GNW 100mile Race Report

My desire to participate in the Great North Walk 100mile started 12 months ago when I paced Susannah for the last 70km of the event. I absolutely loved the race – the technical trails, the beautiful scenery and the massive challenge. My favourite part was the finish on Patonga beach with the bell ringing for each runner as they finished. I knew I had to come back to give it a go myself.

I trained pretty well in the lead up to the event and I have had a pretty good year of running. These things made me feel confident that I had done everything I could to prepare for the race. I still wasn’t overly confident that I would finish, but I was excited to give it a go - my first hundred miler!

By the Thursday of race week, I was highly disorganised. I had a list of all the things I needed to do, but clearly didn’t have time to do those things. I was yet to write the instructions on my maps, load the maps onto my GPS, get my drop bags ready or write instructions for my crew. Luckily I had Tamyka helping me out with my maps and Chris was willing to give this race a go without my usual detailed crew instructions. Once we had arrived in Newcastle, Tam spent the afternoon getting my maps ready for me, Chris bought the groceries and I got my drop bags ready. By about 9pm we were ready for race day.

I woke up on race morning with a very sore lower back, probably caused by a bed that was too soft. I stretched and massaged my hip flexors but they weren’t loosening up at all. Next port of call was panadol. Thankfully that was the only glitch on race morning. We got to the start line with plenty of time to spare and I collected my race bag, weighed in and met some new runners. I was introduced to Tayebah, who was running her first 100 mile too. We had a fairly similar target time so thought it would make sense to run together a bit.

Section 1: Teralba to Watagan Foresty HQ – 28.6km

The first few kilometres of the race were on road and there was a big group of runners around me.  I just followed those in front, eagerly anticipating hitting the trails. After a couple of kilometres we turned right into the bush and I was happy to be off the road. It was nice having someone to run with and Tayebah and I chatted and enjoyed ourselves. I was a little nervous about not having the maps in my hands and just relying on others, but I also didn’t want to be stuck by myself because I was slowing down to check the maps. I got what I deserved when we missed a turn (the sign was obstructed by a burnt out van) and I committed myself to only relying on myself (and the maps and GPS) for navigation. 

The Heaton’s Gap trail at about 15km presented the first big climb of the day and I instantly found myself lagging behind Tay. I have been struggling through ascents during training recently, which I had put down to being sluggish due to overtraining, but even with my extra-long taper, the hills were an issue on race day. I wasn’t too worried though as I knew I could fly on the single track. 

I caught up to Tay at the top and we passed around the communications tower. At this point the rain started to get very heavy and we didn’t really get any views at Heaton Lookout. The rain also made the next section in the rainforest rather difficult (and fun). I loved running around in the mud but it also slowed me down a little bit and I had a couple of tumbles. It seemed a lot of people were struggling through the mud though and we overtook a few people before finally coming back out onto the fire trail and running it in to checkpoint 1.

Section 2: Old Watagon Forest HQ to Congewai Public Schools

From CP1 we followed the ridge of the Myall Range along fire road. I met a number of other runners during this section, some in the 100km event and some in the 100mile. I tried to remember people’s names so I could see how they ended up going, but it all ended up as a blur in my state of exhaustion later on. 

After the long, gentle uphill, I descended into the very pretty farmland of the Congewai Valley.  I thought this section was absolutely gorgeous and I really enjoyed the sense of freedom I had running down the trails. It felt like I was flying on the single track and I was a little bit sad to find it come to an end at Congewai Road, but I did enjoy reading Tam’s note, “You’re a Congewai,” on my maps. From there we just ran along Congewai Road into the checkpoint.

Section 3: Congewai Public School to The Basin Campsite 29.1km

This was another tough section with a significant amount of elevation gain, however, it was also one of my favourite parts of the course, with pockets of gorgeous rainforest and miles of technical trail. We initially passed through farmland (at least from what I remember) and then climbed out of the Congewai Valley into the Watagon mountains. I found this to be the toughest climb of the day and I put my ipod on to try and get some motivation going. I convinced myself that stopping to suck in the oxygen was only going to prolong the process and pushed through as best as I could. 

 

I was very happy to reach the communications tower at the top of the climb where I found Tayebah and we headed off down Cabans Rd together. We had around 6km of gravel road here and although it was boring, it was a good opportunity to make up some of the time I had lost on the climb. From what I remember, we then ran down some fun single track and briefly passed through pretty farmland before reaching  Wattagon Creek.

After crossing Watagon Creek we travelled into the Olney State Forest.  There was another big climb but I pushed through this a little better than the one before. I was pretty ecstatic to reach the  unmanned water stop at the top because this marked the end of the last climb for section 3.

The next few kilometres were fairly undulating along fire trail and gravel road and I again enjoyed the fact that I was making up some lost time. After a few kilometres we reached some more technical track which I was very excited to see. I also enjoyed this section because I passed trails such as ‘Bacon Point Rd’, ‘Pork Point Rd and ‘Rasher Point Rd’, which Tamyka had kindly pointed out to me on my maps. There was also a Bailey Rd (clearly named after my dog) and as I discovered later, a ‘Magpie Rd’ – glad Tam didn’t point that out.  

From here we travelled through very technical single track in the basin to reach Checkpoint 3. I loved this section of the course. It was very pretty, almost magical at night, and the slippery single track was an adventure. At one point I had my headlamp shining into a creek and could see an eel sitting just below the surface. The last couple hundred metres into the checkpoint were marked by glowsticks, adding to the magic feeling in the air. 

Section 4: The Basin Campsite to Yarramalong Public School 22.1km

To leave the Basin campsite we had to retrace our footsteps through the single track. Again I enjoyed this section and moved well on the technical trail. Soon we were climbing out of the basin and had to be careful with our nav. I was with Tayebah during this section and we momentarily took a wrong turn but we realised quickly and turned around without losing much time. 

Once out of the basin and with the difficult nav over, we followed fire trail for a few kilometres. I started to feel really nauseous around this section and couldn’t take in any food or fluids without an overwhelming urge to vomit. I let Tayebah know how I was feeling and told her she should go ahead as I was slowing down, but she still seemed happy to stick together. After about 5 or 10mins of this feeling I decided it was probably best to just vomit and get it over with. This helped me to feel a lot better and I started moving a little bit faster.

After we passed a walkers rest (which Tamyka had marked with the comment “but you’re a runner”), we turned left onto walking track. Tay and I thought we were a little lost in this section and I needed to check the GPS to confirm if we took a wrong turn. I was following the detailed directions and things looked ok on my GPS, but the track became very indistinct in parts and I think we may have been slightly off. Not to worry though, we soon found the track easier to follow and headed downhill to the Cedar Bush Trackhead.

From here we turned left onto gravel road. This is a section that I had heard a lot of people whinge about because it is boring road that just goes on and on for almost 12km. Although I would agree that it is a bit boring and I also found it a little hard on my feet, I also enjoyed just being out in the open at night. Whenever I started to get a bit bored I looked up at the stars which looked spectacular, despite all the cloud earlier in the day. Tayebah got a bit ahead of me here so I just had the company of my ipod, the stars and the road. 

