It was a beautiful warm sunny day and a glorious day to be out in the bush.
It was also gruelling. We tried to run all the flats and make haste walking up the many hills. I don't think we took on enough calories because in the final 8km there was complete silence and all of us were clearly hurting. It was bloody good to get it done though and we were happy as can be to get back to my car at Ku-ring-gai!
Started at 7am, finished at 3:15pm.
View from the platform at Hawksbury River station
Local graffiti
Down by the water, stage 1
Saturday was to be our longest training run for the Oxfam Trailwalker. Unfortunately Kathryn is still a week off coming back from injury, although from the sounds of her double-spin class and water-running training schedule, she’s going to come back twice as fit as the rest of us!
So it was the other three team members - Chris, Andrew and myself – who set off in the dark for a 50km run from the start of the run at Brooklyn to the third checkpoint at Ku-Ring-Gai High shool on Bobbin Head Road.
We parked my car at Ku-ring-gai, drove with Andrew to Berowra and dropped his car, then caught the train to Brooklyn for a 7am start.
It was much better doing the track for a second time, we knew where we were going and what to expect and in fact managed to make it to the first Check Point at Cowan almost 30 minutes faster than last time.
The second stage is the hardest and it did feel like a long slog up and down, but we made it to Berowra ok and changed shirts and shoes at the car.
It wasn’t easy to get going again, in fact it was downright tough through the bush at the next section, especially climbing back up to Mount Ku-ring-gai, but then we had the flat part on the other side of the Highway and the descent into Apple Tree Bay to rest our legs a little bit.
Getting going after Apple Tree Bay was a nightmare. We’d done 42 km by this point and only had another 8km to go to the finish, but that last 1 hour and 15 minutes seemed about as long as the rest of the day combined! I don’t think any of us had taken on nearly enough food and while we probably had sufficient water, a bit more electrolyte would have helped.
It was a dark place, we all ran along for the last hour in almost complete silence (which for us is a rarity) and I could tell we all just wanted the thing over with. I’ve never been so happy to see my car at the end! We’d managed just over 50km in 8 hours and 15 minutes, arriving at the car at 3:15pm.
We were tired, but in pretty good spirits. None of us fancied running another step, but I feel that with the right nutrition and hydration we would have been feeling much better at the end. Saying that, it’s bloody awesome to have run longer than any of us have ever run in our lives and still feel good about it.
I was even more stoked to be able to get back on the bike at 6am the next day and pedal an easy recovery 65km to McCarrs Creek and back with Mike, John and Mark.
Run stats:
Left Brooklyn – 7.00am
Arrived Checkpoint 1 Cowan – 9.00am
Left Checkpoint 1 Cowan – 9.10am
Arrived Checkpoint 2 Berowra – 11.30am
Left Checkpoint 2 Berowra – 11.45am
Arrived Checkpoint 3 Apple Tree Bay – 1.50pm
Left Checkpoint 3 Apple Tree Bay – 2.00pm
Arrived Checkpoint 4 Ku-ring-gai High School – 3.15pm
So it was the other three team members - Chris, Andrew and myself – who set off in the dark for a 50km run from the start of the run at Brooklyn to the third checkpoint at Ku-Ring-Gai High shool on Bobbin Head Road.
We parked my car at Ku-ring-gai, drove with Andrew to Berowra and dropped his car, then caught the train to Brooklyn for a 7am start.
It was much better doing the track for a second time, we knew where we were going and what to expect and in fact managed to make it to the first Check Point at Cowan almost 30 minutes faster than last time.
The second stage is the hardest and it did feel like a long slog up and down, but we made it to Berowra ok and changed shirts and shoes at the car.
It wasn’t easy to get going again, in fact it was downright tough through the bush at the next section, especially climbing back up to Mount Ku-ring-gai, but then we had the flat part on the other side of the Highway and the descent into Apple Tree Bay to rest our legs a little bit.
Getting going after Apple Tree Bay was a nightmare. We’d done 42 km by this point and only had another 8km to go to the finish, but that last 1 hour and 15 minutes seemed about as long as the rest of the day combined! I don’t think any of us had taken on nearly enough food and while we probably had sufficient water, a bit more electrolyte would have helped.
It was a dark place, we all ran along for the last hour in almost complete silence (which for us is a rarity) and I could tell we all just wanted the thing over with. I’ve never been so happy to see my car at the end! We’d managed just over 50km in 8 hours and 15 minutes, arriving at the car at 3:15pm.
We were tired, but in pretty good spirits. None of us fancied running another step, but I feel that with the right nutrition and hydration we would have been feeling much better at the end. Saying that, it’s bloody awesome to have run longer than any of us have ever run in our lives and still feel good about it.
I was even more stoked to be able to get back on the bike at 6am the next day and pedal an easy recovery 65km to McCarrs Creek and back with Mike, John and Mark.
Run stats:
Left Brooklyn – 7.00am
Arrived Checkpoint 1 Cowan – 9.00am
Left Checkpoint 1 Cowan – 9.10am
Arrived Checkpoint 2 Berowra – 11.30am
Left Checkpoint 2 Berowra – 11.45am
Arrived Checkpoint 3 Apple Tree Bay – 1.50pm
Left Checkpoint 3 Apple Tree Bay – 2.00pm
Arrived Checkpoint 4 Ku-ring-gai High School – 3.15pm
No comments:
Post a Comment