Pure: Adventure 1 - The Charity Walk

[pureleeawesome]

Greetings fellow Rebels, this is Rebel Pure, transmitting from a secret Rebel base in Perth, Western Australia.

 

It is a strange and wondrous thing to think that at the end of this challenge I will finally be able to return to university. Before that happens I need to get myself back on track though. Comparing my Mood Tracker for the last few weeks compared to how it was at the start of the year times have felt average when before they were productive and joyous. How can I get those times to return to me?

 

Midway through this challenge I will be attempting an adventure - The Charity Walk.

It is a 42km night walk for charity. I was meant to raise $500 through donations for entry however did absolutely minimal fundraising and as such will just fund the remaining myself (I sold an expensive doll which will help to fund this).

 

I have never walked such a distance in my life. The past few weeks I have spent completing my Zombies, Run C25K program will hopefully have assisted with this adventure. They did recommend walking longer distances closer to the event but I am a minimalist in how I like to spend my time and so I have not. Interestingly, if I choose to do so on the night, my Zombies, Run C25K program would end during the charity walk. Depending on how I'm feeling, I may choose to hold the final session until the week after the charity walk.

 

The end of this challenge is also cutting it close to the date where I am meant to have completed my three month goals. And so, for my other goals in this challenge I will be working on those. These are separate from my Quest for Adventure goals but some overlap (Quest for Adventure Goals)

 

TLDR Challenge Goals

 

1. Finish the Zombies C25K program (~ 6 XP towards my Hiking Badge)

2. Complete Charity Walk (20 XP towards my Personal Growth Badge)

3. Check in with my Passion Planner twice daily (No XP, I just need to remind myself to use it more regularly to keep on track of things)

4. Finalise my mission statement. (I'm pretty sure I have the wording I want for this, need to mention it in my Epic Quest thread)

5. Unplug for 24 hours on the 14th of Feb (No better thing to do for Valentine's Day)

6. Complete 1 story outline/timeline (Words are hard. Won't get me XP but will help lead to it)

7. Finalise assignment tracker for university (I want my unit outlines already!)

8. Finish KonMari before university starts

 

 

[Manarelle]

Busy month! I like the unplug idea for random unused holidays. The gentleman and I don't really do anything for that day either - I might steal your unplug idea.

 

What story are you planning, if I may?

[pureleeawesome]

On 2/10/2021 at 2:21 AM, Manarelle said:

What story are you planning, if I may?

 

I have a few story ideas that have been stored on scrap and in my mind for the last few years so it will be one of them.

At this stage I'm leaning towards the one in a historical fantasy setting where people with magic are being persecuted and it's about the people fighting to defend magic.

But now I just started thinking about what if it was in a modern day setting.... (I hate my brain).

 

I think I have jinxed myself with this challenge but as it's zero week, changes are perfectly fine right?

My ankle is not enjoying the Zombies run program so I need to switch it out for a bit.

I'm thinking of doing 30 min of exercise six times a week to make up for it but when I'm more awake I'll reevaluate my thoughts.

 

[Teros]

25+ mile? Damn.  You said you never did that much before.  What is the most you've done at once?

[Manarelle]

On 2/11/2021 at 7:59 AM, pureleeawesome said:

I think I have jinxed myself with this challenge but as it's zero week, changes are perfectly fine right?

My ankle is not enjoying the Zombies run program so I need to switch it out for a bit.

I'm thinking of doing 30 min of exercise six times a week to make up for it but when I'm more awake I'll reevaluate my thoughts.

 

Changes are ok any week, if it's for "this isn't working, I need to tweak this to be healthy for me" reasons. Sorry your ankle is acting up. Is that a long-term thing? 

[pureleeawesome]

On 2/12/2021 at 8:29 PM, Teros said:

25+ mile? Damn.  You said you never did that much before.  What is the most you've done at once?

 

I've generally only done 5k walks. I was highly sedentary before the end of last year. Probably 6-7k with a heavy hiking pack around September last year?

I have 13 hours to complete it, at least. And there are food/water breaks every 5k.

 

3 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Changes are ok any week, if it's for "this isn't working, I need to tweak this to be healthy for me" reasons. Sorry your ankle is acting up. Is that a long-term thing? 

 

I've always had relatively weak ankles but since I got my orthotics it hadn't been a regular thing as much.

