Before turning my attention to Hawaii, I decided to indulge my love of trail running with 2 back to back weekends of long distance running to explore my resilience and endurance levels. Two very different courses, both challenging and beautiful in their own ways.
Race 1: Ultra Hard Series – Cape to Bay 42 km Elevation (Strava) 1,177m
Sunday 24 July 2022
Originally a 39 km event, wet weather in the lead up period meant a change in the short course departure point, increasing the overall distance to 42 km. The Ultra Hard series consists of 4 events, with minimal support. Runners are expected to be almost entirely self-sufficient. For the short course, there was only one aid station which was primarily for drop bags and the athletes competing in the longer course. As the course ran along the Heysen Trail, there was no additional course marking. There were however a couple of check points for runner safety.
The short course race started at the Tappanappa Campground and finished at the Bluff at Victor Harbour. The long course (68km) started at Cape Jervis. The scenery along the south coast is absolutely stunning, with sweeping views over headlands, Kangaroo Island in the distance and the ocean with its palette of changing moods a welcome distraction. However the trail is quite rough and very technical in parts, so I needed to keep my focus pretty much on where I should place my feet and just grab glimpses of the scenery when I could. Also I had to keep an eye out for the Heysen Trail signs, to avoid straying off course. As per usual, I was not entirely successful in this endeavour and managed to give myself an extra 3 kms in navigational errors, rounding up my run to 44.9 km. And no, I did not feel the need to run another 100m at the end.
There was a lot of beach running including Tunkallilla, Waitpinga and Parsons beaches and although I didn’t notice anything at the time, I woke up the next morning to find that my calves had turned to concrete. This did cause me some concern with the Melrose run only days away, but eventually the stiffness disappeared, so I could not rely on that entry in my Big Book of Excuses for any subsequent poor performance. As I need to practice using my running poles, I took them with me, in the hope that I would eventually become less of a numpty when using them. And I did find them extremely helpful on the beach sections, enabling me to maintain a steady pace across the sand. It was always good to leave the sand onto firmer ground, but anyone who has ever done the climb up the fence line from Tunkallilla Beach knows how challenging it is, and it lived up to my not so fond memories from my previous encounter.
With a very small field, I was fortunate that my navigational blunders didn’t prevent me from being the first female to finish, and I received some beautiful indigenous clap sticks to commemorate the result.
Race 2: Melrose Running Festival 50 km Elevation (Alltrails) 1897 m.
Saturday 30 July 2022
6 days later, I was toeing the line for the start of this run. Although my calves seemed to have finally recovered, I had some degree of trepidation regarding my overall level of recovery. But nothing ventured, nothing gained was my thinking and at the very least it would be a test of mental fortitude.
To be sure, this is a challenging course with a bit of everything – rock hopping and boulder clambering through Hidden Gorge, some fire trail and open pasture, lots of rocky trail and scree slopes, and plenty of up and down, including the seemingly endless climb up and over Mt Remarkable. The course started at the Baroota Ruins Campground in the Mt Remarkable National Park, did a lap around Davey Gully, then heads along the Mambray Creek trail, before a loop through Hidden Gorge and back to the Mambray Creek trail where you ran a section of that trail for a second time. Then the real climbing begins. Basically then it was up from 24.5 km to 33 kms, when there is a brief respite before the trail tips upwards again to the 44 km mark. Then its downhill for the last 6 or so kms to the finish line. Originally I didn’t think I would use poles, but having reconsidered the steepness of the elevation gain over distance in the middle section of the course, I was heartily glad I packed them in my drop bag at and collected them at the 24.5 km mark aid station. I dropped them off in my second drop bag at the aid station at the top of Mt Remarkable, as the descent is quite technical, with lots of rocks and scree slopes and I don’t need any additional tripping aids as I quite accomplished in that area.
Although completely different scenery to our south coast, the setting is spectacular and the views from the tops of the climbs are breathtaking (in every sense). I saw kangaroos hopping across the trail from time to time, some glorious parrots and lovely wild flowers. After a long day, I was stoked to back up from the previous weekend and finish as 4th female overall.
Adelaide Trail Runners did an amazing job marking the trail – even I couldn’t get lost – and manning the aid stations. The finish line was fantastic with hot soup and fruit available, with the real treasure being the race organiser’s mum’s absolutely delicious home baked goods – something I had experienced at the winter teams championship and thus had been looking forward to for some time. It was an incredibly well run event with multiple distances on offer in a truly spectacular setting. I think there may be some course changes next year to keep things interesting. Melrose is a great place to visit and the café attached to the bike shop has excellent coffee and lots of yummy food.
Racecationing.com 