Start time: 7:11am, Finish time: 11:11am...and 18 seconds!
Start location: junction of Coachwood Drive and Moogem Trail at the NPWS sign. I chose this spot running clockwise so i would run the longer hills first and have a downhill finish. I think this worked well.
Carried: 2L Trail Brew, 4 gels and a clif block
Used: 1.5L Trail Brew, 3 gels, half a clif block
It had rained and stormed the night before so was hoping for cooler conditions.
Fair bit of climbing straight up and there was a lot of debris down on Pidcocks Trail, some mud too but mostly able to be navigated while running.
Felt pretty good all along Little Dandahra Creek, past the crags, up to the highway and then down onto North West Trail. K's clicked past quickly and held a consistent pace.
At about 38km climbing out of Grassy Creek campground, the sun came out and it got up to 30 degrees. I started to suffer up the final and steepest climb of the day here and had to hike for 2 minutes. Thankfully, it was a pretty much all downhill after that. I was able to stretch out on the final descent. I pushed harder in the final k (which was my fastest) to see if i would go under 4hrs. Got to Moogem Bridge at just under 2 minutes to go and didn't have much legs to push for the final pinch. Felt cooked at the finish after being relaxed until 3.5hrs in. Finished with a swim at Coachwood Pool
It was a great loop with lots of diverse landscapes.