The walk-a-thon started at the school at crack-of-dawn o'clock.
Various categories got off to a staggered start.
Little and slow kicked off first to allow time for stringing out.
Then the couldas and shouldas made their move through this undulating landscape, one year so crisp and brown, the next if verdant green.
Last were the serious contenders - frothing at the mouths, chomping at their bits, jumping out of their smart, white socks to eat up the 24 km out to the dam.
(I, of course, can only imagine the latter category, as I was never in a position to witness it firsthand.)
Back in the day, of course, anything-a-thons were all the rage.
You were forced to write to relatives far and wide and explain the plight of the charity of choice; and the possibility of you -thonning the whatever-a forming part of a solution; and the fact of them promising coppers-per-whatever for the a-thon would be the other part of the puzzle.
There would be great competition as to who got the most pledged - just for the glory, no incentive prizes needed.
And this was back in the day. The 70s had a lotof things going for it - fashion, music, movies - but it also had 1c and 2c pieces and they were used!it was a simpler time, where very few ruined the ethos of the a-thon by making straight donations to the cause - oh no, it was multiplying lots of 24s (if you were able to stagger that far).
According to my memory I made it both times - a blistered, sun-burned, sweaty and possibly sweary child, in one instance bleeding.
My triumph was to then do my maths, write letters of my success to the pledgers, await the fortune in small coins and write thank you notes*.
A version of this ritual exists today.
My old school (45 years later and they have their own facebook page) have finally arrived upon the concept of wheels. My Old SS Bike-a-thon
I wish we'd thought of that.
To think, I had nearly two full days of thinking time and I could have used that time more wisely than just thinking "ow ow ow ow ow".
* To be perfectly honest, I think I probably still owe a few thank you notes. In fact, I probably need to use as my standard "what is your biggest weakness" response to be the sheer immensity of my thank you note list.
