Training Log Archive: jennycas

I left home at 7am to collect Fern and we were unsurprised to encounter other rogainers at the Yankalilla Bakery on our way to Second Valley Forest, where we'd last rogained in 2012 (myself with Zara, herself with Tyson). That particular event was called Land Of The Black Cockatoo and they were certainly evident today, circling noisily overhead as they did at B&S' Kuitpo wedding also.

Neither of us was feeling particularly energetic and when faced with a map which would require over 40km to get all controls, decided to leave attempting that to the bright young things and planned an approx 30km loop by joining together the three most lucrative 10km strings of controls which we could identify, starting out anticlockwise and doing the southern farmland early on. This meant that for the first half of the course we were often seeing Meredith and Abigail, as they would overtake us, then do 1-2 extra controls then overtake us again; the most entertaining occasion of this being when they ploughed past us through a swamp where we were picking our way carefully, then incautiously barged over a fence which zapped both girls, eliciting startled squawks, while Fern & I trotted up behind them and very cautiously rolled under it, smirking as we did so...

Admittedly we did lose a bit of time on getting over/under electric fences, but otherwise maintained a steady-rather-than speedy pace. I was horrified to find myself flagging at only about 2 1/2 hours; it was as though all the energy had drained out of my legs and we still had over half the course to go - guess I just needed lunch (we both felt that coffee and/or a nap would have been nice at that point too). SE corner had a couple of swampy brackeny creeks in the pines which were slow going, but we refilled with water at a drop right on 3hrs and crossed back over Range Rd into steeper pines where you definitely couldn't run up the hills, heading for the northeast corner and some higher-point controls; although slightly ahead of schedule we decided not to add in any extra lower points at this stage.

A good thing, too, as we then lost 10 min on 90 "head of the gully" but possibly higher up than marked (other teams thought so too) and after getting around the NE controls - fairly straightforward as they were on tracks around the OOB native scrub - we had some cross-country legs in pines which were fairly slow going especially as Fern was having trouble lifting her legs by now. Finished off by running hard to an extra 20 points just S of the HH, and were very pleased to end up 3rd overall (Meredith & Abigail did indeed clean up the course, and the trailrunning guys missed only 1 control, whereas we left out 8, and even with maximum efficiency could only have got 1-2 more at most since I am now 20% slower than in 2012 when it appears that Z & I won by 260 points).

The best bit was that Tyson & the kids had come down to meet Fern at the finish and brought us delicious pizza from Normanville, which we ate while surrounded by envious glances from everyone else as the HH was only serving soup & rolls. The second-best bit was that despite being away from home for 13 hours, I had showered and was in my pyjamas before the teams doing the 3-9pm twilight option had even finished :)

C • 90 2

Not in the mood for playing with water buffaloes this morning.

C • Gerang Gerung 1

After-dark redwoods return with Zara & Fern. Pleasant, but lacked the mental (and physical) challenge of Gumble.

Legs (and more importantly, arms/shoulders/neck/back which had all been horrible for a week or two) a bit better after a Killer Massage this morning so I went up the hill in Sheps, and the weather wasn't quite as gloomy this evening as last night, which led me to forget to take my headlamp - oops. Didn't have time for a long one anyway because of needing to go to OHOC meeting and discuss next weekend's NOL races.

C • NOL races 11

Feeling less dead than yesterday so went for a short run along the (completely dry) creek before online OSA Council meeting. Needed a headlamp!

With Fern from hers, down to Frank Smith Park then back up through Hawthorndene following the creek to the national park entrance, surprised to see a whole lot of trail runners with Summit to Sea chest numbers running the other way - turned out that this was the 'short' option for the Karrawirra 100km ultra. I felt a bit inadequate...

C • Yeah but... 3

Not sure why I thought that riding to/from parents' would make me any less stiff following an afternoon of gardening? Anyway, took the bike path past the southern end of the airport and dodged the humans along the coast at Glenelg, then nearly ran out of time to get home without lights.