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.