I’m staying true to my word – good grief – and giving you an
update on the Trail event I ran on Sunday morning. Set in the bushlands around
the Yarra River and only a short distance from the city centre itself the Salomon
sponsored Studley Park Urban Trail event was a full subscription with
participants taking on 5k, 10.8k or 15k. Each event had nearly 450 runners so
the tranquil sounds of running riverside were broken by the heavy breathing and
thumping of runners on stone, grass and dirt.
The setting of the event was quite remarkable, the photo
below shows how close to the city centre we really were, but besides the sounds
of the traffic on the nearby Eastern Freeway (we did go under quite a few
bridges) you could have thought you were a fair way from urban sprawl.
As per normal I didn’t take the easy option and signed up
for the 15k event, something you do when you need to put in long runs but are
fed up with the same treks around a lake or local running track. As a result we
were the first lot to set off in the chilly conditions (I’m not going to say it
was cold, I’d felt cold at Mount Macedon and this was nowhere near like that).
As regular readers of this blog would know, I’m a slow (but steady) runner so I
self-seeded myself into the slowest wave start, about mid pack, and steadily
proceeded to be passed by even the slowest of runners. A number of sections had
loops so once we were about 2.5k in it was a bit disconcerting to see runners
already about 4k down the path (although some did have a 5min head start on me)
– it became even more disconcerting once I looked backwards at the 5km mark and
could see nobody (and I mean NOBODY) behind me. Yep I was running last, was
worried a sweeper may come and get me (at least it wasn’t going to be like
those big city races where they reopen the freeways so have to come and load
you onto a bus, there was no way any mode of “pick up” transport was getting
along these trails, unless I was going to be asked to sit on the handlebars of
a mountain bike!)) The other worry was the one and only drink station would
shut up shop before I arrived!!! If that happened I’d be going 15 clicks
without a refreshment.
But I do exaggerate, as I did arrive at the drink stop I
found that the 10k runners were joining us at that spot, but they went left and
weren’t taking an extra loop for the longer course, although a couple of very
speedy guys did run passed me about 500m down the trail before noticing a pink
marker and realising they’d taken a wrong turn so they did a very quick u-bolt
and headed back to the correct trail. Even though I had a further 3 kms or so
before I came back to the same drink station, I realised it was going to be a bit
of a pain as all the mid paced 10km runners would then be running up my
backside as they completed the last 4kms of their run just as I was hitting the
11km mark of my slog. Add to that the fact that it was a single file trail with
steep drops to the river on my right and thick bush on my left I knew it was
going to be a case of disgruntled runners waiting for the old slow bloke to
find a clearing and pull over for a few seconds to let the masses pass.
Elevation here was (according to the Garmin) quite small
with only 126m gain over the 15k but there were a few spots where I was reduced
to a fast walk (especially up a large flight of stone stairs) but given I ran
the Hobart Marathon which had 1,200m gain over the 42kms it was a walk in the
park. Not something I’d expect on the trails.
I’m using a 20 week marathon training plan to be ready (plus
some) for the November Trail marathon in Marysville in November and am a few
weeks ahead of schedule, figuring I’ll put in a few extra weeks of the longer
runs to make sure I’m ready for a 42km run on trails, up mountains and
waterfalls and through bush. This week’s long run called for 90 mins so I
figured a 15k effort would suffice. One thing I did learn though is the larger,
more well-advertised events attract bigger fields, where we had 54 runners in
my event at Mount Macedon, and a total field of 209 this event attracted 1,307
runners so as you can see a well and truly congested trail. Nothing like the 10’s
of thousands the big city events get but still quite a large number for single
trail running.
All up I finished 2nd last in the field of 437
but can say I finished top 20 in my age category with only 18 men aged 50-59
participating in the longer event.
Don’t get me wrong, any event that can get people out and
about exercising and enjoying the scenery is worthwhile and this event was very
professionally run and the course was clearly marked, well marshalled and the
volunteers and runners were all a friendly bunch, I just felt a bit of the
solitude I enjoy on these trail events was missing.
My next organised event is the Trails of the You Yangs, granite
peaks that are between Melbourne and Geelong, I know for a fact this will be a
smaller event with the large “Run Melbourne” event being held on the same day
in the city (that will attracts 10’s of thousands) and the minimum distance
here is 15kms and that elevation will be well and truly greater than 126m.
Bring it on.
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