Six Foot Track 45km ultra

Our training for Oxfam Trailwalker Melbourne took another giant step this weekend as we traveled to Sydney and into the Blue Mountains to undertake the Six Foot Track ultra Marathon. This is a 45km run through the Blue Mountains area starting in Katoomba at the Explorer's Tree and ending at the beautiful Jenolan Caves. We hoped it would harden us for the 100km Trailwalker Melbourne event in one months time and test out all our gear.

Training had been going well, and heavy fog and rain greeted us in Katoomba on race morning. The 900 entrants started in waves, with Aaron getting an early berth in Wave 2 and the rest of the Sloths (me, Karen and Mick standing in for Alex) starting in Wave 3. We jogged slowly at the start down steep rutted trail until we reached the top of Nellies Glen. We were thankful for our adidas Supernova trail shoes as we started confidently on the rocky road and kept together as a team. Descending in single file at walking pace down the steep wet gully's stairs, we admired the ferns and high sandstone cliffs as we soon reached the bottom and then began towards the Cox's river. After 15km and some pretty running, we had to ford the river which was above our waists. Saturated with the river crossing, we were impressed that our adidas double socks kept us blister free even after another 5 creek crossings and a further 30km of sweaty trail running.

A further 100 minute climb from the river saw our calves and lungs burning, and our desire to start running (or to lie down) increased. The views of the area were stunning. We ran well along Black Range rd, a fire trail that undulated towards the finish but seemed to have lots of uphill which forced us to walk. At some point it started getting hard. We were tired, but well trained and with good feet, and after some gels and watermelon at the next aid station found fresh legs to continue. We helped each other along the way, chatting to other entrants and admiring the views and singing John Denver songs to annoy each other.

We finally crossed the main road to the Caves, and had only 7km to go. We climbed along a hiking trail, and then had a hair raising 2.5km descent that went down, down down. Just when we thought our legs couldn''t hurt any more, we pounded them with this relentless downhill. Finally, the historic Caves House came into view, with hundreds of other athletes and spectators cheering us on. They called out our names, and the 3 sloths crossed the finish line together smiling, arms around each others shoulders.