WONDERWALL

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So the 65km run is out of the way. Only hit the wall once at the 45km mark.

I’m right on track. Here's the Stocktake..

20-Feb-05 Maroondah Dam Ultra 50km - Done
13-Mar-05 6 Foot Track Marathon 46km - Done
10-Apr-05 Canberra Ultra 50km - Done
24-Apr-05 Brisbane Marathon 42km - Done
8-May-05 Walhalla Wound Up 65km – Done

Still to come….

22-May-05 Williamstown Marathon 42km
16-June-05 COMRADES MARATHON 89km

I had the unique opportunity to be running 15km up to the Walhalla Ultra race start at dawn yesterday. The aloneness and seclusion makes you sing, there is nothing like running through the forest in the freezing cold singing aloud loudly…. To the tune of Oasis’ wonderwall…

Today is gonna be the day that I’m gonna run sixty five
Right now my feet are cold. I don’t care coz I’m alive
I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I feel about Walhalla…

Well I got sick of singing that after 9 times especially since the last bit doesn't rhyme.. So far as a race report goes it probably easiest to paste what I have placed on the CR website…

“This race is set in incredibly beautiful country near Mt Baw Baw, organised by a very enthusiastic bunch from Traralgon Harriers with the support of the boutique hotel in Walhalla. What a fantastic day, great course and perfect sunny cool conditions. There were three events a 19km, 37km and 50km.

Arrived late on Saturday Night and ended up in the wrong pub so didn’t get to have a drink with the crew at the Star Hotel. I was at the Walhalla Lodge, which is more like passive smoking heaven. Met up with a small group doing the race who invited me over had a couple of beers (which I needed after Carlton’s thrashing by Richmond) and head down to Rawson to get some shuteye.

I intended to make this my one and only long run prior to Comrades. So measured out 15km in the car so that I could do the prescribed 15km and thus make up 65km for the day. The Garmin GPS was useless because of the tree cover, consistently under measuring. But who cares. We weren’t here to play with consumer electronics, we were here to conquer the hills.

The first 25km went without incident. Kevin Cassidy picked me up with about 22km to go. With about 17km to go things got tough on a steep section where I pointed out to Kevin that my HR monitor was showing 189BPM. I thought this must be wrong because the formula (220 minus your age) gives me a maximum of 177BPM. Obviously I need to do a proper HR max test. In the meantime I’ll use 189 as my new max.

Soon after I was walking, completely blown. 35km into the race and 50km for me so far.

Struggled into Walhalla where the 50km competitors were pushed back out onto the course for another 13km. The out and back 13km was basically 6.5km straight up a steep track and then back. I managed to survive on 9mins of slow jogging and 1min of walking for the out section on the return my quads were screaming but I managed to run the whole of the last 6.5km on the way back down. I figured I may as well get the practice for the down run in Sth Africa.

The total for me 65km in 7hrs 30min and the official 50km in about 5:55.

Lastly, you know those little tricks that your mind plays on you when you run by yourself? When I was running up to Walhalla before the race by myself I was absolutely sure that I saw a large black cat. Large like the size of a large fox. It wasn’t a fox, or a wombat, It was still semi dark but I saw it it moved like a cat.. It was like a baby panther. Nah forget it, no one will ever believe that.”