When I entered the race I had envisaged making a decision at CP4 as to whether to drop out and take the 100km finish or to continue on for the 100mile. I had considered having a cut off time for myself by which I would need to have left the checkpoint, or go by how I was feeling. Before the race though, on Tamyka’s advice, I decided to keep going until a race official made me stop, either because I was too sick to continue or hadn’t made a cut-off. That made the decision very easy for me and despite the fact I still felt nauseous, I absolutely wanted to continue. I still felt confident that I could finish and there were many positives to come: I now got to run with my awesome pacer Tamyka, I had done this section of the course the previous year and the worst climbs of the race were out of the way. I guzzled down some chicken noodle soup at the checkpoint to settle my tummy and changed some items of clothing. I was stopped for a fair while, but I felt a lot better for it when I left the checkpoint.

Section 5: Yarramalong Public School to Somersby Public School 26.8km

Leaving the checkpoint with Tayebah and super pacer Tamyka, I felt like the party was just getting started. Tam turned on the music and off we went.  Things were going well as we covered the single track and we got a little ahead of Tay. I was feeling a bit tired though so I pumped out the Babysitters Club theme song to keep the sleep monsters at bay. I think this was right when Tay caught up to us and I don’t know what she made of my choice is song to sing. We probably made things worse when we put some Avril on the ipod.

Unfortunately it wasn’t long before my tummy started disagreeing with me again and I was puking at the side of the track. I didn’t actually feel terribly sick, I just couldn’t keep any food or fluids down. Tamyka pointed out that I had probably consumed enough earlier in the race and I could run for a long time without eating or drinking. I decided to give this a go and when I did need to consume, I tried Tamyka’s suggestions, a lot of which worked. My feet were also starting to cramp and swell so I stopped to massage my foot and loosen the laces. Tay went on ahead (probably happy to be away from the puking and our choice in tunes). 

We then went past some crackling powerlines to get to Greta Rd. We could see other runner’s lights ahead and followed those as the track was a little hard to follow. We came out on Greta Road and followed this until we came  across Tay in a paddock. She had turned too early, so Tam helped her climb the fence while I continued on ahead, turning down Cherry Lane. Tam caught up to me quickly and Tay passed us again.

Eventually we turned into the National Park. I was managing to eat very small bits of cheese and vegemite sandwich, which I had to slosh around with water in my mouth so I could swallow it down, as my throat was so dry. This sounds disgusting, but it actually seemed fine at the time and was one of the only things that didn’t make me want to barf. At this point I was completely off sugar. Everytime Tamyka even mentioned something with sugar I felt like hurling. We quickly came to more dense bushland and had a fun descent through rainforest to Dead Horse Creek. That part was super fun and we caught up to Tay as well as a couple of other guys ahead of us. Tamyka put on “Welcome to the Jungle” on the ipod because it seemed appropriate, and us three girls sang along.

The climb out was nasty and I slowed down. I think Tay went on ahead with the guys here as I struggled up the hill. It was over quickly though and we were back out on fire trail, moving faster. Tamyka says I was “positively hammering it,” so I may have been moving slightly faster than walking pace. After a while we passed Tay who was fixing her foot. Three guys had stopped to help so we went on ahead. 

Soon we came across another runner, doing the zombie shuffle through the night. He was swaying from one side of the track to the other, clearly doing battle with sleep monsters.  As soon as we caught up to the runner though, he jumped on to the Tam train and started moving really well.

 We discovered that the runner was Grant, the vegan runner who had eaten a head of lettuce at the Basin a few years earlier. He confessed this may not have been the best idea. We ran along together covering some awesome single track down to Ourimbah Creek. We had to check the nav a couple of times, but made it to the creek without issue. Tam and I charged straight through the creek, my feet happy for the numbing cold. Not long after, I had to stop and massage my foot again. My feet were really swollen and painful by now. Loosening the laces off a bit more helped and soon we were off again and back in the forest. Grant went on ahead and I felt confident that he was going to get his first GNW finish. 

There was a pretty decent climb from the road, but it eased off at times and I pushed through. The climb was worth it as we had a pretty descent, alongside cliffs, followed by rainforest track at the bottom. Then were back on fire trail and then finally, on the road into the checkpoint where I changed into new shoes and new outfit for day 2

Section 5: Somersby Public School to Pacific Highway Bridge over Mooney-Mooney Creek 17.8km

When we came out of the school, we ran along the road for a little bit. I was walking here, and Tam suggested that I could shuffle but I said it was uphill. Apparently it was flat. I shuffled. We turned off onto 4WD track and ran along there for a while. We then crossed Reserve Rd and soon came past a sign to Girrakool/Patonga. I was very excited. A sign with the name of the finish on it, felt like a sign that I was almost done and I was really starting to think that I might just finish this thing. Soon we were running in rainforest as we descended into the Mooney Mooney Creek valley. Eventually we got to cross the wide and rocky Mooney Mooney Creek. I had been looking forward to this section as I remembered how pretty it was from when I covered it with Susannah last year. I ran a fair bit after that and it wasn’t long before we came out on the road, passed under the freeway bridge, passed some bizarre houses and reached the checkpoint. 

I was feeling really positive when we arrived at the checkpoint. I only had one section left to go and I thought I had enough time to do it. I also got to eat salami and happy cow cheese which seemed to go down a treat. I was still not eating or drinking much because it made me feel sick, but this I could keep down. I grabbed another sandwich, reapplied sunscreen and we set off, with the music on.

Section 6 Pacific Highway Bridge to Finish at Patonga Wharf  25.4km

We headed out of the checkpoint feeling pretty confident that we would get to the unmanned water stop before the cut-off. The track followed Mooney Mooney Creek downstream for a while. There were some big boulders and lots of up and down. We crossed  the creek on the suspension bridge which was fun and then started climbing. This is where I really started struggling. I remember feeling like rubbish and being really, really thirsty, but every time I had water it just came back up. Nothing was going in, it was hot and my legs were cactus. I told myself there was only about 20km to go and I had plenty of time, I just had to push through. Tamyka was encouraging and tried to keep me motivated. I think this is when the song “Bloody Mmotherfucking Asshole” came on the ipod and it was certainly fitting. Lines such as:

“And I've been poked & stoked
It's all smoke, there's no more fire
Only desire”

“I will not pretend
I will not put on a smile
I will not say I'm all right for you”

and of course, the repetition of “You bloody motherfucking asshole,” really described how I was feeling. The only thing keeping me going was a desire to get to the beach, hear the bell and get my picture at the finish post.

When the climb was over we were quite exposed. We ran across rock slab with little arrows marking the way. It was really sunny so I was worried that I couldn’t take down salt or water. I had no idea what I needed and what was going to get me to the end. Needless to say, it was a slow section. It was a bit steep after Scopas Peak and I actually had to use my hands to balance on some of the rocks as my knees were aching and not doing their job. Once on the 4wd track, I was moving a bit better. I realised that shuffling wasn’t terribly much worse than walking. Either way I was on my swollen aching feet and if I shuffled, I might be able to get off of them a bit faster. I just kept telling myself I had to get to that water stop and then nothing could stop me finishing.

