Racing
My first backyard ultra was Birdy’s backyard in August 2020 where I made the fatal mistake of setting a target, which I reached, and then stopping feeling fresh as a daisy. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/08/16/most-fun-you-will-ever-have-in-running-gear/ and the 2021 version https://www.runbkrun.com/2021/08/30/birdys-backyard-ultra-wow-just-wow/ ) The following year in March 2021 I took on the sister event, Herdy’s frontyard ultra , and surpassed myself , and everybody else , by staggering to an Australian record , at the time, assist for 47 laps helping Phil Gore to his first (of many) two hundred mile, 48 hour effort.
The video of this is available on YouTube if you’re interested, it’s done very well. https://youtu.be/-7xPfpxquOA
For the 2021 event I was as fit as a butchers dog (I’ve never understood that analogy ; surely a butchers dog would be fat not fit? ) because I had been training for Delirious West 200 miler ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) and it had got cancelled at the very last minute to a mini-COVID outbreak. Looking at the video I certainly gave it my all albeit it would have been nice to get one more lap but at the time I had no idea what day of the week it was.
Since then I have ran another six backyard ultras all over 24 hours including another assist to Phil Gore in November 2021 at the inaugural Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra in South Australia and a win at the inaugural No Time to Die Front yard Ultra, in Adelaide last year. This format , although brutal, seems to suit me and allows me to be competitive. Unfortunately I have not been able to replicate my Herdy’s run of 2021 and get that final lap I need for 48 hours. I maybe should have pushed on at the inaugural Hysterical Carnage event where I tapped out at 38 hours but had my daughter with me and had promised her we’d drive to Adelaide the next morning. This made it very easy to let Phil take another win and for me to sneak off to bed. When you are one on one with Phil Gore you know eventually you have to yield, remember ‘a backyard ultra is a race where everybody runs laps until Phil Gore wins.’
I was confident of a better result in 2022 Herdy’s but the legs just hadn’t recovered from the Delirious West 200 miler five weeks earlier. This time I timed out on lap 34 feeling very average, this was compounded by picking up COVID two days later so I can assume I either had it before the race started or certainly picked it up during the event. This didn’t put me off the backyard ultra format and I ran three more in 2022 for the Ultraseries Grand Slam, Herdy’s, Birdy’s , No Time to Die and Hysterical Carnage. Myself , Jen and Renton finished this but Shaun got bored with the concept so there were no prizes forth coming and the Grand Slam was put into the too hard basket. Pity, I feel it could have been quite a thing over time, similar to the Triple Crown Down under for the 200 milers.
With a World Record field of 300 entrants predicted I got down to the event early on Friday morning to mark my territory with my Gazebo , a rug and Wanderer reclining chair ( a must for a backyard ultra) Rob Collins, my support crew for the event, came along and we were stoked to get prime real estate near the start albeit the grass could have been shorter ? I save some space for Veronika and Chan who would be sharing my gazebo, remember caring is sharing.
As you can see from the image below before long we had a veritable tent city on our hands, it was a pretty special to see how the event had grown and the buzz abut the place was electric. It was even cooler at night with a lot of tents lit up like Christmas trees, it was definitely a mental boost seeing the light at the end of a dark loop around the lake.
Rob was my crew for the event and for a backyard ultra crew is essential because you soon fall apart and all you want to do it lay back in your reclining chair and try and get as much rest as possible between laps. This can then lead to forgetting the basics, hydration and nutrition, forgot to eat and drink and before long your race is over. Rob would be there to remind me to keep my fluids and food intake on point and also help with the demands of keeping a tired ultra runner moving when all you want to do is stop and sneak off to bed. As well as a support crew he also needs to be a motivator and read my mood, he should know when to push and when to back off; when to be firm, when to cuddle. Basically a jack of all trades. It’s a thankless task as the runner gets more tired and grumpy and starts to think about quitting, also as the races progresses ,and lap times grow, the time at the aid station shortens meaning any tasks need to be finished quicker. This is when the crew take over and the runner switches to auto pilot.
I know Phil Gore and his crew have spreadsheets detailing every lap and what activities they need to complete, as well as food and drink details. Phil also has the lap times he should run and that can then dictate his walk/run strategy. He also sleeps for 15-20 minutes in the evening loops and this means putting in quicker laps and probably less food intake at the aid station; his crew need to know this in advance. Slower laps will require the crew to be ready later but have a shorter window of opportunity to accomplish the tasks on the spreadsheet. He also puts a score of how is feeling each lap , a number from 1 to 10 and he uses this to interrogate his performance for the next event. If the score is high (or low?) for a number of laps he can look at the activities and food/drink intake for that period and try to see why this happened ? It may help for the next event.
Personally I spend about $100 at Coles the day of the event on food I never end up eating. It’s so easy to buy food but when you have been running for hours your ability to eat food is compromised and nutrition issues have ruined many an ultra runners dreams. I have always been quite lucky with with food intake but would suffer at Herdy’s this year. It’s no fun when you know you need to eat but can’t , it’s then a downward spiral to DNF. I know that Phil tries to eat normal food rather than rely on supplements like GU’s or energy sachets. For me at Herdy’s I was probably saved by Weetbix and fruit cups.
I ambled back down to the event about 2:30pm, to prepare for the 4pm start. I like the late afternoon start as you get through the first night quickly and the second day can always find a way to get to 24 hours, which is the bare minimum target for me. The place was buzzing with so many newbies walking around wide eyed and wider smiles, everybody was so excited about this event. The event village was huge, double the previous years and then some. As I mentioned earlier it was a World Record field and it showed, Shaun had even put on perfect conditions, winning. The final cherry on the cake , it was St. Patrick’s day so everybody all of a sudden had Irish heritage and there were even a few cans of Guinness floating around. Now I am partial to the odd Guinness but normally after a 200 miler and never before an event, ‘Marky’ Mark Lommers on the other hand loves his alcohol and racing; or crewing. It’s an acquired taste apparently.
