The Horrie and Belinda Show

26/11/05

This morning, Belinda and I headed up to Explorer's Tree to join Lucky Legs on her quest of running the 6 Foot Track Marathon. Although, we decided that we didn't have enough time to do the whole run with her. Instead we would run to Cox's River with her before heading back.

The weather wasn't that flash went we were heading west and it was looking quite dark up in the Blue Mountains. We arrived at 8am as planned and within 5-10 minutes were joined by Lucky Legs, Wombatface, Flash Duck, Peter, Chonky, Wild Thing and her husband Rob. A quick walk down to Explorer's Tree for a group photo and we were off. Chonky was off and not to be seen again until he was on his way back from the suspension bridge at Cox's River. It was very slow going down Nellies Glen as the rain made it even more slippery than it usually is. 40 minutes later we were on the trail that takes us down to Megalong Valley. Flash Duck and I were happy to be running and ran on ahead of the group. The rain was starting to get lighter and it was now good weather for running. We got to Megalong Valley and met Rob who was waiting for us there as Wild Thing was only planning to run there before she met up with the group later on in the run. We stood there chatting with Rob before Peter arrived not much later. It was a little while until Lucky Legs, Ewen, Belinda and Wild Thing arrived. Peter and Lucky Legs were now able to discard their spray jackets as the rain had just about stopped. A quick chat, a drink and a few more photos and we were off again. Flash Duck and I slowed down and ran with the group, realising we were a bit frisky early on. As we climbed Pinnacle Hill, we noticed the sun breaking through and it was now turning into a nice day. Belinda had a tumble running through the technical trail down to Cox's River while there were a few other stumbles but everybody else managed to stay on their feet. Running down to Cox's River, I turned around to be surprised that I was on my own. I sat down and had a Power Bar while Flash Duck and Lucky Legs caught up. They told me that Belinda and Peter had decided to do a return trip on the suspension bridge just for the thrill of it. We got to Cox's River in 2:45 where Lucky Legs and I decided to really experience the 6 Foot Track and we just walked through the water. Flash Duck decided to join us after initially after starting the rock hopping. They were both relieved to see their Pod distance monitors were still working afterwards. When we got across the other side, Lucky Legs decided to fill up her water bottles at the water tank while I just took my shoes off for a while to let them dry out. Belinda, Ewen and Peter eventually arrived and after another couple of photos, we headed up towards Mini Mini. I decided to take Belinda as far as the first major climb just so she could see what it was all about. We then bade them farewell and wished them luck for the rest of their adventure before heading back. As the sun was now out in full force, Belinda decided to fill up her used bottles on the fuel belt. I decided that I had enough water in the camelbak. I was later to find out it was just enough. We again waded across the water of Cox's River before heading back up the single trail towards Pinnacle Hill. The trail back was hard work and we just enjoyed the challenge. About half way up a herd of cows went running across the trail just in front of us that gave us a bit of a shock. We saw them on the way down but this time they were closer. The weather was really starting to warm up and it was now quite hot. Belinda had drunk all her drinks and we still had around 5-6 km to go. I let her share my camelbak after this. This was emptied as we made our way to the bottom of Nellies Glen. Then came the climb back up. At least there was protection from the rainforest here and it was noticably cooler. We filled up some water bottles at the stream and cooled ourselves off with them. While the water looked good enough to drink, we weren't that brave. Belinda had started counting the steps as when we walked down them, she was curious as to how many there were. I joined her in the count and we counted 483 steps. Then there is still quite a climb back to get to the start. I decided to push on ahead and get some drinks I left in the car. But by the time I got them and headed back, Belinda was almost to the car. We hung around for a short while and I changed out of my running gear before we ate some lunch on the way home. It was a fantastic way to end a sensational day. We ended up covering about 32km for the day.

27/11/05

As Belinda and Tim were heading out on a trip with the Cubs, I decided that if I was going to run Ultras next year that I needed to get a taste of what was to come. This made me decide to head out to Mona Vale for the Barenjoey Bash STaR which is a H4 course and one that I ran and enjoyed last year although I took the 23km option last time. This time the plan was to run 30km with the 6.00 group and take it nice and slow. Things didn't go to plan as I was late getting out. After busting it to get there to run with the 6.10 group, I noticed them heading off just as I also noticed that the beach car park was metered and I didn't bring any extra money for parking metres. I then drove up the street, parked and jogged back to the start. I got a map and was tempted to just take off on my own to try and catch the 6.10 group. My pride wouldn't let me do this as I didn't want to be seen to be running away from the 6.20 group. They were just taking off when Silverfox arrived a fraction late. I decided to hang back and wait for him to get ready. We then took off and caught the group but it wasn't long before the first hill and it was here that I started to fall off the pace. Silverfox noticed that I was drifting back and stayed back with me for a while until I told him to go ahead without me as he came out to do his training run and I was only running with this group as I arrived late. Eventually he took off and within a minute had caught the group. I stayed 150m behind and was happy as long as I could keep them within eyesight. After a couple of km, the course goes bush around the headland to Avalon. They had stopped for a drink and I was able to catch up with them. It was only momentarily as once they started running again, they opened up a gap on me pretty quickly. However, my original plan of catching up with the 6.10 group was now starting to eventuate as I could see them being passed by the 6.20 group. As I caught up with them, I said a quick hello and asked them what they were doing. All except Allison Lilley were taking the 15km option so she was now happy that she was going to have company for the full 30km as Miss Skarmel who started with her had decided at this point to tack onto the back of the 6.20 group. However, she soon realised as I had, that their pace on the hills was quite brutal and we soon caught up with her a couple of kms later as she was walking up one of the many hills. The 3 of us ran together for the rest of the run. We missed a 1km loop as the 6.20 group went past us again but a slipup from me reading the map meant we tacked a couple of kms on somewhere as the streets on the map weren't the same as we were running. We managed to get back on course at Whale Beach. The rain got quite heavy and we were having a ball in the rain and were soaked.We got back just after 9.30 which gave me 3:13 for 30.45km. The legs were getting heavy towards the end as we made our way up countless hills and I did include a few walk breaks in them as Alison was happy to do this. Miss Skarmel was happy to tag along with us as well. When we got back, the host had everything packed up and we had to get our post race goodies out of the car. The people who had hung around after finishing earlier or hosting were all standing around under a tarp shivering madly.

So I am happy to say that I am feeling okay apart from a little muscle fatigue after my 62km weekend.