Long Time Between Posts

Yep, haven’t written at all since we got back from the Kokoda Challenge. Haven’t done much of anything. It was a beaut weekend, and one for the calendar next year for sure.

We stayed on the Friday night at a motel I’d booked sight unseen after searching for ages for something suitable for us. It turned out to be a fair bit away from the start and finish, and right on the Gold Coast Highway so was quite noisy. Still, got a bit of sleep before our 3am rise on Saturday morning.

I’ll try and do a bit better than my half marathon report (started, ran/walked a bloody long way all day and all night, got extremely cold and tired then stopped when we finished, LOL). Weather was absolutely perfect for the event. Clear skies and quite cool.

There were lots of people at the start, it was freezing cold and the loudspeaker was playing Queen - We Will Rock You. The start was staggered with the faster runners up the front, and us towards the back of the 20-25 hour section.

After the Last Post was played, we were off like a sea of humanity.

Took a while to get to a place where we could run at all. The first part of the course was on footpaths before turning into some nice little trails.

Very hilly terrain and we started by walking the uphills and running the flats and downhills. Having said that, the downhills were often quite precarious with loose gravel and stones. When we got to the top of the uphills, we were rewarded with some great views over to the coast - high rises and the sun reflecting off the ocean.

Here we are at the top of a climb.Me, Hubby, Will and Sean. It was funny because they hadn’t updated their records yet, and the electronic scanning gear at the checkpoints had Will listed as Robyn.

There wasn’t much of the course that wasn’t up or down, and for some reason my metatarsal heads started to really hurt around the 20km mark. As in really hurt, so that I was thankful for the uphill climbs because the downhills were very sore. I figured the best chance of finishing reasonably comfortably was to walk from there on, so we did.

Here’s Will heading up one of the earlier hills. They didn’t get any smaller, that’s for sure.

Checkpoints were well manned with smiling volunteers with mint leaves. So nice after not brushing your teeth for a while. Our crew, Parso, was fantastic, everytime we saw him, he had boiling water for a cuppa and couldn’t have been more helpful. He even had chocolate!! Won me over completely.

When darkness fell, we just kept walking, crossing creeks, climbing hills. It was warm enough while we were moving, but when we stopped, it was soooo cold.

Yep, we had to get up to the top of that ridge and go along it. No idea what time it was there, it looks like late afternoon in the pic so we would have been going for around 8 or 9 hours by then. Still feeling quite cheerful, and having a good time.

The hardest part was the last 10km, I was pretty keen to get over the line. Hubby was nodding off on his feet - he’s a good ultra runner and has never been out on a course for that long, and he got very tired.

This hill that Sean is climbing is in the 85th kilometer, on Sunday morning leading up to the last checkpoint. They just didn’t let up.

Just before we walked into the velodrome and under the finish line, Will realised they’d be calling out the team name, CRR Doubledate, and he’d be walking in with Sean. That got us laughing. We finished at around 10.55am, feeling pretty okay although my feet were stuffed, and headed home. Hubby fell asleep in the car, while I drove but it wasn’t long before I had to pull over to have a nap. Just too dangerous. We got home around 3pm and had another quick sleep before going to our friends place to pick up the kidlets and have a barbecue tea.

Here’s the thingy from the Garmin, up until dinnertime when the battery went flat. Some good hills around the place.

I’ve been feeling pretty good since. No leg pain at all but I did have to walk on my heels for the first few days. It’s probably taken me until about now to feel I’ve caught up on missed sleep.

This is a fantastic event, I loved it and can’t wait until next year. Although I’m sure I’ll be stronger and my feet will be in better shape, I’ll still walk it - it’s something to be savoured slowly. The winners did it in 11 hours 54 or something, which is amazing.

So that’s it. We survived, we didn’t have any arguments in the team, we finished as a foursome and Hubby and I are still married. A good result in anyone’s language.

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!