Training Log Archive: jennycas

Flew into Sydney 9pm last night but Blair's flight was delayed and by the time we'd picked up a hire car and got to Tracy's it was after 11pm so when I woke up to the sound of rain I wasn't desperate for a run but wanted to stretch legs before OA Board workshop so Blair & I went out and did the Faryland loop in pouring rain (which ironically, cleared up as soon as we got to the meeting venue @Homebush) which was very scenic but I struggled with lifting my legs and had to walk up all the stairs, which does not bode well for 6 hrs tomorrow. Also could have done without finishing the meeting after dark (which is about 5pm in Sydney at the minute) and then driving around for an hour in search of a supermarket - I was absolutely wrecked by the time we got back to Lane Cove.

Nearly didn't get out for this, and nearly couldn't see where we were going in the fog. Afterwards I think Zara & I stood and chatted for nearly as long as we had been running!

North Adelaide loop with B&S and John. A bit faster than when we have the kiddies with us but the guys kept having to stop at the lights so it was possible to catch up every so often.

We got back to Darwin about 4pm Sun, after car-shuffle at Florence, picking up my car at the Tourist Park, being surprised to see Geoff and Eleanor there when he was supposed to wait in Batchelor for Zoe to drop Lachlan off and me to come along (but he got bored because the markets were finished over an hour ago, and there's no phone reception which was why I'd told him to stay put) but anyway he got back into Batchelor not too long after Zoe & Lachlan or before me. Sounds like the kid had a great day playing while Sus was busy with the weeds stall, and she fell in love with a pumpkin so G bought it for her! Staying with Zoe and we were all fairly stuffed but ventured out and found the yiros & ice cream vans at Nightcliff Jetty, so that was dinner, and a pleasant evening except that my foot was being really annoying.

I could hardly put weight on it during the night, so it was totally illogical to go for a run this morning, but I wanted to try to stretch it out and also it was a nice breezy morning (the last couple of days, people have kept commenting on how much it's cooled down since the Dry arrived on Friday) so I went up to the uni - sprint map probably needs some alterations by now - and back via the bridge across Rapid Creek, past the Jingili water gardens which I'd never been to before until we took Rhubarb (Andrew & Zoe's dog) for a walk last night.

Anyway, this gave me a good appetite for breakfast which we ate at the museum cafe with SLE and then spent some time on the beach before farewelling the others and heading to the airport. Smooth flight but we were greeted at home by the neighbours holding on to Meatloaf dog, who'd somehow managed to escape during the hour between my parents leaving our place and us arriving. *sigh*

I never heard the ultra runners get up at 4am for their 6am start at Wangi Falls, and was very grateful that Zoe and Kate (from Katherine) had already left a car at Wangi yesterday, so all that was necessary was for Lachlan, Dan, Kate and me to squeeze into Zoe's car for the ride to Florence Falls, start of the half marathon, while Uncle Geoffrey took Eleanor into Batchelor for a morning of babysitting while Susanne ran a weeds management stall at the monthly markets!

Terry's track notes, and verbal briefing at the start, were beginning to give me the impression that the Tabletop Track might not be so much of a track as a trail, especially when he emphasised that the trail is well marked when you are on it, but it's easy to get off it by following the wrong footpad through the grass, and if you haven't seen a blue trail marker, or a streamer, for a while, go back to where you last saw one. So, not actually even a formed singletrack, then...

This was further reinforced by the fact that the 70-odd runners set off at 8:30am, down the steps to the base of Florence Falls, and 5 minutes later completely failed to take the link track which led up to the Tabletop loop, because of a whacking great TRACK CLOSED sign across it! I did see this sign, and wondered about it, but thought the link track must have been rerouted. When we all started to go downhill again, back towards the creek above the falls, I got really suspicious, and at the junction with the track between Buley and Florence convinced the people nearest me to turn around, but not before the frontrunners had gone back past the starting point of the run and down the stairs to the waterfall again, leaving Terry to shake his head - turns out the Tabletop loop isn't officially reopened to walkers after the Wet, hence the sign across the link track, which he hadn't thought to tell us about :)

The link track was pretty rough and ready, and we all scrambled up it wondering what the rest was going to be like. At least the organisers had put out streamers in between the trail markers, so we can just follow them, right? Which is why I found myself about 5 min later yelling at the people in front of me :"Oi, you're heading towards Walker Creek, you need to come back this way!" because out the corner of my eye I had seen a sign which pointed left towards Greenant Creek (correct direction) and right towards Walker Creek (from which direction the 50km runners doing the whole loop would eventually appear) and was the only indication that we had reached the Tabletop track. There was absolutely no such thing on the ground as a 3-way junction!

