I joined up with the Sydney Striders 6 Foot Training Group again this morning for another 30km trail run hit out. The course was the 'Lancaster Leveller' and started in Narrabeen which is only just up the road.
The 6am start meant another early alarm call, and after a fitfull sleep I was on the road at 5.45, arriving at the start just in time for the customary pre run photo and then we were off!
The first few km's went around the lake before darting into the bush after about 3km. Due to the fact that the route was only known by a few select individuals, we made quite a few stops to regroup throughout the run. This meant that we were never really able to get into a decent rhythm...but was probably for the best as the trail certainly wasn't easy to follow without guidance!
Once in the bush, the trail darted off uphill. At this point I was following the leading pack who seemed keen to run all uphills, no matter how hard they were. This seem to be the pattern for the rest of the run with the backmarkers walking the hills before we all regrouped.
All seemed to be going well as we all hared up the first few hills, no doubt keen to get into some serious climbing with the race only a few weeks away. After a while the hills slackened off a bit and the pace picked up again. Then, from nowhere, BAM I was down. Flat on my face having taken a tumble over a tree route. The person I was following was too far upfront to hear my fall and likewise those behind me were too far away too. I therefore quickly assessed the damage which appeared minor, just a couple of scrapes on both knees and my hand and decided to press on as the front group were rapidly disappearing in front of me. Luckily, the adrenalin seemed to keep me going until the first regrouping point a couple of km's later on where I reassessed and decided to keep going.
The route then wound its way through the bush for a while with a fair number of uphills and downhills. Regular water stops were provided with a well organised support crew run by the Striders team. After about 10-12km I started to struggle with the pace and started to drop back through the group and walk the uphills. This was probably due to the low after my adrenalin surge after my fall coupled with a nagging dull pain from the left knee that I had whacked when I went down.
Weather wise, although it was cool, it was very humid and, as per normal, this meant that I was dripping from very early on. I actually refilled my camelbak 3 times overall which meant I drank nearly 5 litres of water. And that still wasn't enough! I also managed to snaffle a couple of snakes too which helped things.
After what seemed like a lot of similar uphill and downhills, we regrouped at a particular junction only to find out that we had in fact gone wrong and were off trail. After some phone calls and GPS fiddling, we made our way back to where we should be....minus 2.5km!
From then on to the finish, the trail followed Narrabeen Lake again to the car park. For some reason (maybe the realisation that we had lost 2.5km) this last section was done at what felt like breakneck speed. Checking the watch after the finish revealed that in fact we were averaging just over 5 min/km for this part of the run! And after 23km of hilly trails! Luckily it was flat and I just managed to hold this pace until the end, but was mighty relieved to see the car and the finish line.
I didn't hang around at the end as my knee was still sore and I wanted to get dry as soon as possible as I was still dripping wet and so I downed an electrolyte drink and ducked off back home.
Overall, another great morning out, impeccably organised by the Striders team. I found it harder than the Roseville run a couple of weeks ago, mainly due to the hilly course and the humidity, but hopefully it will put me in good stead for the real deal in a few weeks time.
No comments:
Post a Comment