The Walk - 2010
4:40 PM, Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - staff cheering their departure.
4:42 PM, Tuesday - leaving the building.
7:00 PM, Tuesday - Slaughter Lane at Brodie
Andrew L. found them at Brodie and Slaughter and brought them a bottle of water.
8:20 PM, Tuesday - Brodie Lane at 1626 (clear and 85 degrees)
9:49 PM, Tuesday - just outside of Buda
Elm Grove school
12:10 AM, Wednesday - Kyle, Texas (clear and 68 degrees)
Subject: Kyle baby
10 mile to san marcos
Legs feel like hell on a stick
Saw a dead squirl, he looked better then I feel
Stretching is like pealing my flesh off
Holes in my feet, gross already
But, we are in kyle
3:48 AM, Wednesday - breakfast at the iHop in San Marcos (clear and 56 degrees)
Subject: IHOP-San Marcos
31 miles down.
Sweet
Having pancakes!
To describe my legs and feet. Feet are destoyed, I am about 10% blister type pain coverage. Right heal is a mess. Legs, right one is in full revolt.
We will rest for 2 hours here, then try for 6 more hours.
The buzzards are not circling, but they are on this email chain for sure
9:23 AM, Wed - at the outlet mall (clear and 70 degrees)
Subject: Outlet mall
Super to be at the outlet mall, we bought some new clothes and thomas got a lovely man purse which compliment his eyes
Feet = chicken fried steak. Omg I think I will need to walk around in buckets of ice for a month
Some fun factoids
17.5 hours total
33. Miles about
1 hour at ihop (regretting the sausage big time)
2 hours sleep under an overpass, covered in bird crap Fresh creme
Tempuature is rising like a rocket ship Legs are destoyed, long past stupid, deep into going to fall over soon
But, Heart is solid, cardio is like a rock
I will bet .75 with anyone we make it to SA!
No starbucks for thomas yet!
12:30 PM Wed - New Braunfels (sunny and 92 degrees)
Subject: New braunfels
Eating at subway
My right leg gave out about 8 miles ago. I sorta lean to the left and use my obliques to lift my leg. My right oblique is quivvering, and I don't mean from excitement.
Feet are clearly the weak point. The pain is beyond measure. Every pebble is a land mine. I have worn holes in my socks
After the, we rest for an hour or more. The we push on to 52.4 mile then next stop the big one
3:16 PM Wed - 19 miles from finish in San Antonio
Subject: Broken and sun baked
Ok folks, 19 mile to SA. This concrete is where we just slept for an hour or so.
My legs are solid blocks, they don't bend. I have to keep moving.
The heat is murder, my brains are addled.
We are quite broken and weak.
Time to cheat and modify: we are finishing the walk to SA, then we are buying bikes and riding back
This will be one drop less then stupid.
We are both excited about the chance to go under our own power.
A visit from the family
5:20 PM Wed - getting close (clear and 92 degrees)
Subject: Double marathon
Ok, we have pounded out 2 marathons.
It no longer matters what hurts or how hot it is. I am in an unzen like place.
I am psyched to say a person can push their body to places you would think not possible.
I walk on my left heal and my right toes, everything else is ruined.
We have bikes staged for the ride back
We are going to one of the sa plants
Jackson, call me with directions from 35 and 1604 please. You have about 6 hours to call so you better hurry!
Lol
Feel great, bit dizzy though.
Cheers to all!
6-8 hours to sa
6:00 PM Wed - closer
Subject: 10 miles run, 100 miles ride
Well folks,
10 miles on feet
100 mile ride!
Woot
Thomas and I just relized he is in big trouble on the bike ride.
11:41 PM, Wed - Arrived (cloudy and 72 degrees)
Subject: The deed is done
See you guys around lunch,god and our legs willing
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->
2:00 AM Thursday - New Braunfels, on the way home (partly cloudy and 67 degrees)
Subject: At new bransfels
Thw bikes are heaven!
Here is 1604
5:37 AM Thursday - San Marcos, on the way home (partly cloudy and 63 degrees)
Subject: San Marcos
Slept for 90 min or so outside NB, fog and wind came in and we got super chilled. Got up amd hit road.
Stomach is a little upset, first time for that. But I have super tortured my body.
San Marcos now, take a rest. Our bodies are crushed.
Looks like we will be there early. We are shooting for 9:00, we will ride into the garage and put bikes in his truck then walk in
Thanks for all the supportive email.
More warning as we get it
8:20 AM Thursday - Kyle, on the way home (overcast and 67 degrees)
8:35 AM Thursday - I35 at 1626 just North of Kyle, on the way home
9:10 AM Thursday - I35 at Onion Creek, on the way home (partly cloudy and 71 degrees)
9:14 AM Thursday - I35 at Slaughter Lane
Subject: Slaughter and 35
So, maybe an hour
9:55 AM Thursday - turning on Mopac from Slaughter Lane
10:05 AM Thursday - Mopac just south of 290
10:25 AM Thursday - nearing the building
10:26 AM Thursday - Home - arrival at the Mopac building parking garage
Telling the stories...
Walking up to the 3rd floor to finish the return.
Happy to be back - or happy to have finished.
Stacey checking out his feet.
This is the tape that protected his feet for the 2 day walk.
But there is still some damage.
Carefully removing the rest of the tape.
Compare this to the before picture above.
Stacy's recap of the trip:
Thursday (Apr 29):
Someone was looking at the internet to see about driving to Vegas. They clicked on the new option of ‘walking’ and it said it would take 16 days. A conversation followed in the Desktop area and I commented it would take 65 days. We did some more yacking and realized the 16 days to Vegas would be like 70 or 80 miles a day. I said Thomas Orf could do it but no normal person could. So we pulled Thomas into the conversation. First off Thomas immediately knew it was not possible for anyone to do 70 miles a day. Second the world record is 351 miles in 7 days, so that is 50 miles a day. But as I am clearly lacking in many of the intellectual properties of the rest of you I said – ‘that’s it, I am walking to San Antonio and back’. Now Thomas is much smarter than I am, but he offered to go along for support.
