When you’re ankle-deep in the shit, you might as well enjoy it.

In the bus on our way to the Tora Coastal Challenge.

At the race headquarters outside Stony Bay Lodge.

Race briefing. Gerry clearly not paying attention. 🙂 (Notice the clean shoes!)

The start of the 32km run and 18km walk. The 18km run and 6km run and walk started later.

Hugging the coastline, the first few kilometres are on a dirt road.

The drizzle kept us cool initially, but turned rather cold on the ridges.

Runners disappearing into the mist.

Should have known at this point already what lay ahead.

Slippery terrain made going downhill as slow as going up.

Trying to find some stable terrain next to the path.

Streams crossing the road became a blessing, cleaning out the worst mud from your shoes.

Watery mud, sticky mud, or grassy mud – you choose. Shoes staying behind in the mud was a common occurrence.

Slip sliding away…

At times it seemed best to stick to the deeper water where the mud was less slippery.

The first bit of single track – just a muddy mess.

Very slippery on the steep downhills.

Our mud-coloured Wildhorses. These poor shoes will never be the same again.

When you’re not slipping downhill you’re slipping uphill.

Careful route negotiation leading to slow progress.

Any hikers doing the Tora Coastal Walk over the next few weeks are in for a surprise.

Gerry on his bum again. One of many falls on the slippery snot.

How do you run this?

The 18km cut-off point and finish for the 18km event.

Not much left of the walking path.

Very misty and cold on the ridges.

This may have been a single track before runners created new routes to get down the hill.

Muddy silliness.

Bum tracks coming downhill.

The main river crossing of the run.

A waterblaster was necessary to hose off participants before getting into cars and buses etc.

There’s no doubt that this event was a unique challenge, and something I will certainly never forget. The jury is still out, however, on whether it was a positive experience.

To be the proverbial stick in the mud (literally!), allow me to give my very subjective opinion on the event that’s now a week in the past. Just to keep the yin-yang intact, I’ll try to tell it as it was. 😉 At least my experience of the day as a very average (heck, maybe even below average), back-of-the-pack runner. Continue reading →