Great NOSH Race (and more).
SUNDAY 11/7/05, 10AM, 32K, WEEK TO DATE 95.5K, 7 HOURS SLEEP
Funnily enough I'd never done this race before, and had no intention of doing so until Friday night, when Paul Every told me he was planning to run it, then run back, and I could therefore do my long run and enjoy a new race at the same time. With a 10am start time, it seemed too appealing to miss.
I was woken around 5.30am by gusty south westerly winds rattling my blinds. Looked a bit cold, wet and grim out there, so I went back to sleep for two hours.
I got off the train at Lindfield and ran a mile to the start, saw a few familiar faces (Mr Every, Queen Bee, MPHaz, MikeF, Jim C) and started with a singlet on and a thermal longsleeve wrapped round my waist if the rain and wind got much worse. It never rose above 13 degrees all day with substantial windchill.
I'd run on most of the trails the course took in at some point, but didn't appreciate the variety of terrain that we would encounter- mud, narrow paths, wide trails, scrambling over rocks, tree roots, using all fours, feet sinking into soft earth and grass. Great fun, perhaps more fun than if it had been a warm, dry day. Paul said several times that this was his favourite race in metropolitan Sydney and the one he'd reccommend to any foreign visitor.
I traded positions several times with MikeF who was running his first ever offroad race, and who produced the quote of the day: Hey Sean, this trail running is frightening! Also saw the great Max Bogenhuber out there a few times.
I scrambled up a steep rocky climb to find myself on a fire trail at 12K, and suddenly realised I had to run fast again- you do a lot of shifting gears and paces in this race. I pushed all out for the next 2K before the trail narrowed and became dicey for the last kilometre, with MikeF closing in then doing a faceplant right behind me. Hauled myself across the line in 81.26 and that seemed to be a decent result- only a few minutes behind Mr Every and MPHaz and right on the heels of my old 10K sparring partner Rocket Rod. Next year it'll be sub 80.
We started freezing almost as soon as we stopped so Mr Every, Rocket and I headed back quite soon after finishing. We took our time- over half an hour slower than our race time in the other direction!- during which we encountered a lot of fallen trees that had been blown over by the wind after we had passed through on the way out.
Good races by Sportsman and Blue Dog amongst others. Looking forward to next year, when hopefully we'll have a big social bunch taking the scenic route back to the start.
EDIT- Great NOSH course profile and pace chart of my race.
SUNDAY 11/7/05, 4.30PM, 6K, WEEKLY TOTAL 101.5K
Commute on foot from the station to a family function, cool weather, 6K in 29.13 (4.52min/km) on bike path. Form felt quite good, moving well considering I was toting a backpack.
WEEKLY TOTAL 101.5K Getting back into decent mileage and with some promising signs there in the speedwork and races.
Funnily enough I'd never done this race before, and had no intention of doing so until Friday night, when Paul Every told me he was planning to run it, then run back, and I could therefore do my long run and enjoy a new race at the same time. With a 10am start time, it seemed too appealing to miss.
I was woken around 5.30am by gusty south westerly winds rattling my blinds. Looked a bit cold, wet and grim out there, so I went back to sleep for two hours.
I got off the train at Lindfield and ran a mile to the start, saw a few familiar faces (Mr Every, Queen Bee, MPHaz, MikeF, Jim C) and started with a singlet on and a thermal longsleeve wrapped round my waist if the rain and wind got much worse. It never rose above 13 degrees all day with substantial windchill.
I'd run on most of the trails the course took in at some point, but didn't appreciate the variety of terrain that we would encounter- mud, narrow paths, wide trails, scrambling over rocks, tree roots, using all fours, feet sinking into soft earth and grass. Great fun, perhaps more fun than if it had been a warm, dry day. Paul said several times that this was his favourite race in metropolitan Sydney and the one he'd reccommend to any foreign visitor.
I traded positions several times with MikeF who was running his first ever offroad race, and who produced the quote of the day: Hey Sean, this trail running is frightening! Also saw the great Max Bogenhuber out there a few times.
I scrambled up a steep rocky climb to find myself on a fire trail at 12K, and suddenly realised I had to run fast again- you do a lot of shifting gears and paces in this race. I pushed all out for the next 2K before the trail narrowed and became dicey for the last kilometre, with MikeF closing in then doing a faceplant right behind me. Hauled myself across the line in 81.26 and that seemed to be a decent result- only a few minutes behind Mr Every and MPHaz and right on the heels of my old 10K sparring partner Rocket Rod. Next year it'll be sub 80.
We started freezing almost as soon as we stopped so Mr Every, Rocket and I headed back quite soon after finishing. We took our time- over half an hour slower than our race time in the other direction!- during which we encountered a lot of fallen trees that had been blown over by the wind after we had passed through on the way out.
Good races by Sportsman and Blue Dog amongst others. Looking forward to next year, when hopefully we'll have a big social bunch taking the scenic route back to the start.
EDIT- Great NOSH course profile and pace chart of my race.
SUNDAY 11/7/05, 4.30PM, 6K, WEEKLY TOTAL 101.5K
Commute on foot from the station to a family function, cool weather, 6K in 29.13 (4.52min/km) on bike path. Form felt quite good, moving well considering I was toting a backpack.
WEEKLY TOTAL 101.5K Getting back into decent mileage and with some promising signs there in the speedwork and races.
posted by Mister G at 1:11 am
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