Arrived early, checked my chip was working and got out for a 2km warm up with the fellas where we saw what we had to do. Fence jumps, log jumps, 3 major hills, potholed grass and most worryingly, a section on the map labelled "Valley of Death" through which we had to navigate.
Really hot yesterday as well, which wasn't ideal, but there you go. Start was mental like normal and I never felt comfortable.
Jasper got away within a km as did Will and Sam. Hit the first obstacle about 1k in, a grass mound. About a 1.5m wall of dirt which we had to scale before launching ourselves off a similar height on the other side, just before encountering a log jump, over which I just managed to poorly execute a steeplechase effort.
Came to the valley of death which was the easiest part of the course, before hitting "heartbreak hill", undoubtedly plagiarised from Sydney's famous City to Surf. That murdered me. Felt myself clawing my way back to Jasper, but he escaped me on the downhill where I just couldn't get the cadence up.
Hit the last hill, lost a lot of concentration, heard shouts for the lead female behind me and so I stepped up my game. Came across the line in 15:33. Slowest time for that distance in many, many years but by far the most difficult course I have ever seen in my entire life. You should've seen it. I took ages to recover as well, it was just sapping. Great scenery though.
Bad news is I have to do two laps next year. 10.5km all up. Motivated to run a bit better next race, wasn't stoked with my 21st place. Hopefully top 15 next time.
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