There was another steep descent to Myron Brook and my knees were useless to me. My abilities on technical trail had seriously diminished at this point. My feet ached and I wanted to cry or yell, but not stop, at least not yet. I had to get to the beach. We started climbing again and I knew that unmanned water stop was at the top. Tamyka was worried we were off the track but it seemed right from what I remembered. I checked my GPS and it looked OK. That was a relief. Finally we got to the top, I did what I had to and we headed off. We left the stop 45mins before cut-off.

In my very exhausted mind I thought I had plenty of time to finish. Tamyka made sure I knew I had to push it to the end. I was feeling pretty low and could only think of the finish. I thought of the beach, the bell ringing, the hugging post, sleep and the sweet, sweet feeling of taking my shoes off and putting my feet up.

Back on the 4WD track I shuffled as much as possible. I apologised to Tamyka a couple of times for having to walk. I think I was monosyllabic at this point. We crossed over more of the rocky slab stuff and then had to hike up a hill, or maybe a mountain, I really wasn’t sure anymore. The views of the landfill sight were not helping me but we plodded along. My feet ached more and more and I became more and more unco on the downhill. Finally I stopped for a minute and sat down to take the load off my feet.  I got a few hundred metres of relief from doing that.

We came across a runner, Ron, going in the other direction because he thought he was lost. Tamyka pointed him in the correct direction and we ran/walked together for a while. Ron seemed really out of it, maybe more out of it than me but he still got a little ahead of us. We were on 4WD track with a gradual climb and I was really struggling, but there was only a few kilometres to go. I had absolutely nothing to give and was in immense pain. My feet and knees ached. I remember Tamyka saying we had about 3kms to go and she called Chris to let him know. She said we would be about 45mins. I processed this in my head. It seemed like an awfully long time. I had a meltdown. Tam said to just let it out so I did. I cried and I complained about how much I hurt. I was crying from complete exhaustion, pain and also a bit from happiness that I was really going to finish this thing. The crying actually took my mind off everything else and I moved a little bit faster.

I didn’t have too many issues with the climb up to the trig point and I enjoyed the view. I remembered this section really well from last year and now I could taste the finish line. We descended down some stairs and dropped Ron as I actually started to move again. Then we were at the bottom and I was completely overwhelmed.  We could see the finish line. Tamyka yelled out “incoming” from the hillside and I cheered. We got down to the boat shed and then the bell started ringing - ringing for me! We ran across the car park at the beach and Tam told a group of bikies that I had just run 175km. They gave me a big cheer and that bell kept on ringing. Then finally we were running across Patonga beach. I did my best to run in the soft sand and crossed the finish line holding Tam’s hand in triumph. I did it, I really did it. I finished the GNW100mile. 

Despite all the pain, I cannot even begin to express how happy I was. This was the most immense feeling of accomplishment and happiness. I was happy for what I achieved, happy that I had the friends and family who supported me to get there and happy that I had found the self-belief at some point to try this. I am so grateful to everyone who helped me, especially Tam and Chris. I really could not have done this on my own.

Glasshouse 100km - Race Report

For me, the Glasshouse ultra series is pretty special. For a start, it is where I started out in ultra running with the 50km at Cook’s Tour in May 2010. More importantly, the event has a real community feel to it and always reminds me of what I loved about this sport in the first place – the simple joy of running. Let’s not forget the delicious food on offer at the checkpoints either! This year, the 100km lived up to all my expectations and a little bit more.

I had one very simple goal and one very big goal going into the event. Firstly, I wanted to run my own race. I wasn’t going to go out hard to keep up with other people or run at someone else’s pace in the dark so that I wouldn’t be alone. The second goal was to finish in 14 – 15 hours but preferably closer to 14. I developed a race plan based on 14 hours and decided, with Tam’s advice, that I wasn’t going to reassess until at least 30km. I really wasn’t sure if I could do 14 hours, but I wanted to give it a go and decided I wouldn’t blow up too much if I got it wrong.

The race started pretty well and I stuck to both my goals. I let my friends run off ahead of me and I settled into a pace that I felt comfortable with. By the time I got through to checkpoint 4, at about 25km, I was pretty much on my target pace. I was having a pretty perfect day with only minor mishaps. I had missed a turn and run a bit extra, but not too far and my checkpoint plan didn’t go so well as I had trouble getting the lid off my bottle a lot. Sweaty hands suck.

I continued running fairly well, but I was having issues with tummy cramps and had to stop a few times. I thought my actual running pace was still pretty good, but I was starting to slow due to the stops. The cramps were also making it difficult to take down any solid food, so I was sticking to a trusty formula of coke and gels, but the yummy food at checkpoints looked oh so tempting. I took a longer break at checkpoint 5 to use the porta-loo, but after waiting outside for a few minutes, I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to go in there after whoever was in there, because they were taking a bit too long. The bush loo would have to do!

I enjoyed the goat track between checkpoints 5 and 6, but some of the steep uphill seemed to sap my energy. The powerlines were next and I was most excited. I was a little disappointed to find that they were bone dry this year, which meant they were a lot less fun with no scrambling around in the mud. The sun was beating down and it was dry and dusty, which took away some of my joy. I still loved the steep, rutted down hills and with each energy sapping uphill, I reminded myself that there would be a downhill to follow. When the powerlines ended I was out on the road and I ran my way into checkpoint 8.

Lucky for me Libby was at Checkpoint 8 crewing for Nic. She insisted I eat some of his KFC and it actually went down really well. She helped me out filling a second bottle and getting myself organised. I was so glad to see her and get her help because I had started to feel a bit low. Forcing down the solid food helped too. I was much happier as I headed out of checkpoint 8 for the loop.

I had forgotten just what the loop at 8 is like. In my mind, it was the big downhill, flat for 8k then back up the big hill. I somehow blocked out all the other hills in the second half of the loop. I was over half way by that point and as the section was turning out to be a lot slower than I estimated, I knew I wasn’t going to make 14hrs. At the 50ish km mark I had checked my watch and I was pretty close to 7 hours, so that meant I would need to run at the same pace for the next 50km. I really didn’t think I had that in me. I was starting to blow up just a little bit and was already pretty certain I needed to reassess. The miscalculation of the loop’s difficulty confirmed I needed to reassess. Although I was a little disappointed, I was very happy I had given it a go and I didn’t think I would be horrendously off my target either.

After the loop at 8, things went pretty well. The run out to checkpoint 7 and the loop at 7 were quite easy and I welcomed the fire trail. I was ok with boring if it meant I could move at some speed. I decided to not pick up my spare headlamp at 7 but wait until I got to my ay-ups in my drop bag at 6 as I thought I had enough time, and I didn’t want to have to fiddle around with headlamps twice. I got a little nervous towards the end of that leg though, as it was meant to be 7.5km and my watch was showing 8km and I still couldn’t see the checkpoint. I knew I was on the course because there was plenty of flagging tape, but was it possible I somehow missed the checkpoint? I needed to get to that checkpoint for my headlamp! Just when I was getting really worried, the checkpoint finally came into site. I picked up my trusty ay-ups and helped a lady out who was crewing for her husband. I hope the Emodium helped him! I wonder if he was the one in the porta-loo earlier. Eww.

