Beautiful but brutal

Yesterday was round 2 of the Xterra Wellington trail run series, this time in the beautiful Catchpool Valley area of Rimutaka Forest Park. I was feeling pretty good coming in to this one. After a good 12km training run last weekend along the Skyline Track I was confident that I could handle the medium distance course of a similar length.

After a very wet and at times freezing cold week it was a relief to wake up to a crisp, clear and calm morning, especially after the soaking wet mud fest that was round one!  On the drive over to the start, Wainuiomata was shrouded in a thin veil of fog that broke to a glorious sunshine and a forecast of a barmy (for this time of year) 17 degrees.

The calm before the storm on a glorious Wellington morning.

 The thought of piking out from the step up in distance crossed my mind at registration when asked if I was doing the short course (the distance I'd nominated when registering for the whole series), but I managed to force out "I think I'll do medium today thanks". It would have been a shame to drive out here on such a magnificent day and have the run over in well under an hour (although 10km in I was regretting the decision!).

The pre-race briefing described the course as a demanding climb that could be walked in half an hour, a few kilometres of fantastic bush running along the ridge before a technical "slip and you won't stop till you get to the bottom" descent back to the main tracks of the valley where you could finally push hard if you still had the energy.

Well they weren't joking about the climb up the quite aptly named Butchers Track. I can attest to it being able to be walked in half an hour... a little under even. The lack of passing opportunities meant I had to accept the slow pace for much of it. In hindsight though I'm not complaining. My heart rate was umm... elevated. And the muscles burning by the time the top was finally reached.

Heavy breathing was the order of the day on the Butchers Track climb.

The view back down the valley and out over the harbour was amazing though. What little glimpses I could take in anyways! I would have loved at this moment to sit down for a few minutes and just soak in the glorious sunshine and panoramic vista. But there was still the small matter of another 9km of running to get out of the way.

Wellington off in the distance from atop Cattle Ridge.

 The track along Cattle Ridge was fantastic. The trail twisted and turned through the native forest and I found myself slowing often just to get my bearings and ensure that I hadn't strayed off the barely defined track. But it was great fun... dodging and ducking around trees and vines and ensuring that none of the constant tree roots punished a lazy foot fall with a face plant into the leaf litter (as happened to one poor person ahead of me). So much fun that I felt I could have enjoyed it all day long... but it came to an end all to soon.

The end of the flattish ridge came with a highly technical, slippery descent down to the Orongorongo Track. Whilst only a few hundred metres long, it was slow going. One little slip onto my arse was enough motivation to not push too hard, like the faster, more experienced long course runners now coming past me, and possibly invite more serious disaster.

At the bottom a track sign promising 4.5km back to the carpark indicated the start of the homeward stretch and the opportunity to push hard on what was now a well formed trail.  The first couple of ks of this went ok but then any thought I had of pushing to the end disappeared in a sudden fog of "I've had enough of this now" as the dreaded food knock caught up to me.

I had been going  for about an hour and a half and should have ingested something more substantial than sips of water from my hydration pack. I was carrying a couple of gels so have no one to blame but myself for the rapid slip into survival mode. I had no doubt that I would finish though... I wasn't exactly going to turn around and go back the way I'd came!! But for those last couple of kilometres I was well and truly in the hurt zone. Any slope upwards had me walking and when it flattened or tilted back downwards I had to fight my mind and body to get my legs back to a jog.

The thinning of the trees was a welcome sight, the light at the end of a very dark tunnel signalling the last few hundred metres to the finish line. Pride and adrenalin took over at this point and I managed to muster enough energy to not be seen walking by the good crowd of spectators and finished fellow runners.

Never has a finish line been a more welcome sight than this one.

This run destroyed me. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Those last couple of kilometres put me in a pretty bad place psychologically and physically. But after getting home and soaking away some of my aches and pains in the spa I could reflect back and see that it was the failure to ingest some calories that was the root cause of the problems. We learn from our mistakes and move on. Or at least we should do. I remember from my cycling days food knocking badly and telling myself the same thing. I must be definitely am a slow learner! 

Xterra round 2 by the numbers...

11.79km long
599m of vertical ascent
2,119 calories burned.

Would I do this one again... Hell yes!!

Logan Ackers, aka. Buffman has put together a cool little video of the day that pretty much sums up the awesome vibe of Xterra events.

Mad props to the guy who biked 58km out to the start, ran the 20km long course and then biked home.

The pain has passed and I'm looking forward to round 3 in the dark at Wainuiomata mountain bike park in a couple of weeks time.