The Snowy Mountain Ultra

Before I ran Coast to Kosci, everyone had told me how amazing it was to run through the Snowy Mountains, but as I mentioned in my description of the race, I didn't quite get my pacing right to appreciate this, and so ran through Jindabyne at about 1:30am, ie in total darkness. To make up for this, one of my friends suggested I go down for the weekend with him to run the Snowies Ultra, in order to actually appreciate the beauty of the area. I wasn't sure that I was really up for the race itself (especially as it was the same friend who'd suggested the bike ride to Forster.....though I thought I'd give his suggestions a second chance!) but jumped at the chance of a weekend away visiting an (almost) new area.

The Strzelecki Monument

We went down on the Friday after work and so kicked off the weekend with a cheeky run at Jindabyne parkrun. This is a double lap, out and back course past the Strzelecki Monument along the beautiful lakeshore. I started off feeling OK for the first km or so and found myself working my way up to the pointy end of the field, but as I had no clue as to the pace that I was running, I figured that everyone was holding back to save themselves for the Trail Festival on the next day. Unfortunately there was no-one in front of me when I got back to the start ready for the second lap, so I made a slight navigational error in thinking that I had to run down towards the finish flags before turning back rather than just doing a 180 round a marker flag. At the time it didn't bother me in the slightest, and I had no issues with being overtaken on the second lap, but when our results emails came through and I saw that I'd missed the ladies' CR by a mere couple of seconds, I could have kicked myself....but then again, I am my own harshest critic!

The first lap of parkrun

The rest of the day was spent sightseeing (I have to say that visiting Thredbo is rather a non-event out of ski season!), registering for the run, and generally carb-loading (yummmmm!!!!).

Suddenly having no-one to follow!!!

It was an early start to drive up to Crackenback Resort (the event hub) for the silly o'clock briefing (in the dark), where we were handed masks and asked to board the buses that would take us all the way back down the valley to the start line.  The usual limited number of female toilets meant that several of us almost missed the race start as we had to get running at a decent pace just to make it into the starting area in time - I'm not sure that being out of breath is ever a good look on a start line!! 

We all set off across a rough field (well there was a narrow path to follow but it was single track and so by far too narrow for the number of runners there) through some long grass but eventually ended up in single file on the winding path that led through the trees up and down many climbs and round sharp corners and hairpins along the riverbanks back up in the general direction of Crackenback. I found myself running along in a train of people which I really didn't like, not just because I'm really clumsy and so like to be able to see where I'm going and what is coming up ahead of me, but more because the line of people behind me pressurised me into running at a faster pace than I wanted to go and I worried that I would not be able to complete the distance. 

By the time we'd covered about 5km, I was running in my own space at my own speed, and was feeling comfortable and so actually over took a few other single runners, both men and women, and then worked my way gradually past a couple of groups (as it wasn't the easiest thing to pass people on the single trail whilst looking out for rocks and other obstacles). It was lovely to feel as if you were just out for a nice weekend run by yourself winding through woodland as the sun came up and the temperature gradually increased....it reminded me of some of the places I used to run at home and it was nice to only be able to see really short sections of the trail ahead due to the twists, turns and geberaly bush overgrowth  :-)

After about 20K we came to Crackenback Resort for the first time - to be fair it was after about 17K, but then we seem to be sent round the houses on a tour of the resort and grounds on paths and bike trails, but it did mean that we got some cheers as we passed accommodation areas, and then again as we passed by the general finish area (and start of the shorter runs). Surprisingly enough, I seemed to be running fairly well coming into this checkpoint as I passed several people whilst running round the resort, including a lady who looked amazingly strong and had been way out of sight the whole time up until then.

The first time we saw the finish line....and had to run past it!!

After passing through the event Hub, there was a nasty steep hill to climb and so I lost all my momentum and mojo, and could only watch the backs of guys disappearing into the distance in the next few hundreds of metres of technical rocky single track usually frequented only my mountainbikers, but luckily this didn't last forever as it soon opened up into more runnable paths and so I could catch up to the guys again. We were all going slightly different paces and so the chain was quite brief and I was back to running on my own. It was starting to heat up and I felt myself flagging so I broke the run up into sections in my head - get to the 10K turnaround, then get to the half marathon turnaround, then lookout for the lead runners coming back. Each "segment marker" did take a while to appear so I used some of the "undulations" as nutrition breaks, being fully aware that I really needed to make myself eat and drink more. Each time we crossed over the river, the bridges seemed to get steeper and steeper, but passing through the various turnarounds was quite encouraging as I learnt that I was actually the leading lady and had just snuck into the top 10 overall......though I thought that I must look like a wreck compared to the men I saw flying back towards home with apparent ease!

