Run In the Tarra Bulga National Park

This blog post is identical to the one I sent to the Friends of the Tarra Bulga National Park who asked me to write up something after they saw a group of us running through there. Hopefully it will be put up on their website soon, until then, enjoy.

There were three of us; Glenn, Matt and myself (all Sale and District Runners), who decided to go for a run in the Park, because if you need to do a long run, why not do one where there’s stunning scenery and some gnarly hills to match?

We are all from Wellington Shire (about an hour away from the Tarra Bulga) so we didn’t have to get up too early to get out running in the morning. We arrived at the Visitor Centre in Balook at 7.30am, to find out we were the only ones there (which isn’t surprising), only to step out of the car and immediately freeze our butts off. It was about 13° C when we left home, the car thermometer when we stepped out of the car said it was 7° C. So just a tad bit chilly. But man, it was stunning looking out over the Visitor Centre from the car park. The cloud was quite stunning that morning, and hung like a shroud over the trees. Beautiful. And I knew at that moment I was going to be in for a good run.

We went off in the direction of Bulga Road, then jumped onto the Grand Strezlecki Track which led us to Diaper Track, which was stunning and easy to run along. It was all downhill and soft underfoot due to all the leaves and twigs, which was pleasant to run along. We did have to watch where we put our feet so we didn’t trip over a twig though! Along Diapers we saw some unmarked waterfalls, crossed some streams and splashed our way through the mud. It was like I was a little kid again! It was also good that it was fairly easy to run along, as we needed to be well and truly warmed up for what came next…

 

Diaper Track

Diaper track

Diaper Track

Diaper Track finished onto Tarra Valley Road after descending 300m in 7km, where we then sought out ‘Butlers Track’. ‘Butlers Track’ is apparently a part of the 50km in ‘Duncan’s Run’ and none of us had run/walked it before, so we had no idea what we were in for. First off, it was steep; but we each had some good hill climbing fitness so that wasn’t too bad. What was really difficult was the terrain itself. The forest floor was very wet and littered with tree debris. Bark, twigs, small trees, logs, you name it, it was there. This meant when I put my foot down, I struggled to lift it back up again; but hey, a challenge is always nice and it was such a good feeling once we reached the top! And what goes up must come back down and, boy-o-boy was it fun to run down the other side of that hill.

Butler’s Track is part of the ‘Grand Strezlecki Track’ and without the amazing trail marking that they did we would’ve for sure gotten lost, so thanks for that!

 

Butlers Track

Butlers Track

Butlers Track

Butler’s Track links up with the ‘West Face Track’, which for the first part was very muddy. Glenn actually took quite a big fall! Kudos to him though, he kept on going. It was also at the beginning of that track that Glenn and myself had found leeches attached to us. They came off easily enough but it’s funny seeing how much blood they can suck without me feeling it at all. Matt was the lucky one and seemed to get off scot free, but it’s all part of the fun right??

West Face Track also goes up a huge hill, but it goes up over the hill over a longer distance than Butler’s (Strava tells me it has a grade of 10%) that made it a little easier than the last one. What also made it easier was the fact that the majority of it was dirt/gravel instead of forest floor. In order to make the hill go faster we turned it into a bit of a fartlek session, where at random intervals we ran a bit, then walked a bit. All the way to the top. Once we reached the top we got into a bit of a clearing, where we discovered it was windy which was a bit of a shock to the system since it was ice cold. The trees protected us so well! At the top there was also a picnic table that was in; what I think, a bit of a random spot. It wasn’t really at a lookout point, but that wasn’t the strangest thing. No, next to said picnic table was a bunch of daffodils. But nowhere else. They were beautiful though.

 

Views along West Face Track

Views along West Face Track

Views along West Face Track

The slightly random picnic bench and beautiful daffodils

When we turned right onto ‘Basement Track’, which was all downhill and meant that I could stretch out my legs again after slogging it uphill for so long. This led us back onto Grand Ridge Road, where we stopped to take our obligatory ‘seflie’ and where I also met the caretaker of the Tarra Bulga website (who asked me to write up something about this run, hence the blog post!) From there we went back to the Visitor Centre along Scenic Track, which ended our almost 3 hour, 22km adventure!

