8 hours 49min TRUTH CONSEQUENCES 50KM ULTRA TRAILS

Took me 8 hours 49min to get to the end of the Perth Trail Series 50km ULTRA on 4th April 2015 A.D.
Perth Trail Series Results and Photos links page here.

Thanks to Rolf and Bernadette for this start photo, its wheres wally *LOL* :-), but I am in there in the centre of the photo.
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Started well with a 4min 33 K which required a bit of effort, but was cruisy on the road out of Jarrahdale.
Could see the eventual winner in Tom Bakowski (top 30 for some of TNF100 Australia in 2014, 6 inch top 3, Rottnest Marathon back to back winner, Ironman Triathlete etc etc), with my fellow PHATtie Rudi (Tarawera 80km winner) chasing him all the way onto the singletrack descent.
Staceys Fork, and then Kittys Gorge descent from Gooralong Brook (a campsite on the original 1000km Bibbulmun track in the 1980s when I hiked through there to Scarp Rd, probably on parts of what is now the Munda Biddi mountainbike trail Kalamunda to near Albany?) to Serpentine Falls has a favourite strava segment of mine on it, and I smashed my PR/PB by several minutes, despite standing aside several times to let faster runners through. Chased JC over the bridge near the Fig House, and then backed off a bit to cruise into the first aid station at 9km in about 60min...
Two big hills on this 25km lap course. The first goes up from the Serpentine Falls near Baldwins Bluff. Its very rocky and pretty steep. I have struggled with it in the PTS (Perth Trail Series) Snakes and Ladders races in recent years. Got up it ok this time, and then put the foot down from the COM tower to the logjump (another segment PR!!!) chasing Mark down and establishing a lead on him. Hit the steep downhill to the fig house, and eventually at about the 14km mark of the race it gets too steep for me to handle so I stop to let Mark and some others get past, as I knew I could not sustain the pace I was doing without risking falling over and in my sudden stop I severely sprained my ankle.... ARRRGH

This photo; me, Grant and some lady (DL perhaps?) approaching the fig house about 14.5km into the race, just before the infamous 3 Steps.

Big thanks to Brett and Bernadette for these marvellous photos including this one showing some of THE THREE STEPS hill which is climbed at about 15km and 41km.
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Walked down to the fig house, got jogging again with my sore ankle, and walked and jogged up the 2nd big hill on this course the infamous THREE STEPS. Not too bad going up that and was able to get jogging again on the Munda Biddi... my hopes of getting to 25km in under 3 hours were dashed, but figured I could still make about 3.15-3.25... despite the mildy sore ankle. However my wifes garmin ran out of charge at 23km so I took a break took ages for my second watch to find signal, and I lost momentum, and had to settle for 3 hours 26min at halfway instead of around 3.20ish...
At Halfway mark saw the Chiro bloke and used up a few more minutes getting my ankle strapped... This allowed me to refuel and go after the singletrack through Gooralong again... It was slow, but the strapping was excellent, and I was going ok... and found a few training buddies that happened to be jogging at similiar pace... The 3 of us and one other we found suffering from cramps near the fig house (I gave him some of my Gatorade) got some momentum and got to 34km in reasonable shape. We stuck together on the ascent near Baldwins Bluff and got to the top of it. However at the top of that my legs ran out of energy and fatigue set in. They carried on and I walked for a bit and lost touch with them. Then got running again from the COM tower, though about DNFing at the fig house, but struggled somehow up THE THREE STEPS again, it was very slow walking... Watch battery life ran out at about 40km or so near the top of this hill...
Then two others caught me, and I jogged/walked to the end, finding a bit of momentum after the small climbs up from Serpentine River... Beautiful country and satisfying to get to the end (despite twice thinking about DNF at fig house and at Serpentine River 6km from finish) of a 50km race for the first time and a tough terrain course at that, probably a bit tougher race than Six Foot (and worth an ITRA point), but pretty similiar in many ways to Six Foot. Ankle injury sore for many days afterwards... but a fantastic experience to race in this one... really enjoyed the Wild Country, hopefully if I do it again one day will be able to avoid the ankle and watch issues, and finish a bit stronger...