Luckily, I went to my podiatrist for my orthotic review on the weekend and they gave me some exercises and also suggestions with my orthotics that will hopefully solve the issues I've been having. If I keep getting the blisters I've been getting as well, they said they'd give me some blister bandaids before the charity walk which is nice of them.

 

 

 

I have finished 4, 5 & 6!

I may make Unplug Day a tradition for Valentine's Day.

 

The story timeline I finished ended up being for Aliens which is about life after an alien invasion. Which seems to be a popular movie thing these days but I want this story out of my head anyway.

 

I completed the Books section of KonMari yesterday. As I've done it relatively recently I only had three books I chose to remove. Need to hustle on this one if I'm to get it done before uni starts.

 

 

[Rookie]

Have you attempted to declutter before (with or without KonMari)? 

 

That charity walk is a spicy meatball 😮 you can do it though! Its nice that they split it up by 5k chunks. 

 

[pureleeawesome]

I have done a KonMari declutter before, I think it was around 2-3 years ago? But I am much changed since then and have different life priorities now. And I still have too much stuff that drains me and isn't aesthetically pleasing in the 2 rooms and 1 bathroom I get to put my stuff  Also some day I want to live in a tiny house and we are currently ignoring all the stuff that's in boxes out in the garage because it is Too Hard to Get To.

 

I usually struggle to write in my thread during challenges but the KonMari and continuing to walk where I am are the priority items at the moment. The assignment tracker would be, if I had my unit outlines yet. The university only officially releases them one week before classes start which I find infuriating considering they contain the book lists and so if you're required to buy books you have precisely one week to attain them before classes start. And some classes have pre-reading. 

 

Luckily you can access the unit outlines from previous years and make an educated guess about books which is what I've done and have already attained the essential and non-essential books unless they change something.

 

Today is the last day of my last full work week. Excited!

[Rookie]

16 minutes ago, pureleeawesome said:

I have done a KonMari declutter before, I think it was around 2-3 years ago? But I am much changed since then and have different life priorities now. And I still have too much stuff that drains me and isn't aesthetically pleasing in the 2 rooms and 1 bathroom I get to put my stuff  Also some day I want to live in a tiny house and we are currently ignoring all the stuff that's in boxes out in the garage because it is Too Hard to Get To.

I've never gotten completely through it lol but last time I went on my declutter/organize kick I finally got through those boxes in the garage 😉 (from when we moved in 3 years prior 🤣). Oh a tiny house definitely sounds nice because everything would have a function and place...but I feel it would never work for me unless I was single. But even then my tiny house would be mostly kitchen and a bed lol. Maybe a moderately small house... 

 

16 minutes ago, pureleeawesome said:

The university only officially releases them one week before classes start which I find infuriating considering they contain the book lists and so if you're required to buy books you have precisely one week to attain them before classes start. And some classes have pre-reading. 

I wonder why they do that. It would drive me nuts because I like to plan ahead and be prepared. 

 

16 minutes ago, pureleeawesome said:

Today is the last day of my last full work week. Excited!

Yaaay! You should be excited because that is exciting! 

[Teros]

On 2/18/2021 at 7:07 PM, pureleeawesome said:

The university only officially releases them one week before classes start which I find infuriating

 

Yeah that sounds like a pain in the ass.  My school did something similar and I think I didn't get about 1/3 of the books that were required.

 

 

[pureleeawesome]

On 2/19/2021 at 8:27 AM, Rookie said:

Oh a tiny house definitely sounds nice because everything would have a function and place...but I feel it would never work for me unless I was single. But even then my tiny house would be mostly kitchen and a bed lol. Maybe a moderately small house... 

 

I keep alternating between a tiny house or just finding a small already built house.

If I was going to go the tiny house route at this stage I'd be looking at buying the plans for this one:

 

 

Of course I'm not looking to build or buy anything for the next three years (I already have a mortgage on a home that I rent out and then I pay rent for the house I'm currently in) when university is done.

Your point is one of the things that makes me hesitant to date though. I'm sort of at that stage where I've always been the person willing to make compromises in relationships and as I get older I'm getting less inclined to do so.

 

1 hour ago, Teros said:

Yeah that sounds like a pain in the ass.  My school did something similar and I think I didn't get about 1/3 of the books that were required.

