Doing Trailwalker the French way!

Michele’s husband Philippe and 3 of Michele’s friends took part in the French version of Trailwalker in the Morvan (North Burgandy). The team was called Rosa. Michele, her sister, her nephew and another friend were the support team. This is her experience. 

My experience as support team for Rosa during the French Oxfam Trailwalker on May 12/13 2012  - gorgeous weather but very cold at night.

We were 3 women and one teenager with 2 cars (the girl’s husbands came to check points no 2,3,4 and 7). There were only 7 checkpoints apart from the finish.

There were 113 teams and therefore only 452 people (this is only the third Trailwalker event in France). 

We asked our team by SMS what they would like at the next checkpoint and prepared the place where we stopped accordingly.

We had 2 cars with the following items:

1. Blanket to cover the grass on which we put mattress + towels

2. Large bowl with water so the team could have a cold feet bath 

3. A box which included: arnica oil, equipment for blister treatment, special pomade for muscles cramps or stiffness, sparadrap (surgical tape)… aspirin, Bach Rescue Remedy, Arnica homeopathic remedy, cotton, surgical spirit…

4. An electrical extension cord to be able to plug and charge phone batteries.

5. Boxes for each team members with their own food and clothes/shoes….

6. Electrical kettle + gas and pan to boil water + Isothermal bottles

7. Parasol  and folding umbrellas

8. Camping table + chairs and armchairs

No 1 to 6 were very useful but we did not use no 7 and 8.

We set up an area with the blankets, mattress and towels and each team members had his box ready close by.

They arrived and sat on the ground, took off the shoes, ask for a leg massage (at stop no 1 we massaged only their calves but after that they asked for full legs). 

At the same time they were eating or drinking or just relaxing and enjoying the massage.

They changed their socks and sometimes their shoes.

At checkpoint 4, I told them that at the next stop (kilometres 56) they would be able to shower: but they did want to. They reacted like teenagers; “We don’t need shower, no no!” And then, after they showed in the collective showers (Philippe said that was the reason he was walking with them!!!) , they were really happy that the tiredness had gone away with the fresh water….

At checkpoint 2, they had to walk uphill to get there… and I wrote on the road with a special pink spray: Rosa 100M, and then Rosa 150M and Rosa 250M… that was very funny!

One section of the night walk lasted for 16 km and was the most difficult section of the entire course (ask Jackie, who walked it to illuminate the signs). We managed to meet the team 3 times over this stage: and we gave information and encouragement to the other teams (some had no clue how long they had to walk to the next stop) and we rescued one girl who was crying because her feet were very sore: so I gave her a foot massage with a special relaxing cream: she could walk again, but I don’t know if she was able to finish.

The temperature dropped to below zero at night, but Philippe who famously hates the cold, kept his shorts on all the time. 

My sister and I stayed up all night, and that night was astonishingly dark with a red half moon and millions of stars: we are not used to seeing so many stars as there are too many lights are on all night long. Morvan is not very populated region and villages are scarce so there is no light pollution.  But it was extremely cold: we were walking up and down the road trying to keep ourselves warm:  a hard job. During that time, Jeanne Marie (the 4th member of the support team) went back to our gite with Pierre (my teenage nephew) who decided to go to bed at midnight.

Anne and myself did not sleep, as we were completely into the event: sending energy to the Rosa team and encouraging the others teams. 

Odile, one of the Rosa members who had not been able to sleep the night before, broke the world record for walking while sleeping. At one moment, Philippe had to take her arm and walked with her for almost one and a half hours: at the beginning of an ascent, he told her: “Now Odile, you have to lift your feet because I am not going to lift them for you” 

Philippe also rescued another girl who thought it was too late and was sure she would not make it. Her team was the last one to finish the 100km…..

Team Rosa completed the course in 28h45 and ran the last 200 metres.

We were so proud to have been the support team of Rosa, who told us that without us they would not have been able to reach the end in such a good form.

Friendship, partnership, fluidity, sharing, empathy, compassion… GREAT!!