Can my achey, breaky body endure a 100km walk?

I'll find out in May when I join Jessie, Jeff and Ken for the Oxfam Trailwalker Challenge here in Japan. It's a 48-hour, 100km walk from Odawara to Yamanaka Lake near Mt Fuji from May 22-24. The event raises money for some of the poorest regions of the world, providing emergency aid in Darfur, Sudan, AIDS services in South Africa and empowering women in India. As a team we need to raise at least ¥300,000 (almost AUD$5000 at today's exchange rate).

Jessie called me up the other night and asked if I'd be interested in joining her, Jeff and Ken as part of the Shizuoka Trailbiters. I noticed the open Facebook invite for the Shizuoka teams but when I saw "100km" I closed the page and didn't think about it again.

But after talking to Jessie I spent a couple of days thinking about whether I wanted to join the team or not and weighing up the pros and cons. For a start, I'm am not that fit. A hundred kilometres isn't exactly a walk to the shops and back.
Aside from the physical aspect there's the mental challenge. I think what's going to get me through is our team and the gorgeous scenery of Mt Fuji's countryside. I spent some time yesterday reading stories from last year's event and looking at photos. I got quietly excited about all the photos prospects. The more I read about the challenge the more I realised what an amazing experience it would be, as well as something that would define my time in Japan.

Last night Jessie called and we talked for about an hour about our goals and concerns about the walk and why we want to do it. I think our team will be really supportive of each other. Plus, we'll work hard to raise funds and think of innovative ways to extract money from people. We also talked about blogging our experiences, hence the website. We want to share our preparation and write (and show in photos) how we're coping and when the day finally comes we can share one of the most amazing experiences we'll ever have in Japan.

But for now we've got three months until D-Day. I'd better hit the gym.

Labels: rae, week one