2005 Six Foot Track starts here

Well, I can say my 2005 Six Foot Track starts here.

I had planned three or four weeks ago to take the Friday and Tuesday of the NSW Labour Day long weekend, extending it into a 5 day break. With this thought, and my partner currently in negative annual leave, it seemed an ideal opportunity to get some time on my own, and familiarise myself with the hardest part of the Six Foot Track.

I dropped her at work, and made the trek up to the Megalong Valley, parking the car and joining the track where the Six Foot Track crosses Megalong Road at the cemetery (about the 8k mark of the race). I ran/walked from here to about 300 metres after the Pluviometer, and then made my way back to Megalong Road. Total run was 4h 16m (4h 42 including breaks) and covered 36.2km, according to my new toy, the Garmin Forerunner 201, which performed beautifully during the run.

Before I set off, just after 9am, a group of 5 well equipped hikers in their mid-20s came through. They appeared to be a mix of Australian and English blokes, and were planning on taking 2 days for the hike. I wished them well, and set off carefully across the cattle grid that starts this section of the track.

This section rolls fairly gently through quite open countryside - the track changes from defined gravel road to quite narrow path through farmland, with traditional Australian obstacles of cattle grids, climbs over fences and gates as you go along. It's fairly easy going along here, and possible to cruise along pretty comfortably for a few kilometres.

The track narrows further as it aligns with Coxs River. It's quite treacherous through here, with quite good sized nasty rocks underfoot. I nearly rolled my left ankle through this section both on the way out and the way back, so would certainly advise others to be very careful through here. Kangaroos bounding down the hill here didn't help concentration.

You work your way down past the Swing Bridge (I stopped for a moment turned the GPS off here, as I went out and back across the bridge, because I'm basically a 34 year old teenager and it looked cool. It was fine out, but coming back got a bit spooky) and down to the infamous Coxs River crossing.

It's worth noting that it's quite a steep descent through here and consequences of a fall would be quite nasty - in addition to the rocks I mentioned above the course has rocks and branches on either side.

I've had some real concerns about getting my feet weet through this section - I'm a bit blister-prone, so was worried about macerated feet.

I had half a look for a dry crossing, and thought, well, may as jump in at the deep end, so waded through. The water came to the upper part of my thighs, and was quite cool - which was a bit of relief, as the sun was quite strong and there was limited relief from a southerly breeze. Mental note here - might be worth bringing spare socks.

I remembered the comments that Six Foot started at Coxs, so I took a moment to grab a drink and a gel from my backpack. The Garmin read an altitude of 270m, which I see agrees with the decription here.

There are camping grounds with toilets and a water tank here. The water is of good quality.

From here, the course becomes a reasonable quality gravel track, and becomes very steep in the climb to Mini Mini. It opens up into farmland - I disturbed some horses at play on the way back - and there is surprisingly little shelter from the sun. The road winds a bit initially, and from there it obviously became impossible for the designers to weave the road to lessen the incline and it just goes straight up. I jogged the flats and walked the steep sections here (as I did pretty well the whole way).

After Mini Mini there's a short flat section where you cross water three times - Little River and Alum Creek, if I recall correctly. It's pretty easy to get through here without getting your feet wet, although I felt I was on a roll and didn't bother with the wider first crossing.

From there begins the haul to Pluvio - it didn't feel as steep as the climb to Mini Mini, but certainly went on for a lot longer. The surface is quite slippery too, with a fairly firm gravel base with small 'ball bearing' gravel over it. On the way down I was sticking to the softer edges of the road, just to ensure my feet stayed underneath me.

Pluvio's at a large junction, where the Six Foot Track heads right. Elevation here was 994 metres. The Pluvio is on your left as you arrive - basically a fenced off area with two plastic 'pots', one green and one black. I saw no signage indicating the function of these devices.

My GPS read about 17.7km at this point, and I jogged about 300 metres further up the track (which seems to climb gently further from this point) to round it up to 18, before commencing the return leg.

I'd seen a few hikers through the course, so was able to say hello again as I came across them on the return leg, including one lady who was struggling but relieved to hear she was only 300 metres short of Pluvio.

I started to suffer a bit with the run (and running the hilly Striders STaR 30km on Sunday) and took a ten minute break at Coxs on the return leg. It was becoming increasingly obvious that my feet had taken a bit of a battering, but I wasn't game to take a look in case I found something I really didn't care for.

I came across a snake in the middle of the path between the Coxs crossing and the swing bridge. We stood regarding one another from about seven yards apart before the snake came to the conclusion I had no intention of otherwise interacting with it and headed down the hill.

I was gradually grinding to a halt over the final 5km, and wasn't feeling particularly well after taking my third gel at Coxs - I felt oversugared and in need of some protein. I walked the uphills, and jogged the flats and downhills. It became increasingly apparent I wasn't going to make it back to the car in under 4 hours (not counting breaks) so enthusiasm was further drained - I just wanted to get back to the car and sit down.

Mental note for the closing stages of the real thing - lift your bloody feet!

I got back to the car, stopped to gather myself, took some water and changed my shirt, and immediately bolted to Katoomba for a milkshake and a pie, after which I felt a hell of a lot better.

So - my first run on the (in)famous Six Foot Track. My thoughts?
- if you're planning on running it for the first time, you'd be very well advised to get out there and see it. You'll have an idea of what you're in for, and what you need to cover off on in training.
- the middle 18k of the course is much more open than I realised. There are quite a few sections through there which have NO cover at all. If the sun's out (which it usually is in March in Sydney) it's going to be quite draining.
- lift your feet when running and walking. There's a million rocks, branches and roots just waiting to catch your foot and send you sprawling.
- think about spare socks for the Coxs River crossing.
- the run appears to get a heck of a lot more serious at Coxs. I can't wait to see the first 8 and last 19km are, but if you're in trouble in Coxs, it ain't gonna get better, that's for damned sure.
- you don't need trail shoes.
- there's no shame in walking the uphill sections. Unless you're sub 4 hours, in which case I seriously doubt you'd be reading this.

So I'm sitting here on my second glass of wine, contemplating a destroyed pair of Thorlos and a left heel that's a bit of a mess, and I'm actually not too bad soreness-wise. I can actually see myself doing a recovery 5-10km tomorrow and then doing some speed work on Thursday.