So just before four pm Shaun Kaesler, the owner of the Ultra Series group and founder of this event gave us the race briefing. Shaun is perhaps the most passionate man I know and his passion is helping other people achieve their dreams, he lives for the finish lines hugs and after receiving a few over the years they are worth investing in, the perfect compliment to the runners high is to share it. As you can see from the drone footage of the event he had a captive audience and people love his passion for the sport, it is obvious to all who know him and for all to see as the event moves on, the runners may tire but Shaun’s enthusiasm is contagious right up to the final lap, always ending up with a hug from Phil Gore. It’s tradition.
I would assume Marco took this from the step ladder he used to get some start photos. Check out his work at https://www.noeko.film
Right off to the start lap, I managed to get to the front as I’d was worried what 300 runners looked like from the middle or back of the pack. Last year Shaun invited some drummers along so we could perform a sort of Viking clap at the start, so as is now a tradition they returned. We were pressed for time but managed to get a few claps in before we set off dead on four pm. Perfect conditions ensued and we all bolted from the start line more akin to a 5k start than a backyard ultra. There were some fast times on that first lap, I think I finished well under forty minutes and top five, not ideal but you might as well enjoy lap one. You’re then faced with twenty minutes to kill chewing the fat with your fellow competitors until you all start again, and again, and again.. you get the idea.
Again a bit shout out to Marco for the image below. He has the knack of being in the right place at the right time and takes beautiful photos, probably explains why he is a professional. This must have been lap one I reckon when I was just about leading the field, a burst of youthful exuberance. I did make an effort to slow down for the later laps but if you can’t stretch the legs on lap one when can you ?
With the four pm start we had three laps of daylight running before it was time to add a head torch and run in the cocoon of your torch light. With nearly three hundred runners it was pretty cool looking back and seeing the snake of light follow you along the path. Not cool enough to stop and take a photo mind, a rookie error on my part and I haven’t seen any images on the social media pages yet unfortunately. I did get an image of night running in the swamp, the best I could do, I’m certainly no Marco.
I always find the laps between five and fifteen the hardest, you’re not into your routine yet and the distance and time seems to drag while you become fatigued quickly and start to second guess yourself. Once I get over fifteen laps I can start to see my first goal of any backyard ultra, 24 hours/laps or 100 miles. With Herdy’s this means getting through the night first early which I prefer to the earlier start of most backyard ultras. One you see sunrise you’re good for another three to four hours just because the sun is up, this then puts you within five hours of the 100 mile club, simple really. This year was no different and I struggled in the early morning but knew I just had to keep moving forward and get to sunrise. I had a book on audible that didn’t quite grab me so it was back to old faithful, Taylor Swift, to serenade me in those dark morning loops. As always she didn’t let me down and before I knew it the sun had risen and I was reinvigorated, twenty four hours here we come.
Unfortunately my gazebo buddies didn’t fare so well. Veronika got to lap 14 before pulling out while Chan made it lap 13 but didn’t get to the start of the next lap, instead he headed to the toilet, priorities. As you can see they took advantage of the early morning rays and promptly fell asleep but don’t worry I woke then on the hour , every hour ! Veronika has the Marathon Des Sables in April so this was always a training run and Chan had never ran further than a half marathon so set a massive distance and time PB. The backyard ultra format allows you to achieve things you thought impossible and then dream about it afterwards.
As well as being a world record entry I’m pretty sure we had a world record number of runners get to 24 hours. This equates to 100 miles and it a goal for many starters. The distance seems easy enough , given the time, but it’s the format which makes it harder, there is no second chance if you fancy a long break or need a call at nature at an inopportune moment. We had 45 runners make 24 hours. This was my ninth backyard ultra and the ninth time I had made the 24 hour mark, consistent if nothing else ?
Saturday morning and afternoon passed quickly, I was enjoying the heat and cruising along albeit at the back of the pack. Rob was looking after me and as the sun started to dip we got a few laps of awesome light through the trail section of the course. Myself and Adrian (see below) are enjoying the afternoon sun here I’d say on Lap 25 as he failed to make the start for lap 26, missing the corral by a few minutes with Jessica Smith suffering the same fate albeit Jess missed the start by a matter of metres. This format can be cruel and although there are few rules they are enforced.
Do you know the best bit about running any ultra, stopping ! What other hobby has the same main objective, to stop as soon as possible, albeit you have to run a long way to be able to stop so when you do enjoy it ! I also say the best thing about running is the stopping and then ‘experiencing the runners high’ and I don’t mean by finding drugs on the beach; the runners high does exist and the longer you run the higher the high, so to speak. Let’s face it finishing a 5k doesn’t normally change your life, you’re not driven to tears of absolute joy , more often than not its a quick trip to the nearest coffee shop and then on with the daily routine of life. Finishing a backyard ultra you’ve normally run further than you ever thought you would and probably dug deeper into the pain cave and you really should have. Remember the old adage, you want to change your life, run a marathon. You want to talk to God run an ultra, you want God to answer , run a backyard . ! I made that last bit up but it rings true. A backyard ultra lets you have a conversation with God, it is that good. This is why in the image below myself and my co-pilot from Delirious Julie Gibson are so happy, only a runner knows the feeling.
So managed 28 laps in the end, coming in around the 58 minute mark on lap 28 and deciding enough was enough. 15th equal I think, there or there about and great to finish with Julie Gibson after our Delirious adventure earlier in the year; and the 6 inch ultra last December Big shout out to the products that keep me going, namely fisiocrem , humantecar, fractel caps, shokz headphones, T8 shorts, bix hydration , Tribe and Trial and the Running Centre. They all performed brilliantly, as they do every adventure I take them on.
fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.
Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )
T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Honk Kong conditions the owners live in. It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong, storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)
or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/
Delirious West part 3… the final push !
Parrys Beach -> Monkey rocks 17.5km (accumulated 252.1km)
I was awoken by Rob Donkersloot early and forced to leave the comfort of my swag. I was not happy truth be told and stumbled off to the shower block to be told the water was heated by solar panels so hot water at this early time of the day was not going to happen. Great, made do with clean teeth, some deodorant and a visit to the toilet, the simple things in life. Bumped into Alexis Oostenhoff in the toilets who was not overly excited about his 60km of progress so far in his 100 miler event. Not to worry, he perked up and finished with Harmony pacing him home. Alexis is another convert of the Mind Focused Running Group led by Rob ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) , if you are part of this community you normally finish and finish with a smile on your face, albeit you’ll probably be tired !
