So whilst most people are on the cans getting plastered for New Year’s,
I decided it would be much more inspiring to bring what has been my greatest
year of athletic achievements to date with a monster run!
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| On the Great North Walk in the Berowra Valley |
And what a run it was. Paul and I started from Mount Kuring-gai and quickly made our way onto the Great North Walk access trail taking us down into the Berowra Valley. Due to the Calna Creek Bridge being damaged and impassable we had to take a previously unseen detour around. It certainly didn’t disappoint! The first section was an epic bush bash up to the ridge with gradients regularly reaching over and above 100%. It was a real slog regularly on all fours! Once at the top we descended down Somerville Rd to Crosslands Reserve which proved to be a pretty serious descent.
We stopped for a brief break at Crosslands and then began the rest of
the trek through the Berowra Valley. It’s quite unrelenting with lots of
climbing and descending on pretty technical trail. By the time we finally
reached the outskirts of Thornliegh Paul and I were finding very hard going on
the climbs as the sun was really starting to bite.
Upon reaching Thornliegh we met up with Mikey. We took a few quick
photos and stopped for a brief Coke/Poweraid break. Paul left us here as he
needed to get home to finish off the construction of his new back deck! Mike
and I pressed on and dropped into the Lane Cove River Valley. The first few
kilometres of this section always sucks as it is extremely rocky and the footing
is terrible. We made it through browns waterhole and back onto the better
quality trail.
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| With Mike & Paul at the Thornleigh Trackhead |
The going was starting to get extremely tough for me and anything resembling even a slight incline was reducing me to a walk. Mike did a great job of keeping me moving and eventually we made it to the Lane Cove National Park and stopped for a desperately needed drink and poured some cold water over our heads. It’s amazing how the simple things can be incredible when you’re ruined.
From here on it was just survival mode through to the finish. We ticked
off the kilometres ever so slowly passing Epping Rd, Buffalo Creek and finally
onto the final section of trail through Mars Creek Reserve. Emerging out of the
bush we hit the final 3 kilometres of roads which was extremely tough to even
maintain a jog on. Passing by Top Ryde we challenged ourselves to run all the
way to the finish. Despite a desperate struggle up and over the final incline
we did it cruising up to my front door after covering 53.5 kilometres in 8 hours,
6 minutes & 49 seconds.
Honestly one of the toughest runs I have ever done as the heat was
unrelenting and it just dehydrates you and wears you down so quickly. I don’t
think I could have done it without the company of Paul and Mike out on the
course. Thanks very much for being a part of my end of year celebration.
What an epic year it’s been between buying our first home with the Love
of my Life, finishing The North Face 100km Ultramarathon and completing the epic
600km Festum Prophetae Audax Ride. I honestly couldn’t be more satisfied, and
so much of what has been achieved has been done with the help and support of
some incredible friends. Seeing all of my friends achieve greatness is also an
endless source of inspiration. 2013 has been a big one. 2014… Here We Come!!!
