Long Course, 20km with very steep and long hills (and lots of descents), but not so many technical sections and no river crossings.
We arrived at Silvan and it was another very cold morning. Not as cold as plenty, but it felt pretty close. After getting a good parking spot we ventured out into the cold to check out the race site. It was at this point I realised I’d forgotten to bring my trail runners. This was disastrous and with that horrible sinking feeling permeating through my body and thoughts of skipping the race going through mind, I remembered that the Salomon tent offered free trial shoes for the races. Being early as usual meant that I had a full selection to choose from and I chose the Salomon S-LAB Sense 4 Ultra SG (http://www.salomon.com/us/product/s-lab-sense-4-ultra-sg.html?article=373244)
The start of the Silvan course was the same as the Short Course from 2 years ago (http://rob-mcnamara.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/salomon-trail-running-race-3-silvan.html). The rest was new, but covered a lot of the trails used in the Olinda race last year (http://rob-mcnamara.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/while-ive-been-away.html). But with the start and finish at the other end of the course, it meant we would be doing most of the climbing in the first half and the second half would be dominated by descents (opposite to the Olinda race last year).
Most of the Silvan course is double track with some sections on 4wd trails and fairly limited in the technical single track sections that we experienced at Plenty. Never the less, I wanted to avoid being held back early on like I was at Plenty and positioned myself much closer to the start. Being amongst runners similar to my ability made for a much better race early on. The leaders disappeared out of sight pretty fast, but the rest of us quickly fell into a nicely spaced out line running at a good pace.
The first loop was completed quite fast and then we hit heart break hill. Each race has a Suunto Sprint section that rewards the fastest runners over selected part of the course. At the other races the Suunto Sprint is the last 100 to 500m before the finish line, but at Silvan the organisers thought it would be funny to put the Suunto Sprint on heart break hill. Trying to actually run up this hill so early into the long course event would almost certainly ruin your race and everybody in sight was hunched over with their hands on their knees as they slowly walked (crawled) up the hill. Obviously there were some competitors who ran up to get a good time, I know this because I lost my Strava KOM for Heartbreak hill achieved during the Silvan Short Course race 2 years ago. I didn’t actually realise I held the KOM until I got an email from Strava informing me that I’d lost it.
Mentally the race felt like it began once I’d climbed over Heartbreak Hill. Obviously the leaders were well out of sight, but the group I was running with had also distanced itself from the runners behind. Heartbreak hill was only 400m (but very steep), the subsequent descent was nearly 1km long, then followed by rolling hills for another 2km. Different terrain favoured different people, but generally the small group of about 8 runners all stayed in sight of one another.
Then we hit a bigger hill. Not as steep as Heartbreak, but at 1.5km, much longer. Strangely enough this hill seemed to suit me. Not only did I pull away from the group, but I also caught and passed the group ahead who were previously out of sight. In general I was able to run (very slowly) whereas nearly everyone else reverted to walking. I was a little concerned that I may be expending too much energy so early, but I wasn’t finding the slow run pace that hard and it was giving me a lot of advantage over the other competitors.
After a 500m descent, where numerous other competitors caught back up to me, we hit the biggest hill of the race (2km long). It was not as steep as the last one, so running was a little easier. This meant that there were not so many walkers and my advantage was a diminished. By now we were also encountering the back half of the Medium Course race who had started before us. The uphill sections were often single track, so you had to think ahead to time your pass. Although the majority of the Medium Course racers were very obliging and made it very easy to pass.
At the 11.5km mark we reached Olinda. This was the top of the hill meaning is was mainly downhill all the way back to Silvan. Obviously there were some small climbs and rolling sections, but mainly it was descending and some of these were very fast.
I must admit that the Salomon trail runners I was trialling for the race had significantly better grip than my usual Inov8 Trailrocs. This was a major advantage on the downhill sections where I had far more confidence in my footing. I still lost ground to the good descenders but probably not as much as normal.
With around 2km to go my legs started to give out. It wasn’t because I went too hard on the climbs, it was the pounding they were taking from so much running downhill. My quads were overloaded and as a result my knees were now starting to play up. The last 2km is relatively flat, but I had to hold back and just run a steady pace to protect my legs. I probably lost 3 or 4 positions as a result and maybe 1 or 2 places in my Age Category. But overall I was very happy with my race.
One of Elaine’s season goals is to do the 28km Two Bays Trail Run in January. The problem is that you need to qualify for this race. A 2h15m Half Marathon is an automatic qualifier. Additionally results in Trail Runs over 15km can also be used to qualify (based on the discretion of the organisers). Elaine’s Plenty race was very slow at just under 3 hours for 17.5km. However I suggested that a sub 3 hour time at Silvan might be enough to qualify. With the new incentive Elaine absolutely smashed the course and finished in 2m49m. She has submitted her entry to the Two Bays Trail Run, but we are yet to hear if she has got in yet. Note that we still have a Half Marathon booked for September, so she has another chance up her sleeve.
Mikey and Anita were missing from Silvan, but Sarah and Merryn were back along with Shaune (who I’ve been coaching recently). Merryn and Sarah did the Short Course again. Merryn loved it just as much as Plenty and Sarah improved her result by finishing as first female and 8th place overall. Shaune raced the Medium Course and won her age group (must be my coaching).
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