As the sun started to set, I headed into the goat track towards checkpoint 5. I couldn’t believe how much more of the course I got to cover in day light this year than back in 2010. It was nice to actually do some of the goat track without the aid of the headlamp. I had a great time going through there and without the time concern, I didn’t mind the uphills either.

As I came out onto the road heading to checkpoint 5, it started to occur to me that I was completely alone in the dark. I hate the dark. I am scared of the dark. I started to panic. I convinced myself I was lost if I couldn’t see any flagging tape. I started to consider waiting for someone but as soon as that thought entered my mind, I reminded myself that I was 28years old and it is a bit pathetic to be afraid of the dark. I continued on, still a little panicked, but also determined.

As I left checkpoint 5, I remembered last year where I had given Chris what I thought was encouragement, with the advice that it was all downhill or flat from here. Woohoo! I took off with a spring in my step. I was going to make 14:45 I thought – fantastic! As I came past the point where my crew and Tamyka had met me in 2010, I remembered how I had yelled out to them “woohooo I am going to finish” and I felt that same sense of exhilaration this time around.

I continued by myself in the dark and was surprised to come across Bec with about 6km to go. I said a quick hello and continued on my way, determined not to seek out company in the dark. It was with great joy that I turned onto the track along the road headed back to the school. It was almost over! I said hello to all the 100mile runners who passed me leaving the school and thought to myself that I was glad I didn’t have to head back out from the school myself. Finally I got to the school and ran over the finish line – exhausted and amazed. I had finished in 14:35, 52 minutes better than my last attempt! It had been such an awesome day, with awesome people and a great event.

 

 

Running in Circles

When I tell people outside of running that I run ultra marathons, they seem to think it is pretty crazy. Well lately, I have been backing up this little piece of information with the very important statement that there are people who do much crazier runs than me and I go on to describe my crazy running friends who run around tracks for hours on end, anywhere from 6 hours to 48 hours.  To me, endurance track racing is something else altogether and something I still don’t know if I ever want to try. The last 6 or so weeks has started to change my mind though. I have started to wonder if one day, my body might be able to take that.

A week after Trailwalker, Tamyka and I flew to Sydney so she could go run around a track for 24 hours. My job was to sit trackside and provide her with food, clothing and the odd piece of advice. I also offered to mix things up by putting out some hurdles, but nobody seemed too keen on this. Tamyka stopped running in circles after 10 hours because her asthma has gotten really bad. I felt like I had let her down a bit as crew. Sure, I don’t think I should be able to come up with the cure for asthma, but I didn’t really do much to earn all the lovely Lululemon she gave me as a thank you, or even enough to cover my air fairs and accommodation.

It was a good thing then when Tam decided to enter Caboolture. This time though, she decided 48 hours was the way to go - crazy. So I sat trackside for both days and a bit of each night and earnt my new lululemon wardrobe from our last adventure. I had a team of crew this time. I had the whole thing worked out (except the coffee making). I could find any item of clothing or food within on lap and I even managed some descent lap counting.

Track racing intigues me. After a while, people develop a lean. It wasn’t so bad at Caboolutre, because they change direction every hour, and the track isn’t a perfect oval. Apparently it even has a hill, according to participants, although I never figured out what section of the track they were talking about. I am sure if I had to run around that track for more than an hour, I would have felt that hill too. What I like most about track racing is the added variable of laps. You don’t just think in mins/km or km/h, you also think in mins/lap. You count the laps and the kilometres. There are more numbers and more numbers to click on by. I also like the idea of having crew every lap, and a flushing toilet and a McDonalds just up the road. Track racing may have it all.

Still though, I will need to toughen up. I will need to work on my running gait. I wouldn’t even attempt a track race until my legs stop aching after road running. I tore my calf muscle running a half marathon so who knows what I could manage when running in circles. Track running certainly requires a tough body and mind.

Tamyka is made of pretty tough stuff. I already knew that so I wasn’t at all surprised. She did it, one foot in front of the other for 48 hours. She barely slept. She barely complained. She just plodded on and clocked up over 270km. That is like running from Brisbane to Yamba but only having 500m of scenery to keep your mind occupied. She ran further than any other woman at the Hysterical Village and became the National 48 Hour Champion. Everyone out there was tough and strong. I think that is what I liked most about the race – the people and the community. We are a bit spesh...

Oxfam Trailwalker - Race Report

After a very early start to the day, and a long, windy bus trip, we arrived at the start line. Tam had a puke (motion sickness), Mallani went missing and I ran out of time to repack my bag but somehow we were ready to start at 7am, although we only had about 5 seconds to spare.

We enjoyed the first 10km or so which was mostly downhill. Running in the bush with three of your girlfriends and lots of yummy food is an enjoyable experience, especially before the going gets tough. Unfortunately things turned tough as we hit our first significant climb for the day. Firstly, we were being tormented by constant sledging from the captain of Fed Express! Sara was also having difficulty with her energy levels and was almost falling asleep on her feet. We had covered the downhill in such good time though, and got through the checkpoint so quickly, that we were still on pace.

From checkpoint 1 we again got to head downhill and managed to run at a descent pace. The uphill for the last 5k of this section again zapped Sara’s energy. She looked very ill and pale and we were getting a bit concerned for her as she had only recently recovered from being sick. Mallani was very encouraging and we decided it was a good idea for Sara to push through to Lake Manchester (CP3) and decide what she wanted to do there.

It turned out a peanut butter sandwich at CP2 was what was required and Sara powered through after CP2. We left that mean Fed Express team behind and took off. By the times we hit the hills at Lake Manchester we were doing well and weren’t too far off our goal time. The hills were a struggle but we pushed through and were very happy to see Chris and all our yummy food at Lake Manchester. We took a longer break than planned so everybody could fuel up and grab their warm gear. It was going to be a long time before we got to see our crew again.

We headed out of Lake Manchester in high spirits. We were 44km in and still well on target for a sub 20 hr finish. Although we had set a stretch target of 18hours, we had initially set the goal of sub 20 and we were happy to be on course for that. The hills were still a bit of a struggle but we made good time on the flats and downhills and managed to complete this section of the course on goal pace.

Scrub Rd (CP4) was fantastic. We danced to some music, discovered we were the 5^th women’s team through and also spotted two of the teams ahead of us still at the checkpoint. We headed out just behind them and then swapped positions several times through the next section. We had times where we struggled – Sara’s ITB was hurting, there was a bit of climbing and a bit of technical and muddy stuff. We also did really well in some sections. In particular, we were amazed by how awesome Sara was on the technical downhill. No longer a girl who got a little nervous on this terrain, Sara was showing the other teams how it is done. Doing well here got us in front of those two women’s teams. Sara still didn’t seem to keen when we suggested a detour via Township Break though!

