In the end it took about 19 hours for Lily Gibson and Caitlyn Knight to walk 100,000 steps to help grant the wishes of seriously ill children.
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The accountants had set themselves a goal of walking 100,000 steps around Ballarat to raise funds for Make A Wish and after about 73km of pounding the pavement on Saturday they reached their goal. Having started walking at midnight Friday, they passed their finish line at 7.45pm Saturday.
Their only stops were to grab toasties for lunch, quick bathroom breaks and for a couple of changes of shoes.
Friday night revellers provided some entertainment as they walked around the CBD in the early hours of Saturday morning.
"We had a few people yell out of cars what were we doing," Ms Gibson said.
The women walked the first six hours around Sturt Street, then headed out to Alfredton, back for a lap of Victoria Park, along Gillies Street pas the Begonia Festival to Wendouree, back to the lake where they were joined by about 10 friends for a lap, on to Sturt Street again then out and back along the Yarrowee Creek trail to finish their 100,000 steps at the bottom of Sturt Street.
And it was all done on very little sleep.
"We finished work at 3pm on Friday with the intention of sleeping but I only got about half an hour because my heart was racing and I was a bit nervous, and Caitlyn only got about two hours," she said.
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Advice about how to prepare their feet for the marathon walk, including taping their feet from the start, paid off and there were no blisters ... just aching muscles at the end of the day.
"When you are doing it you know it has to be done so you don't allow yourself to feel pain. I thought it would probably be worse than it was," Ms Gibson said.
The women have so far raised $5800 for the Make a Wish Foundation and hope to top $6000 before they close their fundraising account, smashing their initial target of $1000.
"I'm glad I've done the walk and happy I've done it once, but I'm not going to do it again," Ms Gibson said. "But maybe I might try a different challenge."
To donate, visit fundraise.makeawish.org.au/fundraisers/lotsofsteps
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