Discovery 702 Walk the Talk - Sunday 22 July 2012

At the absolute crack of Dawn, nay, before Dawn had even thought to get out of bed and flash her bits, Bren and I were up and ready to go do the Discovery 702 'Walk the Talk' 30km walk! WOOHOO!!!

Even for me 30km's would stretch my limits and hamstrings! 

5.30am and off we went to the Start and to our destiny! (I'm setting the mood here.)

And good thing went off as early as we did! With 50 000 entrants, there was traffic thick as scabs and twice as lumpy!

The sun is barely up and we're waiting to trot off! Us 30km and 15km walkers were all set to give that concrete a serious pounding! But oh, it was so cold, like doing a dawdle up in the North Pole! Kept expecting polar bears to come nibbling at my fingers! (They didn't though, I suspect they were like most everyone else not in the walk and having a bit of a sleep in.) 

Ah but the crowd was all amped up and there was a great vibe in the air! We were all ready to do this!

There were tons and tons of people there! 12 000 doing the 15km walk alone and another  2 000 doing the 30km. You just couldn't see the people within the sea of people!

And off we went!
I want that hat.

Above is a pic of the little flying camera used to record the event! 

Below I tried to magnify it a bit so you could see what it looked like.

Doesn't it just look like a buzzy mosquito? And is that a tiny munchkin riding it?

Sun is coming up, we're saved!

<--My hat.

Things are starting to warm up nicely! Everyone is jabbering on excitedly. At least I think they were, I couldn't hear them over my excitable jabbering!

The 1km mark, only 29 to go!

People, people everywhere and in all shapes and sizes! It was a lovely feeling of camaraderie!

Sadly it turned out that the 30km walk was so badly planned that they just told us, "you've done 15km's that's enough". Um, no!! Some just went to finish line but we quickly slipped in with the 8km walkers who were only just leaving when we got back.
Dang it, if we were going to be gypo'd on the distance we could at least squirrel away 23kms!

It's a Jo! I wore that heavy jacket for almost 16km. It was very comfie.

Here we are with the 8km people. They were a relaxed, easy going crowd. (Jovvian for: they walked too damn slow!)
Congestion was mostly caused by folk at all the refreshment stands crowding for Energade and Coke.

And in amongst all this, I still managed to find Waldo!

Discovery was out in force as well, offering fruit and water and cool-drink stops! 
There was even a helicopter on hand should it have been needed.
I'm not so sure about the guy in the Strawberry suit...

I was originally given a 5/8km medal, because they'd run out of 30km ones, but I managed to trade with a friend to get the right one. I must say the loss of the 30km walk was a bit of a blow, it would have been a wonderful challenge!

BUT, so speaking! We still had an absolute ball, and quite the adventure at that! From freezing to frying, being passed by people faster than us, and then passing those so much slower! We saw dogs as big as horses, popular port-a-potties and people in all manner of costume! Our muscles were worked out, our enthusiasm rampant and, all in all, THAT is how you do a Sunday!!
(Er, just not too often...)