Wagga Wagga trail marathon

So my first venture into trail marathon running. Even though Hunter Valley was mainly off road, this was a different kettle of fish, with some serious trails, gravel tracks, boulders at the finish, a tunnel o run through (well crouch and run through) and even some sand thrown in for good measure. At the dinner the night before, someone told me that it was a pretty flat course - thanks for that!

The first 10kms were nice and easy, along the banks of the river, and a few stiles thrown in for good measure too. However at kilometre 10, that all started to change as we slowly climbed uphill, through a golf course, and onto the serious trails and tracks in the forest. You know you're high when you're running past the town's radio mast! The first half was pretty good, but once again, like Hunter I went out way too quick, and my calf also pinged at around 17kms, which when you're doing a 42km race, does not make the race all that pleasant.

In a sense, this was a good character building race. I was very worried about my calf, and at one point I thought I'd be lucky to just get around, but it didn't seem to get any worse. It was just uncomfortable on the hills, so to that end, from 25kms onwards walked up the bigger hills. This was more out of necessity than out of love for my calf. I'd spent myself somewhat on the first half of the race, and the realty is that I'd only be going slightly quicker if I ran, but expend much more energy if I ran.

So at 25kms, the wheels well and truly came off, and for 10 very long kms, I was not happy at all. I also overdid it on the whole sodium front. Looking back I can see why. I had about a litre of water with Nuun tablets in first thing in the morning, which gets the sodium in the system. However I also had 4 salt tablets during the race, and this combined with the Nuun meant that I got stomach cramps around about the time the calf went. So with the calf trouble and the stomach cramps I really wasn't a happy boy at all. It's also when your mind plays tricks on you and tells you that your body doesn't like it. However this is where the heart rate monitor really comes into it's own. I kept a very consistent 150-160bpm all the way through, and even at the end, the last 7kms actually felt very comfortable all things considered with the above.

So I rocked in at 3hrs 37 mins, which I was fairly happy with, given the course and the issues I had. This was was a good learning curve, and it's these types of races I need to tell me what I like and how I cope with shit when it's thrown at you. It was also great to meet up with some other runners, Anth and Ray - although I'll blame Anth for the stupidly fast first half-marathon! Only joking, I just need to not run as fast for the first half next time.

So next week, and possibly Mudgee. I'm going to see how the calf holds up and make a call on it on Wednesday I think. Plus my left knee is quite tender. This has been an ongoing thing from Hunter Valley and its a little concerning. It's not overly painful, but it's just there, so a trip to the physio might be in order me thinks. Onwards and upwards!