HARES & HOUNDS RECAP 55km trail ultra-marathon at the Glasshouse mountains. Race start was at 3:30am so I was up at 2:30am. I didnt need to set an alarm. I parked at the Woodford pool carpark (start/finish precinct) and was sleeping in the back of my ute. I was woken by people arriving to check-in. The route had to be changed slightly due to unforeseen circumstances and as a result the course was reduced to only 52.5km. I started the run as if I was doing an 84.4km run... slow! I was using this event as a training session for Ultraman Australia in May. The first hour we ran in darkness with the aid of our head lights. I had a cheap one which hardly gave off any light so I stayed close to people with bright lights. :D After the first checkpoint (around 12km), I joined 3 runners and we ran together to the halfway mark. These 3 were out doing a training session for the 100km Tarawera ultra marathon in 4 weeks time, so today was just a short one for them :P On the way back I got talking to another bloke and how Im training for Ultraman. Turns out he was too! And he had 2 more mates that were there today (up with the lead runners) that are also doing Ultraman this year. Ultraman is only open to a small field of just 45 athletes, and 10% of them were running here today. I enjoyed running along side others today but there were some occasions when I was running solo and I noticed that it were these times that my pace slowed. I thought the last 5km was going to be a solo effort and the pace I was doing meant it was going to be a long one, but another runner caught up and so I matched her pace and we finished the run together. And a big shout out to her because she really made the last 5 enjoyable. I had planned to run 55km and as the race was shortened to 52.5km I decided to carry on for another 2.5km to make up the distance. And the good news is I felt I could keep going. Not quite sure if I had 84.4km in me but I reckon I could of done 70. :D To sum up, it was an enjoyable day and I liked the course. It is now also the longest distance I have ever ran... kinda wishing I did another 5k more now :P
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:46:45 +0000
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