Sea to Summit Training II
On Saturday I ventured out for my second Sea to Summit training run. This time I ran the second part of the course (see Sea to Summit Training for pics from first half of course). I started in Blackwood and wound my way through Hawthorndene then through Belair National Park, Crafers and to Mt Lofty Summit.
Once again, my printed map was in street view so it wasn't overly useful when I was on trails. When I entered Belair National Park I was relieved to see they had information boards with trail maps on display. I took a picture of one of these (see below) in case I needed it for later reference (which it turns out I did).
I followed the 'waterfall' trail most of the way through the park (well... I was supposed to - see pink trail on the map above) but took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up trying out a few other tracks too! I travelled along the marked Yurrebilla trail for a little while, and later ran into a guy who was training for the upcoming event. He seemed almost as lost as I had been, so that was somewhat comforting.
I've been doing a lot of reading about ultra distance running events recently (something I want to get into), and have been interested to note that most of these events serve up quite a spread at aid stations. I've heard tales of finger buns, donuts, pizza, hot soup, chocolate, cake and slices being served up and wondered how my stomach would cope with that kind of food if I were to enter such an event (I've only ever used gels to fuel while running). I decided there's only one way to find out what my stomach will tolerate, so I gobbled down my first on-the-run donut as I tried to find my way out of Belair National Park. I was pleased that not only did my stomach cope with this type of food, but I actually enjoyed it and it wasn't too long before I was humming along the trail again. I'm not sure this energy lasted too long (compared to using a gel) as I tired again about 20 minutes after eating it, but I followed up with a gel and felt really good.
Once I finally got out of Belair National park, I headed up Sheoak Road towards Crafers. I walked a few of these hills and had to jump off the road for approaching cars. Time passed pretty quickly and I was at Crafers ready to begin the final climb up Mt Lofty.
Here I followed trails around the side of the mountain, and joined up with the Heysen trail. I followed this and met up with the Waterfall Gully track about 400m from the Summit. (Incidentally, the last 400m was the hardest part of the entire run).
Quent met me at the end of my run and we had coffee and cake at the Mt Lofty Summit cafe. I was then pleased to be chauffeured home.
After that little adventure my next investment is going to have to be new trail running shoes. I have some (very old) Ice Bugs which I used to use in NZ for hiking and shorter trail runs but they are now well past their prime. I've done the last couple of trail runs in a pair of my regular running shoes, and these are now looking very shabby too!
If you have any recommendations for good trail runners drop me a comment below.
