MOONSHINE 5k TRAIL RUN.........

G'day!

Yesterday I participated in the Moonshine Trail Event, at Dolamore Park, a very hilly, bush, trail, National Park type near Gore, (25 mins drive from home).

There were the options of either a Mountain Bike 30k, 39k or 42k mega hilly ride, a 15k trail run or a 5k trail run/walk option.

I signed up for this event before Christmas, was undecided which one to try for, - but due to my lack of fitness then, and the fact I had arranged to do a 20k Mountain Bike trail in event in January, (the one where I had a tyre blowout and had to pull out)......I decided to opt for the 5k run!

Well, luckily the wind and rain held off for the race, infact it turned out an overcast day, (where occasionally the sun peeped through the clouds slightly) and about 18 degrees which is pretty standard here for this time of year, pretty good conditions for trail racing!

The 5k event was the last to leave, and generally the first to finish as you could imagine!

Being 5k, I wasn't too bothered about it, knew it would be hilly, my plan was to go for it as hard as I could and get as close to the front, (or far from the back) as possible!  I can say my 4.0 incline (murder) treadmill running where I needed to keep my speed up didn't prepare me to anything like the slope of yesterdays hills!

About 400m in.....I thought 'bloody hell'.........are these hills EVER gonna end?  I had a couple of peeps pass up the hills then, I was puffing but thought......this is early, I will catch them later!!!  At about 1.5k in I was still shuffling up the steep uphill!  But a couple of other 'shufflers' ran past me, then started 'power' walking up the hills and were slightly gaining on my uphill run shuffle!

I am rather stubborn and don't like to walk when I plan on running......however yesterday at 1.5k I did the unthinkable, - I deemed powerwalking as faster and more energy efficient than my slow uphill shuffle so converted to powerwalking up the hill as fast and business like as possible, still puffing LOTS haha!  At about 3.4k the person behind me yelled out, - 'it's downhill now', so I started jogging again!  The bush track was narrow, a foot wrong could of seen me on a big downhill roll into rocks!  There was uneven footing, rocks, tree roots, narrow track, wobbly bridges.  I kept the jog controlled, (maybe slow for downhill)....but better that than unskilled me rolling an ankle!  I had a couple of runners pass me on the downhill running, obviously more skilled!

The last 500m or so was rather flat, after the bit of downhill controlled jogging I was able to manage a MEGA SPRINT to the finish line!  Infact it would of been a spectacle for spectators!  ALSO, due to this being an event having less entrants than a Perth event, and possibly more community focussed...........I heard on the commentary box.........'here comes Pip Dodds to the finish of the 5k, sprinting in fast form', - which put a smile on my face!, - made me feel like I'd won the race and had an audience all watching me!

I got presented with my 50ml of native whisky round my neck, (our version of a competitors medal), was congratulated for my efforts and directed to the water by about 4 volunteers at the finish! 

All participants in every running and cycling event received this same finishing treatment which was great!

As for my placing......I finished 22nd out of 65 entrants in my event.  And 9th out of 29 in my category which was 'females 20-39'.  A well trained girl won the 5k event over all!  But a spunky guy came  in second so I saw at prize giving.  There were cash prizes for the first 3 males and females in each event......I tried for them haha!

My time was 40:44 which may sound slow, but given the terrain I'm happy with that for the time being :-)

After the event we were entitled to either a free beer or a can of soft drink, (included in entry price actually),......bet you know what I chose and yep, Febfast is doomed, I didn't want a sweet or artificially sweetened drink so I enjoyed my free 1 local low carb beer!  Then we chilled and watched the other run and mountain bike competitors finish.

And we had to stay around till all the 42k mountain bikers finished.......to see if we won a spot prize and see who the first 3 males and females from each category were!  There were some good ones going!  I was hoping for one of the Allan White Sports $200 shoe vouchers so I could buy a proper pair of actual trail running shoes to have in addition to my normal road runners!

I had no luck on the spot prizes but it was an enjoyable day out, and a very well run event, Gore should be proud!  And it was nice and relaxing sitting on the grass watching the big event competitors finish and at the prize giving, even some sun almost managed to peer through the clouds at times!

I've already signed up for the Women's triathlon at Invercargill next Sunday, - a 300m swim, (laps of a swimming pool so no wetsuit required), a 13k ride and 3k run.

One thing with living here is that there are always HEAPS of sporting events of many types on :-)  I have a few lined up!  And I've run into, (and re-introduced myself) to a few peeps I went to high school with but haven't seen since.  So the fitting in process since moving back is progressing not too badly.

I will mention, I enjoy wearing my Garmin GPS watch when I train, that is how I can state.....at the 400m mark, or 3.4k mark or whatever!  I like knowing my run distances and times and average speed etc.

Till next time,

Pip :-)