Damon Goerke wins AURA Maroondah Dam 50km Ultra

Damon cleaned up the AURA Maroondah Dam 50km Ultra on Sunday. The full results can be found here. Damon's report follows....

It’s been nearly 10 years since I last ran the Maroondah Dam trail run. I’d only ever done the 30km option and was keen to check out the full 50km. Starting from Fernshaw Reserve just out of Healesville, it climbs up to Dom Dom saddle then across to Mt St Leonards before a knee crushing 13km descent to Maroondah Dam. The total ascent is almost 2000m, with an almost equal amount of descent. The weather was cool and clear, ideal for running, but unfortunately the recent bad weather had trashed the trail and we were warned to be prepared for a bit of bush bashing in the first 10kms.

I found myself at the front within the first 500m and by the time I hit the overgrown section, everyone was already out of sight behind. The organizers had done a great job marking the route with tape, but they were right about it being overgrown. There was no track for several km’s up the first climb and I was bashing through chest high scrub covered in wait-a-while vine, trying to stay out of sight of the runners chasing me so they couldn’t follow my route. After about 45 minutes I found myself out of the scrub and onto a fire trail, my legs covered with blood after being ripped apart in the vines. That was the end of the fun stuff, and the next 30km’s were a combination of fire trail and some off road sections to the summit of Mt St Leonard. I was still in front and told I had about a 10 min lead. I was pretty confident I could maintain my lead on the long descent, so I didn’t take any risks and took the rocky, slippery trail easily. I was just starting to hit a low patch when I came to Donnellys Weir, which I knew was 3km to the finish and was able to finish strongly on adrenaline in 4hr24. Dave Eadie came in 8 minutes behind in second place.