Mark presented me with some pancakes and bacon but I wasn’t overly excited about the offering. I think I would have been happier with weetbix as my stomach was starting to get over all the sweet offerings. I can’t believe I actually just typed that but I was getting sick of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup. Wow, ultra events do weird things to you ? I have since recovered from this temporary moment of madness.
Parry’s to Monkey Rocks is a wonderful section of the course skirting some beautiful beaches and the day was perfect, albeit a tad warm but that is to be expected. I was rocking the legionnaires Fractel cap ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) which helped keep me cool although black may not have been the best colour for the day. Fractel help me out with headgear and you’ll see from the various images throughout this post they are my go-to headgear.
Last time I ran this section of the event it was dark so it was good to see the beaches in the daylight, it really is a chalk and cheese moment; similar to when I came into Boat Harbour in the dark the previous night. In 2021 this was daylight running and again its like two different events. Due to the length of the race you’ll eventually get some great beach running, pace dictates when that will be.
I went past Simon Poli out of Parry’s but he was able to catch me soon after and then I bumped into Stephen Rowles relaxing in a hut at the top of a seriously nasty climb. Stephen and I share a love for all things Cornish and we were both happy for some great company. Plenty of laughs as we talked about our time in the motherland specifically our time in Penzance, my home town. Obviously Cornish pasties were a hot topic and also Jelbert’s ice cream, when you know, you know. Another topic of conversation was the menu for Monkey Rocks. Stephen’s crew had messaged him a copy of the menu and we both agreed it was the chicken, mash potato and gravy which would be the lunch of choice for both of us. As I said before Delirious is an eating and drinking competition , with running between aid stations a secondary consideration.
Another highlight of this section was a particularly large dugite snake I nearly trod on. Stephen and I were engaged in conversation, funnily enough, and we both missed the snake initially. Just before I was about to step on it I jumped to my right, thus avoiding contact. Certainly got the heart rate spiking and the two of scurried off with fresh vigor. This was my only contact with snakes for the whole event which is good, albeit others reported many sightings. This was another reason for a pacer, they can be easily sacrificed, I missed Sarah at this point.
Monkey Rocks -> Denmark 13.9km ( accumulated 266km)
Finally we made Monkey Rocks after talking about the chicken, mashed potato and gravy for the best part of an hour. Trust me people , it didn’t disappoint. My good friend Chris and his Wife were manning the aid station and the food was gourmet, or better. Stephen, Simon and I wolfed down our lunch and it was as good as we had imagined over the morning. I’m sure I had other items but can’t remember past the chicken , I wish I’d had more but knew I had a serious climb ahead. As you can see from the images the sun was out and the climb would be in the heat of the midday sun, wouldn’t have it any other way. This was a stark contrast to the last time I ran this section in the drizzle of an October evening, the wet year, made the climb slippery and Adam and I both slipped on the granite rocks. There would be no slipping this year but it was just as challenging albeit for different reasons.
Monkey Rocks is a hard climb and probably not helped with a large lunch on board. I was happy to let Stephen forge ahead as I just cruised up the incline , enjoying the heat of the midday sun and also knowing that the run into Denmark would be flat and I would probably get some shut eye there. The view from the top was stunning and I started on the downside looking forward to a rest at Denmark. On the way down I caught up with Stephen and we were also joined by Astrid Volzke and her amazing cameras. She snapped the image below, she is very talented, even caught me smiling albeit I tend to perk up if there is a camera in the near vicinity.
After running up and then down off Monkey Rocks you’re faced with a flat run through the suburbs off sunny Denmark to the aid station. Stephen had had enough and was content to walk it in as he’d probably eaten too much at Monkey Rocks. I was chasing a seat on the 1pm shuttle bus (The bus leaves on the hour every hour) so needed to get to the aid station in a hurry. We said our goodbyes and I put on the afterburners aware that Oliver was just behind me and if I could get the next shuttle I’d put a few hours between us. I remember the last time Adam and I ran this section we both agreed it was probably the worse one of the entire race, that was in the dark, unfortunately it didn’t improve in the light. Not sure if its the frustration of the aid station always being around the next corner or the terrain, it’s mainly on suburban streets but this section just sucks.
Eventually I made the aid station around 12:35 so had enough time for a quick snack and then got my head down for ten minutes. The image below shows the chaos that is an aid station for 200 milers, this is why you need a crew so all your processions can be moved along the route with you. How people do this race unsupported is beyond me?
I’m not sure if I got any sleep as time was against me and I was desperate to get the 1pm shuttle. I had resigned myself to the possibility of running through the night to finish early Saturday morning and , as such, there would be no more sleeping. This was a similar strategy to last years event. Sleep Wednesday and Thursday night and then run through Friday and finish early Saturday morning, hopefully before the hallucinations become too vivid.
Five minutes to the hour we started to prepare for the shuttle and luckily enough there was room for my pacer, Sarah Dyer. A sucker for punishment obviously as she was keen for some more pacing duties albeit I couldn’t promise her another kilo of cocaine as payment this time. Simon Poli, he was running the 100 miler, also made the shuttle and he was happy to join Sarah and I. I had run with Simon on and off for most of the day and he was loving his first miler, again another Rob Donkersloot Mind Focused Running convert, as is Sarah funnily enough. ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) We were joined in the shuttle by couple of 100 mile runners, as well as Simon, and then we were off on the twenty minute or so car journey to continue the adventure.
Denmark -> Lowlands 22.2km ( accumulated 288.2km)
The first two aid stations from Denmark are the challenge, get through these and then you are home and hosed as the final two aid stations are relatively close together and you can smell the finish. Denmark to Lowlands is the longest of the two and starts with a nasty four kilometes of trail that is difficult to run through, initially a wetlands area and then open trail where you are cooked, remember this was now early afternoon and the sun was showing us no mercy. Where as in previous years I finished strongly on the last day this year I was struggling. Simon left Sarah and I although we would meet him just before Lowlands. There were long walk breaks with the heat starting to wear me down. Eventually we made Lowlands and Mark was there with another steak which is just what I needed. Another change of clothes and the three of us were ready for the next section, to Shelley Beach, which was uncrewed so we wouldn’t see Mark until late into the evening at Cosy Corner.