 

The selfie

Ridiculously wet, bruised, and a little bit bloody, we sought the refuge of the Tarra Bulga Guest House and Café to warm ourselves up by the fire and fill our bellies with hot coffee and delicious home cooked meals. To my delight some scones had been freshly made and really hit the spot.

Yes it was tough, cold, wet, muddy and tiring but the scenery well and truly made up for it. Ancient trees that tower above you, the fresh air, stunning valleys and waterfalls all add up to make this a part of Gippsland that you simply must visit!

Unmarked waterfalls are part of the attraction

The TRN

Race Report: Hoka One One Trail Series Race 5: Studley Park

I’m getting a weird sense of Déjà vu as I am writing this, as I’m yet again writing the words, ‘the race didn’t quite go to plan’ for a night race. The last time I wrote those words was for my race report 'Wings For Life'

You’ll find out what the heck happened shortly…

But first off can I say how cruel it is of Rapid Ascent to hold a race at nighttime? This is the first time they did it as part of their ‘Hoka One One Trail Series’, where we returned to Studley Park to run the exact same course of Race 1 (which I didn’t partake in) and it was torture leading up to the race. For me I usually get the pre-race nerves the night before the race, take ages to get to sleep and then wake up ready to run the race in the morning, but not this time. This time I woke up and the nerves hung around all day. It’s terrible; I was at work constantly looking at the clock slowly counting down the hours before I could leave for Melbourne. And it finally arrived.

Trail Racing at Night!

Heading down with me to the race was Kym (who was running in the short race) and Dad, the person I dragged along so he could drive us home while I was having a sleep (we both live about 3 hours drive away from where the race was). We got there with plenty of time to spare, which was good as I need a long time to warm up and also good for another reason. For the first time ever I got my ankle taped up by the guys at Physiohealth. (For those who didn’t read my last race report, I hurt my ankle halfway through a half marathon and continued to run on it for another 10km, NOT SMART). It’s been a bit under two weeks since I hurt it and have been running on it for the past week with no issues, but it’s just been on the road and track not on any trails. I didn’t want to reinjure it, hence the tape. Which also probably wasn’t very smart to be trying something new at a race, and it wasn’t, but more on that later.

 

Taped Ankle

I had another quick chat with Francesco, (who ran in the 5km this time as he had an ultra race on the Saturday morning, so he took it easy. He still won) went for a good warm-up and arrived at the start line with my head torch and ready to go. Only to find that my head torch wasn’t working. I ran with it just two nights previously for the first time and with brand new batteries, worked fine. Turned it on that morning of the race, worked fine. Tried turning it on when I needed it the most, it says ‘screw you’ and makes me go into a mild panic attack. 2 minutes before the race starts and the RD is going through the pre-race briefing, my dad finds me and is my knight in shining armour; fixes it by taking the batteries out of the casing and putting them back in again. It starts working again. Didn’t even think of doing that but pretty much as soon as he does that, the race siren goes off and I’m off and running, breathing a huge sigh of relief. But I honestly think it was an omen of what was to come.

The long race around Yarra Bend and Studley Park is supposedly the easiest race of the Hoka One One Series, it’s shorter than all of the others at 15km, it’s relatively flat at about 150 metres elevation gain and not too technical with (and you better be sitting down for this) some sections that are on bitumen and concrete *gasps*. Exactly the stuff that I haven’t been training for. In other words, it’s a speedy circuit. And I haven’t been doing too much speed work. So I walked into the race thinking 65 mins to run 15k’s isn’t too bad, and to try and achieve this I’d hit out the first 5k’s in a bit under 20 mins, with the expectation of majorly slowing down in the last 3-4k’s due to my muscles being fatigued from the lack of speed training. And for the first 5k’s the plan went perfectly, I got into a group consisting of Kelly Emmerson (which I didn’t know who that female was at the time, it was dark!) and a few others who all seemed to have the brightest head torches, so it was almost like running in the day! And to maintain that sub 4min/km is so much easier in a group. Then the race seemed to go into a downhill spiral.