After crossing the umpteenth humpback bridge, I came across a marshal who directed me back down the far side of the river and told me it was 100m to the turnaround so (although it turned out to be a very very long 100m) I declared my undying love for her on the spot!!! The little trail opened into a grassy clearing and as I saw a man running towards me on my right, I headed over to the left towards the people I saw sitting around supporting the runners. Left was not the right way to go so I was called back by the turnaround marshal, but eventually I got there. I did take a proper break there to pour water over my head, fill my bottle, drain it and then refill it before heading back off, but I figured that losing a place in the field to one of the male runners was definitely worth some time for self-care!

Any lift I felt about now being headed for home soon faded as I was definitely flagging (due to the heat and to tired legs) but it was nice to be able to see runners going in the other direction and mutually encourage each other. I tried to do some maths and work out what kind of lead I had on the next few ladies, and whether my many walking breaks would mean that they were likely to catch me before I got back to the finish (I always presume that no-one else is flagging as much as I am!!!). I stopped at every aid station on the way back, sometimes for longer than planned as there was only one water canister as each place and people on the outward leg of both the ultra and the half marathon event were wanting to fill up (and I did actually get told off by one marshal for not using the hand sanitiser after filling up my bottle as well as before....so you can just imagine what queues ensued!).

I don't remember feeling that happy at that point!!

All of a sudden people going the other way started to tell me that "you've nearly got her" and that "she's not far ahead"....and I couldn't work out what they meant as I knew (both from earlier comments and from watching other runners going to/from the turnaround point) that there were no ladies in front of me. Not long after that I spotted a woman running ahead of me, but I figured that she must have just been unlucky enough to have gone out for a trail run at the same time as the races were being held. When I caught up to her I saw that she had a number pinned onto her chest and so I asked her which event she was in, thinking it was odd that I hadn't as yet seen any other half marathon runners. When she told me that she was doing the 50K, I suggested that she had accidentally missed the correct turnaround, but she replied that she'd just been there. Unfortunately, the turnaround I'd not long run past was for the half marathon, which meant that she'd actually missed 8k (4k each way) of the Ultra course. It wasn't going to affect my result as I was travelling faster than she was, but I let the marshals know at the next check point and also at the finish, as I thought that it might significantly affect some of the other ladies who should otherwise be on the podium.

In the last part of the race I was really worried that I'd gone the wrong way, despite not having seen any turnoffs. There was nobody in sight either ahead or behind me, and I could not see any route markers, yet I could hear people running in the other direction almost parallel to me but through some thick bushes. Luckily, just as I was starting to panic and wonder what to do, I turned a corner and found myself running along some bollards that separated outgoing and incoming runners. I knew that we were going to be sent on another tour of the resort before finally getting to the finish line, and that I would be much slower round it than when I'd gone that way earlier - but in my mind it was only a couple of kms. 

Why do they make the podium blocks so high
at the end of an Ultra?

Trying to reinforce my belief that I'd almost made it, I asked a lone marshal if I was almost back, and nearly committed murder when he told me I had "about 5km to go". As it turns out my memory was more accurate than his comment but those last couple of kms did involve a couple of short sharp hills (that I walked up). All of a sudden I could hear the MC at the finish line, and then I was running down a narrow track, crossing a road, along a field and over the final road before "sprinting" up the last grassy slope to the line! 

I was so happy to have made it in one piece that I completely missed the "Man from Snowy River" on his horse until I was asked to pose for a photo with him. I was luckier than I thought to have finished when I did as it was "only 34 degrees" and those out for longer had to bear another couple of degrees so the medics ended up treated lots of people for heat problems (including those who'd run the shorter distance events too) as well as many people who'd tripped/stumbled/come a cropper on course (I'd managed to get away with just rolling the same ankle I'd rolled in Tassie a fortnight before).

A trophy and a wreath!

All in all, race conditions were a lot tougher than I'd expected (I thought it would be cool in the "Snowy Mountains"!!) but I was glad I'd made the trip down as it was a beautiful place to run, and who can argue with a cheeky unexpected race win?