Were it not for Lexi’s(my daughter) birthday being on Sunday we would have left on the spot. So we had to delay over the weekend. I have golf on Tuesday so we decided to go after golf. Funny thing turned out golf was canceled and Thomas and I were off Tuesday after work.
-During the 3 days leading up to our departure we came up with our 4 rules of engagement:
1. Man Up – This rule is the overriding rule for the entire adventure. No whining, just do it.
2. We already know it’s stupid – This rule replaced the reflective vest rule we started with. Basically this rule freed us up from preparing for the trip properly.
3. Socks and Crème – This rule allowed for a very small deviation from the Forrest Gump plan I wanted to do. We got good socks (Thomas already had them) and we taped up our feet and used crèmes to protect some areas. I also caved and we brought some TP and some salt pills. Thomas kept adding junk to the small backpack we had and I kept saying, ‘Get up’ and ‘Let’s go’ and ‘Man up!’. Finally Thomas gave in to rule number 2, and left on our silly and ill-conceived adventure.
4. Must turn around Thursday night no matter what - This rule proved to be more important in spirit then it did in practicality. By the time we got to San Antonio, I was going so slowly it would have taken days or weeks to get back. The decision to ride bikes back was based on a desire to finish on our own power and to do it sometime this year.
Why:
People have speculated and commented to no end on this question, why did you doing it. Much like our mentor Forrest, there is both a simple and profoundly pointless collection of answers:
1. The simple curiosity surrounding how far can a person go in a day, more than one day in a row, had to be addressed
2. We wanted to know if a person could just do it. Two of my motto’s in life were specifically addressed on this adventure:
a. Be prepared, don’t prepare
b. Be animalistic (an animal must always be either chasing down its next meal or running from being some other animals next meal) - so was I keeping myself in good enough shape to do this thing?
3. I have always wanted to be a runner, perhaps this would help me move in that direction
4. ‘Stay Thirsty My Friend’ Yes I know this is a beer commercial, but darn it the phrase is very good. You can’t control your actual age, but you can control how old you feel and act.
Lots of other things have been speculated like the amazing race (which Thomas and I would love to do) or something about world records. None of these things entered our minds. We are just two people who want to do things like this and we busted out of our cubicles and did it. Forrest Gump was running from the hurt that Jenny caused him. Thomas and I just wanted to get out there and be alive. And believe me, when you are at the end or your endurance, 4 miles from your goal, eating a McDonalds cheeseburger with extra pickles and sipping the most delicious coke in the world you are very much alive.
Greatest feeling on Earth:
So, we got down near San Antonio and we had 6 miles left. My body was a wreck. I was in pain at every step. It was nearly midnight on the second day of the trip. I was a zombie. Then we walked another 1.5 miles and we saw a sign that said 5 miles left, then we walked again and saw another sign which said 6 miles left and I almost fell down. It was like being in a horror movie and the hall kept getting longer. So we went more and more and finally we got to that stinking highway! Then we had to go another mile to get to the bikes at the church. Then we could not find the darn bikes, even though they were in plain sight right in front of our faces. At long last, and with Jaime’s help, we found the bikes.
We had to unlock them and monkey with them and get ready. But at last, we were on them, and we were flying faster than any eagle had ever flown. The miles melted away. The aches and pains disappeared. The years slipped off me and I was a kid again on a bike with his buddy going fishing or to an arcade with a pocket full of quarters. Absolutely one of the greatest days of my life! I can tell you there were tears of joy in my eyes as the air streamed past my face. I hope everyone feels that feeling from time to time. I don’t regret one second of the trip and I would do it again tomorrow if I can feel like that again at the end.
But that was not the end of the trip, there was more. The euphoria carried us for miles and miles. Admittedly we stopped and ate and goofed off. We wanted to come to the office when people were there. So many people had been so supportive and encouraging we both felt everyone deserved to be there when we finished. We realized in San Marcos we had completely miscalculated the time and sleeping behind some strip mall on the ground in the cold was really not necessary (and very horribleJ). So, we hit the bikes and pounded out the last 30 miles or so. And then we were on Mopac, then we could see Earl and Shawn directing us. Then a crowd of our friends/co-workers were there and it was so much fun to laugh and share with our friends and co-workers. I got to say I was personally moved to have people out there smiling and laughing. It was wonderful to share our experience with all those warms smiling faces.
Next Year:
Everyone is welcome to participate next year. There will be 2 main guidelines and two main goals along with the rules from above.
I. Dinner near San Antonio with our families/friends after we are all exhausted sounds great
II. People who join us will start out from various staging points in order to get the feeling of exhaustion without seriously jeopardizing someone’s health.
The thing is:
a. We can’t put someone on the road for 2 days if they are not ready. So the rule will be, you can go 10 times as far as you can normally go. If you can run 2 miles, you can walk 20. And you must be working out on a daily basis to ensure you’re ready for the exhaustion you are going to suffer
b. The other thing is we want everyone to join in who wants to, but we can’t just fill the road to San Antonio with TIN employees for weeks. Thomas was certainly going to make the 65 miles (he runs 100 milers) and I was certainly going to make it to San Marcos and I was willing to turn around on Thursday no matter what. We can’t have people spread all over the place.
Thanks from us
We would like to thank everyone for being a part of our adventure by offering encouraging words, giving us a great send-off, keeping up with us and our progress, and welcoming us back on our return. Getting something like this from family members is one thing, but to receive this from co-workers and friends really shows we are more like a family.