The day began as usual with an early rise and light breakfast consisting of a handful of macadamias and grapes washed down with some water. Stopped for petrol and a coffee at about 5:15am before picking up a mate heading up into the moutains. The forecast was for a hot day so I made sure to pack the camelback with some ice but was heartened by the misty morning conditions. As the two of us agreed that a run in the mist would be good we instantly found ourselves "above the clouds" by the time we hit Faulconbridge. The rising sun looked as though it would live up to the forecast.
Arriving at the starting line it was clear there would be a big turn out and by the time we were sent on our way there were more than 200 runners with most of those doing the full course run. We started near the back and began picking our way through the crowd up the first, slight and only rise of the trip out. About 3km into our descent the two of us were bounding down the steep track but my running mate was feeling some discomfort. We stopped briefly as he attempted to look after it with short trip into the bushland a number of people passed by and I looked down at my watch realising I had left it in the wrong mode and accidentally stopped and cleared the timer. No big deal. We both continued only a few hundred metres before slowing again. My friends stomach issue seemed to be getting worse. We walked, then jogged then walked again as more runners passed us down the hill.
As we came to the short course turn around point a few of the organisers politely asked if we were OK and pointed out the obvious.... It would be a long day for us if my running mate could not resolve the issue. He began to get frustrated and told me to go ahead without him. I did not. After some persuasive encouragement from me he managed to make creative use of some Elastoplast and disappear into the cover of the bushland a second time. More runners passed and there began to be longer and longer gaps between them.
Hoping that we were all sorted and good to go we set off down the trail again but once more the pain and discomfort of the stomach cramps became too much. Once more he told me to go on ahead. Again I would not. He stopped off into the bushland for a third time and by this stage I had seen the last runner (an older guy with the slow shuffle) go through and disappear a good few minutes ahead of us down the trail. We still had at least 4km to go before the turn around and any hopes of competing for a solid time were long gone. I was not disappointed though. Despite the problems, I have only ever entered these races for the fun of running and I would much rather run with someone to chat with and be able to push each other along then to gain a position or two and run on my own. In all honesty I am glad that I did not go it alone as later on it would be him pushing me along.
With our problems behind us but the entire field in front of us we readjusted our goal. We caught only one person before the turn around, that being the older gentlemen shuffling down the trail. I said to my friend I hope that when I am his age I am that much of a champion... We crossed a river at the bottom of the valley after passing the whole field running back the other way and guessed that we could probaly catch 20-30 people. As we turned around for the return trip we picked up 2 more runners. As the track angled back up out of the flats of the valley we sloshed our wet shoes against the hill.
The hills were so steep that most of the runners were forced to walk.We resolved ourselves to run... no matter how slowly. We passed 10 people much quicker than we thought we would, then 20 then 30. I cannot explain how long and steep these hills were.. I have run Wanda Sand Dunes, Giant Staircase in Katoomba and many others but for sheer, unrelenting climb this is unparalleled. Still we climbed and with about 5km to go we had caught about 40 people. The slope got steeper after this point and for about 100m I walked... not necessarily through exhaustion... more because my short shuffle up the hill proved slower than long, striding steps. It also allowed a little respite for the glutes and calves that had been climbing for so long.
With about 2.5km to go the sun was now beating down on us and we were towering above the valley below. The track flattened somewhat and my legs were heavy. It was me hanging on now as my friend would climb ahead, urging me to drag myself up the hill. The runners were were passing now were stronger and not so easy to drop. We would collect our 67th runner in a fast 500m spurt down a hill to the start/finish line.
We crossed the line together in 2hr 25mins 9s. Due to my earlier issues with the watch I did not get too much reliable data from the out trip but I did get the following from the final 10.5km:
- It took us 1hr 17mins to run the return meaning we took about 1hr 8mins on the out trip. Data from the early kilometres of the out trip had us covering the first half of the race in just under 50mins before we struck problems. In all we could have lost anywhere from 15-20mins from stoppages on the way down.
- 890m of elevation gain on the return trip.
- Average HR for the return was 174bpm or 91% of Max HR. This was the avg over 1hr and 17mins.
- Max HR was 195 which could be an anomaly of the monitor however I did exceed 180bpm in 6 out of 10 of the final kilometres.
-Graphs etc here- http://connect.garmin.com/activity/129714220
We finished in 93rd place out of 160 runners. A pretty solid effort considering how far ahead of us they got. Overall another great day, well organised by the folks at runnign wild and a great lead in to pre-season training which offically starts on Tuesday.
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