Overland Track - Craddle Mountain Run

If you can talk physics you might be able to understand what our crazy Matt is talking about!!!

Matt Dalziel - Team AROC

My aim in this year’s Overland Track run was to complete the 80 something kilometres, with its 2800 metres of climbing and 3000 of falling down again in less than the time taken for 2.65 x 1014 oscillations of a certain energy state of a Caesium atom. This had only been accomplished by 3 runners before and the mild weather and dry track promised every assistance. It was great to see a bunch of fresh young mainland boys and girls on the start line, with a total of 3 starters curiously choosing the above number of Caesium oscillations as their goal.

Around 50 runners set off into gloom at 6am while Cradle Mountain and Barn Bluff were still sleeping, however Oakleigh, the Pelions, Ossa and the DuCane range revealed themselves as the mild morning turned into a gorgeous day. Caesium’s quantum state transitions can be notoriously hard to correlate with locations along the Overland Track, and at Pelion Hut I found myself alone and with an energy state deficit to make up over the biggest climbs. As I was counting quartz vibrations as a crude approximation for the much more accurate Caesium I decided to just go as hard as I could, with the aim of getting to Narcissus in under 6 hours as approximated by my wrist-borne timepiece.

This technique of boneheaded estimation proved successful, giving me enough time to pause for a glass of coke and photo op with the lovely Sue Drake and friend at Anzac cove on the Narcissus river. I temporarily forgot leaping electrons and fuelled up, ready for the big challenge of Lake St.Clair. My good friend Richard had jogged up the track, and as we had synchronised clocks he was aware that I was over five and a half trillion oscillations ahead of schedule. While this may seem like a lot, anyone who has run round the lake knows that 10 billion or so energy state transitions can be lost in the blink of an eye. Fortunately the track was dry, although cramps, snakes and countless logs, rocks and obstacles frequently forced a change of pace. I was extremely fortunate to beat both the heat and my old friend, element #55 and celebrated with a dip in the lake, some chips and two very sore legs.

Thanks to all the sweepers, organizers and volunteers, with an especial thankyou to the timekeepers. We often take their incredible technical, scientific and mathematical abilities for granted, which is a bit rough. Congrat to all who came, saw and hurt, with special mention of first timer Grace Elson coming home first in front of a great women’s field in just over 12 hours.

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