When there are kitchens along the way who provide food and water to these pigrims I think of thru-hikers who don't bring very much gear because they know that there will be a cabin or a town every so often...seems similar to me somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if these kitchens (or something/somebody near by them) were able to provide some first aid to those who got hurt along the way.

I imagine there were given that there were so many people taking part...then again many of those people live a hard life to begin with and have a LOT of faith...injuries might not have slowed them down.