I still didn't feel too flash this morning, the headache just wasn't going away and I felt drained and looked worse. However I made an effort to not just get out of bed (yesterday), but get dressed which was a big improvement. Having re hydrated yesterday, I drenched sheets, towels and covers overnight, which was a hassle.

Rad arranged to pick me up to go to the Mountain Run on Mount Majura in the afternoon. I had hoped to do the cross country a few hours earlier, however this was a forlorn hope. We arrived at the starting site and were impressed with the facilities, although the clear bright blue skies belied the icy air and wind that seemed to be coming straight off invisible snow. The course started a way from the fence-line, shown here by the red line on the left of the page. At the start, the uphill climb loomed in-front of us like Mont Blanc. It was painfully clear that this was a mountain run.

The route looks innocent enough:-


Route in Red. The start /finish is on the far right. The trail heads uphill to the road where there is a water station and then return down the heavy red line to the left and bottom of the map. Most of this is on a cleared fire trail, with a somewhat loose surface. It then enters forest and winds up and along single track to a water station at the conclusion of the first lap. Junior women did one lap, Senior women and Men over 55 2 laps, and other men 3 laps.

Ewan (a.k.a. Wombatface) had stated that this was a hill to be reckoned with in his blog. I still didn't expect it to be like this!



At the back of the pack with me, few even attempted to run up this sheer climb at the beginning. What made it even more difficult was the loose surface and large stones on this part of the track. A small saddle before it rose further, gradually becoming less acute at the witches hat turn around at the roadway. Despite being proud of my downhill running ability, this was difficult terrain and I didn't settle into a comfortable 'fall' until the second lap. Towards the nadir, the trail turned into thick forest (casuarinas?) and winding technical single track. Many mountain bikers were out in Majura Pines enjoying good cycling weather, although thankfully they stayed off the trails we were running on. By the end of the first lap, it was quite enjoyable, although I went over on my bad ankle in the forest around the 4km mark, so was looking forward to the finish. The second lap was easier by general consensus, a quantity, although I found the downhills particularly painful on my ankle and was pleased that I only to do 2 laps.

The finish, downhill seemed particularly fast; the first 1.8km had taken me over 20 minutes, the final 3km about 13:00.

I would recommend this race, to be run as the Australian Mountain Running Championships on 18 June to anyone who loves the sense of achievement that trail running can provide. Be prepared for a solid climb, and be sure to bring plenty of warm gear, gloves and a hat for defrosting afterwards. My lips turned blue and I couldn't stop shivering until I fired up the fire and languished in a hot bath and hot drinks on my return home.