So I came up with this idea of running the ~100km Mornington Peninsula trail (https://www.trailhiking.com.au/mornington-peninsula-walk/) in a day, and Sunday of Queen’s Birthday seemed a good enough day. Wow, what a day. Here is a brief “race report”:
Thankfully Tom was crazy enough to join me. He was responsible for photo’s and Facebook updates along the way I know a number of people were following. I made it my responsibility for the perfect sunny winter conditions. I would like to take credit for looking up tidal charts but alas this was pure luck we made it around a headland on the way to Sorrento with about 15 minutes to spare before the incoming tide would have made this impossible. I will take credit for getting us to Point Nepean in time for a picture perfect sunset.
Meeting at Rosebud McDonalds at 7am, we had the lure of a BigMac as our reward all day if we made it back before they closed at midnight. Easing into the run we got a nice flat 5km before Dromana and Arthurs Seat. The Two Bays trail is a fantastic run and it flowed nice and easy arriving in Cape Schanck around 11am with ~33km in the bank. A third down and easy going. Another sweet flowing 7km past Gunnamatta with some specular views. All going well so far…
Then we hit the sand. Beaches are nice, if want to build sandcastles, but not if you want to run long distances. Best guestimate is about 20km+ all up today of sand running – mix of some good hard runnable sand near the water’s edge with lots of soft sinking frustrating sections, both on the beaches and along the top of sand dune trails. 40km in and I am starting to not be so happy. Maybe last week’s massive effort at Traralgon marathon was coming back to bite. FYI I had some needling done on Friday to help recover from marathon and get me through today. My guy (Dane – 2:24 marathoner himself) warned me that the following 4 weeks from a marathon were prime time for injuries. Running 100km not such a good idea he says…
But I digress. From Cape Schanck to Portsea (Coastal Walk) is a 30km stretch of great beauty and sandy feet. Cape Schanck SLSC was a chance to refill water bottles/bladders. Given the lack of water options, I think we ran a bit light for fluid. I think for the day I had less than 7 litres, but more in the breakdown at the end. But for now, we were off with 60km done. Playing mind games we decide we were only halfway, which for effort was probably about right – the next ~40km would start to have an impact.
We had to stray off our course due to some signs around Point Nepean NP about unexploded mines, so we free wheeled a bit but made it the tip / Fort Nepean in perfect timing just for a special sunset. Delighted we made it in daylight hours and now over 70km under our belts, we then began the long grind back towards Portsea. Just as darkness fell and headlamps came out did it seem to get harder. Tom was determined to find more water and his previous efforts recently at UTA were starting to take effect – who could blame him. Water found and bottles filled up, off we were towards Portsea and the less exciting stretch along the Bay Trail back towards Rosebud.
We naturally slowed down a bit here, and Tom finally got his great wish for a Ginger Beer at a servo still open near Rye. 90km in the bank and speculation as to how far we had left to go. The nice lady at the servo told us another ~8km to go, but there was a bus coming in 36 min. I think she was thinking of Tom as he was by now pretty ginger in his movements. But, we beat the bus back to Rosebud thank you very much. I thought we still had another 1-2 km left to go when the beautiful big yellow arches beckoned us from the dark night. Best BigMac ever. So stats of sorts. My watch says just over 97km, Tom’s just under 98km. Given we have the same watch and were side by side all day, go figure. I prefer Tom’s watch!
Run time for me was just over 11 and ½ hours and about 13 and ½ hours all up. Putting the extra 2 hours down to Tom and his photography/Facebook with a few stops along the way to refuel. I thought it might have taken 15 hours all up (aim was to finish by 10pm, but I actually made it back home by 10pm so pretty happy about this).
We both weighed ourselves before and after for curiosity. I lost ~2kg, Tom ~4kg. I know I consumed 7kg of water (~6.5 litres and food).
Guessing calories consumed around 2,500 to 3,000 for me. Strava guesses I burnt 9,992 – so the BigMac was justified!!!
What else can I tell you? This may be the inaugural Mornington Trail FatAss. Pencil in your diaries’ all you fellow crazy trail runners for next Queen’s Birthday.
PS Used Tom’s Relive video (with my music added) as Strava not playing ball with me.