runforclarity: August 2014

Bilpin Bush Run (BBR) 32.7km

Sat 23-August-2014

This was the inaugural running of the BBR. The Mt Wilson to Bilpin run (Willy2Billy) was a popular run on the racing calendar that began in 1995, an event everyone tells me that NRG had supported strongly in the past but was not held in 2012-13 due to landslips permanently closing the route. The Bilpin Rural Fire Brigade, part of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS), elected to take up the run organisation this year and mapped out a course with the guidance of NRG’s Steve Bruggeman and Gillian Russell.

As described on the official run website http://www.bilpinbushrun.com.au , “the course winds its way through Bilpin, around Mt Tootie (that word makes me laugh) and into the Wollemi National Pk and includes both challenging terrain and stunning vistas. As the course traverses private property it is ONLY accessible to runners on race day.”

The drive (thanks Gillian for taking Adam Connor and myself) up to Bilpin was about 1hr 15mins, so not overly long. The recent rain had cleared but the weather was cool and reasonably cloudy so ideal for running in the mountains. Runners started arriving and Adam commented that the ladies race will be interesting with Beth Cardelli (2012-13 AURA Female Runner of the year) up against Jess Baker (last year’s Ultra168 website female runner of the year and C2K record holder). My money was on Beth, only because I hadn’t really seen Jess run and I know how quick Beth is. For the guys, I couldn’t recognise anyone in the superfast category and I figured they were all unavailable due to OxFam Trailwalker or Glenbrook Trail Marathon being held this same weekend, and also our regular NRG trail racing guys like Sam, Matt, Az, Ian, Luke, Tim, Richard, and many others were not here to race. James Matthews (a fried of Lucinda and Kristian – those two seem to know EVERYONE) was present on the day and based on what Lu had said of his 6ft track time this year, was my pick to take out the gents race.

The starter welcomed us all and we runners thanked the organisers for putting this race back on the map. We were told to follow a blue line for a lot of the course and some witches hats/cones. My thoughts were “how in the world are we going to follow a blue painted line in the middle of bush and paddock?” but sure enough, there was a blue line present, even up those sapping short steep climbs. I reckon the cows in the paddocks are having their own hallucinations and rave parties amongst the blue lines right now!

As the starter let us go, the field didn’t seem to be in too much hurry and I casually made a start wishing fellow NRG runners the best of runs (and there were plenty of them, about 20% of the field, and it was so great to see all the White, Orange and Grey singlets populate the event). I found my way to about the first 8 people after a short time and went past Beth and Jess for a brief moment (savour that, as it probably won’t happen again!). The pace on the Garmin wasn’t too quick, but feeling fine I kept up the momentum until the end of the first big climb and as expected, Beth went flying by and Jess then went flying by not too far behind in an attempt to catch her on the next downhill. That first section was a little uneven and soft underfoot running in a cleared fire break area, not exactly a fire trail, more like a bulldozer had been through the bush to make a clearing. There was a fair bit of that terrain on the day so it did make your leg muscles work all over.

The course then took us on a short burst of gravel road before some technical downhill rocks to scale down, then another gravel road passing the first 5km drink stop before we detoured off into what I called private land paddocks. With the recent rain, the ground was soft and the blue line wound its way over the hills of paddocks and it seemed you were running on an angle for a good 3-4kms.

The first of the tough hills was around the 7km mark and once you reached the drink station at the peak of Mt Tootie, you had earned refreshment that’s for sure. There was a group of kids holding signs and screaming their heads off, good on you young ones, it certainly spurred you on hearing their voices when attempting the climb down at the bottom of the valley. Here, the handheld bottle was re-filled, Hammer Fizz Electrolyte inserted (Adam C why can’t I get a sponsor J) and gel consumed ready for the downhill for the next few kilometres. The downhill was again paddock running, jumping and dodging the many cowpats and saying hello to a few cows along the way. On the previous big climb, I managed to a pass two runners so I thought I was about 6^th overall. Then after the drink stop and my general weakness of downhill running compared to the ‘gun’ runners, I had allowed one or two of those runners to pass me. It gets frustrating when you do the work on the uphills only to see the work unfold on the downs, so that is an area for improvement and hopefully I can focus on.

