Thursday April 29, 2010 (Hills-10km)
The start of the cooler weather does make it harder to get out the door, but on mornings like this the reward was worth the effort.
With a full moon and clear skies, it felt like the lights have been left on this morning. I ran a hilly 10km to Bungan Beach and back in the Nike Frees – legs feel fresh but I was slow. 
The run was finished in 60 minutes, just as the sun popped up over the horizon. It was a brilliant orange blob – glorious.
The start of the cooler weather does make it harder to get out the door, but on mornings like this the reward was worth the effort.
With a full moon and clear skies, it felt like the lights have been left on this morning. I ran a hilly 10km to Bungan Beach and back in the Nike Frees – legs feel fresh but I was slow. The run was finished in 60 minutes, just as the sun popped up over the horizon. It was a brilliant orange blob – glorious. 
The trail we ran, covered sections of the Great North Walk and I was very mindful of keeping an eye out for low hanging branches and not to slide on the slippery boardwalks which covered the mangrove areas. I relaxed towards the end of the run and ended up smacking straight into a tree branch - it brought tears to my eyes. But luckily no nose bleed - just a bit of skin off. Great run and great catch up at an easy conversation pace throughout, finishing in 1hr25. 
Even though I have run on sections of this trail, I was completely navigationally challenged, because the start was from a different direction. My first time running on the Manly Dam side of Wakehurst Parkway, very popular with mountain bike riders. Comfortably paced run finishing in 1:15. 
floating through the air on his way to the finish and Kerry McCann 
I think was the female winner. The Hammer, 
Adam 
and Liz 
all finished in admirable times. The atmosphere near the start and finish in Hickson Rd was magnetic and I remember thinking I wanted to be a part of this energy that filled the air. And so I entered my first SMH Half Marathon in 1995 after returning from Adelaide. It was the start on my addiction to long distance running. Over the years I have run pretty consistent times from 1hr 56min in 1995 to 1hr 48 min in 2007.But I fear the event does not hold the same allure for me any more. I have not run this race for the last two years mainly due to injury and also partly also due to the changes in the start location and the increase in the number of entrants. Time will tell if cramming to catch up on fitness will get me by and if the old magic of the event will come back to me. Over the past two weeks, I have run less than 100km mainly short hill repeats and one long run (<22km). >
Two groups of trail motor bikes overtook us – one in the State forest and one in the protected area of Nattai NP. Beautiful easy walking saw us reach Murray Flat in the early evening. We refilled our water bottles on the Nattai, 6 litres between us, and camped a bit further on just before the sign near the start of the ascent of Beloon Pass. Highlight of this section of the walk was the Scribbly Gum Forest and the hundreds of caterpillars on the path along the way. The low point was the wild pigs which could be heard snorting in the distance and their damage was very obvious once we got close to the banks of the Nattai River.
Just as I started to think I have had just about enough of this relentless climbing with no end in sight, suddenly we reached the top of this very narrow shelf with a steep drop off to the north. A most wonderful scene of the valley ahead and our ultimate goal in the far distance, too far too contemplate. 
The descent off Beloon Pass was a heart stopper for me – not a fan of heights. It drops very steeply where I was reduced to crawling down on my backside on all fours and in section where the pack pinched on an overhang, I was sure I was going to be hurled tumbling down like a rag doll. Amazing what you can accomplish when you have no idea what is ahead. Slowly, slowly we made our way down to the less steep section where we bush-bashed to reach the trail marked on the map. From here it was walking along Sheepwalk Trail- a fire trail towards Yerranderie. 
Walking was fairly slow as the trail was exposed and littered with sharp quartzite rocks which were sharp and rolling underfoot. By mid-afternoon we realised that we had to keep walking to our next water stop, which was likely to be at Yerranderie, as we were slowly running out of water. This made for long hard afternoon and evening of walking. What a relief it was to reach Yerranderie well after 8.00pm. But disappointingly the camping area was fully booked (Easter school holidays) with a few big loud groups, one with a generator. We were so exhausted we did not mind camping in the middle of this bedlam of noise. I thought this was a sanctuary. That’s what the sign on the way in said. I woke up in the middle of the night sick and vomiting and worried that I may not be able to carry on the next day.
Day 3 - by the morning the worst of whatever it was that made me sick had passed and after a strong coffee I was full of energy and ready to tackle the next stage. It was daunting looking at the map - we had to traverse what looked like a very long open fire trail of Scotts Main Range. This ended up being a mental challenge more then anything. 
The main vista of the escarpment of Beloon Pass was behind us and ahead was the beautiful grasslands of Joorilands just after the crossing of the horrible smelly Wollondilly River. 
It was at Joorilands that we saw a wild Alsatian skulking in the grass – it looked fairly well fed and was wary of us. It was Easter Sunday and a few 4 wheel drives passed us going in the opposite direction, one stopped offering to pick us up on the way back offering us a camp at New Yards. They did pass again in the late afternoon and as we had enough water we were determined to make it on our own, we declined their offer. Walking into the late afternoon we decided to have an early day and stopped to camp about 12 km short of New Yards on Scotts Main Range. I had trouble sleeping here as our camp spot was just off the fire trail -which is a closed gated road. I had bad horrible bad dreams which kept me awake through the night. As it was only 3 vehicles passed along the fire trail through the night.
and we were feeling pretty optimistic. But the descent off the mountain proved to be slow and slippery although reasonably well trampled. I stopped a few times to make sure were following the correct bearing. As it was the trampled trail off Mt Cookem reaches the Coxes a little bit too far to the north of the shallower river crossing. 
We bush-bashed southwest along the river bank following ground recently disturbed by pigs – the disturbance was too great to be human tracks - until reaching what looked like an easier shallower crossing of the river. We were happy to find that on the other side we were directly in front of the sign pointing to Medlow Gap. I was pretty pleased with my navigational skills at this stage. And we went up and up and up and just when you thought you can’t keep climbing any more there was another uphill. We had enough and as the trail leveled off we decided to camp about 2km short of Medlow Gap just before it got dark. It was the coldest night we had camping so far which is not surprising due the higher elevation.
so far no sign of the rain which was predicted for the weekend. Today I was bit navigationally challenged missing the turnoff to Mt Dibbert - we went along almost for half an hour before realising it was the wrong way. A little bit too relaxed as this was familiar and we were almost home. Lesson learnt, we had to backtrack losing an hour all up. We got to the base of Tarros ladder and I was keen to get the climb out of the way before anxiety and nerves got the better of me. 
I clung close to the rockface mindful of the weight of the backpack. By the time I reached the top my heart was thumping so hard I though it would burst out of my rib cage. I hollered as I reached the top – I made it. The rest of the way was just finishing off the walk, enjoying the view of Megalong Valley to the west as the mist rolled in around us. 
We dropped in to Katoomba Police Station to report back and then booked a night at the Carrington Hotel to celebrate finishing this classic walk, to have a bath and to celebrate our wedding anniversary. 