On Sunday morning Elf walked 10km uphill with her workmates, from Wrest Point Casino to the Ferntree Tavern in the 2024 Point to Pub. Michael and I set off at the same time and walked the same route but kept going to the top of Mt Wellington/kunanyi in the Point to Pinnacle.
Michael is an old hand at walking up the mountain but this was his first P2P. I have just dug through the records to find this was my 4th after going with Elf in 200o and on my own in 2001 and 2009. Michael and I finished in just under four hours (03:56:36 for the record).
It was mild and a bit muggy, and rain was predicted so I was carrying a raincoat and thermal top. You don't want to be wet on the mountain when the wind gets up, things can turn serious very quickly. It was a warm day but it's 5-8° cooler up there than down in town. Anyway I didn't need them, the weather was pretty much perfect all the way to the top. Elf was a bit too warm down at Ferntree, and when he got back to Wrest Point later it felt like Sydney down there.
The route for everyone starts with a gradual climb into town along Sandy Bay Road, then a left turn at Mr Pizza [it closed in 1987 but lives on in my heart] and then a quite steep stretch up Byron Street which always spreads out the field. Michael and I left Elf and her crew behind here.
At the Aberfeldy Hotel [now The Chowk] you stop climbing and turn left into Davey St. Nearly all Hobart's major city streets start flat and end up in the hills; Davey St becomes Huon Road which once was the highway to the Huon Valley. After a flat stretch we climbed steadily and were going well when we got to the Skyline Servo where the first water station was. We'd decided to rely on water stations rather than carry our own and that worked out well. The Skyline is up the hill above our house pretty much.
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| Looking at this there aren't many flat bits! |
The runners started an hour after us, and the leaders passed us when we'd walked about 8km.
I find running culture very foreign. I love a quiet morning jog on my own, but I actually recoil from organised serious running. The Point to Pinnacle wouldn't exist without that culture so I do appreciate that it provides this event for walkers, alongside the hardcore "World’s Toughest Road Half Marathon".
I stopped for a toilet break at The Springs and Michael waited for me. According to the stats we were 657th at 15km, going past the Organ Pipes. By this time some of the runners were jogging back down and yelling encouragement, which was nice.
After we restarted I don't think many people passed us, and we were travelling well. I was often surprised to see a KM marker coming so soon after the last one. Going up past the Chalet and around Big Bend we passed heaps of people and I realised we had a good chance of getting in under four hours.
At the end we were 521st and 522nd of 1045, i.e. right in the middle of the field. We passed 135 people in the last 6km! Here's us (on the right) trying to make sure we get in under 4 hours.