We were in pretty good spirits when we came into Bellbird Grove (CP5), especially Sara who was hanging out for an Emu Hug. We all filled our tummies with yummy chicken soup that Chris has made for us and then we were off, keen to chase down a team of girls in tutus who weren’t far ahead according to our super crew.

We had underestimated the difficulty of section 6 as there was a lot of up and a lot of technical. We pushed through it though and were happy to come out on Centre Road where we knew the going would be easier. Sara put on her iPod for some extra motivation and was suddenly powering up and down the hills, the rest of us struggling to keep up. We spotted the tutu girls ahead and managed to pass them. Things were looking great as we approached Curra-Mulling Park (CP6). Sara was full of energy, we were coming second and we had even shocked our crew with how fast we were on the section. I had some pretty bad chafing and a blister covering about one third of the sole of my foot and Tam was coughing and losing her voice, but the Full Moon Trail Goddesses don’t let things like this bother them.

The final section of Trailwalker is a bit mean with two ascents of Mt Coot-tha. Sara was struggling to run on her ITB but walking was making my feet cramp and hurting Tam’s ITB so the solution was that Tam and I ran ahead and then waited. We never got too far in front and the solution worked well. I was also able to stop and massage my foot that was niggling which relieved the pain. For our second climb of Coot-tha, Mallani and I pushed Sara up the hill to help her along and to push for a sub 20hr finish. We then ran all the way down Summit Track for a 19:45 finish. The Full Moon Trail Goddesses were the second women’s team and the twelfth team overall – an awesome achievement!

It’s about perspective

I really hate when I am feeling down and people tell me to change my perspective or give me examples of how I could be worse off. Generally it is not what I need to hear. It is apparently what I need though. I mean, I probably want to figure it out on my own rather than listen to some positive thinking guru with nothing going wrong in their own life, but still, I do need to change my perspective. I’m trying.

There actually is more to life than running and I do know that, but when I can’t run, it seems like the world is crashing down around me. I feel ripped off and that I am being punished. I feel angry and snappy. I decided last week it was time to get over myself. Yes I can’t run, yes my foot still hurts, yes I had to miss a race, but hey I have a bike. On the weekend I even had a friend to go on a cycling adventure with and guess what, it wasn’t so bad to miss Glasshouse. Sometimes I am a bit of a wanker.

Gutted

I would like to be positive. I would like to look at the good points. I would like to laugh it off as shit luck and just move on. I am going to stomp and scream and have a general tantrum though. Why? Because it isn't fair. It really isn't fair. I have been a runner only in theory recently. Firstly I got really busy. Every night after work I ended up with other commitments that I just couldn't get out of. Then I got sick. Then my foot started to hurt. Now my foot hasn't stopped hurting. So it has been over a month with basically no running. I could deal with the bad training though. I could get past that and just smash out two week of really good training and be back on track. What I can't handle is the foot injury. Nothing is confirmed yet, but it has been hurting for over a week and it is a fairly similar pain to the stress fracture I had last year. My podiatrist has told me to come back in so he can reassess. I have a sinking feeling that I will be in a moon boot in a couple of weeks and you know what, it isn't fair. I worked my ass off in the last 12 months to avoid these kind of injuries. I dropped my weekly mileage a lot and worked on making myself stronger through lots of cross training and running drills. I regularly visit my podiatrist just to check everything is going well and my shoes are still suitable for me. I never run on niggles or pain. Despite that, I'm back here again. It seems I will never make progress. I will never be a good runner. And yes I am whinging and complaining and being a big sook, but I don't care. I am gutted.

Alpine Race Report Part 4: The End

I walked slowly out of Langford Gap as Tamyka struggled with a bag malfunction. I was getting far too cold standing still, so I decided to walk very slowly and let her catch up to me. While we had been at Langford Gap, the very familiar walkers, Cassie and Lee, had overtaken us again. I think it was around this point that I decided it was very important that we beat them. With Tamyka back with me, I passed the time by discussing how we could not be beaten by walkers. Although Cassie and Lee were lovely, they were walking and we were meant to be running. My bad tummy, twisted ankle and ITBS were not going to cause me to be beaten by walkers, surely. Upon deciding this, we decided to refer to them as our new ‘arch nemeses’, a flashback to The Kokoda Challenge in 2009.

Unfortunately, from Langford Gap to Cope Hut, we weren’t doing too well at achieving our goal to beat the walkers. We again swapped positions with them several times. Every time we stopped they would power on past us, successful with their consistent pace. We would then pull ourselves together a bit later and run past them. Then the weather would call for us to add an extra layer of clothing or there was a need for a nature break, and we would stop and fall behind again. Although the first few kilometres from LG were quite runnable, we still didn’t move too fast due to Tamyka’s bad tummy and out constant breaks.

Not long after Cope Hut we crossed a road with our arch nemesis and then followed a new track not far from the pole line. Although the map indicated we should be right on the pole line, but we decided to take the new track because it was nicer and we could still see the poles as well as the lights from Cassie and Lee’s headlamps. The two tracks soon merged and we were just a little bit ahead of the walkers.

Eventually we reached the SEC hut and turned right to follow a smaller pole line. We could see a blue light flashing very far off in the distance and figured this could be Paul, the RD, at pole 333. The track was wet and the water was freezing, so it was not a nice feeling when my feet went in puddles. Despite wearing 5 layers including thermals, I was freezing cold. To make matters worse, this section was extremely foggy so we couldn’t see the poles. We would stand at each pole and pear into the fog with the light of our ay-ups and eventually locate the next pole. On a positive note though, the activity of identifying the location of each pole kept us awake. When that didn’t work, one of us would yell out “wake up!”

Eventually we reached that flashing blue light at Pole 333. We spoke to Paul who was inside his tiny hiking tent, hiding from the wind and cold. Tamyka stopped to change the batteries on her GPS and I just moved around to try and keep warm.

From Pole 333 we headed off to Tawonga Hut which was only another 2.5km. Matt had hiked in to meet Tamyka at the hut so she was pretty excited to be stopping there soon. Although I would have liked to go straight through without stopping as we were now on the home stretch, I knew the break would help Tam. We even managed to run a bit of the track here.

We sat inside the hut where it was quite warm and drank tea. I tried hard to stay awake. By this point I was well and truly doing battle with the sleep monsters. This is the first time this has happened to me in a race, as my heart rate is usually high enough to keep the sleepiness away. I shoved down a few gels that contained caffeine and drank some coke but not much was helping.
My sleepiness decreased a little bit when we got moving again, but Tamyka did have to yell out “Wake up!’ a fair bit. There was only 21km of the course left and I was excited that it would be over soon. I told myself it wasn’t too much longer I had to stay awake for, and there would be a warm bed at the end of it. In fact, I think the lure of a warm bed is the only thing that stopped me from curling up in my emergency bivvy on the side of the track and sleeping. I started to appreciate the sudden shock of cold when I ran through a puddle because it woke me up and also numbed the pain from the massive blister forming on the bottom of my foot.