Lowlands -> Shelley Beach 17.1km ( accumulated 305.3km)
The last test of Delirious is the section between Lowlands and Shelley beach. After a twenty two kilometre section post Denmark shuttle you are pretty goosed and the seventeen kilometre skip to Shelley is testing. Together they are nearly a marathon distance and you just tick over three hundred kilometres at Shelly, fatigue starts to become a factor. I was fully fueled after another steak expertly prepared by chef Mark and Simon, Sarah and I set off in good spirits. A call of nature broke up the team and Sarah waited for me while Simon stepped on knowing we’d probably catch up.
Between Lowlands and Shelly we witnessed the last sunset of the event and it was a beauty, as is the norm. This is one of the main draw cards for running two hundred milers, you see a few sunrises and sunsets. As you can see from the image we had some cloud cover going into Friday evening which made a pleasant change from the sauna we have experienced most of the day.
Sarah and I put in a burst post Lowlands in a last desperate bid to catch the leader. We’d heard John was slowing and taking his time in aid stations so with time running out we put in a five kilometre burst of pace. Unfortunately we had left our charge too late and it made little difference to the overall gap, it was the last throw of the dice and as night fell I knuckled down and started to think about beating my previous years PB of just under sixty nine hours. Even this was beyond me as the terrain made running difficult and I knew I was in for another all nighter with an early morning finish the best outcome.
I was looking forward to Shelley Beach as Mel Maisey was aid station captain, she off the 60th birthday celebration a lifetime ago at Northcliffe, well the Monday of the race. Unfortunately Mel had left the event and was heading home, no worries a cup of tea was all I needed as the next aid station was close. There may have been a few minutes resting before Simon turned up , looking like he’d stolen something. He’d found a second wind but not enough to leave with Sarah and I. The descent into Shelly is steep and long but for some reason it is easier on the climb out, weird, not sure how this is possible but Sarah and I were thankful for this anomaly.
Shelley Beach -> Cosy Corner 7.8km (accumulated 313.1km)
Even though it was only a short hop to Cosy Corner it did seem to take a long time. We were scooting along at a good pace and we knew the Mark would be waiting for us at the next aid station and then we had a nice beach section to Mutton Bird carpark.
There was a serious amount of wild life on this section including a Western Ring tailed possum (see image above) which I persuaded to jump from one tree to the another , over the track. We also bumped into a frog which I kissed to prove the old theory that frogs turn into princesses fake news, unfortunately it was fake news and the only thing I’d catch from kissing frogs is probably worms. (Happy to report that I seem to have dodged that bullet?)
Earlier in the day we had seen a large cat on the trail which would have been feral and this was one large feline, bordering on bob cat dimensions albeit we were both pretty tired at this stage. We saw some seriously big Kangaroos as well and one jumped out a few metres ahead of us and continued along the trail. I heard that at least one runner had a coming together with a Roo which is best avoided as these are big Roos. !
Cosy Corner was great, good food and Simon, Sarah and I had the aid station to ourselves albiet we were joined by the chaos that is one of the race directors, Michelle Hanlin. If you know Michelle you’ll know what I mean, she is a one woman race organising machine and a human whirlwind. Life is never dull when Michelle is around and it was great to see her. The RD’s of this event work long hours and travel great distance trying to herd the cats that are sixty plus 200 mile runners. As you know runners are good at running, not so good at navigating !
Cosy Corner -> Mutton Bird carpark 9.3km (accumulated 322.4km)
Cosy Corner to Mutton Bird carpark is all on the beach and last time I ran this section in 2021 it was daylight and I rally enjoyed it as you could see the aid station from a long way off. It seemed to arrive very quickly. In the dark the atmosphere is completely different as you lose the main stimulus of sight, you are left with your own little bubble of headtorch light and your thoughts as the terrain is just sand. There was the small challenge of some rock hopping which, as the image above shows, was testing due to the tide being high, I assume? I wonder how many trail runners have drowned running trails ?
Sarah, being a Geologist, glided over the rocks while I stumbled at best. Simon led the way while I took time to try and get some photos for this post. The things I do for my reader(s) , I hope Mum appreciates it ?
We moved along the beach together leap frogging each other many times before the car park light came into view. I was able to move along the wetter sand , which was harder, without getting my feet wet until the very last minute before heading to the carpark. The last wave got me so was forced to change back to the Olympus 5’s at the aid station. I had ran the entire event in the Altra Olympus 5’s, out of the box. ( https://www.altrarunning.com.au/collections/olympus-5 ) These are my trail shoes of choice, zero drop with a large footbox meaning you have a small chance of saving toenails, if you prepare with Dru’it foot balm beforehand. ( https://www.duit.com.au/product/foot-heel-balm-plus/ )
We arrived at Mutton Bird aid station and the three of us slumped into the chairs, knackered, tired , hungry and thirsty but now so close to the finish we could taste it.
Mutton Bird carpark -> Sandpatch car park 13.2km (accumulated 335.6km)
As always we left the aid station together and yet again I stopped early to take off my jacket. Simon scooted off alone while yet again Sarah waited for me like good pacer should. Sarah had done an outstanding job pacing now for over a hundred kilometres over two days but I soon noticed something was wrong. The pace had slowed and after a few kilometres she admitted she wasn’t feeling that great, lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with her. As well as pacing me Sarah had also paced other runners before joining me so she was as sleep depraved as me. We discussed the options and I recommended running back to the last aid station which was only a few kilometres away as we knew Mark was hanging around sipping a VB with the volunteers, he’s good like that Mark. Sarah was determined to get to the next, penultimate, aid station and I was glad of the company, together we stumbled off in search of Simon, and when I type stumbled I mean stumbled.
This was the hardest section of the event, both Sarah and I were totally fatigued and we were running through the night for a third time, both off minimal sleep. Looking back I had maybe let my hydration and nutrition go a bit over the last few aid stations and this was coming back to bite me, excuse the pun.
