Having successfully completed the Derby Half Marathon and
then Gone Nuts 25K the following Saturday I knew that I needed an easy week to
allow my body to recover before I started training for the Bruny Island Ultra
Marathon—that’s if I can be properly prepared for it. The next day Val and I
had a little walk around Devonport’s Bluff and on Monday I thought I would have
an easy recovery jog. But this easy run didn’t turn out as expected for, after
an easy start, my mind started working on what I needed to do to get ready for
Bruny. Was the training plan I had adapted going to be sufficient or should I
go for another one? What splits would I need to get home before the cut-off
time? That meant I would have to consider what time to start—and it is still
nine months away. With my mind thus engaged my pace increased and this
particular five kilometre segment turned out to be an 11 second PB from
December 2009.
A wonderful thing happened that night. I had originally been
asked to look after our little church in Rokeby for six months to help it
through some issues it was facing and so would have been down there every
weekend. But I received an email asking if I could allow the person they had
been using on the second Sunday of every month to continue. And then the next
morning I was alerted to the Cradle Mountain Trail Run on Saturday, 7th
April. http://www.endorfun.com.au/trail-runs/dovelake
Because of this request from Rokeby I was free to participate so, asking Val, I
immediately registered with only nine positions available before the cap was
reached. How exciting and how I am looking forward to another race, though we
will miss Devonport parkrun that day.
Wednesday following Gone Nuts was our Weekly RunClub 20
Out/20 Back. For someone who had just had two long trail runs in eight days I
was out of the blocks and leading the pack for most of the first km. Sure, I
did slow down on the hills but I did a distance PB of 410 metres, so I was pleased
with that. Not only was I pleased with this effort but I suffered no problems
with the right hamstring that had been troubling me for a couple of weeks. I
also did a couple of more fast runs with no issues.
But it didn’t continue that way, for I began to experience
more hamstring problems a couple of weeks later when we were staying in Sydney.
I ran some hills around Mt Colah and was just finishing up that run along a
flat section of road when it went again. I was able to exercise it and walk as
a way of overcoming the soreness but it still wasn’t fully comfortable when we
were at Newy parkrun, meaning I had a slowish time. More walking and slow
jogging left me feeling much better for the parkrun at Bairnsdale the following
week. I ran strongly until 4.5 km when I could feel it strain again. It seems
to be happening when I run fast, rather than at any other time. Well, several
days later I chose to run a slow 24 km run along Waterholes Road at Clifton
Creek, VIC and had no real issues with it. Yes, there was a little soreness but
I think that was because my long slow run turned out to be about 60 secs per km
faster than Gone Nuts, which meant it was faster than I had planned. Our final
Saturday on the Mainland was at Leongatha as we planned to drive down to
Koonwarra for their parkrun along the Great Southern Rail Trail (which actually
starts at Leongatha). But I had a message from Bob, with whom I had run most of
Derby, regarding his increasing his cadence by using a metronome with the song
“Row, row, row your boat” so he could get his pace right. I’d been wondering
whether some of my hamstring problems were due to overstriding, so I used that
song for my pacing at Koonwarra and took, what I thought, were shorter steps. I
managed the parkrun course without any real issues with my hamstring. So I will
endeavour to do that again and see if overstriding is part of my problem.
Just 5 days before the Cradle Mountain Trail Run I planned a
90 minute GADP, hoping that I might do around 12 kms. At the same time I was
consciously looking at shortening my stride length to correct what I thought was
overstriding. It turns out that my cadence was 158, which was way down.
However, I had absolutely no trouble with my hamstring at all, and that was the
real positive. So now to have a couple more runs as I taper for Saturday’s
event. However, we still had Wednesday’s RunClub. Rather than drive down, I
decided to run down through Don Reserve as my warm up, which ended up at about
5.5 km. RunClub went well. I didn’t push it too much, even though I was under 5:00/K
on occasions, with a couple of faster sprints thrown in. Though I averaged 5:35/K
for the 7.13 km I experienced no troubles at all with the hamstring. Thursday
was meant to be my Recovery Walk day so Val and I headed out to Pig Island at
Latrobe. Val definitely walked but me—well, I decided to run slowly but that
decision was short-lived even though I kept telling myself that I had to take
it easy to be in the best condition possible the for the Cradle Mountain run. I
tried to shorten my strides but my speed simply increased to the point that I
did a PB on the Pig Island clockwise segment, which put me in 11th
position overall with the 10th best time. So much for taking it
easy! L
Well, tomorrow is another day which will definitely have to be my Recovery Walk
day at Cradle Mountain as we head up there for three nights’ camping.
