Anaconda Adventure - The Sugarloaf run

Last year I was involved in Anaconda at Dunsborough in Western Australia. It was a great event and our team had its share of drama. Our swimmer had a tough chop to work with and our paddler had a carbon blade from his paddle become dislodged and did the last half of the paddle Canadian canoe style. I had just seen Raf Baugh scamper over the rocks like a whippet and figured the run couldn’t have been that difficult. Wrong, wrong, wrong!!

Not only did ai get lost a few times on the way to Sugarloaf Rock but I led a group of at least 6 other people left instead of ducking under a barbed wire fence. So be warned. I reckon we had gone 5mins the wrong way before backtracking so I felt awful that others had suffered a 10min loss of time as well.

Yesterday, Dee and I travelled to Dunsborough early so that we could start the familiarisation run from Bunker Bay to the MTB transition area. I have to say that I felt for the paddle ski’s at Eagle Bay who did their own familiarisation in huge swell and atrocious weather. A few of them were taken out around 5 to 6km out to sea and rescued by a fishing boat. The organisers , to be fair, could not have anticipated how bad the conditions would be.

Back to the run start and , after a delayed start from the original 10.45am start we set off at 11.50am. The path initially is pretty tricky across the rocks before rising to some forest tracks and sandy tracks leading down to many,many more rocks. After a while , you develop a proficiency in rockhopping and looking a few metres ahead of where you’re going to land next. The calf muscles and quads got a real workout. Combined with the soft sand running, it was also important to hydrate well. The surf around Sugarloaf and swell was enormous and very, very windy.

I’m sure our little group of 6 didn’t traverse the proper Anaconda track however we weren’t that far off the mark. Clambering around rocks got the adrenalin going. Thankfully, no-one was at Sugarloaf during this familiarisation run egging us on to jump into the water. The real surprise packet is a hill that goes up for around 1.5kms at least from Sugarloaf. Its a hard run after your shoes are wet and you’re still smarting from the icy plunge. The last few kilometres are mainly across farmland and, for the most part, pretty quick. Near the top of the big hill, a dead kangaroo provides quite a unique sight (and smell)!!

Our sincere thanks to Stu Durham from Eclipse Fitness for picking us up and taking us the 8.4kms back to Bunker Bay where our car was parked. We stayed at Peppermint Park Eco Park near Busselton which was a beautiful park. We had our camping gear but we booked an ensuite site.  A couple from Tas have recently taken over and refurbished this place. We’ll be back there for sure when we venture down for Ironman WA.

Thanks to Bunker Bay Resort coffee shop for a nice cuppa at the start. Also congrats to our fellow runners including Maxine, Holly and a few others. Looking forward to doing this great event again on 2 Nov 2008. Staying at salubrious digs at Gnarabup for that actual event. Also, congratulations to my Daihatsu Sirion for thousands of kilometres of hassle-free country driving recently.

I have a lot of longish runs ahead of me over these next 2 to 3 weeks. Managed to get some accommodation at Rotto for the Marathon. Pretty well booked out for 19 Oct.

Reservoir

CHRISTO