Done in 41!

...hours and 19 minutes!

As many of you now know, we completed the Oxfam trail, #67 out of 103 teams to finish with all 4 people.

I'm very proud to have walked with such a great team. Like Deguchi-san said after, we couldn't have done it if any one of us was missing. Guy kept the spirits up for all of us, and had us enjoying ourselves even when we were walking through fog and rain in the middle of the night. Deguchi-san, despite injury, kept us walking a good pace through the tough final charge to Lake Yamanaka. Amol helped create a great story to keep our mind of the tough final stage, and helped make sure we all got to the finish line by walking the right pace.

Like Sergeant Slaughter says...

We all go home... or nobody goes home!

For myself, I think I brought some Sergeant Slaughter to the team. When we made the team, we were determined to finish with all four of us, which is no easy challenge. Many teams walk the wrong pace and lose a person to injury or exhaustion. Some teams run into personal issues, and lose people or break-up. All of these things are challenges we to ran into. None of us were saints on the course, I know I especially had some rough spots. We all worked together, though, to beat the physical and mental challenge the 100km through rain, fog, and injury entailed.

In addition to teams that warned me, though, there were lots of teams that I found very inspiring. It was great whenever our team ran into another high-energy team, because we both charged each other up for the next round.

Some teams that I particularly have to thank are (more to remember, as they might not see the blog):

The Soundtracks

Team Suzuki

Team Sunshine

All of these teams really helped make Oxfam fun for our team, and are the main reason I look forward to staying involved in the future.

The final, essential ingredient...

A big thank-you goes to the support team, which was really key to us finishing the race.

We had a great team, who all helped us out before and during the race:

Naomi (honorary captain)

Eri

Georgi

Mike

Mako

Mahbub

Our support team did a lot for us. They made sure we got to the event on time, they helped us setup camp and get the food and refreshments we needed, they stretched us out and patted us down after the hard stretches, they took the pictures, and helped make the enkai after.

They did a whole lot, and helped make it an event to remember instead of just a physical challenge.

I'm really glad you all supported us this year, and I'd be glad to support a team with you guys in the future!

Get those shoes on!

Well it's almost time to get a walkin'! Loads of thanks to all those that are supporting us and have been cheering us on all this time. I'm looking forward to the 100k, a little anxious for sure, but what the hell. It beats downloading and watching pirated movies on the good ol' mac. (DO NOT watch Baby on Board)

I just read an article forwarded to me by Amol, which talked about the positive aspects of pairing up charity events and physical challenges, a particularly interesting side note was that this OXFAM TRAILWALKER event is actually based on an old military exercise for Nepalese Ghurka soldiers when that part of the world was a British territory. I imagine those Ghurkas shaking their heads and swearing in Nepali when they find out that it's turned into an event of over 200 teams repeated in 9 different countries every year...for fun! They'd probably laugh if they saw most of the folks at the start line, beer bellied bankers, skinny IT nerds and tiny little asian women all stretching their legs in their "performance enhancing" tights and neon colored Nike Free tennis shoes. Indeed, laughable. 

So why do it? While a small percentage of the participants MUST have have some kind of masochistic motive (I sometimes think I might fall into this category, just look at what I do for money), I'd like to think it has more to do with what those folks in that article were talking about, Challenge and Charity. Personally, I want to challenge myself to be a better person and break some bad habits/limits, whether they be physical, mental, or whatever. Charity doesn't sound too bad either, the Lord knows I could do with a few more Karma points. Although I won't be personally involved in helping anybody... but myself... and maybe a few teammates:), I really trust this OXFAM organization and am very grateful to be able to raise money to enable them to do good works and empower many individuals and communities around the world.

Hmm, I wonder what the Ghurkas would say about that??? Anyway, to the rest of the Do-Life boys and girls, See ya on the mountain!

Three days and counting...

