Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100. Well that was one hell of a day out. Its a new course and I significantly underestimated how difficult it would be. Extreme terrain and extreme conditions. Literally rain, hail and shine, as well as wind and a thunderstorm. It very nearly broke me.
The race was set in the Jindabyne region, a place pretty special to me from all the summer holidays that I spent there as a kid. The course is a measured 106km (6 bonus km - yay!) starting and finishing at Friday Flat, Thredbo (elevation 1365m).
The start was a nice little tickler. We hiked up a ski slope, then ran along some mountain bike trails to Eagles Nest. 585m climb over 5km to set the mood of the day. This part was absolutely stunning with blankets of wild flowers and an elevated view back down to Thredbo Village.
After Eagles Nest, we had 5km of "the cheese grater", a raised iron mesh so named for its tendency to remove vast layers of flesh from people who stack it while running on it. This was an enforced walking section, which meant slow going, but allowed time to enjoy the views of more wildflowers, lakes, snow and Mt Kosciuszko. It's amazing to look around from the top of the continent, see as far away as Victoria and take in the vastness. It was very, very windy.
The cheese grater took us to the base of the peak of Mt Kosciuszko. We followed the road to the summit of Australia's highest peak (2228m), and got the mandatory photo. For the briefest of moments the highest point in mainland Australia was the top of my head. We carried on to Charlotte's Pass along the Main Range Trail. More cheese grater. More wind. Much of the non cheese grater path was big stepping stones which were hard to get a rhythm running on. About 50m of snow to cross.
We crossed a pretty little creek, a fairly steep but short hill to hike up and then ran down into Charlotte's Pass for a checkpoint. This was one of my favourite parts of the day. There is one road in and out of the alpine village, that we had to run down. It was lined with cars and supporters and crew walking to the checkpoint, calling out your name, cheering you on ringing cow bells. It had a real Ultra-Trail Monte Blonc vibe. Very cool.
From Charlotte's Pass to a check point at Guthega Village, more cheese grater, more technical terrain, still not a lot of great running. Onwards from Guthega along some very narrow single trail, still difficult to run on, then finally, finally some nice runnable trail. I was feeling pretty good at this stage. It was short lived. We surfaced onto Kosciuszko Rd. A lot of down hill. By then it was hot, around 28C. Running downhill for 40 minutes in the middle of the day fried me. I went from feeling good to feeling pretty ordinary.
A checkpoint at the Sawpit Camp Grounds, where family were waiting for me. A nice little lift to the spirits. Along the Sawpit trail, reasonably runnable, to the trout hatchery check point. Very exposed. Very hot. I stuck my head under the water tap, wet my hat to try to cool down. To no avail.
Then onto the Thredbo Valley Trail which runs between Jindabyne and Thredbo. Stunning trail through bush along the cascading Thredbo River. Very runnable if you have fresh legs and not hyperthermic. Unfortunately that did not describe me at this point. Pretty sure that my body temperature was at an unhealthy level. I was dizzy and losing balance. Just could not cool down. Joined many of the other runners bailing water out of the river over their heads. Just could not cool down. It was a long way between checkpoints, 19km. I thought that if I wasn't right by the check point, I'd have to pull out. It wasn't safe being out there in the dark like that.
And then my saviour! A thunderstorm. I got drenched. Soooooo good! Half an hour of running in the rain and I felt much, much better. Family sent me on my way from Bullock's Flat check point. 17km to go, Thredbo bound, one checkpoint along the way. Quite muddy at first, trail churned up by the 27km and 50km runners the day before. But the rest of it was lovely undulating, but quite obviously uphill. Apparently it hailed. I didn't notice. Arrived at Thredbo and the finish line. Awesome atmosphere. Happy to be finished. Spent.
It was hard to estimate a goal finish time for a new course. Going off my recent performances at similar distances, I was aiming for 14 hours. I was over 3 hours slower than that, by far the biggest blow out in that time was while I was stumbling around like a confused lunatic in the bush. It's not been ideal preparation. In September at times I was having trouble walking due to an injury (thanks for fixing me super physio Kyle Weise). Then 48 hours before the race I got lympadenitis from a tick bite 10 days before. I also received a reminder that drinking 750mL of pure beetroot juice the day before an ultra, or anytime really, is not a good idea. I got 188th out of 613 starters, and 11th out of the 36 finishers in my category. That's around were I usually finish. 19% of people who started didn't finish. I'm just happy to have finished this one.
a
