We parked in the suburb of Gilmore and walked over to the official start of the course, making sure we all touched the railroad track which was to be our "start line". We set out running at 5:21am with mixed opinions, amongst the group, about the pleasantness of running at such an hour.
We flew through the paved downhill of the first 10 kilometres, then maintained a steady pace along the Murrumbidgee Discovery Trail through to Kambah Pool Road. After crossing Kambah Pool Road we found ourselves on a much more overgrown and technical track than we'd expected. It was hard to find our way in places, as the trail seemed to disappear.
We got to the halfway point where our lovely crewperson Amber was waiting for us with drinks, watermelon and chocolate. We fuelled up, bolted across the bridge, then stopped again to fill our flasks at the public taps of Cotter Campground. Though we had covered half the distance, we still had about three quarters of the course's elevation ahead of us.
As we ran through Cotter we were delighted to see the thriving emu population. We saw at least 10 emus, including a family of chicks.
Heat and fatigue started to get to us around the 40 kilometre mark. At 28 degrees, it was the hottest day the city had experienced in several months. We pushed on, trading packs and sharing water.
The climb up Mt. Coree was breathtaking in every sense of the word. At each turn we were treated to clear and beautiful views of the surrounding area. We were immensely grateful to the camper who drove past us on that climb and gave us bottles of water - everyone was running low by that point.
We reached the Mt. Coree trig station a little past 2pm. We met our friend Andrew at that finish line and gratefully accepted some non-alcoholic champagne from him to celebrate our achievement.
Given that the course is relatively short (in the grand scheme of things) and potable water is publicly available, it would be possible with relative ease to run this course un-/self-supported. We were glad for our decision to take support, though, because our friends (and kind strangers) are wonderful people, and we were buoyed by their presence.