The aid station seem to take an age to arrive and all thoughts of a PB went out the window as we both crawled to Sandpatch. The highlight was the sunrise, not that we noticed really, and we eventually found the aid station where Simon was waiting for us.
Sandpatch carpark -> 258 Freshmans bay Road. 11.2km (accumulated 346.8km)
Finally the last section to the finish. In 2021 I was racing ‘Paul Hopi ‘ and destroyed this section, not this year. I had let Sarah go as she was to meet me for the finish line jog with Mark and Rob. Simon set the pace and I struggled to hang on, he was fresh as a daisy and had the best time running the 100 miles, running with me for over half the distance; no wonder he had a good time ! He may have found his calling and I look forward to the first Poli vs Poli showdown in the near future. (His brother Felix has finished the 200 miler twice, he featured in a few videos earlier in the post) After running to the finish with my team it was time for the obligatory ‘shoey‘, its tradition.
So that was Delirious West 2023, a second place overall finish clocking in just under 72 hours, three days. John was a few hours ahead of me and Oliver a few hours behind me, happy with that. It was never about a poduim finish albeit I’ll take it of course. Delirious is about surrounding yourself with like minded people and living the dream for a week, being waited on hand and foot by aid station volunteers and your own crew, achieving more than you ever thought you could with the help of wonderful people. 2023 lived up to my all expectations and more beside, it really is the event that just keeps on giving, year on year.
I seem to remember Mark, Sarah and I heading off to the Albany park run but I fell asleep in the car as soon as we arrived while Mark (as Warwick) and Sarah ran the event. They woke me on their return and it was time for a shower, albeit using the community showers in Albany.
Post park run it was off to the local free community showers in Albany for a hot shower. I must admit I didn’t look the best I’ve ever looked, I’m calling it the Albany Hobo look, it my defence I had just run a 200 miler ! I did fit in to the community shower crew though and it was a good shower funnily enough.
After the shower it was back to the finish line to chill out and enjoy the finish line atmosphere, cheering on fellow competitors. Of course I didn’t last long and was soon away in the land of nod dreaming of Delirious 2024. The finish line is a wonderful place , watching people achieve their dreams, it is uplifting assuming you stay awake.
To prove I did pay attention to the finishing runners the image below is one of my favourite runners finishing another great 200 miler. Sarah Niven already has the triple crown down under 2022 under her belt but ran Delirious this year as ‘fun’. As always she exceeded her expectations and destroyed her PB time, its becoming the norm with this young lady. Always smiling.
Spent most of Saturday at the finish line leaving only for dinner and a sleep before returning the following day to cheer on the late arrivals. Shaun and the team then went through the presentations as well as setting up a tribute to Jeff, a tree of shoes and a plaque. A beautiful tribute, very touching.
After the presentations everybody hot footed it off to the pub for an evening of stories, good food and great company. A few of us stayed till the end and got ourselves in the ‘end event’ photo, it had to be done.
The food at the Earl of Spencer is so good and the Guinness even better, it had been a long time between drinks as my last one was after the Unreasonable East in the Blue Mountains in June last year. I’m not a big drinker. Shaun had hired out the pub so it was full of runners , family and support crew, so much laughter and stories which seem to get bigger , longer or quicker as the night went on. It was a perfect end to a perfect week, thank you Delirious 2023 you were simply ‘ace’.
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.
Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )
or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/
This was my fourth time racing the Delirious West 200 miler . In 2020 I had my first ever DNF when my quads seized at Mandelay aid station and I pulled the pin, far too early truth be told. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/02/26/a-delirious-failure-part-one/ , https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/03/07/delirious-fail-pt2/ , https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/03/11/delirious-fail-part-3/ ) Probably spent more time posting about the run than the run itself?
I returned in 2021 in October, the wet year as it is now known, and had the time of my with Gary and Alex crewing me. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2021/11/09/redemption-delirious-west-day-2/ ) Those boys made the whole experience such an adventure and so many stories are still told to this day around that trip, normally with a serious amount of laughter.
I was addicted. 2022 was the out and back year and again I loved the whole event from the Monday morning drive down to the Sunday evening after party, this event rocks. Even managed a respectable time and a fourth place finish. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/07/04/delirious-west-february-2022/ ) This year I had Mark and Jeffrey crewing and again it was an incredible experience with more stories added to the Delirious legend.
I had trimmed down my 2022 crew as Jeffrey was too busy doing retired stuff to come along and help Mark, whatever that is? Mark of course was locked in the moment he won the bogan race in 2022, the race that stops a small town, he was confident he could crew solo albeit with the aid of his little helpers, his cans of bush chook. So midday Monday morning off we went to sunny Northcliffe for Mel’s 60th birthday celebrations and the start of the 2023 Delirious adventure. I was excited but also unsure of how the event would pan out. 2022 was a massive year for me with ten ultra marathons but towards the end of the year I had struggled with a knee injury and tight hamstrings. This has seriously limited my training as running became more of a slog. I joined a gym to try and work on my strength but my running stats fell through the floor. I managed to put together a good block pre and post Christmas but I hadn’t the base I would have liked.
Monday night in the Northcliffe hotel was great as old friends met up for Mel’s 60th birthday celebrations. Melanee Maisey is the ‘godmother‘ of ultra running in WA, she works so hard for the greater good of the running community it was great to spend some time with her on her 60th. As with all events when the WA ultra tribe get together there was much laughter and story telling, a perfect evening.
After that is was back to sunny Pemberton where I had organised what I thought was a two bedroom cottage , turned out it was for two people, one bedroom. Mark volunteered to sleep on his camper bed in the lounge, that is what crew do. After a good nights sleep, for me, it was Tuesday check in and then the rae that stops a small town, the infamous bogan run. This involves the crew of the runners dressing as bogans, running around kegs, drinking beer and generally having a great time. Last year Mark won and he had been training all year to go back to back, a feat as yet not achieved. Unfortunately it seems this will never happen as the dice was loaded and despite Mark’s best efforts he could only claim to be the first bogan who finished and drank beer, a good result none the less. You really need to experience a bogan run, it is special.
