We’ve had a huge adventure recently! Over the last 6 months a group of FIT women trained for the Ultra Trail Australia 50 and 100 events. This has meant countless early mornings, endless hills, trips to the Blue Mountains to train on the course and adventures all around Canberra on our “Mission” runs. It’s been an absolutely fabulous experience to train for this race with such a wonderful group of FIT women. I’m also extremely proud that everyone who undertook the training made it to the start line of the race, and all of us finished the race.
The 100km runners were: Susie Barratt, Sarah Rainbow, Rebecca Fabrizi, Claire Hollis, Bec O’Neill
The 50km runners were: Bridget Quayle, Bianca Nicholas, Jo Flynn, Josephine Hall, Katherine Holroyd Sheppard, Kerren Crosthwaite, Meg Absolon, Michele Lamb, Paula Svarcas, Rebecca Hunter, Tamzen Armer.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in this adventure!
There was a significant amount of rain forecast in the days before the race. This meant that the race directors modified both courses with around 12 hours until the start. The new 50km course had us following the first half of the 100km course, not the second half. The 100km course was also modified to skip the Kedumba Valley. This was quite surprising, and meant that the reccie runs we’d done on the original 50km course weren’t much use to us! No Furber Stairs for us 50kmers – instead; the Golden Staircase, the Tarros Ladders and Nellie’s Glen. We tried to take it in our stride and knew that all we had to do was run.
Personally, the race was everything I expected it to be – long, challenging, but above all I had a great time and got to the end in one piece! It was a fabulous experience for me and I’d definitely do it again.
Some other highlights from our UTA experience include:
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- Meg: The discovery of new Canberra trails seemed never ending, even after months of continuous training. I also learnt a lot: like remembering to bring my hydration hose on a Mission run! De-gassing coke before putting it into a soft flask!
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- Bec: Every time I showed up to the wrong meeting spot – so often that now when we go to the Pinnacle there is “Bec’s spot” which is different to the normal meeting spot.
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- Tam: There were so many good memories; getting misplaced on the 5 hour mission run and Michele’s husband having to come & collect us; cooking breakfast at Tidbinbilla after our last Mission run; Meg hugging a tree on Black Mountain after a particularly hard set of hill repeats.
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- Bec: A reccie run in the Blue Mountains where Jo had a full-on bonk half way up the Furber stairs and had to have a lie down. I ran up to Scenic World to fetch Powerade and a Calippo – at tourist prices! True friendship.
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- Tam: Clambering up the trig rock pile in Gossan Ridge in our taper week – risky!
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- Jo: Doing our 4 hour mission run at Bullen Range then putting our legs into the Cotter river while eating watermelon slices. Some of us followed this up with milkshakes and a trip to the AIS spa and cold plunge pool – eek! We’re very sad that facility is no more!
