Back in July 2020, in the midst of COVID unpredictability and with zero goals on the horizon, I decided I needed to pick something to work towards. While I’ve always been a runner on and off since I was 11yrs old, I’d recently gotten back into running consistently after a few years in the gym and then recovering from a hip cartilage injury and chronic glute bursitis. The maximum I was running at that time was really only 5kms or so and only ever on roads and bike path. While I had watched with wonder at other runner’s trail adventures to beautiful places, I didn’t even own trail shoes at that stage. It was time to work towards something concrete – if the event would even go ahead! On a summer trip to the snowy mountains in 2018, I had stayed in a cabin park and chatted to a runner who had just completed the Australian Alpine Ascent. I love the mountains and that race has stuck in my mind ever since as a “wouldn’t it be cool to do that one day” goal. So I decided it was time, signed up for the 25km with 8 months to think about it, and made my younger sister sign up too!

 

 

I took a slow and steady approach to training, starting out on the local forest fire trails with about 5 months to go, and about 12 weeks out I started to follow a structured program I had found online. I did my weekday runs on local paths still but tried to do my weekly long run on the fire trails. The AAA involves around 800m of elevation and a varied track with everything from rutted fire trail to rocks, narrow single track and mesh platforms. The extent of my elevation training was about 300m and just on forest fire trails, so certainly nothing mountainous! While I didn’t train on mountains, I tried to focus on 2 things in my training – consistency and making sure I did those weekly long runs on the trail as much as possible so I could get used to hiking up hills, running down hills and trusting my feet on uneven ground. If anything I probably under trained as I didn’t want to reinvigorate old injuries. I also made sure I bought my hydration vest a few months out and practiced running with it for all my long runs.

 

 

After weeks and months of deliberating about mandatory gear and stressing over border closures, it was time! I flew from Brisbane to Canberra and met my sister and off we went to Jindabyne. Race registration was done with ease on the Friday afternoon, we packed our vests and got ready for our big adventure.

On the morning of the race it was very chilly. We were bussed from Perisher Valley snow resort to the start line at beautiful Charlotte Pass where the course starts. After fuelling with coffee and taking in the atmosphere of our first trail event, we watched the 50km race start at 9am and then it was our turn! It was still chilly but the skies were blue, the weather gods were on our side and no waterproof pants would be needed!

The 25km course started at Charlotte Pass and traverses the Main Range track up to the Summit of Mt Kosciuszko before returning to Charlotte Pass. The 50km runners do the same loop twice. We started with 2km of steep uphill along the road which was an intense way to warm up the legs! Then it was onto the trail and we were running on rutted fire trail down into a valley and doing a fun rock hop across the Snowy River, where the more serious runners ran straight through and didn’t worry about wet shoes! It was then uphill for the next 12kms on a trail that was a mix of rutted fire trail, uneven pavers, narrow single track with a sheer drop to the side, a mesh track nicknamed the cheese grater (for good reason as we observed more than one person have a nasty stack!) and rock stairs. For those of us in the 25km group, the majority of the uphill was hiking and just running for short stints where possible. I felt a bit like a mountain goat hopping from rock to rock. We passed stunning lakes and with the perfect sunny weather we stopped for many photos along the way.

 

 

After around 14km we reached the summit of Mt Kosciuszko at 2228m where we paused our watches for awhile and enjoyed the amazing views all the way to the Victorian Alps. It was then 11km of downhill running back to Charlotte Pass, passing more beautiful valleys and crossing the Snowy River once again. The downhill section was on dirt road/fire trail and much smoother than the uphill climb, with a single aid station at the 16km mark for water and electrolytes. At the end running into the finish line we were greeted by cheers, a very cool finishers medal and a great recovery area with refreshments.

 

 

Everyone we chatted to during the run, whether they were experienced or newbies like us, commented on how beautiful the course was and I really did hardly look at my watch at all until the last couple of kilometres as it was such a fun experience, despite the long tough uphill. I am glad I approached this run as an adventure more than with a time goal in mind, as there was a lot more uphill walking than I had expected! We completed the run in around 3 hrs 30 mins plus 20 mins of photo opportunities. I thoroughly enjoyed my first trail event experience and the adventure I shared with my sister, the amazing views along the way made up for the soreness at the end. Its safe to say that my first trail event was a success and hopefully the first of many, and I would definitely recommend this event to anyone who enjoys stunning scenery and solid uphill/downhill trail experience. I will be back next year!