My memory of this section is quite hazy, probably because I did it half asleep. I think this is the first race I have done where I actually had a full appreciation of the term ‘zombie runner’. I mostly remember being very cold and having to stop a fair bit. I think we passed Cassie and Lee fairly early on and actually managed to do a bit of running.

I remember being quite excited when we reached Bogong Jack Saddle because it was a big landmark and indicated it really wasn’t long to go. By this point the battery on my Garmin was dead, so this was the only indication I had of how much further we had to go. This landmark also indicated that we only had downhill to go.

We stumbled along through the dark, sometimes running, sometimes chatting to keep ourselves awake and pass the time and sometimes to ponder upon the question of how much of a lead we had on our arch nemesis. Tamyka was still struggling. To add to her misery, she banged her toes quite a few times on rocks when we were running. I tried to encourage her to run (so I could get to a warm shower and bed faster) but I also knew there wasn’t much point. Tam is a tough runner who will push herself as far as she can.

Finally we reached the road leading us back into Bogong Village. I think I was far too tired to even cheer at this point. We managed to run the last kilometre or so to the finish line. To top off such a bad race, there was nobody at the finish line, not even a race official! There was a clock though, telling us we had finished in 24hours and 47minutes.

I really wish I wasn’t disappointed by the result. Given everything that went wrong and the fact I decided to keep Tam company, I know I should be happy with only being 47minutes behind my goal time. Moreover, my goal a few months ago was just to finish under cutoff, which I think was about 34 hours. I sound like a brat whinging about it, but I trained really hard and I know I could have done better.

I have been over everything I did before the race and I don’t know why I got sick. I didn’t do anything different to normal and I ate the same food as everyone else. The night after the race I woke up with night sweats and I had blocked sinuses and a sore throat. This makes me think that I actually just got a bug, a very poorly timed bug.

I think I will do it again. Maybe I will do the 100mile next time. I’ll dress warmer and carry more gels rather than solid food. I won’t be worried about navigation next time, or the dark. I’ll just be worried about getting sick.

Alpine Race Report Part 3: Warby Corner - Mt Bogong - Langford Gap

I was in and out of Warby Corner quite quickly, mostly because I wanted to get to the toilet at Roper’s Hut as soon as possible. Unfortunately there are not many places to discretely go to the bathroom on the high plains, and my tummy was quite upset. As I was coming into Roper’s there was just no way to hold on any longer and I took a quick detour off the track and tried to hide behind some big rocks. Unfortunately, this didn’t make my tummy any better.

As I passed Ropers Hut I wasn’t quite sure where the path started and with two walkers only about 100m behind me, I just waited to see where they went. A quick chat to Lee and Cassie, the walkers I would get to see a lot of over the race, and I was off on the right track. I headed down Duane Spur towards Big River. As I descended I started to worry that I was lost. I hadn’t seen anyone since leaving Cassie and Lee but I reassured myself there hadn’t been any junctions and a quick look at the map indicated there wasn’t anywhere I could have gone off course.

My tummy was also giving me all sorts of problems. The cramping was very painful and running just seemed to jiggle my already angry tummy around more. Hoping that Cassie and Lee were a fair bit behind me, I ran off into the bushes. This time my tummy came good for a bit and I was able to start moving a bit faster. Problem is, Duane Spur is not the most runnable downhill. It is steep and slippery and I stumbled quite a few times. I also started to worry again that I was lost. My Garmin told me that I had travelled further than 6km since Warby Corner, yet the race notes said it was only 6km to Big River. I pulled out my GPS and checked my location, then cross checked on the map. Yep, I had wasted a few minutes just to confirm I was on track.

After a twisted ankle and subsequent face plant right near the bottom of Duane spur, I finally came to Big River. The water was rushing through and clearly quite deep. I naively pushed right through, grabbing the chain as I went in. The water was freezing and I realised I needed to get across quickly or I would end up with hypothermia. Unfortunately, the raging river was making it difficult for me to move forward or backward. As I tried to move forward I was being pushed down stream by the torrent of water. I inched along, fear building up in my chest. Then I reached a rather large rock and had no idea what to do. Going around seemed impossible, but I wasn’t sure my legs were long enough for me to go over. I stood in the freezing water, weighing up my options and finally opted for over. I was very relieved when I made it and I continued a little faster to the other side.

Coming out of the river, my legs were frozen. When I touched the bare skin between my compression socks and shorts, I couldn’t feel the touch. My teeth were chattering and I was struggling to warm up. On the plus side, I could no longer feel the pain in my ankle from my earlier stumble. I started to run the steep uphill in the hope that I would warm up. Luckily it worked, but running up T-spur is really not realistic and soon I had slowed to a walk. I was still a bit cold, but I didn’t want to get my thermals out when I knew my body temperature was only going to increase.

As I continued climbing up T-Spur I confirmed that the climb was just as sharp and painful as I remembered. I didn’t have to stop several times like I did when I hiked it though. Tamyka would have been proud. My tummy was mostly ok at this time, which I judged by the fact that I didn’t need to run off into the bushes on the hike up to Cleve Cole Hut. I did not feel like eating any of the food I had packed though. I couldn’t stomach anything solid as it pushed down on my upset bowel, but I had been through most the gels that I considered to be palatable. Something I have learnt for next time is always carry enough citrus Cliff Shots and tropical Hammer Gels to get me through the entire race if necessary. I was a little grumpy to be hiking up such a steep climb with food that I no longer had any intention of eating weighing me down.

Just before Cleve Cole hut I stopped at Camp Creek to fill my drink bottle. Cassie and Lee weren’t far behind and they stopped too. They were becoming familiar faces. We had a chat and then I was off. It wasn’t long before I reached the hut and I was most excited to find a much gentler climb the rest of the way to Bogong Summit. I still couldn’t move too fast because it upset my tummy. Finally I reached the summit and loudly unannounced to the race official that I had never been so happy to see a summit cairn in all my life. I proceeded to take some bad photos and text my super crew, Poh, to let her know where I was. At this point I was exactly on my target time for reaching the summit, but I hadn’t consumed enough calories and my tummy was still cramping, so I knew things were probably going to go pear shaped.

Unfortunately, things went pair shaped a little earlier than I expected. As I started to head downhill my left ITB gave me that nice sharp pain in my knee. It wasn’t too bad yet, but I thought it would only get worse going down hill, so I stopped quickly to dig through my bag for my ITB strap. Of course it was at the bottom because pre-race I’d had the silly thought that I wouldn’t be needing it. While I was stopped I popped two panadols too and wondered about some immodium, but I figured it was better out than in! Cassie and Lee passed me once again while I was stopped and they very kindly checked to see if I was ok. I think I mumbled something about my ITB and told them not to worry.

Finally I set off again. It was quite good having Cassie and Lee in front of me as it was obvious where to go, and this was the part of the course I was quite worried about. I eventually caught up to them and walked with them for a little bit. Again this section was downhill, but a bit gnarly and not too runnable. Eventually I set off on my own again and only went off course twice. These were very minor detours and I found the path again very quickly. Nearing the bottom of Quartz Ridge, I heard Tamyka’s voice! She had caught up to me but was still very ill. We shared our miserable stories with each other and set off together, Tamyka still hopeful to finish the 100mile, and me just happy to finish the 100km.