The check in and the whole day really is so special as you get to meet friends you haven’t seen since the last Delirious as well as new runners who will become good friends over the event. Delirious brings people together, period. I love the couple of days before the event as there is just so much love, it really is that simple. Add in serious laughter , a few beers , great food and it just works. Northcliffe before Delirious is just ace.
Rob Donkersloot, he of Mind Focused running ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) was ever present as he had seven athletes, myself included, running the two events. (There is a 100 miler option apparently?) Rob is a guru of all things running and has taken that knowledge, and added in meditation and wellness techniques, to create a map to running success. It just works, Rob is like a childs comfy blanket, always good to have around. Rob is all about making running fun rather than focusing on time, pace, distance etc., just enjoy the moment, wise words. In the image above you also have my good friend Veronika Kretzer, who ran second female at Delirious last year and is now part of the Thursday morning Yelo run, one of the boys you could say. Also in the picture is Sarah Dyer who would pace me for over 100 kilometres in the run, great company in the darkest hours.
As I have said many times over the years running is about traditions ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/12/21/6-inch-2022-it-never-fails-to-deliver/ ) and my favourite one is the Northcliffe hotels waffles before the start of the race. Imagine eating waffles before the start of a marathon, it wouldn’t end well. This is why I love ultra marathons , and 200 milers specifically, you can eat and eat a lot and still compete, hell it’s compulsory. After a great coffee and waffles I was ready for the 2023 Delirious West 200 miler and I felt great thanks to the sugar high of my breakfast. Big shout out to Duncan and Helen and all the staff of the Northcliffe hotel, you guys are just so good at what you do and a glowing testament to small county pubs. Great food, great atmosphere and great people.
On the way to the start line I bumped into Frank and Sarah. Frank was attempting the event for the first time and is coincided with his 70th birthday, how cool is that. Although he would not finish he got to nearly 300 kilometes before tapping out which is just incredible and I reckon run of the event. He wasn’t helped by being self supported and carrying a pack far too big for what he needed. He’ll learn from this and I hope I can toe the start line with him next year. Sarah was my partner in crime for the Unreasonable East last year. She guided me through the difficult terrain and geographical challenges, she always runs with a smile and destroyed the course setting a massive PB, never in doubt really. Remember what I said earlier , Delirious is all about friends, reconnecting with old ones and making new ones.
The start line photo is one of my all time favourites, lots of my friends all gathered together about to embark on an epic shared adventure, seriously it really does not get any better. The anticipation of what is about to unfold combined with the nervous energy makes the atmosphere special, really special. It is here you are truly alive, everything else is details and can be forgotten for three to four days. It really is you doing what you love surrounded by like minded people. Not sure why everybody is looking one way and I’m facing the opposite direction ? Anyhow the start is incredible and I’m already counting down the days to 2024’s version. This was the biggest field by a large margin this year but once we all got going you were left with you and your thoughts pretty quickly, if that’s hat you so desired. If you wanted company just hang around at an aid station long enough and it would stumble in, eventually.
We all grouped together at the allotted time, thanked the traditional owners of the land and we were off, albeit in the wrong direction. Remember traditions, on the very first Delirious the runners turned left at the first fork, about 50 meters into the race, instead of right and headed back to Perth. This mistake is now played out every year with a distance that is determined by Shaun Kaesler, so you’re never sure how far ? Gotta’ love tradition. This year it wasn’t too far and before long we were headed towards Albany.
First video , early days, still smiling :
Unfortunately one of the Delirious West Race Directors lost a short battle with Leukemia earlier in the year. Jeff Hansen was Delirious, involved from the start and was planning on running the event this year. As a tribute each runner would run five kilometres with his shoes he would have worn. I did my bit between ten and fifteen kilometres and reflected on everything Jeff in that short time. Gone but not forgotten my friend. When this happens you really do question your longevity on this planet and running events like Delirious become even more special, live for today people.
Next video about 20km into the race: –
Right this year I’m going to break down the post into the aid station hops, a bit like you approach the main event really. It’s not a 340km race it’s twenty two smaller races , between 9.3km and 25.9km, the distances between aid stations.
Start -> Chesapeake Road (West) 25.9km
The first hop between the start line and the first aid station is the furthest, just under twenty six kilometres. I suppose the logic is you are full of beans at the start and if you can’t run twenty six kilometres you are probably in trouble. The first day as a whole is good running so the extra distance is achievable as you are spending less time on your feet as you should be moving quicker. The only fly in the ointment on the first day was the humidity which was high and as such uncomfortable. This was partially offset by the mood of all the runners as they were finally released onto the course and moving towards Albany, albeit days away. Without my goose (to my Maverick, you’ve seen Top Gun right?) , Adam Loughnan, I was actually towards the front of the pack and this was a conscious effort on my part. Running with Julie Gibson as my pacer keeping Oliver and Kay in sight we were cocooned in the top five, not somewhere I’m use to being on day one. I enjoyed the run to Chesapeake West and noted the good conditions early. Once at the aid station it was a quick stop, refueled the water bottles, some fruit and a few lollies before taking on board some seriously good Anzac biscuits. Again a conscious effort to spend less time at aid stations this year. It was also great to run with JP and Tristan, two first time debutants who would both smash their first Delirious, nice one lads ! The first morning is a wonderful time in the event, everyone is nervous, excited but above all happy to be running after talking Delirious for months.
This aid station has no crew access so I would have to run another seventeen kilometers before meeting Mark for the first time.
Video : Coming into the first aid station
Chesapeake Road (West) -> Chesapeake Road (East) 16.9km ( accumulated 43.5km)
By the time you reach aid station two you’ve already ran a marathon, on trails in severe humidity, no one said this was going to be easy ! The only bright side is Dog Road aid station is relatively close and also it’s the first time you get to see your crew, assuming you have one. Mark sat me down and before I knew it a cup of tea , with three sugars , was thrust into my hand. Again I was quick though this aid station as the next one was less than twelve kilometres away so would spend more time there. It was good to see all the crew, family and friends for the fist time but I was out and back on the bib in no time, heading towards Dog Road.
