When my mate, Cam, asked me if I would walk 35kms to raise money for Mitochondrial disease, I thought “yeah sure, why not?” At the time, I knew almost nothing about Mitochondrial disease or how far 35kms really was to walk but during the last few months I have learned a lot more about this terrible disease and yesterday I learned how far 35kms is to walk.
Mitochondrial disease is a disease that affects every cell in your body. Yep, that’s right, all of them because Mitochondria are in all your cells, they are the powerhouses of the cell, turning nutrients into cellular energy! It affects around 1 in 4000 people and there is no cure for it at present. One baby per week is born with Mitochondrial disease in Australia and for many kids it is life threatening. There was a lady (Karen) that walked/ran the whole way pushing an empty wheelchair in memory of her daughter, Kara, who had passed away from this terrible disease.
If you want to donate to the cause you can do so at: https://blw-perth-2017.everydayhero.com/au/mark-1
To train for the walk my mate an I did a couple of pleasant 10km walks along the coast in Perth. We smashed those walks but both of us knew that 35kms meant doing that again 2 more times and then some more. Were we really fit enough for this? Looking at the pictures from previous years there seemed to be a lot of people older than us so we both figured that if they could do it so could we.
As soon as you start preparing for a walk like this and friends find out you start to get lots of advice, good socks, get your ankles strapped, take painkillers with you. I decided to follow all this advice (a sign of impending maturity?) and got my ankles (and knees) strapped the day before we went so when we arrived at the start line in the morning at 6.30am I was feeling pretty confident about it all.
After signing in and a quick but emotional speech from a mother whose baby is suffering from Mitochondrial disease we were off. The walk started in South Perth on one of those perfect Perth spring mornings.
As we headed up river to Burswood we decided to set a decent pace to get out of the bunch and even jogged a few bits to get into some clear path. Walking along the river to Burswood was very pleasant and as we came around the corner near the Casino the new Perth Stadium came into view. This new stadium is going to be an amazing venue for sport and concerts (I can’t wait to go and see Ed Sheeran with my daughter next year for its opening). The only issue on this stretch was the number of cyclists flying past. Pedestrians and bikes are not a great mix and unfortunately, we came across a guy who had been hit by a bike and was being looked after by some medics at one point. Crossing the river at Burswood felt good because at least it meant we were starting to head down river and in the ‘right’ direction.
We had gotten ourselves into a pretty good groove by now and East Perth and the WACA flew by but as we came out onto the foreshore of Perth the breeze had kicked up and we found ourselves pushing into a bit of a headwind. This section along the foreshore and round Mounts Bay road was definitely the worst bit and I was very happy to make it to Matilda Bay and start walking through some of the nicer suburbs. Walking through Nedlands, Dalkeith, Claremont and Peppermint Grove was amazing. These are some of the more salubrious suburbs in Australia and we wiled away the kilometres house watching and admiring the view.
Half way passed somewhere along the river and we were feeling pretty good but as we hit Mosman Park and North Fremantle both of us started to hurt. Our feet had been “talking” to us for a while but that was OK, we could block that out. For me it was my upper left thigh and hip, I started to get some shooting pains but 
dropping a few painkillers helped. At North Fremantle, we crossed Stirling Hwy. and started heading north along the coast. This felt very good as we knew we were on the home stretch but it also felt like the longest leg. This is the stretch when Cam really started suffering as well but we kept pushing each other. It’s also the stretch where my competitive streak came out. As we walked along the coast I could see a couple of groups that had passed us earlier on and I decided that we had to beat them.
We pushed hard and we caught up and passed them with a kilometre to go, this felt great and gave us both a real boost. Then with half a kilometre to go a guy jogged past us. I told Cam I had to beat him to which Cam replied, “good luck”, so off I went jogging to catch this guy. As we came down the steps to Cottesloe beach I was hot on his heals and as we got to the sand I kicked off and burned him on the sand. It felt great to finish running, especially seeing as my kids and family were all there to watch. A couple of seconds later Cam came jogging through as well. After a few photos and a dip in the ocean we were done and ready to go home.
So, what was it like? Well it was bloody hard and it was bloody long but it also felt bloody good. Good that we finished, good that we did it together but more importantly good that we were able to raise some money for Mitochondrial disease research.
