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.