or A Bogle veteran/cynic speaks

I’ll get this out the right at the start. I’m now divorced from Bogle. We have irreconcilable differences. I was Bogle equipment officer from ’90 to ’92, I spent ’93 in a van and walked it in ’94. In my first year we had over 1,100 walkers and grossed over �35K (with running costs of �8-9K). Frankly, we were lucky that year. The inter-hall money raising competition was at it’s peak and the good weather got us at least a hundred extra applications on the night. There was no way we could sustain this but it doesn’t stop you from feeling disappointed when it starts to decline. Each year there were less walkers and our later efforts to cut costs were half-arsed at best. It’s painful to watch an event that you put so much effort into wither on the vine.

In the year I walked I completed 44 of the 55 miles (that year only about about 25% of the walkers completed the distance, as the numbers have decreased the percentage finishing has increased). Friends who were driving vans that year commented that when they saw me walking in the later stages that I looked very determined and that they thought I would make it (I’m guessing they were being polite). The truth was that I was in agony from blisters and dropped out at the next checkpoint. Hiking up Blackrod (old route) after walking all night is painful.

To be honest, I would love to see this event take off again but I know it’s not going to happen. Unfortunately it’s not easy to give up hope.