We arrived at Cradle and found our site at the Discovery
Park. As there was an early registration for the run we went to find it,
following vague instructions. It wasn’t at the Information Centre so, because
there wasn’t much time left before the registration desk closed for the
evening, I jogged down to the Ranger Station from where we could register and
catch the bus tomorrow, but that jog turned out to be much faster getting
there. But everything was closed, so I turned around and basically walked back
to the campsite. For one reason or another I didn’t sleep very well at all. I
reckon that I only had a couple of hours sleep until I was awake, just lying
there until the alarm went at 4.45 am. Jumping, somewhat reluctantly, out of
bed I made our morning cuppas so we would be ready to drive down to the Ranger
Station in time. I received my really good-looking Number Plate (#55) and
headed back to the car to get my things in time to catch the bus. But I was
stopped on the way as someone asked me, “Are you the 69-year-old?” He hadn’t
been doing a lot of training of late and declared that if I passed him then he
would be in trouble.
I had had to revise my time for this event. I had studied
the topography of the track along the boardwalk from Ronny Creek to the Ranger
Station and read it back to front, meaning that it would be more uphill than I
had initially thought. I knew that that 90 minute target was out of the question
so just decided to run it at an easy pace to cross the line. Given my “advanced”
age I was definitely going to start at the rear of the field, just one place in
front of the Sweeper! Given, also, that a large part of today’s run was on
boardwalk I had decided against using my trail shoes, opting instead for my Brooks
Defyance shoes. With our final instructions we were off—but I was not at the
back of the field. I passed a few of the more eager runners within a short
while and settled into a comfortable pace behind Linda Moran, a young lady from
Hobart. She offered to let me pass, but I said that I would stay behind her for
the time being and pass later on if I was up to it. A little later we caught up
to Susan Moodie, with whom I had run a fair portion of Gone Nuts—but we caught
her because she stopped to take photos. The three of us ran together, though
Susan and I changed places depending on which one of us stopped for photos. I
was conscious of the fact that the boardwalk was a bit slippery at this time of
the morning so had to keep an eye on that to avoid sliding off.
It was beautiful running beside Dove Lake along boards or
over real trail conditions with rocks and roots to navigate without tripping
over them. There were puddles, some with a bit of mud to them, to step
around—after all I didn’t want to get my feet so wet that I was carrying a lot
of surplus weight around with me. Rounding the southern end of the lake we ran
through bright light and into the beautiful gloom of the Ballroom Forest with
moss growing everywhere; then over the bridge with the babbling brook flowing
underneath. Still the pace felt easy to handle with the two ladies showing the
way. However, the boards soon ended when we came to a little beach where we
faced our first real incline. It was such a tough one for me with its steps
that I was reduced to walking it—taking 10:40 to cover the fourth km. But it
lifted me to realise that there were only 10 km left to run. I’m not sure what
is the hardest—uphill or downhill when it comes to either steps or rough track
strewn with rocks and other hazards. Down we went, skirting Dove Lake at the
foot of Marions Lookout before it was time for my first gel—and I’m actually
taking them at the 5 km intervals. I have learnt my lesson! J
Passing the much photographed iconic boatshed on Dove Lake I
heard shouted words of encouragement from Val, who had positioned herself on
the beach to get more great photos. Uphill again and then turning left to
follow the Lake Lilla Track which narrowed and became rougher than anything we
had previously met. Button grasses sent their long tentacles to try an trip me
by grabbing my ankles and lower legs while bushes tried to impede my progress
by holding me back—but their efforts were all in vain as I ran on with Susan,
Linda having stopped at the boatshed for refreshments. Along this section I
bumped two heads on lower hanging branches—the second of which dented my skull
and drew blood, reddening my cap. I found it hard with my multifocal glasses to
watch where I was putting my feet while keeping an eye out for overhanging branches
at the same time. Taking the right hand track, Susan and I made our way towards
Ronny Creek traversing scrub and button grass as we jumped rocks and puddles
along the track.
