40 Miler - Mt Helena

I was torn between doing the cross country at the nationals and the 40 Miler relay on Monday ; Kim asked me to run the relay a while back, and I figured I wouldn't be in great shape to run an 8k cross country after the events of the day before, so I plumped for the relay. It was also a great opportunity to support some people who'd come out to support me at the nationals over the weekend.

I ran the last leg of relay (team 'It's a Farr-Cane long way') with Jo, Trish, Rod, Kim, Jodie, Richard and myself. I had a fantastic run - you know, the type that happens once every six months, where you just eat up the ground and it seems effortless - the weather was cool with a light headwind, enough for your a/c but not like the wall of pain from the track yesterday. I pulled back three teams who had had a significant headstart, and apparantly was breathing down the neck of second. I really felt like I was flying along the trail (is this the runner's high?) – it has a few significant rises, but you get the nice long downhills as well – 9.4km in just over 34 minutes @ 3:39 pace. The Elixirs were perfect for a trail race.

It was also wonderful to see all the solo 40 milers out there toughing it out - huge congrats to Claire, Kate, Jane etc. for finishing it for the first time, and Mona camper Rob for toughing it out. Unbridled joy, tears of emotion (even from some of the boys), finishing these things is such a major achievement!

I took some photos in between ferrying relay members to their various start points and back to base, so I missed a few people, but there are some nice ones in here.

2010 40 Miler Photos

A great day, everyone seemed to hit their goals - Mt Helena Tavern is not a bad place to finish a race either! Looking at the results from the cross country,  I reckon I could have quite comfortably challenged for silver in my age group, never mind, I think had much more fun up in the hills. And that's why we do this running thing - for fun.