It was nice to have Tam to walk/shuffle and chat with and I started to forget about my tummy. We crossed Big River and reminisced about the last time we had walked up Big River Fire Trail. Just like that time, we winged about the hair pins and nervously watched some ominous clouds closing in. We decided it was best to put our rain jackets on but thankfully the rain stayed away and we just appreciated the extra warmth provided by our jackets. Once things flattened out a bit we attempted to run the last few kilometres back to Warby Corner. This upset our tummies but we tried to push through and take minimal walk breaks. Finally we arrived at Warby Corner and Tamyka took a quick break to call Matt and let him know how we were travelling and how long we would be. I mostly tried to keep warm and stuff down some calories while I was standing still. Eating was much easier when stationary.

We then headed off to Langford Gap. This was probably the most runnable section of the course, but both Tamyka and I were still doing battle with our tummies so we weren’t able to fully appreciate this. Tamyka was a lot worse than me and had consumed far fewer calories too. When her tummy couldn’t handle shuffling we walked. During this section we were passed by Cassie and Lee during a toilet break. During this break, Tamyka had managed to get burrs stuck all over the ass of her tights and I had to pick them off. Our friendship truly reached new heights during this race. With that incident out of the way we started to shuffle along a little bit again and once again swapped positions with Cassie and Lee.

We were quite relieved to come into Langford Gap because this meant hot tea and soup! We had now covered about 62km of the course and Tam now had to make the decision on whether to continue in the hundred mile race, or drop down to the hundred km. Although I thought it was a bad idea for her to wonder off by herself towards Mount Hotham in the dark, I didn’t want to push her either way. I thought she was too sick and sleepy for this to be safe. It seems she came to the same conclusion too and opted for the shorter course. I know she was really upset to not complete the 100mile and I understand that disappointment, but also think what she achieved was pretty amazing given the circumstances.

We were stopped at Langford Gap for quite a while and in that time I started to get very cold and my feet were cramping. On the positive side though, I managed to take down a lot of food and finally decided it was time to take the emodium. I was starting to feel better but also decided to stick with Tam. I figured it was a safer option, nice to have company and it also meant I didn’t have to worry about navigation. I had already decided to stop worrying about my sub 24 hour goal, so I was happy to go at whatever pace Tamyka could manage.

Alpine Race Report Part 2: Up to Warby Corner

Race day started at about 3:15 in the morning. Our little cabin was full of activity and nerves as we all rushed around getting ready. Todd and I were ready to walk to the start line around 4:10, but Tamyka still seemed to be getting ready. I knew something was wrong but didn’t want to bother her when she looked stressed. Todd and I headed up and hoped to see Tamyka soon. Luckily, she knew what she was doing, because signing in took all of 30 seconds, and she was there with plenty of time to spare.

The race started out the front of Bogong Jack pub in Bogong Village and we headed up the road briefly before joining the Magazine Cable Track. I started with Tamyka but she was struggling with an upset tummy and soon it was just Todd and I together. Not long after we came to Spion Kopje fire trail, I let Todd run off in front of me and I was just surrounded by people I didn’t know, but happy to not be alone. Everyone seemed to be in teams and it was pretty easy just to follow them.

The Rocky Valley Creek Ford arrived in no time. This has been greatly improved since the last time I did it, when I ended up with water up to my thighs and struggled to find any stable ground on the rocky, uneven and slippery surface. I grabbed the chain and charged through the water, across in no time. Then it was up Spion Kopje for quite a few kilometres. It was in that time that my tummy started to cramp. It wasn’t too bad just yet, but I knew it was probably going to get worse.

Spion Kopje was not as bad as I remembered. Although it was a long climb, it certainly wasn’t as steep as it seemed in 2009. It is amazing how some fitness changes your perspective on what is steep. I think the other big difference was that the trail wasn’t blocked by massive trees that had fallen down in storms. During our hike, Tamyka and I had to throw our packs over these huge trees and then crawl or climb over ourselves. The tree fall this time was not such a hindrance as the trees were quite small.

Finally, after gaining about 1000m in elevation, the climb up Spion kopje was over. The trail was just a little bit runable now and I started to move quicker. I even passed a couple of people. Running along the aqueduct I easily located the crossing and was then off to Warby Corner.

Alpine Race Report Part 1: The Beginning

It started with a text message. My friend Tamyka suggested I enter the 100km at the Alpine Challenge. At the time I laughed (or LOL’d) this off as a rather ridiculous idea. I had hiked about 50km of the course with Tamyka back in 2009 and could still remember the agony of hiking up T-Spur to summit Mount Bogong, and the bewilderment I had at the idea that she was planning to run the course. Thinking of that, I was certain there was no way I could run that course, and then there was the navigation to worry about too.

　
I am always a little taken in by Tamyka’s ideas though. In some way, I think she is better at gauging my abilities than I am and the more we trained together, the more the idea started to resonate with me. After a while, I knew I had to do it. I had no idea if I could finish, or even find my way, but I just had to try. I consider this to be the toughest 100km trail run in Australia and that is something I couldn’t miss out on having a go at.

My proper training started around December, when I finally committed to signing up. Having spent the end of 2010 and the first half of 2011 sidelined with injuries, I put a lot of thought into how to train for this event. It is quite apparent that my body can’t handle high mileage training and I only had to look at my record of overuse injuries to see that. So my Alpine training plan involved a lot of cross training. I also tried to avoid consecutive running days for the first couple of months. A normal week looked like this: run 20-70km, swim 2-3km, ride 70-100km and throw in some weights training.

I am proud to say that I didn’t get injured. In fact, I haven’t had an injury since I came out of that horrid moon boot back in April last year. I experienced minor niggles about 3 times and on each occasion identified the cause, rested and was niggle free within a couple of days. This is quite possibly my biggest running achievement to date.

By the end of February I was pretty exhausted from training. Although my mileage was low, I still found myself extremely busy. I all but gave up my free time and social life for training. I have no idea how people manage 100km plus weeks. Finally March arrived which meant tapering! I was very happy to give my exhausted self a rest.

Unfortunately, tapering is when the panic starts. With a bit of free time, I found I actually had time to think of the challenge ahead. Although the physical challenge was daunting – 100km with over 4000m of ascent – that isn’t what really worried me. I was fitter and stronger than ever and I had something far scarier to worry about – navigation!

This is not a marked course. There was no flagging tape in trees, no signs at junctions and sometimes, the trails become quite indistinct. I can read a map and use a compass. I found my way around the Canadian Rockies just fine, and the one time that I did get lost, I managed to use the contour lines and some landmarks on the map to figure out where I was and scramble back to safety. Feeling confident in those skills would be rational however, and all I could think about was when I had hiked the area 2 years earlier with no map reading or navigation experience to speak of. Back then I had to rely entirely on Tamyka. Even worse, I remembered coming down Quartz Ridge and losing the path several times because it was indistinct and overgrown.

