Glow Worm Marathon : 7.20. xx

Yes folks a 7+ hour marathon. 

The Glow Worm marathon is held at Newnes about a 4 hour drive west of Sydney deep in the mountains. I drove up Saturday afternoon with Jane in the rain and as we drove up the Newnes valley into the late afternoon fog and mist. The RD had set up well and dinner was provided.

Jane slept in a tent. Put down the seats in the 4 wheel and had comfortable and warm night's sleep. The 8.00am start was very leisurely. The first half was pleasant rolling inclines with nothing too steep and all runable. It in part follows a disused rail track which is from the time Newnes was a booming mining town for shale/oil. 

The name of the marathon comes from the fact that about 11k into run you walk through a railway tunnel about 800m long that has glow worms on the tunnel. It was a comfortable but still run firm half marathon completed in 2.45. There were lost of guesses about the second half and none were anywhere accurate. Some parts were just simply climbing up the side of a mountain on all fours on a track that had been in shade since I am sure the world was created. It was damp and slippery. Coming back down was just as much 'fun'. Impossible to describe in words how tough.

Just say my 5k splits were about 60 minutes until the 30/35k out and back that took 2 hours of moving forward at all times as quick at possible. The second half took just over 4.30 and it went so quickly. Having said all that it was great challenging course in a beautiful and remote area. 

It was my slowest ever marathon but was pleased as I knew I pushed as hard as I could while saving something for the Kempsey Marathon this weekend.

The week

I was back running on Wednesday and felt good. Despite the length of the run in time and the massive amount of rise and fall I felt good. I have been out each day since Wednesday doing just a quick lap of the Bay as really a sharpener. I managed to get down to 4.30 pace this morning for the 7k.

Kempsey marathon

On Saturday a nice 5 hour drive up he north coast to Kempsey for the marathon. Really it starts and finished as South West Rocks on the coast about 30 minutes from Kempsey. This is the 9th time I have run this and it a great event. Flat, on the road along the river.

I hope to go well and be close to 3.45.

That will give me a good idea of how I will run the 6 hour track event on the 23 June. If the marathon time is comfortably under 4 hours then I will give the Australian Record a go. Have to run more that 63.6k. I will decide how I will run that event after I have run this weeks marathon and then recovered and done some further sharpening.