Bright 4 peaks - Day 3 - Mt Hotham

Mt Hotham is the second highest mountain of the series. For me it was the most difficult.

I have made a google pedometer trace of the run, i am pretty good with maps and directions and am confident I have tracked out the right route.
The start was the same start as for the My Feathertop run, in a park in Harrietville. I got an early start because I didn't feel very confident. The run starts along what looks like the top of an old train track, or it might be a levy to protect the town from flooding. Then the run starts going up a nice picturesque ridge, and starts winding up the mountain. In fact the whole run is picturesque. The run starts going down a bit till the creek crossing (5-6km). There is a cute little metal bridge going over the creek which was flowing. After the creek is a really steep part to get out of the creek (up to 6km mark), this is where a lot of runners started passing me and most were walking. The scenery was stunning and helped take my mind off the pain.
I can remember what the bush was like - but can't really descibe it, but as you go up higher and higher the plants change and generally get shorter in height. There seemed to be a lot of winding back and forth to get altitude, but after a while we got to the top of a ridge, and then ran on top of this really cool razorback ridge (I am not sure what km on the map)- one side you could see toward Feathertop and into a Valley on the other. From there on it was pretty much straight up and along this ridge. Some parts of this ridge were very steep and I was on my hands some of the way. I also started getting hungry and felt stupid that I didn't bring any snacks. I was getting pretty bad, but I didn't have much choice but to keep going to the top, and I know I would hate myself later if I quit. Fast runners passing me kept telling me I was nearly at the top, and that when the trees are gone I would be just about finished. The trees were getting shorter and shorter, finally they disappeared (kink between 11 and 12km) and I could see the naked top of Mt Hotham. I could see the finish line but it seemed soooo far away. The last kilometer was very hard, maybe the hardest I have ever done. I stopped and lay down a few times. When I finally got near the finish, I crossed the road and nearly collapsed trying to climb up a little embankment to get up to the finish line. There were lots of people worried about me, i know I must have looked bad, but I knew I would be ok - i just needed some food and drink. Half an hour and a bit of food later, I was my usual bouncy self.

Note to my stupid self: you'd think that i'd have learnt by now, if i have enough food i am fine (eg. my first glasshouse ultra), but if i don't have enough it makes it very difficult.