Me and the Elephant !!

So once again this year I took on the Elephant.  This is the third year they've run this event, and the third one I've done.  Mind you every year on the way up I say (or maybe grumble) to myself that I'm never doing it again, but I keep coming back.

I was going to be in two minds if I would run today, with my back issues.  About Thursday was when I felt a marked improvement, I did a light run on Friday and Saturday (when I say light, I mean light and easy and not many kms just to test things out).  I had made my decision Saturday afternoon that I was going to attempt it, take it easy, and see how I go.

It was going to be a hot one today, est temp 39.  Ouch.  This year there was the usual 5km (around the football oval, through town, up (yes up) the highway to the entrance of the mount area, along the gravel to the base of the mount, up the scoria cutting, dips down into the crater and then up the side of the large mound to the top.  The 8km race put on this year as well also did a lap of the base of the mount as well.

Here I am before the run.   Notice I'm wearing my Run Downunder shirt.  I'll mention more about that another time.     You can see it was already sunny and yep, that's where I was running to.

Now I took these following photos on the way back, so you could see what I saw in order of me seeing it.  I had my phone tucked into my spibelt on the way up and didn't wear headphones today.   Imagine we've run the oval, run through town and up the highway, and then we enter the Mount gates and run up this gravel road to the car park up yonder.  Nope, not much shade is there?  Mind you I kept the flies away with Nature's Botanical.  I swear by this product.   Just a dab on the legs and arms, neck and face.  No flies on me!

So I've passed the carpark and this is the first track, we are only really still at the base at this stage, the real work hasn't even begun.

At the race briefing they had warned us that the area had received 50mm of rain recently, good for farmers, but the first cutting up the front of the mount we had to stick to the right hand side.  The scoria had washed down and the left hand side was unstable.   This is where you really feel it in your calves.  I know for me there's no running at this point, it's physically impossible for me.  I don't know about others, but I did see a couple of people ahead of me walking it too.  No shame in that.  The scoria is rough under foot and the incline is relentless.

You get to the top of the scoria and there's a dip for a little bit, it's heaven on your calves.  I guess this is where you enter part of the crater where it dips.  And then before you know it you are climbing again.  This part of the climb is kind of like grassy hay and tracks.    Almost makes you want to belt out "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!!!!!"    You head up this track and around to your left and then it climbs steeply to the top, round the knoll bit and hallelujiah you are at the top.  2km of climbing done.   I did a little run through the finish line, ha! 

The spoils of victory of this race is the magnificent view.  360 degrees of seeing forever.  It truly is magnificent.  It was so clear you could see the peaks at the Grampians well over 100km away.  It was breezy too at the top but that was welcome being that it was so warm.  Absolutely sensational.

You really could see forever.  Goodness it is so dry out there.  I had to keep photographing to the west as the sun turned Derrinallum into a glare trying to photograph to the east.  

A couple of panorama shots, we are on top of the crater here, it's hard to get a feel of how high up we were but trust me, by now my legs knew it !   

Here's that nasty elevation where you can see that whilst it's a steady rise throughout the start of the run, those last 2km are tough.  Real tough.  The tough that makes you say, "nope, never doing this again, this is the last year" tough.   And then you are elated being at the top, and then by the time you get down and decide to ditch the shuttle bus and run back to town, and then have a sausage in bread for breakfast at the market, and eh, you tentatively book it into your calendar for next year.  You know at this stage you'll be back next year.

Congratulations once again to the Football Club and the volunteers and the little town of Derri who always ALWAYS makes everyone feel so welcome.  I am very big on supporting local events.  It takes a stack of behind the scenes work to put on something like this and bravo to them for doing so.   So if you take anything out of this blog post, support your local events.  There may not be bling, there may not be huge accolades, it may just be 5km, but they're putting it on for you.  They had paramedics there, plenty of water stations, a big smile and cheer when you crossed the line at the top and besides there's a bonus drink bottle and t-shirt now added to my ever growing collection!  ;-)