A Good Week

Another good week capped off by a solid 9:25 run in the Stirlings on Sat. Drove down after Youth Group on Friday night arriving @ 2:30am. After getting ready for the morning start I got to sleep at about 3am. 2hrs later I was up, eating breakfast and off at 6. Started with the 8k run up to the Bluff Knoll carpark which took 53min, with the heavy pack and some pretty serious climbs. Quick refill of the water bottle and up Bluff Knoll I went. Made the top in around 53 minutes and set off to try and find the ridgetop walk track.

Spent a few minutes looking then found the track and headed off, thats when I lost the track and started heading off track. Ended up following a water run-off track - thinking it was the right track! after about an hour I realised I was heading in the wrrong direction and was forced to bush-bash back up the mountain. After 45min or so I was back on the track. Problem was I was now 4hrs into the run and hadn't covered all that much of the walk - finishing in 8hrs was now going to be a struggle. Tried to make up time wherever I could and was going really well for the next 3hrs or so.

At 7hrs I realised I had taken a wrong turn and ended up at the caves. Without knowing exactly where I went wrong and without a detailed map I thought it best to abandon the ridgetop walk and head down the mountain. I took another track down off the mountain that was seriously steep and going down it was extremely tough on the knees. At 8hrs I was over the steepest part of the descent and was able to break into a run. Another hour and a half of running and I was at the meeting place and Kate picked me up. Obviously dissappointed to not get through the entire ridgetop walk but I started out wanting a good 8hr hike/run and a good strength work out for 100 miler, which evidently I got so really happy with my effort.

Next week a 70k trial run to test out pacing options for the 100 miler, hoping to get through in about 8hrs.