Legs weak, arms are heavy after ultra

Via ALEX ROBERTON

In the last Sunday of May, I competed in new race with a brutal 55km course which included over 3000 metres of climbing and descending.

The inaugural edition of The Bay Trail Run saw 47 brave souls, including myself, make it to the 6am start line ahead of tackling trials around the Cable Bay Adventure Park, the Glen, across the Cable Bay walkway to Pepin Island before heading back into the Adventure Park for one final lap.

With 220 entrants over the four distances, I decided to take on the longest and most challenging of the courses, with an Adventure Park 10km, La Sportiva 24km and Tailwind 34km option also available.

An hour later, and after 600m of climbing, I was at the top of the park and descended back into the valley below, which was the only chance all day to stretch the legs and get some pace up going downhill.

I felt strong for the first 28km, but the descent from the lookout down to Cable Bay highlighted my lack of experience and I suspect this is where the biggest time gains are to be had on my side.

The lap of Pepin was a special highlight, being able to race on private land and enjoy views not often seen was a privilege and welcome distraction from the onsets of cramp in my legs and the start of not feeling too flash, having entered on the Thursday evening just hours before the cutoff.

On the next climb was where things were came a bit undone for me. Nearly 6 hours in with a torturous 15km still to go, I ran where I could but also walked and struggled for rhythm on some more technical parts of the course.

As we descended back towards the Adventure Park I thought the climbing was over but we were treated to an additional two late climbs in the Adventure Park itself, with 5km to go I saw some Mountain bikers riding up the hill and wondered why I hadn’t done that instead.

One more push up a track called Formula One, with my ascent that could be described as anything but, and it was onto the final downhill to the finish.

I crossed the line in 8 hours 46 minutes and 28 seconds good enough for 17^th overall. A result I’m particularly proud of given my lack of preparation.

I caught up with organiser Pete after the event who was over the moon with how the day had gone.

"It’s great to see it off the ground and deliver a really special event, next year will be bigger and better but still keep that grassroots feel that makes trail running so special,” he says.

Pete would like to thank the whole team, marshals, and sponsors who helped make this event possible. All profit is to be donated to QE2 to continue their work for the environment.