At least I tried with my boots on

“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.“— Friedrich Nietzsche

THE post-mortem comments, when we could finally bring ourselves to relive it all, were as predictable as they were concise. Never again. That was our summary of last Saturday’s Surf Coast Trek. Not for us the rosy glow of a job well done, of having again made it the full 40km. In daylight. Without need of outside assistance.

As we sat on my trekking companion’s deck in the early evening gloom, unable to do anything more than sit exactly where we were, our resolve was absolute. Never again. Finally extricating my feet from the army boots I had believed (mistakenly as it painfully turned out) would offer my feet the best protection — and having skin from both heels come away as I took my socks off — only confirmed ours was the right decision.

By that night I had been reduced to a geriatric shuffle as my overworked legs clearly felt they were entitled to clock off for the rest of Saturday — and much of Sunday, as it would turn out. I didn’t wear shoes again until Tuesday. Never again. But in hindsight, the physical really wasn’t the hardest part of the trek. I saw one fellow trekker deep into the journey attired in jeans and Dunlop Volleys; clearly the challenge of the day meant different things to different folks. No, I found the toughest part was the fundraising. The fall of the calendar this year meant we were chasing the same dollars for the Give Where You Live Foundation and Kids Plus Foundation as the Royal Children Hospital’s Good Friday Appeal and the RSL Anzac Appeal were. How do you say which is the more deserving?

I take my cap off to those countless volunteers who willingly sell the badges, rattle the tins or man the booths year in year out. I did my bit only through my wife’s unbelievable willingness to bake and my workmates’ willingness to buy.

And the funny thing was that the office kitchen just didn’t seem the same this week without some rocky road, angel food cake or cookies to tempt us for a gold coin donation.

I was even back wearing runners again by Wednesday, kind of missing the two-hour walks I’d forced myself to take into work as a part of my training regimen.

Maybe again.