Week Twelve and it's over!

The weekend came and with it my Everest for the 12 week challenge. A gruelling 20K walk from Currumbin to Main Beach which would serve as the last charge before the final weigh in on Monday. It didn't seem like a long distance numerically, but boy does it look like a long way on the map.



Imagine how crazy it would be then to walk the full distance of 30K from Coolangatta! That's what John signed up for along with Steve and Linda for company. Alison, Sheena and myself missed out on the elite blue bibs and reconciled ourselves to ordinary orange. There was also an option for the 10K distance, appropriately accompanied by yellow labels as this was obviously the choice for chickens and wussies - I jest of course.

We could barely make out our destination in the distance from the 20K starting line. There was a brief wave of despair as the enormity of the task sank in before we resigned ourselves to close the gap between us and a promised sausage sizzle, one step at a time.



The walk turned out to be a lot more pleasant and manageable than any of us would have thought. I think at some point around Burleigh, just past the 10K mark perhaps, my left calf started to feel pretty sore and tight from the strain. To stretch the muscle out I took to jogging in brief spurts which was unintuitively remedial. So much so that I bade my darling wife and mother-in-law goodbye and ran the last 5K to the finish, earning me the splendid honour of being the first to complete amongst the 20K participants. Being a glutton for punishment and wracked with the guilt of abandoning my walking partners, I handed my bib in and ran back to rejoin Alsie and Sheena for the last bit of their walk. As a result I think I would have travelled over 26K all up and I'm certainly paying for it dearly with sore legs. At least we got across the line in good spirits if somewhat battered by the ordeal. A total time of 3 hours and 50 minutes.



What's amazing is that John kept up a remarkable pace, passing us early on to complete his 30K in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. A stunning achievement really.

So surely this must have had some effect on my final results for the challenge. My initial goal was to lose 10KG in the twelve weeks and I still had quite a bit to make up the last time I stepped on the scales a fortnight ago. I'm terribly pleased to announce that the numbers I received on Monday didn't disappoint.



In the strictest sense I didn't achieve my target weight lost, but I'd say that 200 grams isn't worth fretting over. My other measurements that evening turned out to be pretty favourable too. Particularly chuffed about an 11cm reduction around my belly which I'm definitely seeing with my clothes.



So it's all over, I just need to put my final measurements into the system and hope for the best with the competition. Of course I already feel like a winner and fully intend to continue with the exercise. My discipline with eating may change a little though as I rediscover my love for all things chewable. I just so happened to have some left over lasagne from Sheena, that I rudely refused the night before the weigh in, and gladly demolished for lunch after stepping off the scales. Ah carbohydrates, how I've missed thee.



Oh... about those before and after photos, I'd say the improvement is startling and something to be proud of, but I'd feel like a right twit if I posted them online. Probably best given the longevity of internet documents.