Training Log Archive: jennycas

Over 150 teams were entered for this event, which was advertised as being at Jupiter Creek but despite the promotional photos on the website didn't turn out to include any of the historical gold diggings, something which I had started to suspect in the past week when there were photos of the water being nearly up to the footbridge over Meadows Creek right down at the southern end of Knott Hill. So, basically it was Jupiter Creek pine forest (which hasn't been used for foot-O recently because of felling & regrowth), Knott Hill pine & native forest, and some good linkages through farmland between them. Steve & I remembered somehow doing 42km in the 6hr at Bundaleer in 2010, but we were a lot fitter then, so planned for about 36km straight line, grateful that this is a flatter area, apart from the northern end of the course which I convinced Steve we should tackle first.

It seemed that the junior boys and the ultra trail runners had the same idea, so we were around them for the first few controls (including a stop to release a kangaroo from the fence it had just run into and was kicking mightily against, trapped by its foot but I managed to untwist the wires ok while on the opposite side of the fence from the growling roo) which we kept having to unwind the Navlight punches from if we got there first - but by the time we'd been around the furthest section and back through the narrow Heysen Trail linkage to the rest of the forest, couldn't see any other teams behind us. Crossed Razorback Rd, into the flat pines W of the HH, not enjoying bashing through the brashings but then we got into some open farmland and that was fine, all the way to the main Kangarilla-Meadows road, then we got into the Knott Hill section at about 2 hrs 45 (a bit annoyed not to find the water drop but think it was in the wrong place; we managed the whole 6hrs with 1.5L each).

Saw Meredith/Abigail/Joanna going the other way and figured that they'd covered slightly more ground than us already but had the steeper stuff to go at the end - so this was both reassuring and also emphasised to us that we would need to keep working hard. Made it through the sandy/scrubby section and out to the dam on Wicks Rd at 4hrs, figured we'd better go all the way to the footbridge as recommended to get the 90pts (could see that the creek would have been over my head last weekend but is now wadeable apart from the deep waterholes) and started heading north from here. Surprised at how many other teams were doing the same, and we were slowly overtaking all of them. Crossed the main road and the farmland got quite soggy underfoot so running wasn't always possible, then after we turned east was the most horrible leg of all, crossing squelchy bog with numerous fences both tightly-wired and electrified and I tried going under some of them which my cramping hip flexors protested bitterly at.

Anyway, we got back into the pine forest with just over half an hour to spare, and managed 2x40, a 50 & a 30 in that time, finishing with about 5 min up our sleeve although I had allowed for wasting about 3 min in the young pines, which had happened to us a couple of times earlier in the course but didn't happen now. Finished feeling pretty pleased with ourselves - the only other control we could maybe have got if all had gone perfectly was a 20, and as it was we'd only left out 5 controls, and had 2090 points. The junior girls left out 6 controls, and had 2050 points, so it was a very close race and a huge effort by them. No other team got over 2000pts, so winners are grinners - thanks Steve for a grand day out :)

C • Very satisfying day out! 9

If I can't be back in Darwin with SLE (I miss Ellie!), I can at least go for a run in Belair, which is always pleasant, although would have been better still by daylight - bring on October! Despite mental cheerfulness I didn't have much physical energy. Hope to have more on Sat.

Up Randell's, down Gloucester. Very slow pace can only slightly be attributed to the lack of major hills in Darwin. 'Twas a nice breezy night though, with the smell of Acacia pycnantha in the air. Acacia paradoxa is starting to bloom too.

18 x 30 sec on, 1 min off, around the Nth Adl loop with a huuuge group tonight, so varied in ability that we were a bit like Brown's cows when regrouping. Impressed that Ana (at 13) can sprint faster than me although admittedly this isn't hard.

As I was putting out direction signs at 8am in the wind & rain, I really regretted not having brought gloves, and erecting the toilet tent wasn't great either (the hole started filling up with water as soon as we had dug it). Decided not to wear a thermal top on course though because I'd need dry clothes for later and among the pines it should at least be sheltered from the wind. First creek crossing (of 4) was shin-deep and made my feet numb with cold - I think the last use of this map was the club relays in 2005 when we had to wait for the creek to go down and therefore delayed the mass start!

I always enjoy the flatter low-vis east part of Wirra Wirra even though hunting among the trees for the right patch of greener grass which may contain some rock was a bit hit & miss initially until I got my bearings under control. The change of terrain to the steeper western side of the road could potentially have been less interesting but had some good route choice legs, although that doesn't mean I took the best route. Certainly it wasn't ideal to be coming down off the steepest rockiest part of the ridge when the hail shower hit! Figured that keeping running was the best way of keeping warm, but still I was pretty cold when I finished. (Don't know how the people with lesser body fat percentage survived their courses.) Grateful for the junior squad selling hot soup, but took a while to feel like going out again for control collecting. Now that I've seen the longest course, I sort of wish I'd done the extra 1.3km, because the added distance was all among the rocks on the east side of the road.

I brought 3 pairs of socks today, but needed a 4th pair, and also should not have changed out of my O gear until after collecting the direction signs, because as soon as I got out of the car to do that, the heaviest rain of the day fell...and driving home involved going through a lot of water over the road, plus the Onkaparinga River at Verdun looked even fuller than it had this morning.