Bulls Head Adventure

Saturday Cont...
On Saturday afternoon Dean dropped me off at Sean and Cindy's place and we were off to Illawong for an Athletics meet to watch some of the afternoon squad race. When we arrived at the athletics field we couldnt believe how cold it was. I had a cashmere jumper on, a borrowed coat and scarf and I was still freezing. Considering this time last week it was 33 degrees it was a huge change. I was worried as I wasnt prepared for it to be this cold. Sean had checked the temperature in the snow fields and it was snowing and -10 degrees at 1600m, similar to the height we would be climbing. We had a call from Fleur, another lady running Bull's Head, and she said she would bring extra gloves and a beanie for us. The guys from the squad ran really well. Some of them even doing PB's in the big winds, with Tiger doing a 15 sec PB for the 3km. As soon as the races were finished we rushed off in the car to head for Canberra with a quick stopover at Goulbourn for dinner. We ended up arriving at the Embassy Motel where we were staying at around 10.00pm.

Sunday, the race...

With Sean heading off really early for the full Brindabella, Cindy and I got a sleep in until 7am. Although, I pretty much didnt sleep at all since Sean left as the nerves started kicking in. It was nice having someone else there to chat to to keep my mind off things as I didnt get as nervous as I usually do. It also helped that I wasnt really thinking of this run as a race but more as an "adventure". We were picked up by Fleur and Thomas at 8am and we headed off for Cotter Reserve. On the way we were given stories of the Canberra fires and all the destruction it caused as Fleur and Thomas are nearby neighbours of Yass.

After getting to Cotter reserve and the weather being quite nice I decided to change out of my long sleeve shirt into a short sleeve. The bus finally arrived late and I got to chat to Bernie on the way up which ensured I didnt get too nervous on the way up about how we kep getting higher and higher.......

As the bus was running late our start was delayed until 10.10. We got to see some of the leaders coming around for the Brindabella. We saw Sean coming through in first place and he got a huge cheer as he was coming through. It wasnt much later that the gun went off and we were on our way. I started out at a nice steady pace and my garmin was telling me I was doing around 6 min k's. I had it set on automatic 1km laps and when it come up and told me my first lap of 5.20 I was really shocked. I could have sworn I was going a lot slower. The next km went past in 5.15. I was feeling a little nervous about the pace but didnt have to worry for too long as we hit some up hill sections which slowed me down a bit. For most of the way I was sticking to around 5.35-5.40min/km. It was hard for me mentally as I have never gone quicker than 6 min k's over a distance like this so I was worried that I was going to blow up. I thought that as long as my breathing feels fine and I feel fine that I should just listen to my body.

I had my first wardrobe malfunction at the 6km mark. I put my hand down and felt sticky liquid all over my pants to find out that both my gels had exploded everywhere. It really was disgusting. I had no other choice but to consume what was left and throw them out. Lucky for me the aid stations were well stocked with lollies and fruit. The next wardrobe malfunction occured when I was dying to go to the loo and decided that I had built a big enough lead from the girls behind me to make a really quick toilet stop. You can imagine my horror when I heard some stitching rip. Luckily everything was still in tact but I was very nearly caught by a relay runner who seem to come out of nowhere. Shortly after this I had my third wardrobe malfunction. I went to clean my sunglasses and the lens popped out. I tried to fix it and put it back in for ages, but I was still running. After almost tripping over a fair few times I decided to give up and put the lens in my GUey pocket and put my sunnies on my head. Luckily I had decided to stop fiddling with them at this point as one of the girls running beside me yelled out "snake" as we all jumped over a grey snake that was slithering across the trail....close one.

All my mishaps happened close to one another and I got to enjoy the rest of the ride. As this was my first proper trail run I was absolutely enjoying it and it was so nice and peaceful being out amongst nature. I had a little confusion when I got to a point around the 12-13km mark where there was a big yellow arrow on one of the tree's pointing to another trail. I had to stop there for approx 1-2 min as I was not going anywhere until I saw another runner. I let the other guys make the decision of which way to go and I followed. I started to stress out a little as the instructions had said that if you didnt see red tape within 500m then turn around and go back. I followed these guys for what was probably 5km. When I finally saw all the cars lined up at the next aid station you cant imagine the relief that I felt. As this was a changeover for the relay teams there was lots of cheers here and I felt really great. This next section of the track was very surreal. The landscape was very barren and eerie as all the trees had been burnt in the fire. It was weird running through these enormous mountains in the open I really felt so small. We finally hit Vanity's crossing at around the 20km mark, the creek that people told me may be up to my waist. Due to the drought, on this occasion I only got wet up to my shins. It was a long winding haul out of Vanity's and I was finding it just a little hard to shift the legs from downhill mode to uphill but was still coping fine. It wasnt until the last couple of K's that I started feeling a niggle in my calf. It started feeling really tight and I kept thinking, "I hope I dont get in trouble off Tiger on Thursday". I got to the point where we had to get over a gate and I felt so sorry for those that were doing the full and had to sum up the energy to climb over. It was at this point that I heard Cindy cheering for me. She was with Fleur and Thomas and they were on their way to collect Sean. Sean had been leading Brindabella up until the 42km mark and hit the wall. They informed me that there was less than a km to go. I still had at least 2km left according to my garmin so I thought they were being nice. When I hit the road and saw the cars in the car park, I thought that we must have to run for a km along the creek, you cant imagine my surprise when I saw the finish line right there !! If I had have known I would have put a bit of speed on. When I finished my garmin was registering 26km, but later on after checking my km splits it was telling me that I had done an 8 min km and 7.5 in parts where I knew I was doing around 5.40 so I must have lost signal for a little while.

I was feeling emotional at the finish line I was so proud of myself that I had run so strongly the whole way and was blown away with my finish time. My official time was 2.37 and my own personal time for training (taking out when I stopped for others to come) was 2.35. Considering I was expecting around 3 hours I am very happy with that.

At the finish line I managed to see Bernie and Blue Dog and followed them over to the creek to let my feet dangle in the water. After very little deliberation and realising I had brought spare clothes with me I decided to go the full hog and sit in the water. It was great for the quads. We were joined by some of the other SWEAT gang and Aki from Canberra. It was great watching Horrie and Seb coming in for the full Brindabella.

I didnt feel too bad after the race but at night the pain started to really hit me. I am really feeling it in my back, quads, glutes and hips. I had to walk down my apartment steps backwards this morning and I rushed out to buy some capri skins that could fit inder my work skirt as I only have the full length. All up I had an absolute ball. The race was really well organised and the volunteers were fabulous. I am really hooked on trail running now as it really has what I'm looking for in running which is the adventure rather than pressure to perform. Some really great runs out there with Fleur coming in first with the Bulls Head with Cindy second. Bernie taking 29 min off her PB and Sean completing his first ultra. I'm definately hooked and now I'm searching the Coolrunning calendar for the next one....