Helen MacDonald

I am still pinching myself as I have no idea how we managed to be the 1st 100km female team across the line and 5th overall...!  Amazing............ and we managed it in under 20 hours - 19:59:23....!

To get a whole team of 4 over the line is in some ways more of a mental challenge rather than a physical one.  At some point everyone is feeling pretty tired and sore and it takes a huge amount of motivation to keep everyone going.

BUT wow, what an experience. 

We couldn't have done it without our fantastic support crew CANDACE & CHRIS - thank you.  xx

Thank you to our sponsors - we hope we have inspired you and made you prooud.

Well, that's it.  The end of training on the track - next weekend we'll be out there for the event. 

Last night we fiitted in one more quick training session - 2 hours driving; 4 hours night tripping; 2 hour driving..!!  Thankfully the course will be well marked as too much chatting made us take slight detour!  There's something quite wonderful about trekking in the dark - fabulous starry nights, heaps of little critters rustling around the bush and  the famous landmarks of the Blue Mountains lit up just for us..! 

 Thanks again for all your support.....

Saturday saw us on a gentle training run of a mere 20kms that included such delights as the Golden Stairs, The Landslide, Furber Stairs, Giant Stairs and then just for fun we added in one more set of the Golden Stairs. 

"Heaven" was the cafe at the end............  Really great day with lots of stops to finally admire the views that all those tourists are looking at when they get in our way.....!

Not much of a moon, but what a fantastic starry night to light the way on my first test of night running.  Well, okay we did most of it in daylight, but the last 10kms in the dark was a little bit challenging - I think I aimed for every loose rock on the track! 

Slight hip pain, but not enough to put me off..........!

Thankfully I've recovered well from the Six Foot Track Marathon and decided to get back to training today.  Just a gentle hour out on a trail.  My mid-week training takes me around the Sydney harbour foreshore, but don't be fooled there are plenty of hills and stairs to test myself out on. 

This weekend will be the big one - the dreaded first 'night training' session.  Fingers crossed for a full moon......

Well, not much else to do on a rainy day in the mountains.....!   

Apparently Section 4 is supposed to be the most scenic part of the track, but not yesterday...!  Not a view in sight - just puddle after puddle after puddle; with a few steep sets of slippery and muddy stairs thrown in........  How mean to put in all those elevations as the finale to our 100km slog!  

On the bright side, the waterfalls were looking amazing - plenty of evidence of the huge force of the recent storms with twisted and broken safety rails and washed out parts of the track...... 

NOT A LEECH IN SIGHT -  PERHAPS IT'S THE NEW BLUE TRAIL RUNNERS!   

I decided to have a go at running the Six Foot Track last weekend - a mere 45km off track with sensational elevations!  My ankle wasn't impressed and made the decision for me to walk most of it!  A week of rolling ice bottles under my foot and plenty of rest now has me back to full training.   

TIP OF THE WEEK:  If you want a little taster of my training try the following: run/walk up and down 100 stairs with 5kg backpack x 10, run/walk up same stairs 2 at a time with 5kg backpack x 5, run up same stairs with no backpack (yey, I can fly!) x 5.

THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL SPONSORS............. 

Sat 13th Feb - Finally, out on the track.  Myself, Kat and a whole bunch of bushwalking folk headed off to check out Section 1 of the Wild Endurance course.  Perhaps a quicker pace may have stopped those slippery little suckers (leeches not bushwalkers!) from taking hold!  They've even worked out that hanging around Taros Ladders is a dead cert for a meal as most of us are pre-occupied with the view when climbing up there!

Sun 14th Feb - Sorry Romeo, but I had a better offer - a leisurely stroll along Section 2 of Wild Endurance.  Amazing to see how much erosion the recent heavy rains have caused. The fire trails need a bit of TLC, but still walkable.  Totally leech infested from the bottom of the Giant Stairway to old Queen Vic hospital.

LEECH REMOVAL TIP:  Don't use salt as they just reguritate more yukky saliva onto you!  Don't squash them either as same result as above.   The only way to safely remove them is to slide a finger nail under their head to break the seal and then filck it away - preferably not onto a team mate...! 

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT HAS SPONSORED US SO FAR....   

Yes, I've signed up again for a 3rd year in a row!  I've recently taken up running so thought it would be a cool idea to try and run the 100km!  Totally insane, but hey I found 3 other totally insane people to do it with me without having to try too hard.     I absolutely love the team challenge component of this event - finishing together after 100km with a team of 'Happy Feet' will just be awesome. 

I'm not sure if it's that cute little Koala that's got me hooked or the 100km Endurance Bug, but I know I've got it bad!  

The Wilderness Society (TWS) is a national, community-based, environmental advocacy organisation whose purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth.

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