In the spare time I had between packing and coming up with a race plan, I studied the map. This only made me panic more. On top of this, there was talk of a course change due to all the rain, so I was absolutely convinced I was going to get lost. Most likely this would happen in the dark. I am afraid of the dark. By race week I was feeling ill with worry. I somehow managed to stuff a suitcase full of all the gear I would need, plus some I didn’t, get on a plane and eventually end up in Bogong village.

Nervous much...

So it has been a while since I wrote anything. I have a good excuse for once though – I have been busy training. Now it is just 5 sleeps to go until Alpine Challenge 100km and although I know I am the fittest and strongest I have ever been, I remain very, very nervous. Although I know the physical challenge will be the toughest I have ever faced, that is not what scares me this time. I am worried about getting lost and about the feeling of complete isolation as I run alone for hours and hours in unknown surrounds. That is half the reason I signed up though, so I am just gonna suck it up and go with it.

This is the hardest I have ever trained for a race. By the time I started my taper, I honestly felt that I could not manage one more week of training because I was so tired. I have only been running about 60km a week, but that is actually a lot for me as I have always battled overuse injuries when I have done anything more than 50km. I have also thrown in about 80km on the bike each week and 3km of swimming, plus some weights sessions.

There have been some fantastic runs in that training. Almost every week, I went out for a night run with Tam and/or Todd for 2 – 3 hours at Coot-tha. We ran when it was pouring rain and got to see a very impassable Simpson’s Falls, as well as wade through creeks. We saw rocket frogs (these things are cool – google em) and a tiny little possum (sorry they are still cute even if they are pests).

I have also been making it out most weeks for the moon light run with the girls. These are great social runs. If you live in the Brisbane area and want to go for a mid week night time run, are a lady and don’t like to run up hills (who does), let me know and I will bring you along.

There has also been a start on the Trail Walker training. Our whole team got together and did a fantastic 35km(ish) loop in BFP back in Jan. Mallani took us down and up Township Break which is rather steep. I stood at the top of one hill and said to Tam, "I just can’t see a safe line to take. Oh well, stuff it, I’m just gonna go and hope for the best". Then off I went, fast, tiny steps and all. In no time I had lost control and was hurtling down the hill at about 20km/h, arms and legs flying everywhere. How I managed to stay upright, I don’t know. Libby was very upset with me for this performance. I hope she forgives me someday.

Finally, there has been the long weekend runs. My favourite was a 50km run I did with Tam. I started at Chapel Hill and ran up to Channel 9 at Mt Coot-tha via the Kokoda trail where I met Tam at the top of Powerful Owl. We then ran out to Mt Nebo. The weather had been horrible in the few days before our run and it was forecast to continue that day. We were lucky though, making it almost all the way to Mt Nebo without getting wet. The rain started as we ran the last little bit through the rainforest up to the café. As we sat eating our lunch at the café, I noticed a leach on Tamyka’s hand. Then we noticed a whole lot of leaches all over our shoes and legs. Needless to say, squealing ensued and the mountain bikers and motor cyclists had quite a laugh at us. I don’t care, leaches are disgusting. We then ran all the way back to Mt coot-tha. I left Tam at the top of Quail Trail and headed down to Gap Creek Reserve and then into Chapel Hill, while she still had to go up Highwood Rd and then down Powerful Owl.

All up, this has been a fantastic 3 or so months of training, but I am also excited at the prospect of having some spare me again! During my taper I have actually managed to sleep in twice and cross quite a few items off my To Do List (which is 3 A4 pages long).

Yesterday I worked out my race plan. It seems a little pointless when the course is likely to be changed due to flooding, but all the same, it gives me peace of mind to know I have something. Now all that is left is familiarising myself with the map a bit more and packing. Oh and pre-race dinner where I plan to consume all the calories that I will burn the following day. So… five more sleeps and off I go into the wilderness. Oh dear.

I Would Rather Be Running

There is really nothing to like about waking up at 3:30am, driving to Robina, waiting around for 3 hours and then diving into murky canal waters. So it is really no suprise that I hated race 4 of the Gatorade Tri series. Still, I was a little shocked by just how miserable I was, especially after the swim leg. Even more suprising that I kind of want to do another one, despite saying "I am never doing this again" as I crossed the finish line. Here is my report on my first sprint distance triathlon (750/20/5).

Race day did not start too well. After racking my bike I went to put my wonderful Garmin 310XT on, only to have the band break. I didn't even have a spare waterproof watch so I could at least see my splits and have some idea of how I was going. To make the wait even more pleasant, the weather was miserable leaving me cold and soaking wet. My wave started second last, so the elites had actually finished before my feet even touched the water.

Swimming in a canal is most unpleasant. I usually swim at Ithaca or Bellbowrie pool, where I generally share my lane with one other person and swim in peace with good visibility. Today's swim was very different. For a start, the water was very murky so I could not see where I was going at all. I would swim a little bit of freestyle, look up and discover I was heading off course and realign myself, then the whole thing would happen again. This was one of the many reasons I just gave up and swam breaststroke. I positioned myself at the back of the pack at the start because I know I am a weak swimmer. I at least didn't have to battle with other swimmers for the first few hundred metres. I did have to do battle with seaweed and reeds however and I got myself tangled a few times. Then some people in the wave behind me caught up and I was getting hit and spashed. Then the girls in my wave who were still around me seemed to become quite aggressive. I think they all had a sudden panic that they didn't want to come last, and they didn't care who they hit or kicked on that mission. I had a few good wacks to my head and one in the ribs, making me very cranky. I thought I must have been dead last as I came out of the water, but race results indicate I was ahead of four other competitors in my category.

My transition went much better than in my first triathlon attempt. I had no trouble locating my bike this time and didn't waste time with socks. I was quickly out on the road on the bike. I was very excited to overtake those girls who got aggressive on the swim leg. I overtook a few people on the first lap but then I think I stayed in the same position until the end. The roads were wet so I took it very easy on the turns but some people didn't. There were quite a few crashes and stacks.

I was in and out of transition very quickly again. I didn't feel as stuffed on the run as I did last time, and I had swum and rode a lot further this time, so I think that the brick training helped, and I don't think I went out quite so hard. Again I overtook a couple of people at the start but then stayed in the same position for quite a while. The only wave behind mine was the team wave so sometimes it was hard to know who was in my wave and who wasn't. I assumed the runners who looked really fresh were in the teams so i was ok with them overtaking me. For the first lap of the run I was sitting about 50m behind a girl and I just couldn't close that gap. On the second lap she stopped for a water and I put my foot down, passing up the offer of a cup of water and moving past her (really who needs water with 2km left). I stayed in that position to the end and even managed to sprint over the finish line.

It was really just the swim leg that I hated, but I wouldn't say I really enjoyed the rest either. Still, I am interested to see if I can do better so maybe I will do another one. Maybe. I would rather run 100km though. At least the other runners are nice to me, and being slow over a really long distance is kinda ok. Also, I still find the term 'sprint' rather offensive. The only bit I sprinted was the last 100m or so.