Last night was the Moonshadow event of the Perth Trail Series. This was the first night run of the series, which is organised by bBernadette Benson. The first of her runs I did was the eagle & child run earlier this year - the Lord of The Rings themed event. This event had a hippy/trippy theme.
This was my first foray into night running - i have a headlamp from some early start morning runs a few years ago but it's been in the garage for at least 5 years. Given my tendency to sprain ankles and get lost on trail runs, i was a little nervous. I was also concerned on first glance that i might be leading the race, but luckily at the last minute Scott Hawker entered, so that took one pressure off.
I arrived a bit early and warmed up over the first 2km of the course. This didn't help my confidence as it was straight up a hill with rocky trail and quite a bit of loose pea gravel. I was struggling in the light, let alon in torchlight.
The race started near dark and within a few minutes it was pitch black. Several guys went out fast and I sat in about 5th up the hilly first couple of km. The track improved thereafter and i moved forward - i thought at the time to about 3rd or 4th but was second. There was then some soft sand followed by a couple of km of firetrail - surprisingly i found this bit some of the toughest of the race, as I sped up I struggled to see the chanes to the level of the road and jolted on landing a few times. I also took a wrong turn about 6k mark and the 3rd place runner behind me (Luke McLean) caught up. Only lost 20sec or so here. Luke mentioned that he was 4 weeks post coming second in a 105k trail event, as he gapped me on the last of the firetrail.
The trail soon turned to single track and quite a steep, rocky hill. here i caught back to Luke and sat behind him for the next 2-3km. I probably could have gone a little faster here but I took advantage of being able to see the track in front of him as well. We came to a clearing and took a few seconds to see where the trail led - at which time the 4th placed runner caught us.
We proceeded to fly though single trail for the next couple of km in single file.
With 1.5k to go we hit a 200m section of road and I took the opportunity to push the pace and create a small gap - I felt i really needed a little break on them as I had found how easy it was to run in someone's footsteps. I ran fairly bravely through this very windy section - the trail surface was flatter but lots of twists & bends, some steps and footbridges to keep your concentration up.
I was no longer hearing their breathing behind me and came into the final clearing and though the finish gate in second, 3min behind first and 15 sec in front of 3rd.
A cool thing about bernadette's events are the trophies - last race was a lego Frodo baggins and today was a lego hippie sitting on a 'hash brownie' - actually a date and walnut cupcake.
I won my agegroup - which again was a bit different in this race - groups were baby boomers, genX (born 66-76) and GenY. Luckily for me all the other leading runners were genY.
Overall a fantastic race and I'm really running well at present. Three weeks to SixInch, hoping I'm in PB form.
This was my first foray into night running - i have a headlamp from some early start morning runs a few years ago but it's been in the garage for at least 5 years. Given my tendency to sprain ankles and get lost on trail runs, i was a little nervous. I was also concerned on first glance that i might be leading the race, but luckily at the last minute Scott Hawker entered, so that took one pressure off.
I arrived a bit early and warmed up over the first 2km of the course. This didn't help my confidence as it was straight up a hill with rocky trail and quite a bit of loose pea gravel. I was struggling in the light, let alon in torchlight.
The race started near dark and within a few minutes it was pitch black. Several guys went out fast and I sat in about 5th up the hilly first couple of km. The track improved thereafter and i moved forward - i thought at the time to about 3rd or 4th but was second. There was then some soft sand followed by a couple of km of firetrail - surprisingly i found this bit some of the toughest of the race, as I sped up I struggled to see the chanes to the level of the road and jolted on landing a few times. I also took a wrong turn about 6k mark and the 3rd place runner behind me (Luke McLean) caught up. Only lost 20sec or so here. Luke mentioned that he was 4 weeks post coming second in a 105k trail event, as he gapped me on the last of the firetrail.
The trail soon turned to single track and quite a steep, rocky hill. here i caught back to Luke and sat behind him for the next 2-3km. I probably could have gone a little faster here but I took advantage of being able to see the track in front of him as well. We came to a clearing and took a few seconds to see where the trail led - at which time the 4th placed runner caught us.
We proceeded to fly though single trail for the next couple of km in single file.
With 1.5k to go we hit a 200m section of road and I took the opportunity to push the pace and create a small gap - I felt i really needed a little break on them as I had found how easy it was to run in someone's footsteps. I ran fairly bravely through this very windy section - the trail surface was flatter but lots of twists & bends, some steps and footbridges to keep your concentration up.
I was no longer hearing their breathing behind me and came into the final clearing and though the finish gate in second, 3min behind first and 15 sec in front of 3rd.
A cool thing about bernadette's events are the trophies - last race was a lego Frodo baggins and today was a lego hippie sitting on a 'hash brownie' - actually a date and walnut cupcake.
I won my agegroup - which again was a bit different in this race - groups were baby boomers, genX (born 66-76) and GenY. Luckily for me all the other leading runners were genY.
Overall a fantastic race and I'm really running well at present. Three weeks to SixInch, hoping I'm in PB form.
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