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I finished Hellgate BOTW in 24:47 (an improvement on last year's 26:15).
Wadaye finally finished in 31:19 doing the full course but taking the road back from Kanangra to the Moorara Boss Fire Trail.
We did no water drops. Wadaye drank from the numerous streams on the trail to Kanangra Walls.
I carried a 3 litre bladder, filled up at Caves House lasting 42km to Kanangra Walls where I guzzled over a litre from the water tank.
I refilled my 3L bladder which had to last for the final 49km! I rationed it to make the distance.
My recovery has been great. My legs were fine afterwards. I was a little slow for a day or so but was fine to run. Track training tonight, 4 days later, was 12 repeats of 400m with 100m recovery and thankfully my legs felt great!
Here's my brief account of this charmingly unique Hellgate BOTW 101km run:
Danced with a black snake, leech plucking x 20, falling asleep up the climb from Jenolan River and Black Range Rd, sank in the swamp mud (lucky not to lose my FiveFinger TrekSport when I sank 1 foot deep into mud), rain, heavy fog blocking the full moon and diminishing visibility to about 2 metres, dropped my headlamp and it occasionally flickered for the rest of the run, wet feet for 20 hrs (only 4 hrs dry feet...the sole of my feet were hospital sheet white...no blisters but skin was starting to rub off until I applied tape in the rain before the switchback descent), my shoes kept letting in small amounts of sandy quartz crystals which were grinding away my socks and pads of feet, 24:47 final time (almost 90 mins faster than last year), I didn't get lost or make any wrong turns, I dropped a glove and had to backtrack 10 minutes to retrieve it, I covered 42km on 3 litres water, then guzzled at a water tank, then did 49km on just 3 litres of water.
Wadaye took 31:19 and did a 20km section of road instead of going through the swampy, leech-filled, foggy, snake-riddled trail in the dark.
I ate 5 oranges for the first 10km to Caves House then ate dates/celery for the rest of the race. I didn't eat anything for the last 3 hrs and didn't eat or drink on finishing...when I decided to go straight to sleep for an undisturbed 5 hours.
It was hard...very hard. I can't really think of anything that could feel harder than the final 4 hours. Getting to the finish was unimaginable while climbing up from the river, yet there was no other option before sunrise in remote bushland on Easter Sunday while everyone was sleeping.
My plan was to try to go under 24 hrs but I quite happily let that plan slip away in the early Easter bunny hours.
Next year I may aim for something silly like under 20 hrs...though of course I did have fleeting thoughts of NEVER putting myself through that run EVER again. But, I guess its similar to childbirth, as the emotional trauma subsides after the event, allowing the excitement to return at the mere thought of doing it again, for I'll be casting my blanky aside and certainly revisiting this trail next year!
Edited by RawAussieAthlete, 13 April 2012 - 11:14 AM.