So, this is how it's going to be, then - Terry really meant what he said. And it seemed like a very long time to reach the fire trail at the 7.6km mark, where the first water drop would be. Possibly because of the extra km I'd done at the beginning, but some people did an extra 4km or so when they went right at the top instead of left, and later on numerous people got overexcited and took the Greenant Creek track when they should have gone another 1 km - and crossed Wangi Creek - before descending to Wangi Falls. So I was being incredibly careful with looking for trail markings, only I also needed to be looking for rocks and logs hidden in the long grass, and dared not try to jump over anything or I'd end up on my face. And also, quite frankly, the running shoes I had decided to wear were woeful for this sort of terrain; no grip on either rocks or dry grass and my feet sliding around so that despite taped ankles I was still rolling them. Oh well, I know for sure not to wear these shoes in Central Australia now.

Zoe came past me just before the water stop but I couldn't stay with her; her legs were too long and I was too busy trying not to trip over anything. It was a beautiful route, though, despite the lack of running most of the time. The trail transitioned between open woodland, regrowth after burning off, swampy marsh bottoms (where a woman who was running faster than me but kept losing the trail also kept squealing about its "snakiness") , creeks lined with pandanus palms and where I always wet both my feet and my hat, rocky outcrops where sometimes we had to boulder-hop, and groves of beautiful native pines. How come I've never noticed Callitris in the Northern Territory before?

There was a gentle breeze, too, and the day didn't seem particularly warm, but I suspect that people can get heatstroke without noticing it and I'd slept fairly poorly the past few nights so was already feeling buggered by the water drop, where I picked up my sports drink and also accepted chips and watermelon (hoping plenty would still be left for the ultra runners) and took a 10-minute breather along with a couple of salt tablets, and set off again at the "it's more important to stay upright and enjoy myself rather than anything else" pace. I was on my own during this section until the upper reaches of Wangi Creek, but that was ok because I quite enjoyed the challenge of hunting for the trail markers. Occasionally a faster runner, who'd obviously missed a turn earlier, came through me and then I had the fun of watching him look for and lose the trail ahead of me.

When it got rocky though, even I couldn't find the trail and had to do quite a lot of stopping and looking backwards to see the last arrow and the direction from which people would have come in order to see it. I even got the (compulsory, complimentary) map out at one point, but should have just realised that all I needed to do was keep the creek on my right. About then a Scottish guy from Darwin came along and we picked our way through the rocks together. I was surprised to hear him say that we should be only a couple km from the Greenant Creek link track, because if the first 7km had taken 70 min, and I'd only been going another 70 min since then, I couldn't be up to 16-17 yet - but in fact the first section had ended up being nearly 9km.

Anyway, I was now ready to have company although I expected him to run away, being faster - but he didn't, and we even had time to chat about other runs we'd done (Point to Pinnacle needs to move over when claiming to be the world's toughest half marathon, I now reckon) since two sets of eyes are better than one when hunting for trail markers, and we didn't take the wrong track to Greenant Creek, and the Wangi creek crossing was a glorious shady wade, and the link track to Wangi Falls was just below it. Only question was: which way to go around the Wangi Falls loop to get to the bottom? I thought I'd remembered that the ultra runners were to start to the west and finish from the east, and so I figured perhaps all runners were to finish from the east side, which my companion seemed inclined towards doing anyway. Apparently this wasn't the correct route (both sides of the loop are similar distance though), but it was nice to come down the wooden stairs and through the grove under the bats and past the swimmers, then what's this? An uphill finish? Only slightly, just the path up to the carpark, but it was noticeably at an incline...and then there was Zoe walking down to get wet already, and a finish chute, and someone ringing a cowbell, and Terry's wife Gay basically doing everything at the finish including writing down times, cooking sausages for finishers and handing out cold soft drinks in commemorative stubby holders.

I didn't want a sausage, but a swim in the waterhole was just the thing, and I laughed at the Darwinites saying that it was too cold - I thought the water was beautiful :) And while we 5 were eating our lunch, the stragglers who had gone the wrong way started coming in, and also a guy who casually rocked up and turned out to be the first of the nearly 40 ultra runners, having done the 50km in exactly 6 hours. No mean feat when you consider that there really wasn't a track! The first ultra-woman arrived about half an hour later and she too looked pretty cool, and Dan started saying that next year he'd like to do the 50km. Even I think it could possibly be manageable if the weather was similar to this year but it would be helpful to have walked the track previously, to know where the really rough parts are. As it was, my legs weren't really hammered, because of how little I'd been able to run - but my bad foot was really horrible afterwards and in the night I couldn't put weight on it at all.

C • Enjoyed your recount 4