Training Log Archive: Sanders

sore legs today!
but managed to walk round jenolan caves including 1300 steps up and down inside the mountain before a big rest in the car on the way home. A fun day!

Six Foot Track Marathon in the Blue Mountains from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves. What a great race! Perfect for orienteers - one of the best, most fun races I've ever run - loved every bit of it.

On Friday afternoon, went to Jenolan Caves via Katoomba, and picked up race number and timing chip from the fancy hotel in Katoomba. Happened to run into Susie and Patrick there, but only stopped for a quick "hello, see you tomorrow" chat. Ate really well at the pasta buffet at the hotel, yummo, and had a great night's sleep, which was the perfect start to race day, made me feel 100%.

Had to get up at 5am on Saturday, though, to catch the bus to the start at Katoomba. Things got interesting when one passenger had to quickly bolt off the bus (maybe nerves?) but eventually we made it to the start with heaps of time to spare. The start of the Track was at the top of a hill, and the early wave was soon off, disappearing quickly down the hill into the mist. The weather was perfect for running - cool and overcast, and although we were all shivering at the start, we knew we would soon warm up. Susie, Patrick, Devil, Graham and Matt (Vanessa's b'friend) were all there. The boys soon got going in their waves, then Susie and I hit the start line, all fired up and ready to go. We spent the last five minutes before the gun pumping each other up, and I was definitely really excited at this point - felt full of energy and confident I would make the distance.

The start was fairly ordinary - a big long downhill over rock faces, mud, then the STAIRS. This bit was SO annoying because I got stuck behind so many slow people and we basically walked the 1 km down the stairs. I "lost" a lot of time here but made use of the slow pace by enjoying the scenery. Finally got under way at the bottom, and ran steadily along the flat. Caught Susie around here and we cheered each other on, then I pulled away. Really enjoyed this part of the race - gradual down hill made it quick, and I overtook a few people by running alongside the track when it became single track through grasslands and over watercourses. Also passed a few people up the first steep hill, then wound round the single track over rocks towards Cox's river. This was quite a long section of single track and tricky to negotiate - I heard one man fall down way behind me because he screamed loudly, then a woman behind me fell heavily on the rocks and I waited about 10 seconds to make sure her friend was able to look after her, it was a nasty fall. Just before Cox's river I caught up to the tail end of the second wave, which was annoying again because I had to jog slowly along the single track until the river where I overtook many by plunging straight into the water up to my neck then out the other side where the track suddenly became wide again (there's a great pic of me coming out of the river on the professional photo website). Anyway this seemed to be where the hills began and it was just a matter of plugging away up up up to the top of each. I was glad to have the energy to keep running, because most other people seemed to be walking the hills. The bit before the pluviometer was the toughest - a long steep uphills, but just after the pluviometer was a lot of fun - quite cool up the top of the hills, with soft tracks and just enough up and down to make it interesting. At 10 km to go I was running beside Lee (a Bilby) - "only 10K to go!" we said to each other as we passed the sign.

I was happy with my pace along here, and the distance wasn't bothering me too much until I got a bit crampy on a short sharp hill and finally cracked - I had to walk about 20 m up this one, and used the walking time to grab my third powerbar and quickly ate 3/4 of it before reaching the top, and shoved the rest in my pocket while enjoying the long downhill bit towards the end. I overtook Graham around here, who was suffering badly from cramps, which was a shame but it seemed like lots of people were cramping here and he definitely wasn't alone with that.

The downhills got steeper and steeper towards the end, and again I got stuck behind a train of "joggers". At the 3 km to go point I stopped bothering to overtake people and cruised home, enjoying the view down the mountain to the finish. Fun to see Devil and Patrick just after I crossed the line and glad to hear they did well too (especially Devil, way to go!) Then we waited a little while for Susie who finished in 5:35 with a big smile on her face.

In the end I crossed the line in 4:54:10 - happy with the race but would have liked to go around 4:45. Maybe next time if I'm in a faster wave! Ended up 19th female, I think I was the second female in my wave, and got a medal for being in the fastest female team (Gramp's Army: Angela Bateup, Louise Sharp, me, and Pam). Overall a top race - it was a great weekend and well worth all the training. I couldn't have asked for better - stoked that we all did well and had fun on the day.

C • Congratulations 3

run with shan, lucy and cath from cath's new place.... which is right next door to me!
over to the uni and along the bike path to the new museum then back through some sneaky short cuts through the edge of the city.

C • 6FT 2

C • Congrats!! 5

rest day, hooray

Summer series sprint at Black Mtn peninsula. Fast and furious - happy that I didn't stuff it up today!

Warmed up by jogging there from work, and warmed down by going back to pick up my car then spent a while collecting controls. I did half and Michael Burt did half so there was a bit of waiting around in the dark but otherwise good.

Vaguely thought about doing XC or Bilbys tonight but was a bit tired from travelling, so ran by myself instead.