One of the trail’s many water features and a “fork in the road”
Time to see if the independent training has paid off. After the absolute soaking Sydney has received over the past 3-4 weeks it was with great pleasure we awoke at 0500 this morning to find dry ground and clear skies. So into the cars and off to the trail we went. In a bid to test ourselves on the section that caused us so much grief last time out we decided on the Cowan to Berowra leg again - we also figured this might be one the drier underfoot legs due to the more hilly terrain.
A quick breakfast stop at "Top of the Ridge" pies and it was back in the car to Cowan station. It was a pleasure to see about 10 fellow Oxfam walkers getting ready to set off in various directions - some on the train to Brooklyn and some heading our way to Berowra. The trail seemed to have survived the wet weather quite well although there were a few puddles in the short stretch to Checkpoint 1. This section gave us an opportunity to loosen and warm up those muscles that had not been on the trail since 17 April.
At Checkpoint 1 Tony reset the stopwatch and off we headed. It soon became obvious that our training had paid off - we were able to maintain a good pace and there were no recurrences of the ailments that afflicted us last time out on this leg (amazing what a good physio and some foundation training can do). The trail was in good condition considering all of the rain and it was great to see the creeks flowing - although we could have done without the wet feet. We soon found ourselves at Berowra Waters in what felt like no time. The climb back out was a challenge as always but once back on the flatter trail we were able to resume our occasional breaks into something nearing a jog!
As we emerged from the bush at Berowra we all felt really strong and very happy with our efforts. We figured it must have been a reasonably quick time but when Tony read out the figure as reached Checkpoint 2 I think we were all a bit surprised - 2hours 33mins was 50 minutes faster than Fred and AJ's last effort and the best time that any of the team have achieved on this leg. We did have one more challenge as we entered the Checkpoint carpark - an unexpected fork in the road - see photo.
This week was a was a real confidence booster after the disappointments of last time and we are now really looking forward to getting back out next weekend to do another double (maybe even a triple) leg. Hope to see you there.
THE WALKERS: AJ, Fred, Tony R
THE STATS
Cowan Station – Cp1
Start Time: 6:45am
Duration: 00:15:11
Finish Time: 7:00am
Distance: 1.49km
Average Pace: 10.10 min/km
Average Speed: 5.9 km/h
Cp1 - Cp2
Start Time: 7:01am
Duration: 2:33:00
Finish Time: 09:34am
Distance: 11.68km
Average Pace: 13.01 min/km
Average Speed: 4.6 km/h
Total Time: 2:48:11
Total Distance: 13.17km
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