Chesapeake Road (East) -> Dog Road 11.7km ( accumulated 55.2km)
It started to get uncomfortable as we moved to Dog Road aid station, the humidity was turned up to eleven minimum and runners don’t like humidity. I ran with Julie Gibson who was setting the perfect pace and I just hung on and enjoyed watching the kilometres tick over. I think from memory I left Julie and Oliver and managed to arrive at Dog Road before them albeit Julie left before me so I followed her to Pingerup and Brooke Inlet. The terrain is pretty good upto Mandelay so we were moving along quite nicely and despite the humidity I probably felt the best I have at this stage of the race. I always find the first fifty kilometeres to Dog Road the hardest, you haven’t got into your ultra rhythm and it is still fifty kilometres, an ultra so to speak. I was still top three male so happy with position and progress thus far.
Dog Road was rice pudding, a fruit bowl, obligatory cup of tea and some very tasty fresh strawberries from Harmony White, they were delicious. Again I was pretty quick through the aid station and left with a full stomach, my poles and fresh clothes ready for an eighteen kilometre hop to Pingerup aid station.
Dog Road -> Pingerup 18lm ( accumulated 73.2km)
This is a very runnable section of the course mainly on a limestone road, albeit no vehicles to speak off. Undulating probably best describes it. I kept Julie in my sight and she was always a few hundred metres ahead of me, from memory I was suffering on this section of the race. You question your ability to finish the race many times on the first day, it is only experience that reminds me I have finished this race and I always feel this way on the first day. An ultra is a rollercoaster of emotions and for every up there will inevitably be a down, it is knowing when you enter a ‘dark place‘ that it is not forever and there is always light at the end of the tunnel and sometimes its not a train. ( Please note if you run an ultra through a train tunnel the light at the end of the tunnel may be a train and in this case do not run to the light ! Luckily there are no tunnels on Delirious. )
A few times I lost sight of Julie and assumed that would be it before catching her again, I would assume she was suffering as much as me. Apart from Julie I saw no one else until we hit the aid station where Michelle and Kate were just leaving, I think ? Didn’t feel like eating so wolfed down an icy pole and a coke and filled my water bottles, I’d see the aid station volunteers at Boat Harbour later in the race and make up for it. Pingerup to Brooke Inlet is a flat section of the race and you really start to feel isolated, there is no one anywhere near you. This section is normally where I see my first sunset but I was ahead of schedule and was aiming for Brooke Inlet in daylight, for the fist time ever!
Pingerup -> Brooke Inlet 16.3km ( accumulated 89.5km)
I love this section of the course, beautiful scenery and you start to feel isolated, alone with your thoughts and knowing you are kilometres from anybody else, I enjoy the solitude as the sunsets, albeit I could still see Julie ahead of me. I eventually caught her and we ran into Brooke Inlet together. I was starting to feel fatigued , funnily enough, but knew I had spaghetti bolognaise waiting for me at the next aid station, it tradition on the first night. Mark does make a great ‘spag bog‘. With this in mind we up’d the pace and before we knew it we were sitting down eating dinner, sweet.
Right , that it’s for part 1… always leaving your readers wanting more.. or not as the case may be.. I’ll continue next week when I get some more video footage.. until then..
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.
Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )
or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/
Running is all about traditions , runners love doing the same thing over and over. That may be training routines, entering the same races or just spending time with friends going to the same location for runs. After a while all these routines turn into traditions, and then they have to be adhered to, it’s tradition. The 6 inch ultra trail marathon ( https://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) is one of many traditions that the lads and I love to adhere to, albeit it use to be a family tradition (yes, you can involve the family) but the kids all grew up and no longer wanted to spend time with old runners. We took that on the chin and just stopped inviting them, it had now morphed into a lads weekend away. (I say ‘lads’ in the broadest sense of the word, our average age is well over fifty these days. It’s lucky Michael Kowal is still scarred by the escalator on his one and only 6 inch attempt a few years back or the average age would be in the sixties!)
To get a feel for the event I recommend trawling through my blog to get some old posts , I’ve attached a few links here. This will help with the post I’m about to recount.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/12/23/6-inch-race-report-warning-contains-images-of-trail-runners/
https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/12/13/its-that-time-of-the-year-6-inches-of-fun-fun-fun/
https://www.runbkrun.com/2018/12/17/middle-of-december-6-inch-time/
https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/12/19/sometimes-6-inches-is-enough/
https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/11/14/look-busy-the-6-inch-is-coming/
Right now you’ve caught up with the history of this event it time to way lyrical about the 2022 edition. Due to various reasons we have a small starting line up this year. We lost Marky ‘Mark’ Lommers to a twisted ankle, Adam to gastro, Bart’s to a family holiday he had to take in Noosa and Scotty to long term injury. This left Jeffrey , Jon and I to toe the line at the start with Rob (poorly achilleas) again driving us to the start Sunday morning at some ungodly hour. (Remember it’s a point to point and we stay at the finish) After I persuaded Jeffrey to drive (remember we lost Adam to gastro and apparently if he can’t go to the event his 7 seater Prado can’t go either, a tad selfish me thinks!) we were off , high noon on Saturday, the day before the event. Jon would be joining us down there as he loves to hoon in his BMW and would prefer to do it alone apparently, less eye witnesses is probably safer for all concerned.
Right back to tradition, for this lads trip there are a few. First we always stay at the Jarrah Forest lodge , Jon always books the family room , and pays, thereby ensuring he gets the double bed (being the smallest) while the other room is shared with the lads (there’s two bunk beds). This room has the benefit of air conditioning in both rooms. I always stay in room 16 , a single room with a bunk, the farthest from the toilet block. This has no air conditioning, actually just a bunk bed, you get that prisoner cell block H feeling about the place. It’s clean and that’s all we need for one night. We use to go the pub the night but the meal portions are so large that it affected the running performances the following day. Bart’s was still eating his chicken parmi post race Sunday afternoon. I was above this of course and always take my own meal for the Saturday night, it’s tradition.
