The Hounslow Race Report
The Hounslow classic had been in gestation since 2010, when Mountain Sports first conceived a run over the tremendously rugged trails of the Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains of NSW. This valley, having never hosted an organised run before, boasted trails that scaled the highest cliffs on Australia’s mainland. These rugged, rocky tracks deliver spectacular scenery as well as sweat and pain. Fast forward to 2015 and the Hounslow Classic was a new event in the Australia/New Zealand Skyrunning series.
Starting and finishing in Blackheath, the highest town in the Blue Mountains (or Hounslow, as the colonial settlers originally called it), two courses offered 68 or 23km of the roughest tracks in Australia. Climbs such as Rodriguez Pass, Perry’s Lookdown and Lockley Pylon would be notorious even before race day, as curious runners trained on the fresh trails of the Grose.
The 68km race was contested by a deep field. Beth Cardelli, Jo Johansen, Lucy Bartholomew, Jean Beaumont, Isobel Ross, Ben Duffus, Martin Lukes, John Winsbury, Grant Guise, Andrew Lee, Ian Gallagher and Tom Brazier. They would race a course consisting of a 17km loop through the Grand Canyon and Rodriguez Pass, then an out and back through Perry’s Lookdown and Lockley Pylon, before reversing the first loop to finish.
Runners weren’t disappointed either! A warm morning led to a thunderstorm breaking over the Grose as runners made their way up and down Lockley Pylon, bringing welcome rain and cooler temperatures. Ben Duffus and Beth Cardelli set fast paces from the start and gradually burned off their competition through the steepest parts of the course. This domination continued till the end, with Ben well clear of the field in winning in 7.51. Newcomer Eric Holt came second in his first major race, and Tom Brazier from Canberra finished fast as he usually does to place third.
Beth Cardelli was a clear winner of the female race, with the real contest coming in for the other podium places. All day second and third had traded back and forth between junior Skyrunning world champion Lucy Bartholomew, and Sydney’s Maggie Jones, thirty years older than Lucy but who probably knew the course better than anyone else out there. In the end, Lucy edged into second by only a couple of minutes.
The rest of the field came in slowly over many hours, until nearly midnight, when the runners of the next day’s 23km event were all in bed.
The 23km took in an out and back to the spectacular Pulpit Rock, before looping through Grand Canyon to Junction Rock and then the punishing climb up Rodriguez Pass to finish, climbing 805m in 3km.
A solid field contested this race under clear skies and moderate temperatures, and it was former pro cyclist Aaron Knight who emerged the clear winner. In fifth place at the bottom of the final climb Aaron engaged the afterburners and moved past all the competition well before reaching the end. New Zealand star Ruby Muir was a clear winner over the rest of the ladies field.
The first Hounslow Classic certainly added a distinctive and tough event to the NSW running scene and showed what Australian-style Skyrunning could be. Massive thanks to our sponsors, including La Sportiva, Outdoor Research, Mund Socks and Hammer Nutrition who helped make the event possible.