After the downhills, some the firebreak areas continued and were boggy and slushy in areas, but having the trail shoes on, there was no point of tip toeing around, so it was hell or high water as I could feel and see the mud and water flying after running through the said areas.

Finally we reached a gate where a drink stop and fire trail was present. This was the beginning of the out and back section. A good 8km or more in total of fire trail running with undulations but not overly steep. I think I managed to speed up here and suddenly caught two runners and then could see Jess in the distance. Approaching the turn-around point, not actually sure how long it was in distance at the time (and where another drinks station was situated), I saw James out in front followed by another runner then Beth and another male runner coming back in the opposite direction. By my calcs, that meant I was in 6^th place overall and 4^th male and I was determined this time to keep my pace and run this race leaving nothing to spare in the tank. After refilling the bottle again, I took off for the ’back’ section having 17.5km read on my Garmin so I know we were over half way completed now. Somehow I caught up and passed Jess and was feeling good, running the ascents consistently.

I then saw the familiar faces and colours of NRG coming up the ‘out’ section. Chris Dawe was having a great run and was just ahead of Gillian, both in Top 20 positions by my rough calcs. Apologies for the ordering, but I also saw Adam C, Leigh R, Kristian W, Dave Madden, Steve B, Fred P, Chris J, Gavin, Fiona P, Rosie, Jim, Gemma, Kathryn, Elizabeth, Pam, Linda and Brian from NRG and we all offered each other encouragement out there on the course which was great. It was good to see our runners enjoying it all – well at least I hope they were.

After the fire trail section a brute of a hill had to be conquered and again following that blue line. I had the 3^rd place guy in sights and was making ground on him with the climbs, but again when the downhills began, the gap widened. After some quick gravel road running for a couple of kms, I felt the tempo was going well again ready for the return section of some short sharp rock climbs and fire break running on the uneven ground. Just as we were approaching the second last drink stop, I gained closer sight of the runner in front of me and managed to move past as we left the drink area. I said to myself whatever happens just go hard as you can and that’s all you can ask. So I did and felt satisfied I had done so. I knew the runner wasn’t too far behind at one stage but by the last 1.5km I knew I had forged a larger gap and it remained so until I finished over the line with nothing left in reserve. Was absolutely stoked to claim 3^rd male position in 2:52:02 (4^th overall as Beth simply blasted out a great run to finish 2^nd overall in 2:45:43). Jess Baker must have absolutely stormed home because she was only about 80 seconds behind me to claim 2^nd female and 5^th overall.

James Matthews crossed the line in first place in a time of 2:38:59 and Michael Alperstein 2^nd male home in 2:48:51.

All the results can be seen in the link below

http://tiktok.biz/list/bilpinbushrun/2014/run/

Chris Dawe was busy collating the NRG results below:

Chris Dawe 3:18:30

Gillian Russell 3:20:29

Adam Connor 3:24:57

Chris Johnson 3:37:10

Stephen Bruggeman 3:37:46

Kristian Wynn 3:42:45

David Madden 3:44:23

Fiona Phillipps 3:45:16

Fred Panzetta 3:47:10

Gavin Pilz 3:49:07

Rosie Mills 3:54:13

Leigh Reynolds 3:58:22

Jim Carter 4:05:40

Gemma Dawson 4:05:40

Kathryn Anderson 4:05:50

Pamela Carter 4:24:22

Elizabeth Adams 4:24:23

Linda Kim 5:04:42

Brian Adams 5:14:12

The race acted as a 6ft track qualifier for those that need it (don’t think too many of us needed one here as many were already qualified) with a 4hr 15mins the cut off.

The BBQ and cake stall after the race looked good, but I was in no position to consume after a large Protein Accelerade Endurox Recovery Milk Drink followed by some Mountain Goat Beer (thanks Az). I even let Adam C woof down an extra sausage sandwich (that he paid for)!

Big thanks to Tony and Lucinda for support and many photos here.

In summary, get on this one next year. Any RFS running event is superb in my view (it’s a real shame Fitzroy Falls was cancelled this year due to lack of a major sponsor) and runners are catered for extremely well both on and off the course. You are providing much needed funds to the brave volunteers that make up the RFS.