Click here to go to race homepage
Race Report
by Sean Greenhill
More accurately, some time ago Kevin Tiller had enthused to me his idea of a run along the Katoomba- Mittagong trail via the Wild Dog Mountains and Scotts Main Range; he wanted to call it the Wild Dog Mountain Run- he loved the sound of that name.
I'd done a little running on the series of firetrails in the Blue Mountains south of the main range; amongst others, the Oaks, Ingar and Andersons Fire Trails. This area was marked on the topos as the Blue Labyrinth. "That's a GREAT name for a run," I mused, then came up with a few ideas linking it to trails further up the mountains towards Mt Solitary and Katoomba, and Tiller and I spent a few afternoons at Starbucks thrashing out the detail. We wanted to go for 50 miles, and we wanted there to be enough elevation change for it to be a good Bogong- Hotham training run.
After some scouting, we had a "Leadville option" course from Woodford to Wentworth Falls via Andersons, over Mt Solitary and return. Phil Hugill and Dawn Tiller were despatched to scout out the tough sections, and came back reporting that we'd kill someone on the descent off the East Face of Solitary. I think that it was at that point, when we realised the course would need to be redesigned, that the event took on a life of its own and ceased to be just a Bogong training run. I rang Kevin and asked if he still wanted to go for 50 miles, while insisting that the climb up the East Face of Solitary- easily a rival to Staircase Spur and Duane Spur in the Victorian high country- had to be retained, no matter what the distance. Tiller still wanted to go for the 50, so we came up with the final design, the figure 8 "Hardrock option" traversing the escarpment under Katoomba and Leura after descending the west face of Solitary, then back up Kedumba Walls. Kevin, Darryl Chrisp and I scouted out this route during an epic, self supported 10 hour run in September, and I think we were all agreed that this was maybe the most spectacular, challenging course we'd seen.
The night before the big one, Kevin and I drove around the mountains putting out water dumps for the run. Two were accessible by car- at the western trailhead of Andersons, and the Kedumba gate behind the old Queen Vic Hospital, but the third at Leura Forest involved lugging a 20 litre water container down numerous flights of steps in the dark, at the end of which Kevin and I both had hands that were rubbed red raw and were barely able to make a fist, our forearms were that tired. We had precious little sleep before rising the next morning for the run.
A small handful of desparadoes assembled early Saturday in the carpark of Woodford train station. Those gathered included Lawrence Mead, vetern of Bogong, Three Peaks and Glasshouse Trail; Kieron Thompson, who has a killer Brindabella time to his credit; regular trail nazis Thomas Lenzenhofer and Dave "Flimpyhead" Pettit; and Jonathan Worswick, who came sixth this year in the epic Hardrock 100 in Colorado. Jonathan actually led for part of the race- and was instantly elevated to the rank of demi god in Australian ultrarunning circles.
Despite the water on the course, I had plenty of my own supplies. Apart from the Camelbak, I had two bottles in a waistpack, and three more lashed to the chest straps of the Camelbak- plus food. Thomas joked that I looked like I was going to be out there for a week, but in reality I hardly felt the bulk of it all. I was, however, going into the run solidly fatigued after an audacious preceding few months. After building up for Glasshouse 100, I ran well until DNFing at mile 63, but within three weeks of that was back to 130km/ week training. I ran a fast Brindabella 5 weeks after Glasshouse (total kms for that week 152- no taper) and a fortnight after Brindabella, two weeks before Blue Labyrinth, did 65km solo on Royal National Park trails, taking a tired 10 hours. Looking back on that, I'd apply Martin Sheen's words from Apocalypse Now- "I don't see any method at all, sir."
I had to walk the first easy incline out of the Woodford carpark, and realised I was about to be taught a lesson in human frailty.
Striding down Bedford Rd though, which quickly became a firetrail, I found myself next to Jonathan Worswick, and wondered how I possibly deserved to be in his company after all his ultra accomplishments- but then I thought the same things when I ran with Kevin Cassidy, Ross Shilston, and Paul Every. In a few years time I'll think the same things about Martin Fryer and the two Tillers. It was indeed a convivial bunch of runners who chatted, joked and laughed as they started the descent to Bedford Creek. Given that it was summer, you could expect no better running conditions that what we encountered- overcast skies and coolish temperatures in the low 20s. Crossing Bedford Creek via a log, I got my feet wet, which was annoying as it frustrated my intention of testing some teflon lined, blister resistant socks I had purchased. I would change into a second, dry pair later on. But for now, I was off the back of the main pack as the runners climbed out of the creek valley and up along Andersons Fire Trail. I told myself that I wasn't tired, just saving myself, and come the climb up Kedumba Walls late in the 86km I'd be glad I did this slow pace early on. My sole company was Dave "Flimpyhead" Pettit.
