HANNAH'S 50K EXPERIENCE

Well, I'm alive! We made it. Today we ran 50km :) I must thank the amazing Suzannah for being brave enough to have a go at it with me. I couldn't have done it without her! Now for a bit of a race review...

Woke up this morning at 2:00am after having absolutely no sleep. I spent the whole night (ha! make that, interlude!) tossing and turning and waiting for my alarm to go off. Thankfully no late-for-race dreams! Got up, got myself together and waited for Suzannah to pick me up at 2:30am. We headed off up the coast and shared our mutual sense of holycrapwhatonEARTHarewedoing and general panic. I don't think I have ever felt as nervous for a race as I did today. Absolutely packing death would be an understatement.

Arrived at the starting point, the local school at about 3.45am and met up with a very bleary eyed looking bunch wrapped in blankets. The mosquitos were absolute murder but managed to borrow some much needed bug spray so all was well. Saw Lady Jove who completely inspires me with the way that she is so independent out there. Sister doing it for herself! The time went by so fast that before we knew it we were off.

I was soooo glad to have Suze with me - my sense of direction is terrible at the best of times let alone in the pitch black. Thankfully Lady Jove was able to point us in the right direction several times and thus we avoided doing 50km back to Caboolture! Directions aside, I actually didn't mind running in the pitch black. The advantage is in not being able to really see how far you're going. The disadvantage is not being able to really see where you're going either at times - I was soooo close to doing THE most spectacular face plant, ever. I narrowly avoided falling head first into a deep pit of muddy water, piroetting gracefully and leaping to one side, then doing a bit of a out of control drunken sideways tiptoe for a couple of meters. Suzannah nearly wet her pants, as did I. *L* We had a blast.

The first loop was short (8km I think) and ran out over "hamburger hill" which surely has THE best view in the entire universe, through the macadamia farms and beyond. We passed through the school checkpoint, grabbed some water and waved at Clairie, Cindy and Sam who had arrived for the 30km. It was starting to get light which made things a little easier. We headed out for the biiiigggg loop and gossiped our way through. We made a rare sighting of what we think was a giant, black cat eating cockatoo - they were ENORMOUS... beautiful things. I continued my usual habit of tripping over every two seconds. Usually as we broke into a walk on the rougher, muddier sections and just as I expressed how you couldn't really run on them without breaking your neck. There was a lot of walking up the hills and through the mud - it was just impossible to go any faster, really. That and I had another bad case of the gold coast 'be conservative' approach that told me even though I could've run up many of the smaller hills, I should save my legs.

We could see Lady Jove off in the distance for a lot of the way, but as we entered what I'll call the just-like-the-powerlines section (not sure exactly what it was called, but similar in difficulty and steepness) she got way ahead of us and we didn't see her again til the end. This section was full of massive, massive near-vertical rock cliffs. They were definitely the hardest part, but also the most enjoyable. I actually love going up them because they look so impossible. Great to really start puffing and working and using your hands and feet together in parts. I felt like neanderthal woman at times, my knuckles were almost dragging the ground at that point!

We climbed up and up, around and down and broke through into some easier track sections where we could run again. My legs started to feel it but I kept on keeping on. A quick loo spot (a very scenic loo stop!) at the top of the hill in the above piccie and we were on to the next section. I think one of the nicest things about the GH trail runs is the peace and quiet - being completely away from any non-natural sounds. It smelt beautiful and just the chance to look at the flowers, brightly coloured agate rocks and fungi, the amazing variety of soil colours which change so frequently and the wildlife makes it really special. All stuff you'd probably never see if you didn't get right out there.

As we passed through the last checkout, Suzannah and I had practically exchanged life stories which was great and we knew we were on the way home with 12km to go. Tracey texted me to see how things were going, not knowing I'd taken my phone out with me so I texted her back ;) I keep forgetting my phone has a camera in it, so I tried to use it a bit this time. The photos I took were a bit steamy like the one above - from all the body heat in my fuel belt I guess. The last 3km seemed to go FOREVER. Poor Suzannah had to humour me whilst I stopped to walk up some relatively tiny hills but once we were over hamburger hill again, I realised we were really going to do it. We hit a run down the very last track back towards the school and finished with a lap of the oval. Done, done, done in 7:29 - We got silver and bronze bling for our trouble, too!

Sam and Cindy had waited around to see us finish which was so lovely of them! Phil left his number and we rang him to say we were alive. After the presentations, we packed up and headed home. When I got in I had an amazingly good shower and a couple of hours sleep.

Tonight, I'm actually physically feeling *infinitely* better than I did after the GCM. I'm stiff and sore (and the next few days'll be fun!) but nothing like I was then. All that worry about running like crap and I felt fine, really. Perhaps it was something to do with all the enforced walking we did, but I didn't struggle nearly as much as I thought I would.

As we were running, I waa thinking to myself how absolutely bloody amazing the 100 milers were... infact how amazing the 100k-ers are too.... when I think about how hard it is to run 50km, then think about doing it three times and then some, it just blows my mind. It made me doubt if I'll *ever* be physically able to do that sort of distance but we'll see. My plan is to spend the next little while doing some quality, shorter training and getting stronger overall. Then I'll think again about goals.

This race has sort of marked the end of the racing season for me. Looking back on this year, it's been insane! I've done three marathon length events, two of them longer than a marathon. I've set myself a new half PB and trained harder than I ever though possible to get there. I've met some new and amazing friends, both on CR and off. (speaking of which, I met blue dog and horrie today! *waves*) All up, it's been fab. Who knows where the road leads next :)

Hannah