Headed off to Melbourne yesterday at 6am for Cancer Council Relay For Life at Albert Park, Melbourne with a plan to walk 50ks. Was really looking forward to the challenge, and also looking forward to meeting up with special friends that I don’t get to see as often as I’d like.

It turned out to be a perfect warm day with a breeze off the lake. Each lap around the lake is 5k which we did until 6pm. After that we had to walk circuits around the campsite. I know from previous years that the campsite walks can get tedious especially at the end of a long day of walking. So my plan was to get as much done by 6pm as possible.

Last week I injured my knee, so that was on my mind before I started. My fingers had been crossed ever since that all would be ok on the day. After 20k the knee wasn’t great, but was no worse than it was at the start, so I felt confident.

By 6pm I had covered 36ks when it was time for the lake walking to close. We took a tea break, and watched the remembrance ceremony which is always very touching.

It was then back out onto the track. Immediately we started to walk around the campsite track, which was quite uneven in places, I knew that my knee didn’t like it. I felt more pain in 2k of walking that track than I’d had all day.

Feeling very sad about it, I made the decision to pull out at 36ks as I just knew I would cause more damage. Feeling quite devastated about it, but at the same time I feel proud that I managed to walk so far when my expectations early in the day were that I would be finished after about 5k.

Will now need to set a date in the next few weeks, hopefully with a healthy knee to walk that 50ks. Even though I have  Walked 50ks previously, it’s on the 2012 Goals  list for 2012 so I will need to get it done. But firstly a trip to see the Sports Physio this week.