I got through the 5km point in 19.50, then ran down the first trail hill and promptly fell over. Which was fine, I didn’t badly hurt myself. I got up, dust myself off and managed to keep up with, and pass the majority of that group that I ran with at the beginning. 1km later; however, I got a stitch in my right shoulder and it’s where I lost my rhythm. I was expecting to start to hurt 6k’s later, not then! I went from running easy, to running hard. And it didn’t seem to leave until the 8^th kilometre. The terrain helped to keep my mind off it, especially this steel bridge that we ran across at about 6.5k’s in. Completely unexpected and was cool to run across in the dark. Even with the stitch I was still making good time and made it to the 10^th km in 41.44, which made me start to think that I set my sights too low in terms of a time to aim for. I then readjusted my time and told myself to aim to beat 63 mins, plenty of time run my last 5k’s. For me, between the 10-12^th km was the most interesting and the most fun. There was nobody in front of me and one person a bit behind me so I had to rely on only my head torch. Which was lucky that the head torch; a ‘Black Diamond Ion’

My head torch that I won and run in, and didn't bounce around at all, which was good!

which I won as part of my last Rapid Ascent race, was up to the task. The single track went down to the Yarra River and got a bit more technical; I really had to concentrate to not trip up on any of the rocks or roots and potentially fall into the river! Lucky for me that didn’t happen, but something almost as bad did.

At the 12km point I developed a stomach cramp, the kind that felt like a punch in the gut. I occasionally get them, for unapparent reasons and the multiple specialists I’ve seen have no idea what causes it, how to prevent it and perhaps more importantly how to treat it. I went from doing reasonably well, maybe 5^th or 6^th overall, to dropping 5 places in the space of about 500 meters. I was practically slowed to a walk. It was demoralising and it hurt. The last 3k’s were agony, especially the point where I was jogging on a section of downhill concrete, where I should have been flying, which is where I got passed, again. And to top it all off I was starting to get a blister on the bottom of my heel from the tape that was put on earlier, perfect.

The beginnings of the blister

It was such a good feeling to see the lights and hear the music of the finish line at about 300m to go, it meant I had almost finished! I eventually crossed the line in (unlucky) 13^th overall and in a time of 65.58 mins, and first in my age group which I didn’t feel like I deserved.

Walking over the line

I was in such a dark place when I crossed that line, I was angry at how I performed and angry for my body turning against me for no apparent reason. And my stomach cramp didn’t let up until the next morning, so in what should have been a joyous occasion celebrating the end of a good series with a few beers, ended up me just wanting to make the presentations go a lot faster, and screw recognising everybody’s achievements. I want my recognition and reward, and I want to go home. It was terrible to be thinking those thoughts, especially since my running companion won her age category for the short course, well-done Kym!

Fake it till you make it?

This race definitely had the best prize too, thanks to Hoka One One. Any pair of shoes in their range, which is awesome! I’m still yet to decide. I also got a nice medal from Rapid Ascent for winning overall U20, and it feels great to have that title.

 

First!

My medal for winning the series

I’ve learnt so much from doing these races. It’s ok to walk up some the hills, different strategies work for different races, and how to run on different sorts of terrain, fast (which you don’t really do when it’s just a training run). I first competed at Race 2 back in 2014, before I had any idea what trail running even was. A harder form of x-country perhaps? But I’ve learnt it’s so much more than that and I thank the Rapid Ascent team for a great racing experience, time and time again. This is the last time I’ll be doing anything with these guys until I don’t know when (moving up north to QLD for uni next year); I highly recommend doing at least one of the trail series events, it’s the perfect way to dip your toe in trail running and see if it’s for you. I certainly found out it that it was for me.

The TRNWings For Life

Race Report: Walhalla Wound Up

Yesterday’s race at Walhalla certainly was far more interesting than it should’ve been. I should’ve been able to write that I took it easy and crossed the line in my desired time, and that today I don’t feel sore at all, but that’s not the case, unfortunately.

 

The centre of town and one of the hills I had to run up

The Walhalla Wound Up is definitely an event that everyone who has an interest in trail running should do, it’s super low key but has such an amazing vibe and the scenery is stunning. The hills are doable and there are distances for most fitness levels, with a 10km, a 21km and a 50km. I did the 21km; even though I raced last week, as I ran in this event last year and wanted to see if I could beat last year’s time; as well as to see how much my fitness has improved.

 

Some of the single track Walhalla has to offer.

