First I would like to thank my sponsors...

Last week, leading up to my Six Foot Track, I waged a war against an oncoming cold. Codral and Vicks First Defence, backed up with Berocca and salt water gargle had me clear on the chest but still feeling somewhat grotty on Friday. I packed a bit of pasta down, left work early a little after 2pm Sal and I were on the road to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, a hundred or so kilometres west of Sydney.

First stop was the Edge Cinema to pick up my race number and timing chip. I asked Kevin Tiller, organiser of so much that is good about Sydney running, about aid stations and bus pickup and a few other questions he was probably asked a few hundred times by fair few other newbies. From there we headed to The Carrington, a grand but slowly fading hotel in Katoomba that reminds me somewhat of the movie in The Shining. All art deco and old pictures. Quite nice, mind you. I wanted to take a look at the race start so we got back into the car and headed for The Explorer's Tree on the Great Western Highway, the marker for the start of the trail.

Parked up and took a stroll along the head of the trail to the lookout over Nellie's Glen. Well I say along, but down is more like it. It's kinda steep and rain chopped and I could see how people come to grief each year as they belt from the start to the steps down into Nellie's. The view from the lookout is spectacular. It was until the low cloud rolled in and obscured the view. We headed back up to the carpark at the head of the track, passing the sign that said the average time to walk the track is three days. Hmmm. I've got seven hours. I took a couple of Blair Witch style pics, we headed back to town, carb-loaded and I headed to bed while Sal had a nightcap with her folks, who were up in the mountains to keep her company on Saturday while I was out playing silly buggers.

Two Codral, more Vicks, pin my running number to my shirt, head on pillow, out of it.