 

Oof, that sucks. I'm lucky that for a lot of my units it doesn't appear that books are a requirement, just a recommendation. There's only one unit that had a textbook in the last few years that was a requirement and I have a free version of it.,

 

Two of my units released the outline on Friday so I'm only waiting for two more which will likely come in on Monday. So far no required texts and no exams. (One does have a take home test during exam week but that's not the same).

 

Today's very long to-do list is:

 

- KonMari papers

- Wash sheets

- Wash clothes

- Vacuum

- Work out uni route

- Clean study so I can post pictures to the Garden thread

- Charge laptop in prep for uni

- Advertise my VAX vacuum battery and charger online (my vacuum is broken so I'll just be using the housemates for the future)

- Complete study file set up

- Finish of my household file set up

 

funfunfunfunfunfunfunfun

[Rookie]

Oh that tiny house is beautiful and so clever! I might steal her style of covered porch lol for my house. The part I love about tiny houses is that (I feel anyways) it encourages you to be outside more.

 

As for being afraid to date... Don't be. If they aren't into tiny living then they aren't for you. But there are tons of other women and men who would be into it as well I'm sure. And at least you would be going into a relationship already knowing your living goals. Where as if I sprung that on my fiance randomly I'm sure I might get some push back 🤣 though he's brought up van living before. But it just wouldn't work for us as a long term thing haha. He has a lot of comic books, guitars + accessories and fishing stuff. I have a lot of art supplies. And we have 3 dogs 🤣 but as I'm getting older I don't really need a lot more space but I do want an efficient space. Which is my gripe with my current house lol the way it's build you can only really have things one way and you can't fully enjoy the features of the house. We have a fireplace on our mainfloor but we never use it because it's just kind of in the corner by the sliding door and you can't have a couch there without blocking the halway  or the sliding door. So that area is kind of useless lol. And I'm not creative enough to maximize the use of spaces and make them look good lol 

[Loveable_Bouncer]

May the University prep go well! I personally had put myself in the situation of not dealing with "getting ready" for classes till the week before, but always had the option to ask the professor for rubrics. So weird to hear there is a policy,may the set up go well!

 

What a goal for a chairity walk, that sounds like it would be a lot of fun and get a different view of an area. I may have to look into that for the future. 

 

I'm personally been doing Konmari not at the "marathon method." But also have a goal to get it done before the "next phase" life switch. 

Never thought I would ever get to the "minimalistic" stage, but realizing I need to be a little nomadic that the whole idea of narrowing down things hass ben interesting. 

 

 

[Teros]

I prefer the term 'fun size' for those houses.  Same as people I know 5'3 or under.

[pureleeawesome]

 

42km charity walk completed in just under 10 hours (I am a slow walker).

I bumped the XP for this walk in my Quest for Adventure. The walk was entirely worth going up a level.

 

My journey began at roughly 8:15pm on Saturday after a speech from Adam Gilchrist (Australian ex-cricketer and ambassador of the charity this was for) and a Welcome to Country from a lady whose name escapes me but it was a very nice Welcome to Country and I kinda wish I'd memorised her name.

 

As we left the starting area people stood to the sides and cheered us which was nice. It was a common theme throughout the race actually - strangers walking by would find out what was going on from people ahead of me and as we passed them they would cheer us on.

At first, things were easy. I overtook a lot of people and during the first two pit stops only stopped to grab something to eat before continuing onwards.

The distance between the second and third pit stop was difficult. Apparently it was a longer distance than the first two had between each other and I definitely felt it. Also, a lot of people I had overtaken in the beginning now began to overtake me.

What would happen though was we would then get to the next pit stop and because I didn't hang around for long I would get ahead of them resulting in a lot of lovely "oh hello, fancy seeing you again!" moments. Many people checked in with me as they passed me to make sure I was okay (solo walkers seemed rare) which was nice.

 

When I got towards the finish line I was overwhelmed. I had to keep blinking back tears and I'm afraid some people probably thought I was miserable as they congratulated me when I passed them by but really I was just very proud of myself.

 

I rarely finish the things I set out to do. It's something I still need to work on. And here I am, with my level of fitness (another thing to work on) completing a 42km marathon walk in just under 10 hours by myself.

 

If I could do this, if my body could do this, I can do anything.

 

 

Also, I found out at the end we get medals for finishing and we all know I like shiny reward items (sorry for the giant image).

 

[WolfDreamer]

That is quite the accomplishment and sounds like it was a wonderful adventure! Well done! I am really proud of you.