After the Christmas Race there was still no stopping – with training every chance I got as I still had 1 more Marathon to go this year.

I set myself 1 more challenge for 2012 – and that was to do the single day of the Murray Marathon.  The Single Day is day 4 of the 404km, 5 Day Marathon and is 63km from Echuca to (almost) the Torrumbarry Weir on the Murray River.

It was a challenge in itself just to get there and be ready for a 7am start on the 30th!  Let alone paddle down the River!

MM GPS plot of route

You can sort of see from my GPS plot the course of the river.

The day started out with a very strong flow and a mild 14 deg temperature.  As the day went on, the temperature soared to around 35 and the wind picked up to over 30km/h, and the flow gradually slowed the further down river due to the weir!.

Even though the wind was in the 30km/h + speed it was not too bad – as the river winds a lot – so you only copped it for 1-2km at a time in the face, but you did cop it for about 30% of the time.

MM GPS Speed plot

There are only 4 check points during the day, and I stopped for about 30 seconds at Alpha to grab a few snacks.  I had planned for a longer stop at Bravo to re-stock my water and grab a quick bite.  It all went well and I was underway in under 2 minutes after a quick drink of milo, a scone and a re-stock of my empty water bags.

Passing “Charlie” on the MM

After 6hrs, 40m 04s I crossed the finish line, well ahead of my planned 7h 30m planned time.  My GPS read 59.3km and showed an avg speed of 8.9km/h – It dropped off from 9km/h with just a few km to go and I could not claw it back.

I was the 9th of the 1 day entrants to cross the line and first in my class – as the others in my class recorded a DNF.