Female 17km placegetters (left to right); winner Sue Crowe, Tara Taylor (2nd) and Julie Lightfoot (3rd).
What a race, with plenty of everything…….mud, gnarly tree roots, awkwardly placed branches, slippery rocks, temperament testing wait-a-while and slimy leeches – all the things we love about trail running!! Best of all there were lots of great people, good organisation, fun and violet crumble at the end!
It was great to run with Dave again for a whole 60 seconds before all I could see was his dust (or mud splatters!) – for someone who has just done a couple of runs with his dog he ran a fantastic race. I was later reminded that his dog is a psycho that can keep up with Dave even on his bike. Most of the time I was running with Matt Hermann so was fortunate enough to see his graceful swan dive into the creek butt first and watch him fly past me on the downhill sections while I hobbled along with my rolled ankles. Craig kept me going hard as I relied on his lack of direction (even worse than mine!) and my uphill running to keep with him.
All in all it was a good challenge that encompassed the true spirit of trail racing. What better thing to do on a Sunday morning?
Sue, I never did say thank you, but without your guidance I would probably still be somewhere between Speewah and Malanda. I have never done this trail before but I would certainly put it down as one of the more diverse and entertaining runs and I enjoyed every minute of it. Those creek crossings provide welcome relief even if they take a while to get out of. The Adventure sport NQ crew always put on an excellent show. Time will tell if their homebrew is equally impressive. And damnit, I missed the violet crumble at the end.