Beyond the Black Stump

after the run
Originally uploaded by Auswomble

Going to bed early was never going to be an issue; my two-in-January year old daughter makes sure my sleep through the week is adequate, but that by Friday I'm pretty knackered. So, NYE or not, I was in bed early and fell asleep to the sounds of glasses rattling in cabinets and windows shaking in frames as Sydney's 9pm fireworks went off about 6km away. Not a lot keeps me awake.

And so New Years Day arrived hangover free, which was nice. What was not so nice - and those shivering in colder parts will need to trust me on this - was the weather. We were heading for the thirties, humidity was sitting at around 80% and I was going to run around 33km this morning with a bunch of equally mad folks. This, I can assure you, is not great running weather.

...there will be an intermission while I do some drawing with aforementioned daughter, full race report to follow later...

Where was I? Up at 5 with the little lady and then at 6 handed parenting duties to Sal, grabbed three 600ml bottles of homebrew Gatorade and headed for the start. I was going to put two of the bottles in my Camelbak and carry the third rather than use the bladder. That way I would be able to more easily regulate my intake and not gulp it all down too early. As I drove long the ridge line above Berowra I saw plenty of mist in the valleys which looked lovely but screamed humidity. At the start there were plenty of other runners - this run always attracts decent numbers for the "full monty" 33 and the "party pooper" 16. Not sure how many, but I'd not be surprised if there were 100 runners. I shared a few words with a few and waited until the very casual start of "it's that way, on your marks, set, go."

A bit about Beyond The Black Stump can be found here.

I'll not go step for step. It was a nice 8k to the Ferry crossing, mostly downhill and almost entirely trail. I was sweating my arse off but not doing too badly; I later discovered it was about 80% humidity for the start. There was a bt of a wait for the ferry, a small cable-pull thing that crosses the creek. This is part of the run that differentiates the full-monty from the party-pooper course. Ahead was about 4k of steady climb, 4k down to the ruined castle, some along a steep boulder-strewn trail. Lovely. At this point I was running with "TropicThunder" (not his real name) and it was good to have company, especially on the 4k uphill road slog. By now the temperature was climbing and the sun was burning off the mist. It was going to be a scorcher for the return to the ferry. "Spud" passed us on his return, already well ahead. We passed "Milov", who had caught up with us the first ferry crossing and would catch us again as we waited for the return ferry claiming skill for his luck.

By the return ferry at around 25k I was starting to feel pretty knackered, not really looking forward to the next part of the course that is "affectionately" (!) known as the mountain. It is basically an un-runnable, damn near vertical slog up a bush track. There is a brief drop before more up. It is put there to punish people for being daft enough to start their year this way, and so it turned out. I made it up the mountain OK. Only OK. But it slammed me. Legs where burning and there was not a lot left in the tank. There was a water drop at the top and I grabbed half a can of coke before refilling a water bottle with some of the ice water in the eski. Someone pointed out that previous runners had probably washed their faces off in the ice water to which my reply was a simple "I don't care." Ice cold water good.

From the top of the trail to and along the final road section I walk-ran, little difference between the pace used. I rather foolishly passed up the offer of an ice-block from a runner who had either already finished or was not taking part this year and just acting as a good samaritan. With about 3k of stinking-hot road to the end I started to run with "Brick", a nickname based upon his swimming in tris. He was another Brit, from Manchester, and like me was feeling the heat. It is always nice to run with someone else unashamed of walking when necessary, makes you feel less soft. Highlight - there was one, other than the finish - was the lady standing out front of her house offering to soak any passing runners with her garden hose. Just a little random.

The rest of the day has been fairly muted. By the end of the run, which including ferry waits took a shade under 3.38 (a bit disappointing, but everyone struggled this year) it was in the low 30s, so even though the humidity was dropping it was still a little unpleasant, especially if you're dehydrated as. And on that, I'l finish with a bit too much information; time between pees, eleven hours and forty five minutes.