Bogong to "Didn't Make" Hotham

Wednesday:
Distance:  6.7 kms in 37' 13" at 5' 33" per km
Weather: sunny, temp 20 degrees, humidity 40%, wind east 15 kmph
Thursday:
Bike riding: about 25 kms easy over 4 rides
Friday:
Bike riding: about 10 kms over 2 easy rides
Saturday:  travel

Sunday:
Distance:   35.1 kms
Time:    6 hours 16 mins 23 secs
Rate:  10' 44" per km
Altitude gain:  2350 metres
Altitude loss:  1345 metres
Weather:  sunny, temp range 13-23 degrees, humidity 45%-30%, wind mostly calm

Week:  54.6 kms,  Jan & Year:  91.75 kms

Monday:  travel
Today: 
Bike riding:  about 10 kms easy
Recovery:  15 minutes in river

While the final result didn't go to  plan, missed the 6 hour cut off by 16 minutes, the whole day was very enjoyable & well worth the effort of the training & entry.
As has been mentioned many times before, Bogong to Hotham is a huge challenge & certainly one of the toughest of the " short" mountain ultras with big climbs, steep & technical descents with many trails not suitable to someone like me who now shuffles along more than a true running gait & style.
However, it's all good as the training has given me a big start to the year endurance wise.
A short version of what happened:
Started at the back of a big pack of runners doing both the full & the half way events. I'm not the fastest starter & knew exactly what to expect having ran here back in 2002, another half way missed the cut effort.
Best part of the start was seeing for the first time, the " gun" girl runners & likely winners, Beth, Gill & co.
They are so tiny, small pocket rockets with amazing ability to climb mountains with ease. Power to weight ratio would be massive, they would weigh, guessing, around 45-48 kgs, small jockey size.
But once the race was started exactly on 6 am, that was all I saw as the line climbed the steep Staircase trail after leaving Mountain Creek. Pointless getting past too many as the line was slow, but that was probably where some valuable time was lost as regards the cut off.
Exiting the tree line, the views are brilliant over the Victorian Alps & high country, so I stopped to take a couple of photos including getting one of myself on top of Mt Bogong, highest mountain in Victoria at around 1950 metres above sea level.
Then, the down hill to Big River across the open plains on deep rutted tracks or trying to run on grass tussocks, both of which didn't like my running style. I kicked every rock & tree root & lost confidence on the downhill especially when the course closed in past a couple of huts as we headed towards the river crossing. I didn't fall, but the time damage was done with the second big climb to come up Duane Spur on to the open high plains. I knew I could run quickly on the better fire trail, but there was no way I could run 14 kms in 90 minutes with another grassy part still to come before the aquaduct & the half way Langford Gap cut off.
Most pleasing was being able to run along these better surfaces at 5' 30" pace after 4-5 hours of hard effort. Although missing the cut off, this has helped regain confidence that this year's events may be Ok.
It was a very warm day out in the open, very humid when below the tree line with very little breeze.
Of the field of around 90 runners, around 30 had a DNF or missed the cut, including some very good mountain climbers who would normally get through easily.
Tough year this one, very happy to have gone & had a go, again.
May be this one is now not for me. I'll stick to what I can do better, multi days in the outback.