Today the Hurricane lived up to its name. Knowing this was going to take me longer than the usual, I started 30 minutes ahead of the 6am training group with the thought that they will catch me along the way. It had rained heavily overnight but the rain was easing as I set off in the dark. The laugh of the kookaburras as I passed through the bushland, down the 7km gradual descent to the Crossland’s campground, should have been an omen. I got to the campground just as it was getting light and according to the directions there should have been a carpark to my right. I have been here before, I remember the carpark but all I could see was water with two cars in the distance with the creek well above the tyres. Oops – I waded through knee deep water in the carpark looking for the boardwalk over the creek. I knew that two runners had left ahead of me and they must have gotten through, but I could not see how. Fearing that I may get swept away, I turned around and started back up the road. A few km up the road I ran into the main bunch of runners heading down. All were keen on a biathlon so I turned back to ran with them. By the time we got to the carpark, the water level had receded and the boardwalk was obvious now. We continued on to run the slowest ever 5km to reach the Pacific Highway over a wet, slippery leech infested Great North Walk Trail. Lots of uprooted trees blocked the path and the three creek crossings were very dangerous with high water levels.
Several runners lost their footing and got swept downstream. It all turned out well but so easily it could have gone pear shaped. We emerged from the trail like survivors of some horrific event, a bit bruised and battered and loosing blood rapidly to the freeloaders attached to our ankles. From here the group seemed to disperse in all directions and I ran the next 18km on my own through what is my favourite bush trail - the descent to Apple Tree Bay. I really enjoyed this section of the run till the last 6km when my hamstrings started to feel tight and I ran out of water so I alternated walking/running, finishing the run in 5 hours. Lucky that only seven leeches managed to hitch a ride to the finish, curiously mainly on my right foot.
No comments:
Post a Comment