7 minute PLANK

Afternoon Walk

Half VK Mission accomplished @ Manning Park..... Big efforts on Quarterpipe and Turn up the Power 500

Afternoon Tomato Lake lap Clockwise. Fastest 2025 time and 8th best ever (in 19 efforts).

Snakey Summer Single-tracks and firetrails near Byford Beach

My main watch ran out of charge,so stopped and got signal on watch number 2 (Garmin 10 I bought my wife)...Estimated I was about 6km from CP2 (Dunphys camp so I knew it wasn't far til I could refuel. This was important as I had run out of drinks and food. Feeling a littleon the dehydrated side,so slowed things down and walked for a few K's kept energy usage low...Note for future if I try this again, 2.2Litres is not enough drinks for the first 5 hours even in cold conditions...Needed a 3rd powerade...Eventually got running at low intensity and suddenly on the trail was greeted by the surreal sensational experience of hearing Didgeridoos on both sides of the trail about 3-4 of them....A Didgeridoo Orchestra trio? on a remote trail...Awesome surprise...That perked up my flagging spirits considerably,and wasoneof the coolest moments in the race by far.  Not long after in my dehydrated state jogging along I spotted some volunteers in orange HighVis vests...which I was very glad to see as they signalled that Dunphys Camp CP2 was only 100m away... On arrival I drank several cups of sports drink, and severalcupsof CocaCola which tasted so awesome and energized me again... Quick toilet stopNo 1's at the Portaloos and gotout of there... 100km runners went left and 50km runners went right...Took the left turn,and tooka bunch of photos of the sandstone cliffs... Then with my hydration sorted and a CocaCola boost,i set about trying to push the pace a bit on my tired and stiff legs... Ended up running with two ladies in darkpink and orange shirts for awhile, and then soon after that rejoined the faster 50km runners Some small ascents and was starting to get worn out a bit by the time we reached the outskirts of CP3 Six Foot Track...46km? or 43kmor whatever it was... Anyhow when I heard the crowd noise at Checkpoint 3 up ahead I felt megahappy and was ready to go hard into the CP3,but my high spirits were dampened when I saw a gearcheck table assembled ahead of me... They checked for HighVis vest and headlamp,both of which I was able tofind in mypack quickly,so that was over quickly and then I celebrated emotionally as I entered Cp3 and located my first drop bag... sitting on the chairs provided (thanks UTA for those!!!) looking through my drop bag I met some NSW blokein a Running Wild shirt who was doing similiarhis name was Dennis Clarke? if I remember correctly, and we both discussed our goalsof chasing a sub 20 hour effort which was still within reach 7hrs and 37minutes into it... Juliette Buchanan appeared in the drop bag tent about this time,was nice to see another West Aussie on the trail which was about the 6th Westralian based runner I had seen so far in the race... So in my drop bag I slammed down a 200ml SOLO(light on the fizz so you can slam it down fast...youve passed the challenge youve earned the reward...hahaha)...Powerades, water,and Carmans bars...Like Hiking camp spares bag day, it is incredible how good stuff is at this point in the race... Was missing salty options though...big mistake in my dropbags, note for the future,some salty peanuts or chips or something... and maybe some lollies... Didn't like the stuff at the aid stations much but at CP3 I located some pink icing buns and that was delicious... Suitably fueled up and ready to go again, I was alarmed to notice that I had spent 20minutes in the aid station...but stilltime wellspent... Back onto the trail with only about 11km to go to get to CP4 at Katoomba Aquatic Centre...but I knew that Nellies Glen 400m ascent awaited me, and its a tough,tough ascent...especially when the body is already pretty tired from 8hours+ on the trails...So while I tried to get running, I also tried to conserve energy the closer we got to Nellies Glen as I knew this climb was goping to be a tough challenge for me...Headingalong the valley floor towards the yellow sandstone cliffs I started to recognise much of the Six Foot Track trail which I have raced on 5 times since 2011...We saw a dead snake on the trail...possibly a Tigersnake? and as we headed towards Nellies Glen my watch ran out of charge...