TOUGH = Glow Worm Marathon weekend.......

I'm not too sure how to put this race weekend into words. It's a race I think you are best living the whole atmosphere and camping with everyone else the night before. I think those who choose to stay elsewhere missed out on what makes this event so great.

If you love running hills you will love this race, if you love climbing cliffs you will love this race, if you love amazing views you will love this race, if you love running down hills you will love this race, if you love running down cliffs you will love this race, if you love technical uphill and downhill then you will love this race, if you love running fire trails, single trails, glow worm tunnels you will love this race!

So for me it started getting to Newnes about 4pm. I was hoping to get there about 2ish but got away a bit later than I hoped for. Straight away I put up my tent then have a look around. It wasn't long before the sun went down and the cold came up. I was ready for this cold and had layers of clothes ready to keep me warm.
The rest of the night was chatting to some people I haven't seen for a while, chatting to a couple of other trotters who made the journey, drinking a few beers, eating some food and listening to the band they had playing. Went to bed all rugged up and by 10pm I was crashed out.

Sunday morning I wake early and get out of the tent. I look up in the sky and see so many stars. It was quite magical. It looked so different than the Central Coast. Not sure why but it was pretty amazing!
Soon the sun is up and the next thing we are getting ready to race this thing.

At 8am we head off. a couple of km's in and I notice the cold air is making it hard for me to breathe. Next thing we run up some stairs and make our way up the first hill. I try to keep with the people I'm running with but am just having too much trouble breathing so I slow down.
Next thing we hit our next hill/mtn/cliff. Not too sure but I think "cliff" would be best to describe this thing. I mean there is a rope there to help you climb up part of it. This cliff just keeps going and going and going and going. I'm also able to get my breathing back under control as we climb as the pace is now really slow. I have no idea how long or how far we climbed that cliff for but it seemed like eternity!
Ok so once at the top we get to do an out back section of about 100m over a few rocks. The view from here was just outstanding! It was enough to make me stop running and take it in for about 10seconds and in a race that's a long time. Next thing we start to make our way down another hill for quite a few km's. There are about 4 of us running this section together and soon I see the front runners heading back.
Once down the bottom we turn around and start to make our way back up to the place with the amazing views. I manage to run quite a bit of those hills then it's down, down, down the cliff.

2hrs15min I'm back at the start and that means i'm half way there. Cool I'm now thinking I may finish this thing in about 4hrs15min but that soon changed.

We make our way across a river that's about ankle deep but cold enough to numb my feet for the rest of the run.

A few more km's later still feeling ok but heavy in the legs we go up some stairs. This was the point that wrecked me! Calves, hamstrings and adductors all cramped up and left my legs so lactic I had trouble moving them. I somehow manage to shuffle/walk to the Glow worm tunnel getting passed now by the half marathon runners with Mark Lee flying past me to the other elite runners to the larger types. grrrrrr c'mon legs work!!!!!!

Get to the tunnel which we have to walk through then it wasn't long and we were heading down hill for the rest of the race. This is where I came back to life and was now passing quite a few runners that got me earlier.

After 4hrs35min I finally finish walk over to my tent, change out of my running clothes, grab beer, walk back to the finish, lie down on a towel and think what an amazing event this is!