Finally, the D-Day is here. Do-Life will be walking 100km on Friday, 22nd May. And yes, we are definitely looking forward to complete it with a bang.. :-)

As Evan mentioned, the key is to keep walking and I agree. We all have trained and worked hard so far, and I am sure that we'd not only finish, but will also meet the time target we have set for ourself.

A big THANKS to our support team. Thanks for being part of Do-Life and taking time from your busy schedule to be there for us from start to end. ARIGATOU..!!!

On a last note, I'll just say, "LETS DO IT..!!!" ^_^

One week to go...

So it's one week to go before the event, what am I thinking?

To be honest, I'm excited.

The longest stretch of the trail I've walked so far is 55km, 70 if you count our detour, but so far Oxfam seems to be a lot like fatherhood.

As in thinking about it seems hard, but once you start doing it, you find that even though it is hard, it's also a lot of fun and nothing you can't handle if you just keep rolling.

It's also a lot like fatherhood in that your wife usually ends up working harder than you do.

I'll be enjoying myself on the trail, while Eri & Naomi will be buzzing around with the support team like a bunch of busy bees, making sure we all finish in good spirits.  All I can say is if you have a young baby, and want to take a weekend to walk 100km with the boys, it better be for charity.

So how about the boys, the 3 others on the walking Do-Life team?  I'm really glad I've done it with them.  They've taught me what I do well and not so well, and like any real team, I can pass the baton when I need to.  It seems that we've now all caught the Do-Life bug, and everybody's ready to finish by midnight Saturday, which is really great.

I think if we all listen to each other when we're saying the right things, we'll be finishing the race in good time to take a bath before bed-time Saturday.  When you're doing it for Charity, that's the real gold medal.

White T-Shirt Party - Over 30,000 yen for Oxfam!

Great times & Great art!

Hey there, we'd like to send a big thanks to everyone who came to the white T-Shirt party last Saturday, it was a great time!

In addition to the fun, we also raised over 30,000

 yen for Oxfam, thank you everyone for your generosity!

Do-Life does Dinner

Most of the people here know Amol's an expert in curry, but I bet ve

ry few people knew the rest of the Do-Life team could cook so well!

We didn't plan it, but it turns out we had a perfect four course meal:

I made peanut butter cookies with my wife (dessert, though we had it first!), Deguchi-san made a great minestrone soup, Guy made Hawaiian sushi with spam as an appetizer, and Amol made his fire-throwing curry to top the dinner off!

It was a lot of fun to see everyone's specialty, and we're all glad everyone enjoyed the food so much!

White T-Shirts - a new art medium

This was actually my first white T-shirt party, and all I can say is the shirts speak for themselves!  We'll definitely be carrying these on the hike to remember all of your support!

Team Logo - Unveiled!

The final big event of the evening was the official unveiling of our Do-Life team logo!

All of us on the Do=Life walking & support team will be doing our thing in style at the main event, and do lucky white T-Shirt goers became honorary members when they won their very own shirt this weekend!

Climbing the Cloud-Catcher - 雲取り山

Kumotori-san - The Cloud Catcher

Over Golden Week we took a trip to the highest mountain in the Tokyo Prefecture - Kumotori-san.

Kumotori-san means "Cloud Catcher" in Japanese, and if you check out the photos, you'll really see what I mean.

We were literally walking in the clouds for most of the trip!

Home Sweet Home

Our hiking plan allowed us to spend one full day on the mountain, which allowed us to make a nice two day home on the mountain.

As you know, nothing beats home-cooking, and Guy was our master-chef for all our major meals!

Making Dinner the First Night

Sites to remember

It was an amazing hike with a lot of great sites and adventures, but one that really sticks with me is the amazing bridge leading to the Mitsumine Shrine at the end of our hike.

There's nothing famous about it, but it's amazing what you can find in the Japan country side!

First Annual Do-Life BBQ!

Great Times in Tachikawa!

We just want to thank everyone for the great time we had in Tachikawa this past Wednesday!

As you noticed from the title, I definitely look forward to having another great BBQ next year.

Check out our photos on Flickr, once I get the group shots, I'll be sure to post them!