Before the race Elaine and I did a course recon checking out the start and finish sections of the race. We didn't venture into the middle section as this would have involved river crossings and we didn't want to get our feet wet before the race.On the right is a photo I took of the first river crossing. It is probably only a creek, but river crossing sounds better and that's what it said on the race brochure. It doesn't look like much in the photo, but the path leading down to the river is almost a sheer drop of about 3 metres and the river is knee deep. There is a rope strung up across the river that is difficult to see in the photo, so I've included a photo of the 2nd river crossing from the race website that better illustrates how the rope assists in the river crossing.
It was Elaine's idea to enter the Trail Running Series and the river crossings were one of the main reasons for her wanting to do the races, so she was extremely excited about the event. To her the knee deep water level made it even better.
Once again I positioned myself close to the front as we assembled near the start line (the same father with his young son were also right up the front again, but I wrote enough about that last time). Once the gun went off there was a mad dash down the first hill. I made a conscious effort to go out easier this time and let the small leading pack gap me by 10 metres or so. The gravel path was slightly winding as it descended down towards the level of the creek and it seemed some of the initially fast competitors found this a little too technical and I soon closed the gap to the leaders, or maybe they simply went out too fast. Looking at Strava after the race it showed I did my 2nd fastest 400m. Closer inspection showed I ran the first 400m at 3m00s pace, so the guys ahead were obviously flying.
One of the reasons the pack took off so quickly is that the first river crossing at the 700m mark was the start of the single track section. This mean that whoever you were stuck behind was potentially going to slow you up for the next 500m of very technical terrain. I was in roughly 5th position as we hit water. After scrambling down the 3 metre drop, I jumped straight into the river. I could sense the girl behind me hesitated, creating a gap and slowing down everyone behind her. This gap only got bigger as the race went on.
I exited the river on the heels of a young lad about 16 or 17 years old. Unlike Elaine and I who purchased new trail runners after the last race, the young lad was wearing normal runners and was struggling to find grip as we ascended a very steep, slippery and technical hill. We had gapped the girl behind and I was actually grateful for the slightly slower pace as it let me get my breath back. The guys ahead were pulling away, but the course was so difficult I didn't really care. Near the top I found an opportunity to pass only to discover two of the guys ahead had almost stopped due to exhaustion, so I ended up passing all three.
Once at the top, the trail opened up onto a paddock and I could just see a runner about 50 metres ahead. The run through the paddock was still up hill. With the exhaustion from the very steep climb I was struggling to go much faster than 6m30s pace, but was still pulling away from the three I just passed who were now barely moving.
For the next three kilometres or so I was very much running solo with only kangaroos for company (and some of the biggest kangaroos I've ever seen). Every now and again I'd catch a glimpse of the runner ahead. He had a lead of close to 200m, but every time I saw him he was looking around at me, so I knew he was hurting. At this stage I thought I might be in 3rd place overall. It was hard to tell, as the ascent after the river crossing was so tough I was experiencing tunnel vision and had no idea exactly how many were ahead.
The terrain was continually changing. Sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes running through open paddocks, then running along a trail, dirt roads and sometimes simply following the blue ribbons (tied to tree branches) as we crashed through the bush. Most of the time my heart rate was very close to max. My aim was to limit the damage on the difficult sections and try to recover enough to recapture a good pace on the easier bits.
Not long after the 2nd river crossing, I ran past the drink station where they told me I was actually in 2nd place overall - very exciting. With just over 2kms to go, the leader still had a good 200m on me (and mostly out of sight), so I didn't consider the win a possibility. I hadn't seen anyone behind me for a while, so I figured the gap to third place must be around 300m or so. Due to my pre-race course recon, I knew there were several tough hills to go and that one of them was brutal. So my main focus now was not blow up and risk losing 2nd place.
About 500m past the drink station was the brutal hill. During my recon, it was so steep it was very difficult to walk down, now I had to race up it. At the bottom I could see the leader walking near the top. He wasn't looking good, but I wasn't feeling great and I knew I'd feel worse after climbing the hill. I ran (or slowly jogged) the first 20 metres or so before reverting to a walk. It wasn't a particularly fast walk, in fact my hands were on my knees trying to assist in the effort of ascending. I was almost half way up when the leader finally summitted the top and turned onto the flatter trail. I was glad to see him go, as it made me feel less guilty for walking (or crawling) up the hill. I occasionally looked back to see if anyone was close, but it wasn't until I was at the very top that I saw the next competitor finally reach the base of the climb. My 2nd place should be safe now as long as I didn't try to go too fast.
The next section was mixtures of flat and slightly downhill, a welcome relief after the extremely tough hill climb. Then I turned a corner to see the leader stopped by the side of the trail throwing up. He looked up as I passed then vommitted again - I was now in the lead with about one kilometre to go. There was one tough and one medium hill left. The previous leader would probably be back in the race soon, so I had to take advantage of this lead. But my energy reserves were low and I was forced to walk up the next tough hill. Looking back once at the top, nobody else was in sight and this gave me a bit of extra energy.
As expected Elaine loved the race. It was far more brutal than she expected, but the river crossings made up for the tough hills. Elaine came 4th in her age group only 25 seconds behind 3rd place and 71 seconds behind 2nd. Our friend Moran came 4th place overall (and 3rd in his age group) in the Medium Distance race and looked suitably wrecked as he approached the finish line. In fact in both races it has taken Moran about 5 minutes after the race before he has recovered enough to even talk. Courtney also did the Middle Distance event whilst Kevin braved the Long Distance. It took Kevin just over 2 hours to finish. I cannot even imagine how difficult it would have been to race for that long over such a brutal course.
After winning a Salomon polar fleece last race, this time I won a $75 gift voucher at FootPro. Ironically after Elaine and I purchased our new trail runners from that store.
