I finally did it! Yesterday I ran in the 6-foot track marathon. I’ve been wanting to do this run for well over a decade. Twice I’d been entered for it to be cancelled due to COVID and track damage from weather events.
This is a 45km trail event, from Nellies Glen lookout in Katoomba (Blue Mountains) to Jenolan Caves. Previously I’d walked and camped the course with mrshill pre-COVID. My official time was 5:47:44, which I was very happy with since I was hoping for sub-6 hours. This year’s race was on an altered course from previous years - also due to track damage - so unfortunately we didn’t go all the way to the caves. They added a 5km-ish detour in the somewhere in the middle and finished the race before the descent to the caves.
The highlight of the race was the river crossing at Coxs river after about 15 kms. The water level was about chest-height this year - not quite swimming so we were able to keep our devices out of the water. I did have a waterproof bag for my AirPods and my phone is supposed to be waterproof but I didn’t take any risks and held aloft! The following section, known as the ‘Pluviometer’ is a deadly climb of over 10kms, most of which I walked, as did basically everyone else in my ‘wave’.
This was such an awesome event. The volunteers and crew were so kind. At the finish line, I had two crew members check in on me asking if I was OK. I think it was because I was almost crying. The lowlight of the day was the shuttle bus ride back to Katoomba. The road back to the highway is super-windy and I’m not a great bus traveller at the best of times. Add to that, there was no aircon at the back of the bus. About two minutes before arriving at our destination I said to the person sitting next to me - ‘I think I’m going to pass out’. And I did. It didn’t last long. Apparently the guy sitting behind me was a doctor so he swapped seats with the woman sitting next to me, checked my pulse and gave me some water and skittles and I made it off the bus OK. When I got home I had some food and plenty of hydration, a nice shower and I was fine!
Here are a few photos from the day (I don’t normally take selfies - You can probably tell) -
Near the start line
The descent to Nellie’s Glen - this was single-file walking
Just crossed the river
One of about four or five ‘creek’ crossings - water about shin-height
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