to a single file track. The first 2 km are through the quiet streets of the suburb. In actuality, I guess we were so pumped at having rubbed shoulders with the Gurkhas that we ran the first 15 km (more or less), and at one point were in 6th place (in the first 2 km Sark was chatting intensely with one of the Gurkhas about I know not what; you will see that Sark is an intense kind of guy). Things spiraled downwards from there.
At this point I must apologize for the lack of blow by blow detail which this email will provide....my memory is somewhat vague as to details as my whole body and soul became devoted to the need to deal with pain at a certain point in the race, and left little energy for niceties like keeping a diary.
Skip to the 1/3 mark, our first support stop. In addition to each of us re-vaselining up, changing sweaty shirts and refilling our bladders with water and reloading our stock of energy bars, I decided to change my shoes. I had been told that the Trail was "easier" and "flatter" than HK and so I assumed that I should wear my lighter running shoes rather than my heavier x-trainers. Bad decision--while it is true that the first 1/3 is easier and flatter than the first 1/3 of the HK trail (we got to the support in about 5 hrs 20 min), it is in many places quite rocky and torture on your feet. Here, I also tried to eat--three sandwiches (ham, pastrami and chicken breast) which I hurriedly and unaesthetically slapped together and washed down with heavenly and hot vegetable soup with pasta.
Our next support would be at 64 km. The Trail was getting harder (more hills, still lots of loose rocks and stones on the Trail), and signs of the thing I would curse later--water running over rocks to make them slippery. Also, at this point Jeff was developing a bad knee and began his intake of my Aspirin that would ultimately reach a count of 19. Somewhere around 40 km he crafted a cane for himself.
The second support was reached at about a total elapsed time of 11 hrs 45 min. We had run bits and pieces of this second third of the Trail, but generally all was a quick walk on the smooth flats or a ginger walk everywhere else. By this time Jeff was in agony (favoring the one knee led to stiffness in the other as well), I was unwilling to engage in any conversation beyond monosyllables (I had fallen about 5 times already, which put me in a black mood), but Sark and Dan appeared to be in excellent condition. Food, vaseline, refills and we were off again as Sark refused to allow too much time to rest in order to avoid stiffening. We now had donned lycra leggings as the temperature had dipped to, say, 12 or so, and long sleeves. I had concluded that, all-in,the first 2/3 of Sydney was about as difficult as (no more, no less than) HK. I was to reach the bitter conclusion that the last 1/3 of Sydney is far, far more difficult than HK.
From 65 to 78 km was a nightmare. My flashlight (a "maglite") was a pathetic affair which I (actually my wife, but at this point I, who insisted on doing this thing to her consternation, am on very dangerous ground to be maligning her) had purchased for 14 SGD and which cast a pallid light (if you can call it that) for about two feet. This led to numerous additional falls, landing me on every part of my body, in ditches, in the bottoms of springs, in bogs, between rocks. Once I fell face first down the side of the Trail and cramped in my left leg until the rest of the team (except Jeff) came back to give me mass massage. I actually wanted to stay in that position (face down in the dirt, with the upper half of my body downhill and my left leg scissored up in the air), but Sark insisted on resuming. Meanwhile, Jeff was continuing, amazingly, to charge ahead on his crippled knees for fear of stopping and stiffening.
One comment I would make is that the Sydney Trailwalker requires absolute precision of walking. The track is extremely narrow and tolerates no deviation to the sides (you will fall). It is, as mentioned, wet in many parts due to condensation and runoff from springs, and rocky as well. In dim lighting, it is treacherous. A comment about the elevation. Certainly HK has longer and higher hills. But Sydney has innumerable mini-hills where the use of all fours is (for me at least) absolutely imperative as the stairs (or lack thereof) are nearly vertical and slippery.
In these stressful conditions, I drew inspiration from Jeff (who would finish 78 km and then bow out), from Dan (who, whenever queried by a teammate "Dan, you OK" would blast back "Fantastic!") and Sark. Sark regaled us with tales....of the 60-year old farmer who won the Sydney to Melbourne race, (it takes 12 hours to drive this); of the Russian diving team that dived under the North Pole; and of his own personal, single-handed and unsupported three day trek through a 150km desert in Australia.
I regret that I now must bring this sad tale to a close. We finished in 23 hrs 27 minutes, good for 10th place overall. It was a dispiriting end to a demoralizing last third of the Trail to appreciate that that last third took us as long as the first 2/3. The Gurkhas finished in 15 hrs 5 min (all four), the second place team (all four members of the "Berowra Bush Runners") finished in 18 and 1/2 hours. There were only 3 teams ahead of us that finished as a complete team. One team with whichwe kept pace for 4/5 of the Trail eventually made it into 6th place (they were members of the Australian School of Mountaineering who are training for the Raid Gauloise). I have little doubt that were Dan and Sark not waiting for me during this last tortuous 1/3 of the Trail, they would have shaved two, maybe three hours off their time. The Force was with them; unfortunately so was I.
I wish I could add some inspiring description of the moonlit landscape (it was a full moon), but all you'll get is that we paused for 30 seconds to watch the sun rise over a crest. Usually, the passage was grim concentration on the path, with the woods obscuring the sky (one thing about the Sydney, unlike HK, is that so much of it takes place under cover of woods).
One exhilarating moment came at 6:45 PM Monday night as I watched Channel 7 news in Sydney--they actually had a five minute feature on the Trailwalker! It spent 20 seconds showing the Gurkhas jaunting down one tough downhill (the downhills are the secret to their success) and then crossing the finishing line with joyful beaming smiles each (their utter indifference to the calamities of spills and the vicissitudes of environmental condition is the other secret); for some reason, the rest of the feature concerned the trials and tribulations of one of the entrants, who went by the team moniker "Fat Lads".
Our support team (Amanda, Monica, Jane, Little John and Big John) were phenomenal with their food, their preparation of our first aid and our reprovisioning, meeting us at the appointed times and places, offering to massage our feet (offer declined all around), and even (Little John and Jane) trudging the last 10 km with us. Without them I might still be on the Trail.
And a great hug to all of you who were so generous for such a worthy cause. In fact, when I think of the beneficiaries of your munificence, I wonder whether I suffered enough on the Trail. I will do better next time. I know the other will. Add Sark and we have three. Trailwalking, anyone?