Dave epitomised the spirit of Fat Ass this day. He was not doing the full 86km, but rather than take one of the other stock fire trail routes back to Woodford, he had created his own option by parking his car at Katoomba and would run over Solitary then up and out for a truly tough 53km option of his own design. Thomas- in fact both Thomases- as we were also accompanied by Thomas Schattovits, a kind of local Paul Every- would also do this option. Take in Kevin, Kieron and Lawrence, and there were 7 going over Solitary- whereas the weekend before it seemed Kevin and I might be the only two!
Andersons was a good enough run and Dave was pleasant enough company. I asked him a lot of detail about his triathlon experiences, as we ascended through pleasant rainforest for a while, then drier Australian bush on excellent footing. Andersons is great fire trail for running, and the territory it passes through is remote enough to still count as "tiger country". Dave and I reached the Anderson trailhead and the water to find everyone else gone, so we headed along the dirt Kings Tableland Rd as it rolled and undulated northward towards the Queen Vic Hospital. A light drizzle began to fall from the grey skies. I finally began to get into something of a groove and Dave and I set a good pace up to the hospital, to meet Thomas Lenzenhofer, refuelling at an unoffical food dump he and Dave had put out. We headed down the dirt Kedumba Valley Rd to the gates, where I refulled from my own supplies. I was filling up my chest bottles with my secret weapon- full cream milk- when the other "mountain men"- Kevin, Lawrence etc- rolled in, having taken Jonathan and the other 45km runners on a scenic detour before packing them on their way back to Woodford.
We hatched a rapid plan- to all run together until over Solitary- and this was done with a lot of grins and jokes. No more convivial group of "racers" was ever assembled. "The first guy to look at all this milk on my chest and say "nice tits" is going to cop it," I said in mock aggression, brandishing a fist. Then it was off on the long down section that descended Kedumba Walls- 600m descent in 5km, steeper than Pluviometer at Six Foot Track. The highlight for me was when the trail wound round the cliff face and brought the monolith of Mt Solitary into full view for the first time. Lawrence, Dave, Kieron and the Thomases bunched up on the side of the road to get a good look and they realised what was going to hit them. I evaluated their body language and turned to Kevin, grinning broadly. "I think they're impressed!" I concluded.
Despite the best laid plans, Kevin and I ended up off the back of the other guys until we reached the turnoff onto an old, VERY overgrown firetrail- more like bush bashing, except that I had marked it with yellow tags. We hacked up to the Kedumba River, crossed via a huge tree fallen over the water, then the ascent of Solitary began, not too bad at first, then steeper.
Reading mountaineering literature, those hardy souls climbing abouve 8000m are so oxygen deprived that they walk a few paces, pause and gasp for breath, take a few more steps, gasp for breath again, and so on as they inch their way upwards. My pattern up Solitary was similar- walk a few paces, then pause, hunched over and heaving for air, then trudge a few more. I was utterly exhausted, the ascent which had not been tough but manageable a couple of months ago was now almost beyond me. The others all vanished well ahead. The climb was around 700m in 2km- as steep a climb as you would find.
At first the vegetation was damp and mossy, rocks cvered in lichen, thin leaved grasses either side of the well discernible trail, then the going got rockier and the vegetation drier as the trail wound upwards. I fianlly staggered out onto the open top of the East Face to find the others- except Kevin- walking back towards me, having gone off to sign the summit register and now preparing to go on across. "Sean," said Dave, "when does the uphill bit start?" "Just after this little down slope," I replied deadpan, and walked over to the summit register. Kevin was seated on a rock, his face drawn in fatigue. "That was gruesome," he murmered faintly, then with more spirit added "this is the shittiest hill in the world apart from Everest and K2!"
Opening the summit book, the others had boldly scrawled "BLUE LABYRINTH FAT ASS RUN" and signed their names. I cacked myself when I saw that Dave hadn't put his proper name at all, just signing it "FLIMPYHEAD". Optimistially, I added a bold "86KM" next to this entry and signed my own name, then Kevin and I set off, leaving the register entry for future outdoors folks to ponder. Before departing, we soaked up the magnificent view- one of the best of my experience, taking in Kedumba Walls, Lake Burragorang, Kedumba Homestead and the Wild Dog Mountains. Superb.
From here the going is very slow and technical- more so than the Sydney Trailwalker course- with plenty of face high spiky vegetation thrown in for good measure. Progress was slow for Kevin and I as we made our way across Solitary, sticking close to the North Face and occasionally coming out of the vegetation to the cliff edge and more superb views across to the Katoomba- Leura escarpment, on the other side of the Jamison Valley. Solitary appears to be one giant flat slab of mountain when observed from a distance, but actually rollercoasters up and down several times as you traverse it, and Kevin and I really suffered on these uphills. I started getting lightheaded, and ran out of water not long before arriving at Chinamans Caves, which had safe waterholes nearby. I went off to get water, and changed into dry socks, then returned to find Tiller asleep by the caves. Maybe he thought this was some Boy Scout operation. It seemed to rejeuvenate him, as during the final climb out of the caves and towads the west face of Solitary he put a lot of time between himself and me. Climbing down the rocks of the west face, I was really in the wars, exhausted and dizzy, and several times I took the wrong line down rocks and had to make radical detours. At one point I swung out over 400m of empty space with my only support being my arms wrapped round a tree trunk, in order to get back to the "official" trail. I don't mind admitting my dizziness scared me- I knew I was sufficiently fulled, as I had eaten consistently all the way, so that was not the reason. I suspect I was just so tired that my faculties were switching off.
