Plan was to start the run at 7am but at 6:50am I was ready, it was 7c, so I got going. The evening before we had some showers so the course was wet and the rocks were slippery.
Took it easy on first 2 summits to save the legs but in hindsight I should have went harder on Burbie Trail up to Danu, the climb up to Exmouth is awesome, I'd never done the section from Burbie Trail up to Exmouth and onto Ogma so was having to use maps, but it's well signposted and a lesson for next time. Had a big stack coming off Exmouth which slowed me up till I got to Danu and then made some good time to where I stopped at Dow's camp to fill two 500ml flasks and then headed up Bluff taking my time, once I hit the summit I realised I needed to start pushing and my earlier decision to take it easy was going to cost me a sub 5 hour, so I put he camera and GoPro away and tried to make up time. Coming off the Grand High Tops I started encountering lots of people hiking which is hairy when bombing such a steep downhill. I stayed true to course but NPWS have started to regenerate the section from Camp Pincham to Pincham Carpark so future attempts will need to stay left and take the new path not the maintenance road. Once back at the carpark I dropped my pack and hit Fans, I forgot how many steps are on the way up, hit the top and knew I'd need a solid effort to get back before 5:40 so went as fast as possible and made it back in 5:29:26.
Pretty happy with my effort considering I'd only ever ran the Split Rock Circuit and Fans out and back previously.
Nutrition: Plan was to start the run with six 500ml soft flasks, four would have 2 scoops of FIXX Fuel X Pro and two with plain water. I decided to ditch one of the FIXX flasks and a plain water flask as I didn't like all that weight, I packed two satchels with 2 scoops of the FIXX Fuel X Pro and a filter flask to be used at Dow's camp.
Before starting I consumed 2 scoops of Fuel X Pro in 250ml of water and 2 GU electrolyte tablets. From the start to Dow's Camp I consumed the three flasks of Fuel X Pro, 2 CLIF Bloks, 1/2 a Clif energy bar (to hard to eat), 2 more GU electrolyte tablets at 10km mark and probably 250ml of plain water. At Dow's camp I refilled two flasks with 400ml of water and added 2 scoops of Fuel X Pro to each flask and consumed another 2 GU electrolyte tables. From Dow's back to Pincham carpark I consumed the two flasks of Fuel X Pro, 250ml plain water, 4 Clif Bloks, 1 FIXX CrampFix Shot. At carpark I grabbed 1 flask with Fuel X Pro, drank a 250ml Coke and had 1 more CrampFix shot.
Totals= 1 250ml of Fuel X Pro (200cal), 6 flasks of Fuel X Pro (1200cal), 6 Clif Bloks (200cal), 1/2 Clif Energy Bar (125cal), 1 250ml Coke (105cal), 2 FIXX CrampFix (46cal), 500ml water, 6 GU electrolyte tablets. 1876 calories in total.
Breakfast was 3 eggs scrambled and a cup of tea plus a banana.