The morning was stunning, cool but not too cold, with the sun shining, which was starting to warm up the valley by the time the race started. I, as per usual, got there an hour early to warm up, and was excited to see so many Sale and District (SAD) runners starting to turn up before the 21km started. It was during this warm up period that I was speaking to a SAD member and realised what this run was going to be; a ‘training race’. I was always going to take it fairly easy, but with it being a ‘training race’ I started to think I might be able to try out a different race strategy and see how it would work.

 

The SAD crew

I had a goal of running it in about 1 hr 40 mins and this was close to the time of the winning female from last year, Katie (who is a SAD runner) so for the first couple km’s I decided to run with her and let her set the pace, which was nice as it wasn’t too fast and I got to enjoy the view, and because I wasn’t racing it I stopped to take photos, which I haven’t done before. All my trail races this year have been stunning and now for the first time I tried to capture that, which partially worked but the photos don’t do the trail justice, you’ve just got to run it.

At the start line, first time wearing my Salomon S-Lab Adv Skin3 12Set (that's a mouthful) for a 'faster' run. Great pack, well done S-lab.

Starting to head up into the hills

After about 5km I decided to run that bit faster than Katie and left her, which she said was fine at the time and latched onto the leading female and used her as my pace maker. When I stopped to take a photo, she gained a bit of distance on me, when I started back up I had to speed up to try and keep the gap at an even distance. And I think that helped to keep my splits fairly consistent, even with all the stopping and starting.

 

Just happened to be a waterfall on the side of the trail

I felt great come the 11km point, which is where I had to cross an old, wooden, slippery bridge. It’s a beautiful bridge and I had to take a photo of it, so when I actually turned on to it I was only just starting to start running again. As I wasn’t going fast I didn’t think I would need to grab onto the handrail as I turned onto it, I should of. My right foot slid from out underneath me and as I was falling over my left foot/shoe smashed into the inside of my right ankle, which hurt, a lot. I then proceeded to hobble for the next 500 meters, as I couldn’t put any weight on my right ankle. The pain slowly subsided over the course of a km and soon I was able to almost run normally on it. I just adjusted my technique to focus heavily on landing on my left foot, which is why when I got to the aid station at the 15km point I decided to keep on going rather than DNF. The ankle wasn’t too bad at the time and I was about to run up the hill that I seriously struggled with last year.

Damn you bridge! Why do you have to have wooden planks?!

The hardest hill of the race climbs about 100m meters in the space of a km and I had to walk up all of it last year, and when I made it to the top I told myself that the next time I attempted it, I had to run all of it without stopping to walk. This year I felt great by the time I got to the hill (ankle not withstanding), muscles were fine and I wasn’t feeling puffed and I was feeling confident that I could run up it all. And I did, I didn’t see my watch drop below 9.30/km and I managed to pass 2 people whilst doing so. It was an amazing feeling once I reached the top, I had proved to myself that I’m much, much better than I was last year.

A view out into the surrounding bushland

I then pushed myself that bit harder for the final 5km (mainly flat) testing to see how that race strategy might work for me, where I passed two more people until I reached the final downhill (about 800m to the finish) where my ankle pretty well blew up on me. My brain must’ve just said, ‘you’re nearly done, no need to mask the pain anymore’ and man, that final bit almost killed me. Absolute agony. I managed to hobble over the finish line, and straight to the first aiders. It was amazing to see how swollen the ankle was, so was glad for the ice and the compression bandage that they put on. 

Whilst I was getting treated my mum came over and told me that I finished 3^rd overall, which was a complete shock! Since I started out towards the back of the pack I had no idea how many people were in front of me, and that I was slowly working my way though it, especially towards the final stages of the race.

 

Representing both SAD and Wellington Aths! And yes that is a baby shoe that I'm holding, best trophy idea ever

Overall it wasn’t a bad race, finished on the podium and beat my desired time coming across the line in 1 hour 38 mins 56 secs without feeling too tired, here’s hoping the ankle heals up in time for the Hoka One One Night Race at Stanley Park in two weeks time…

No run would be complete without post-race beers, a great turnout for the SAD crew. Well done finishers! (and to mum for taking photos and being support crew for the day!)

The TRN