Kevin very kindly waited at the bottom of the rock scramble for me, from where we looked across to the surprisingly insignificant looking rock formation called the Ruined Castle. Running to that formation took longer than suspected through, as Kevin also started to battle, and soon my walking was keeping up with his dogged trudging efforts as we followed a smooth, slightly muddy singletrack through dense ferns that passed under the Ruined Castle escarpment.
Perhaps Kevin was in as bad shape as I, for we started talking about all sorts of esoteric things that had bugger all to do with running. When we started to deliberate on what pizza we'd order in Katoomba, the jig was more or less up for our 86km chances. However, any mention of the 86km I still responded to as though I was going to go the whole hog- maybe I could talk myself into continuing.
After walking forever, we emerged at the Dogface Landslide, and were able to look back across a valley littered with huge, brooding rocks towards the Ruined Castle, Mt Solitary (also brooding in the afternoon light, it seemed- huge and menacing) and beyond them Kedumba Walls, looming faintly through the blue haze. It hit home what a big piece of real estate we were covering.
After the ferny, muddy sigletrack, crossing the landslide field was a real contrast, treading on loose, sliding gravel and stones that were devoid of vegetation. Again, we took the wrong line across the landslide field and had to make a dodgy traverse downwards to the official trail, almost falling on each other a couple of times, before leaving the landslide behind and pushing on under the Katoomba escarpment. Three months ago Kevin, Darryl and I had stormed over these trails, startling the tourists as we ran hard and strong. Now, we were battling to walk, but the trail was still spectacular- a dirt singletrack with plenty of rocks, which passed right over several waterfalls. Normally there would be dozens of tourists, but in the late afternoon there were hardly any. In our fatigued, brain numbed state the next absorbing topic of discussion was what the translations of several signs written in foreign languages might be. Each possibility became more outlandish, then we reached the bottom of the Echo Point climb- a trail marked "Giant Stairway". We slumped down on nearby rocks, both utterly shattered.
Crunch time. It was after 5pm, we could still reach Leura Forest and the turnoff before dark, but at our pace, how long would we take to finish? And at what point did gutsing it out become embarassing and futile? I wondered what would happen if I reached the bottom of Kedumba Walls again in my current state. I would, I realised with no great alarm, sit down and refuse to ascend until next day- after sleeping in the open, most likely. No, Kevin and I finally told ourselves, the time to finish up was here. We walked up the trail and reached the bottom of the Giant Staircase, which winds around the escarpment, past the Three Sisters, and up to Echo Point. A sign mext to the stairs proclaimed they had over 900 steps, a sentence I read and reread with mounting horror. I seriously wondered if we were too tired to haul ourselves out.
Nothing to it but try. I started to haul myself up mainly with my arms, hand over hand on the guardrails, making slow progress, but Kevin was doing it even worse, down on his knees and using his hands on the steps in front of his face. We were both pathetic, and the sight across the valley from the stairs- looking DOWN on Mt Solitary- basically passed us by. Finally I reached the top a few minutes ahead of Kevin, and the two of us walked out to the Echo Point carpark at 6.44pm, after 11 hours 33 minutes on the trail. We crossed the road, entered a cafe and consumed two huge bowls of Wedges before catching a cab back to Kevins car at Woodford. As we left Woodford, Kieron and Lawrence were still in the midst of their mighty efforts to finish the whole shebang- a thoroughly amazing feat.
I slept like a log that night, and the next day fell asleep anytime when I sat down for more than a few minutes. The upshot is that I'm taking a few weeks more or less completely off from exercise- I concluded my body was too worn down for any serious effort, and I would dash my Cradle Mountain chances if I persisted- I have the base fitness for Cradle Mountain, all I need is to be fresh.
This may well be the best course for running I've seen, as it has the lot- good firetrail for steady running, tough technical stuff, tough climbs, an epic mountain ascent, spectacular views and all manner of vegetation to pass through. It will be held again- maybe not for a while, and a winter Blue Labyrinth would probably be too risky, given the short daytime hours and foul weather usually experienced up that way in winter. We'll adjust the course in a few spots, but when you run down the Kedumba Valley Rd, you'll still be looking right up at the menacing East Face of Mt Solitary, and know that soon you'll be scrambling your way up towards it....
Sean Greenhill
Sydney, Australia
Sean has also written the following articles that are published on CoolRunning Australia :
