Day 25 - Toronto to Niagara Falls RETURN - 156km A TRUE MONTICLE CHALLENGE!

Edwin

These 3 days, I push myself pretty hard. I never push myself that hard . We walk through many cities and towns. We live in motel/hotel. I push myself so hard every time I fall I lor of vdown I fall down. I am happy. I got of brister on foot and my part. I learn to suck it up myself. These 3 day I force the rain, the storm the sunshine , the hear, mysekf I push myself to the lime. We did it.

Jason

Hello people! It’s me again … Jason Wang, Well, for the past 3 day we have walled from Markham to Niagara Falls. On day 1, August 9, 2011…we started off at Billy’s apartment and started walking and we were put into 3 teams. Then we stopped at McDonald’s after an hour of walking, well at least my team, Team Charlie which was me and Calvin. After eating we went walking again but since we were eating for so long we were falling behind the rest of the groups, Alpha and Bravo. Then it started raining and we got so soaked. We then went into a Pizza Pizza to dry off and heat up by eating. We also got blisters so I had to walk the rest if the way with my heels. On day 2, August 10, 2011…we started off where we ended yesterday, water breakfast at a restaurant. We got 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 3 bacons, potato pieces, and pancakes. But then after that Calvin had to go back because his knee was hurting. Well we kept walking until it was dark then we went to a motel. On day 3, August 11, 2011…we finally reached Niagara Falls. It was the most painful experience I have hat and bet it was totally worth it though.

Alistair

The Niagara Falls trek, I’ve got to be insane. The first day was good, Edwin and I managed to stay slightly ahead of Billy and Michael. Later that night, I opened up 3 of the first blisters. On the second day, we walked all the way across the bridge, and here I started to lag behind. The blisters opened more blisters, and I developed the same knee problem as Calvin. On the third and most painful day, I started to ignore the pain, my brain went into an automatic mode of left, right, left, right, and I started to feel nothing. The accomplishment I felt when I completed the walk was trance like. Billy was right, I will never view the falls the same way again.

Calvin

We all started walking on the 9th and they all came back on the 11th. I only made it to Mississauga because of my leg. It seemed like I gave up but I knew that if I continued something would have happened to my leg in the future. On the morning of the 10th, my leg felt pretty bad so Billy called Jerome for me. I felt a little depressed, but I knew it was the right thing to do. So instead of walking I supported them from HQ. The third day I went with Jerome to pick them up.

Michael

When I finished the 3-day, 155 km walk from Richmond Hill to Niagara Falls, I started to think – Who the heck made this decision of walking insanely? Well, probably I’m the first person to talk about this with Billy. Later, joined by Alastair, who wants to challenge his endurance level, Edwin, who wants to have a good rehearsal or preparation for the 90 km, 3-day hike at Robert Land, and Jason, who wants to have a taste of somehow improper and insane walking exercise, and Calvin, who wants to train his body and mind for the future Can Forces selection, and last but not least, Billy, who spent his valuable time bringing us to the Falls and taught us lots of meaningful lessons even though he has reached his life comfort zone. No matter what, however, Billy told me that actually they were all walking ‘for me’. They knew I was having an enhancement training at the time, so they just let me walk beside Billy, chatting, laughing, teasing and so on. However, they all got muscle pain, blisters, hot spots but they just sucked them up by their own, instead of asking Billy for help. I feel proud of them, and in my eyes they are all heroes. That’s why I named ourselves as the Monticle legend team.
Through this trip, I learned a lot of things from my teammates. To be a good leader, you can’t put your temptations or eagerness at first priority, but your teammates’ needs and feelings. For example, you know that you can still carry on, but you also know that your teammates need rest because of their blisters. At this moment, you want to be a solo hero of reaching the destination by yourself, leaving your team, or a hero who cares about others and wants to reach the destination as a team? Billy gave me a suggestion – if you just abandon your teammates, your teammates might not help you in the future. Therefore, to maintain a good relationship, I think being a good leader is very important. Besides, I learnt about controlling my temptations – as I probably got well-trained before the trip, I always had the eagerness to impress others and make it as a competition. Luckily, Billy recognized my feelings and thus stopped me several times to review myself, and taught me that if you want to achieve something big and meaningful, you need to control yourself (temptation). Furthermore, you can only be selfish if you are not hurting anybody nor yourself. Therefore, I should take Billy as my example – putting his students for first priority. That’s why every Monticle student likes Billy so much. (Actually this is the point of communication – it’s not about your own intention, but the other's feelings.)
E.g. Billy always bought us favourite food, and let us eat first, he always eats the last. Well, you could say this is somehow another kind of weight-loss training for him, but his attitude of communication should be respectful.

The closer to the destination, the more difficult it is. On the third night, 10 km to the destination, our morale started to drop, like being relaxed and started dragging... No matter what, after crossing the Welden tunnel, Billy called Edwin to follow him tightly, then I followed Edwin, therefore Alastair and Jason wouldn't drag so much and follow us tightly. Somehow Billy's technique work! Another challenge was traveling at night. Billy used Alastair's flashlight to do signals by swing the light and reflect on his white shirt. White shirt can reflect light and easily be recognizable, and once he swung it the driver approaching could be able to detect us. Smart eh?
No matter what, life is like the roads we were walking on - rough with rocks, up and down, tilted... That's why Billy got his feet hurt so badly (probably the feeling only) while paying attention to vehicles at night but not balancing himself. Therefore, as we all didn't really pay attention to the terrains and conditions of the road, we somehow hurt our legs so much because of unbalance stress or over-leaning to either side - and made us walk like an old man with his broken leg... How come 1 km is so long to us??? OMG, I have never expected that to happen to me. I didn't take any painkiller pill, so I got sore kneels and I just basically shut up my mind and walked like an auto-pilot robot, letting it ruin my body until we reached the colourful Falls. The most ridiculous part is when we saw the Falls, which is what we came for, we wanted to sprint towards it but we couldn't because of over-using our muscles and got sore pain. What the heck, I could just only say that~ Anyway, as Billy told me, what you came for is not about the destination, but the process or duration of how you reach it - we got blisters, thunderstorm, hunger, sleepiness, homesick and a lot more but still we sucked it up and use our mind over body to control ourselves. A lot of people can do this, like the Special Forces could do this as a training, Marathon runners could do this as a time-count competition etc. But once you just focus on the time consumed, you might easily forget about the sceneries, the fun you enjoyed with other team mates, the way we solved the problems out etc. You will be able to feel the difference from the time-chasing ones, so did I.
Again, thank you everybody giving me a valuable opportunity to dig out Canada's roads and traffic structures and systems, besides learning how to be a good leader. Last but not least, thank you for May-yee and my aunt Sandraca for providing us an extrenely hefty dinner at a Japanese Cuisine Restaurant. Hope everyone appreciate our success and support us for any other upcoming challenges. Thanks a lot!!!