How delightful to feel the 7 km vibration from my Garmin. I
was halfway and still feeling strong. By this stage I thought that I could see
Jason in the distance as he made his way to the bridge over Ronny Creek. I was
still a long way behind him but having him in my sight was the added incentive
to try and up the pace. I thrive when there are people in front of me for I set
myself the goal of catching and then passing them. Just before the bridge over
Ronny Creek we stopped to check on another competitor who was reduced to a walk
because of a fall—but she told us to go on and as we crossed the bridge we were
cheered on by a man and some children, whom I think were that lady’s family.
Sadly, she had to withdraw from the race. Once on the boardwalk I upped my pace
all the while mindful of the slippery nature of the boards which hadn’t dried
out. It was taking photos that slowed me down, but I wanted photographic
evidence to post with my run on Strava and also onto Facebook. I hadn’t quite
reached the Ronny Creek bus stop when my Garmin again vibrated to tell me that
I had now passed the 8 km mark. That’s just 6 km to go, so I knew that I could
achieve my goal of finishing. That’s optimism for you as anything can happen on
the track—but to this point my hamstring hadn’t been playing up!
The steps, both up and down, along the boardwalk from Ronny
Creek to the Ranger Station slowed my progress dramatically. I had to walk the
steepest and longest of the uphill ones and run gingerly on the downhill ones
so I didn’t lose my footing and go head over heels because of steps that would
appear as if out of nowhere. Even though there were times when I was running
well under 6:00/K it didn’t feel too fast—in fact, my 13th km came
in at 5:16, which was astonishing. By that stage I had passed Jason and
encouraged him to keep on. Then there were two ladies just up ahead as we ran
the sweeping S-bend before Quailes Hill. On the downhill section I was able to
pass them, though Susan wasn’t able to get passed them quite so easily. Where
possible I upped my pace as best I could, still taking the downhill steps with
the utmost caution. The finish was close. I could hear people cheering as I
left the button grasses and entered a thick grove of trees that blocked out a
lot of the light. I sprinted as best I could and there was the finish line. I
crossed it to find Val had just managed to catch to bus back from Dove Lake to
see me finish. My Garmin gave me a time of 1:39:23 while my official time was 1:39:25:5
and I crossed the line in 34th position, quite a long way before the
last finisher.
And to celebrate that achievement, Val and I went for a 6.6
km walk from the Ranger Station to Ronny Creek along the boardwalk, with a couple
of detours down to Dove River for Val to take photos. The next day we went for
a walk from Dove Lake to Ronny Creek via Wombat Pool and Crater Lake. But I was
itching to run the Cradle Mountain Trail Run again—and next year was too far
away. We agreed to catch the bus down to Dove Lake so I could run the course
solo while Val walked, camera in hand, from Dove Lake to Ronny Creek via Lake
Lilla.
For my solo run I wore my Skins top just to make sure I
would be warm enough getting down to Dove Lake on the bus—but there were times
on the run when I started feeling too hot with it. After a couple of photos I
was off and running. The biggest problem was the sheer number of tourists on
the track because we had a late morning start. At times I had to stop and walk
behind people until they would pull over and let me pass. At other times people
moved off the track quite quickly. I thanked everyone for allowing me to pass,
even those who delayed me the longest. Keeping an eye on my times I saw that I
was running a bit faster than Saturday—but could I keep it up? Had I recovered
sufficiently? As each successive kilometre ticked over I dared to hope that I
might be able to run this solo attempt faster. At least no head had been
injured in today’s run! The same culprits of button grass and bush tried to
slow me down—but they were again unsuccessful. On the Ronny Creek boardwalk I
was passed by a runner who had been around Lake Rodway. We talked for a minute
or so before he set off. I tried to keep him in sight but it wasn’t long before
he disappeared into the distance as we ran from the Ronny Creek bus stop to the
Ranger Station. Sometime later I saw him up ahead, slowed by one of the hills. At
one point I landed more heavily than normal on my right foot in descending a
couple of steps and immediately wondered what damage I had done to my hamstring
But after a few more steps I realised that it had stood up to that test. I was
so thankful! As I approached the end the other runner was walking and I was
gaining on him, but I was still too far back to catch him, even though I upped
my pace as much as I could in bounding down steps. As I approached the second
last bend in the track a couple of younger runners bounded towards me as they
headed south but we managed to avoid each other. As I ran to the Ranger Station
I stopped my Garmin at Saturday’s finishing line in a time of 1:34:42, which
was 4:41 faster than Saturday’s race. Obviously I had pulled up well from
Saturday to be able to do that time. Admittedly, I have been a bit sore but
that will pass.
