Training Log Archive: jennycas

That's another way to get wet feet, I guess.

Sturt Gorge revisited, a lot greener now and with more water flowing than back in March which was the last event pre-COVID (not that we are yet post-COVID, but at least things *seem* normal around here) and starting from the south side, in Flagstaff Hill.

Fern & I looked at the map and decided to minimise crossings of the gorge, but we did want to see the flood control dam just north of the HH, so headed there early on then south through the suburbs to the substation across Blacks Rd, then north down the western valley which parallels Flagstaff Rd, and into the gorge, picking up a nice string of controls and accepting a couple of jelly snakes from a middle aged couple (it's ok, they weren't strangers, they were rogainers) then crossing the Sturt River on the concrete blocks at the westernmost end of the map and promptly seeing a real snake before we slogged it up the hill to Bellevue Heights and a couple of controls whose locations I had indeed run straight past last night but the plates weren't out then.

From the Bellevue Heights ridgeline we dropped down into Magpie Gully and got to the control on the cascades pretty much at the 2hr mark, then took a couple of minutes to discuss our options and decided to get the rest of the controls on either side of Magpie Gully which meant a bit of down & up. We skirted the edge of Craigburn Farm/Blackwood Park and got to the 90-pointer near the Coromandel Pde bridge over Sturt River with 50 min left and still not having waded through any creeks. Possibly we should have stuck to the river valley for an 80 and a 60, but instead went up & over a couple of spurs in the suburbs for a 60 and 50, with myself lagging behind on hills as I had done from the beginning. I did manage to talk Fern into an extra 20 points right at the end which I feel counteracted the dodgy route choice I'd done right at the start (but so had Zara & Bryn, and they ended up only 30 points ahead of us; the most I feel we could have got extra was maaaybe another 20 points with the nearly 5 min we had to spare) and also which ensured us first women's. Not complaining about 6th overall, either!

C • 'tis the season... 1

Sunset singletracks run around the snout. Didn't see any rogaine controls but could hear water rushing in Sturt Gorge down below so reckon we'll get wet feet tomorrow.

With Zara & Fern, squelchily through Echo Tunnel and up to the Lower Waterfall (flowing freely) then Upper Waterfall (trickling thoroughly) then back down QJD. I pointed out some Rabbit-Ears* orchids to the girls :)

*Leptoceras menziesii, apparently the only member of its genus, previously known as Caladenia menziesii. To make things more confusing, there is also a member of the Thelymitra (sun orchid) family known as rabbit-ears but those are only tiny protuberances in the centre of the orchid whereas this one is definitely a long-eared bunny!

Suburban jog on a day which had more in common with July than with October. Struggling this week with what I've annually thought of as post-nationals letdown but it may equally be to do with adjusting to an hour of daylight saving.

It was always going to be pushing it to get everything packed up in time to make it to the event for 9am preallocated starts (especially since that time was, until yesterday, 8am) but made more complicated by having to pack up wet tents - over the weekend we hadn't put the fly on, primarily because someone had forgotten to bring the poles for its verandah (but this didn't matter, because G extended the awning from the ute and that made a fine shelter). When it started to rain properly at bedtime last night we weren't too worried because the material of the inner is waterproof anyway and only the window zips might be a problem, but within less than half an hour it became evident that none of the seams are sealed and the stitching was wicking water into the tent as though somebody had turned a tap on, so we had to go out in the dark and the rain and haul the canvas fly over the top...

Anyway, so I hitched a ride to the event with SLEH leaving G to finish packing, and we got there with all of 10 min to spare before my start, so I was a bit flustered, but it was a beautifully cool morning and I felt much more able to run fluently today and controls 1 & 2 came up just where they should have been. On the long leg to 3 I still wasn't quite focused though and somehow I made a 90-degree error; the hills to the north didn't seem to be coming up as I'd expected so I convinced myself that I was too far west and therefore deliberately headed east, bouncing off a creek at 90 degrees to the one I wanted - oops. Didn't correct enough and crossed over the wrong saddle at the end of the leg too, so that was 4-5 min lost. A few other small in-circle errors could likewise have been prevented by more attention to detail, but it was a very enjoyable course amongst the small knolls and braided creeks with the backdrops of the Chace and Pound Ranges.

G & I headed home after that, a bit sorry to leave our convivial campsite where the enclave had ended up with 10 adults and 8 kids ranging in age from 3 to 7, all of whom seemed to be closely attracted to the mud in the creek (the dam at Rawnsley was actually full, for the first time in many years). We took a few back roads between Hawker and Orroroo, marvelling at the current greenness, and stopped for coffee at Maggie's Rendezvous where the lemon meringue pie never disappoints. Going to work tomorrow may be a bit of a letdown though.

Still pretty warm this morning; somewhat overcast but also far windier than yesterday (I needed to stay inside the tent to tape my ankles!) and straight away from the start behind the bunkhouse in the Gap, I had to hold on to my hat to stop it from blowing away, and from thereon I could either do that or read my map, but not both simultaneously, so it was fairly slow going. I knew there would be a horrible leg up & over Ulowdna Range into the campground, but at least it was fairly early in the course and I decided to take a wider route to minimise climb, as I did also when coming back over the range, even though that added extra distance (and unfortunately led me into a wide-bearing parallel error). By halfway around, my knees were becoming really painful and so I walked the rest, which probably prevented me from overheating (plus I drank both the water I was carrying and the water allocated to me at controls, so that was 1L altogether) but the conditions really weren't pleasant...

From the saddle on high @Clem Corner it was very hazy looking south towards the Elder Range, and throughout the course the dust haze became thicker and thicker, until towards the end the Elders ceased to exist, and in fact by the time we got back to our campsite after the event, even the Pound Range and Rawnsley Bluff only 3km away were invisible and there was absolutely no point in going touristing, so we just spent the afternoon at camp, sweeping out the red dust from our tent and shaking dust off from absolutely everything - I think it may still be in my ears though. About 2 dozen big fat drops of dusty rain fell about 3pm and the sky cleared from red to white in a southeasterly direction almost as we watched, but over half the campers had already cleared out, possibly because their tents had collapsed in the gusty winds.