Snailwalkers

Decided to attack my illotibial band with this foam roller thing :

Alright, not the most exciting purchase of all time. This is the thing they used at the physio when I was getting my IB stretched. Hurts like being hit by a car – something I have some experience of – but supposedly helps. One 10 minute session “rolling” and the outside leg becomes curiously soft and pliant. Another 10 minutes and it bruises. Any longer than that, and you might as well just go play in the road until you are hit by a truck, it will be quicker and hurt less.

So last time I did this, I had broken my foot and still had illiotibial band syndrome, a long name for a simple condition someone once described as like having a craft knife roughly inserted into the side of your knee. Not an ideal starting point for a 100Km mountain jaunt but fortes fortuna adiuvat and all that. Despite this, before starting the event I had inwardly mocked those that were spending a hundred bucks or more on that simplest of accessories … a stick. Or in some extreme cases, two sticks. Should not prove hard to find a stick in several hundred acres of mountain forest, I thought, gamely.

Predictably, my knee gave out in the first stage and I spent 95Km longing for a stick, secretly hoping some enterprising local might have setup a walking stick outlet in the middle of the trail. The only sticks I found on the trail were just sturdy looking enough to fool you into putting all your weight onto them, before snapping and leaving you in a heap doing that pathetic double-take people do when they trip over in public. Paul W had a fine stick, but I think he had it specially made, or imported it from Middle Earth or something. There was none like it.

So, this time, I’m not going to pooh pooh sticks, instead I am going on an artificial stick hunt and I intend to buy a quality pair.

Sticks, I mean, "Trekking Poles"

Of course you can’t just go into a hiking store and ask to buy a stick. You’d reveal yourself as hopelessly ignorant of the immense demands of walking up a hill. The mere mention of “stick” and you’re marked out as some appalling city-dwelling weekender who probably can’t read a map, navigate by the stars or stalk and trap a deer. No, you have to request a “trekking pole”. Bear Grylls wouldn’t need a carbon-fibre stick trekking pole but I’ve convinced myself I’m in the market. My name spelt in Japanese, is, after all, ポール (“Pole”).

There is another alteration to the 2009 course posted this month. The infamous checkpoint 7 to checkpoint 8 stage has been revised :

The 2009 Oxfam Trailwalker - Might as well be in Holland

Previously this stage was a full on vertical assault necessitating the use of fixed ropes ( not joking ). The kind of stage you fear for the entire event,  hate when actually doing it, and then respect it calmly afterwards. Now .. what has happened ?

Kids today.

Well … it’s back. The 2009 Oxfam Trailwalker has been confirmed. The event begins on Friday May 22 and ends on Sunday May 24. A similar route to last year ( Odawara to Lake Yamanaka ) but with some changes. It appears that a couple of the nastier ascents have been bypassed, continuing the year-on-year refining of the course. With fewer than half of the 2008 entrant teams finishing intact, this should make it a less feared event. Indeed, 2009 has increased the number of teams to 250 ( from 200 ). Registration opens in November.

Already the Snailwalkers are thinking about what to do … stay tuned.