Sixfoot 2011 - a blow out

I worked out my splits for 4:30 two months ago. I poured over the data and convinced myself that 1:23 to the river was the number to hit. Last year I did 1:29 and ran 4:44, so it sounded about right. As time passed, I got to the start line with about 1:18 or 1:19 split in my head. How that happened I don’t exactly know. Brain washing by BMMC I think. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t...” said Rod. Well this time it didn’t.

My plan was to stick with Rod to Megalong Rd and let him go after that, however I really needed to be on the front row with him at the start. I was on the 2nd row and before I knew it 30 people were in front of me on the way down to Nellies. I knew Rod would be gone and to try and chase him would be silly, so I sat back and decided to do my own thing. I found myself behind Robcos and Scambullant at the top of the stairs. Scam rolled his ankle pretty bad, but seemed to be OK. There was some argy bargy and heated name calling behind us due to a slow descender not letting anyone past. I reached the Nellies sign in 10:23.

As we got onto the fire trail, I went past Scam and found that Robcos had taken off, but within a few k’s I caught up with him and we ran together. I remember Rob saying that there were a lot of people taking it out quick and would be paying for it later. Little did he realise that he would be describing us in a few hours. We caught up to Dave, who informed us that it was only Rod and Cedric in front. I let Rob go and stopped for a quick pee break just before Megalong Rd, which I reached in 39:10.

Just after Megalong Rd, I passed Cedric and could see Rob and Rod heading up toward Pinnacle Hill. I got a split of 60 secs on Rod as he went over Pinnacle Hill which I reached in 47:56. It was nice comfortable running down to cox’s by myself, with much of the track in the shade with a nice cool breeze. I crossed Cox’s in just under 1:19 and was feeling great. 10 mins faster than last year. This 4:30 was in the bag!

I walked up Mini with a few short running breaks. Jo0066 caught me just before the cattle yards and we walked for a while together. However he seemed pretty strong and soon left me on the steep section toward the top. I thought he might run well and I was pretty sure he would not be seen again.

Over Mini and down toward Alum where I passed Robcos who said the hornet was just up ahead. Unfortunately, I was starting to feel a little more fatigued than I was hoping along this flat section. It brought back memories of 2009 (a bad year) when I started to struggle at this point. As the track pointed up and I started to walk, my legs immediately gave me indications that they were not happy and I started to feel the race slipping away.

Slowmaniac then powered past me in an impressive display of hill walking/running. Soon JoJoB also went past showing me how to do it as well – very impressive stuff. Spud also caught me just as I reached the top of Pluvio which was in 2:45 (3 mins behind 4:30 pace).

Optimistically I was hoping that the legs would come to life on Black Range and I would run with Spud, however this proved to be simple fantasy and off he went. I was done. DJB, Tropic and Jo Be also came past. I was hardly moving, shuffling when I could and walking the rest. At one point Scam was just behind me, but it took him 3-4k to catch me – talk about the geriatric Olympics!

I got to Deviation and it didn’t get better, with the left knee/ITB starting to buckle and my guts were gone. vstaR passed here and GarthMc caught me just before Caves Rd looking strong. Go girl then caught me just before Binda Cabins before we caught Tropic Thunder who was staggering like a drunk. It was only 4k to go and I was dreading the final descent. My legs were mashed and was going to be painful. Bmac caught me just as we reached the top of the hill and she put 4 mins on me in the last 2k as I had to hobble down. TooKeen passed me just before the end and missed out of 5 hours by secs.

In the end it was a very disappointing 5:01. I was feeling very confident of a good race however it wasn’t to be. This race does my head in. Next year I will be smarter and prevail. Yeah right!