My favourite tradition is watching run fatboy run after bib collection on Saturday evening, we must have seen this movie at least five times but it still gets the same laughs in the same places, so good. Due to the set up at the lodge it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to nearly an hour to get the video working. There is an amp, a switcher box, a projector , at least two DVD players and cables everywhere. Things were looking good this year when Jon got the DVD talking to the TV, with the right input, in a matter of minutes but , as is tradition, things didn’t go that smoothly and the DVD had been played to death, literally. It was finished so after a brief interlude we selected another DVD, Will Ferrel in Semi Pro which , although not a run fayboy run, was a pretty good alternative. Never fear thought we have ordered Run FatBoy Run on DVD so will be watching it next year and we will bring all our own equipment !
Post DVD the boys scuttle off to their luxurious, for Dwellingup remember the town has a population of population 524, family room complete with air conditioning while I hit my jail cell, alarms set for 3am. This year I was lucky enough to have a very keen runner next door to me (?) who had set their alarm for 2am as they were catching the bus. Great, I get to get up an hour or so earlier than planned. It gets better, I was also next door to a snorer and the walls are paper thing, it felt like we were in the same bed ! When you hear someone snoring you cannot unhear it. Let’s just say I was sleep depraved while I ate my weetbix and drank my cup of sweet tea in the communal kitchen at 2:15am. Not ideal but I’m a big believer in it’s the night before the night before which is the important time to sleep, anything on the evening before the event is a bonus. Once the boys rose, an hour or so after me, we all got into the car as planned at 3:45am for the twenty minutes or so drive to the start and check in. The drive to the start is always a tad worrying as Kangaroo’s aren’t car friendly and if we were to hit a roo it wouldn’t end well for any of us. Luckily we didn’t see any albiet last year we’re sure Bart’s killed a bandicoot on the way to the start, something he still denies.
As the image below shows we were last to arrive at the pre-race check in but we have a car so the drive to the start was only a few minutes away and we arrived with minutes so spare, more than enough. Unfortunately we were carrying a goody-pack for my mate Tristan who was running the 12 inch. This is another tradition of runners running from the finish to the start the night before (47km) and then leaving with the race at 4:30am and returning for the medal, another 47km; hence the name 12 inch. We managed to get Tristan his drop bag albeit a few minutes from the start, sorry buddy, it obviously wasn’t a problem as he ran the 12 inch in around 13 hours.
The plan for this race was to finish under five hours, not walk, bar the monster hills, enjoy the event and keep Jeffrey behind me to keep my 20 year or so winning streak. Jeffrey is now over 60 and running very well, he came close to pipping me to the post in Melbourne in October and had been training well since with Bart’s preparing him for battle. My running had been down the toilet since September due to over training (or over racing?) and niggles including tight hamstrings and a probable tear under my right knee. Weekly I was getting dropped at the Yelo Thursday morning gathering and my training runs in the hills had all been thirty minutes or so longer than last year. The smart money was on Jeffrey for this one. Jon was expecting another sub four hour finish but a nasty cough had me questioning his optimism.
The 6 inch starts with Goldmine hill, a beast of a hill that has destroyed many a runners dreams. If you’re not prepared it can derail you very early in the piece, trust me if you are goosed after two kilometres the next 46 or so are challenging. This year me and Jeffrey decided to walk most of the hill with the masses, saving our running legs for the beating that was ahead. It was quite nice to enjoy the hill for a change, although I say ‘enjoy’ in the broadest sense of the word.? We summited full of beans and changed up through the gears cruising along in a group of about ten of us, mainly women surprisingly ? The event itself is held on the mundi biddi trail, a thousand kilometre offroad bike trail from Perth to Albany, so pretty good running. David Kennedy, the Race Director, reckons you can add about an hour to your marathon time to get an estimated finish time, he’s probably right.
The 6 inch has an aid station at 23 kilometres and then again at the top of the escalator hill, around 35 kilometres. There is also one with four kilometres to go but when you’re that close why would you stop? I ran with Jeffrey until the first aid station where he complained of a sore knee and walked into the aid station. This was my chance and , as all good friends do , when I sensed weakness I pounced or in this case left him. That was the last I would see of Jeffrey , or so I thought. My confidence was knocked by Mick Francis, the aid station captain, who mentioned I was limping and he’d pull me out if he was RD. A tad harsh I thought as I thought I was going ok ?
After aid station one there is another large climb to the highest part of the course, the 3 inch version of the Goldmine Hill I suppose. I half walked and ran this and took a few more positions as I started to warm up, after twenty years in Western Australia I’m now half lizard and love the heat. Once I get to the highest part I tend to flick over into finish mode and chase down the back end of the half runners and fellow full runners. As I mentioned at the start of this report this race was about finishing and having fun, as much as that is possible. I was feeling good enough to up the pace and started to move through the field albeit nothing to previous years but nice to be moving up the field none the less.
I climbed the escalator hill to the second aid station, filled my bottles and then started the last ten kilometres to the finish. It was here Jeffrey reappeared and all of a sudden my relaxed cruise to the finish changed to a very stressful run being chased by a motivated Jeffrey Wang. I managed to maintain the pace for the final ten kilometres and with the experience of twelve previous finishes I knew when you push and when to hang on. It wasn’t easy or pretty but I managed to finish in four hours and forty eight minutes and change. My new personal worse by thirty minutes but mission accomplished, sometimes it’s the journey that’s important not the time taken to complete it. As you can see from the smile below I was stoked.
All that was left to do was the traditional esky photo, if you know, you know, don’t judge me. Thanks Nathan Fawkes for supplying the ice shower, may add this to the tradition for the esky photo, always keen to add more traditions ?
One final tradition is all the boys (and driver) who completed the course to put on their finishers shirts and get a photo. I have so many of these and enjoy looking back at all the lads aging gracefully and back in the day we’d even have a few kinds with us, they are all far too cool to have their photos taken with us these days of course. A small gathering this year but I’m confident there will be a bigger group in 2023.
So that’s it for 2022, what a great year, ten ultra marathons and one marathon , I’ve been busy with over two thousand kilometres racing with a bib on my chest and another three thousand kilometres training. 6 inch number thirteen completed and I can’t wait until I;m back at the bottom of Goldmine Hill facing another 47 kilometres of the munda biddi trail , sleep depraved but excited about what lays ahead, why wouldn’t you, after all , it’s tradition.
As always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products… fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/
and facebook
Right, 2022 was a massive year, following on from 2021 which was a massive year. In 2021 I ran eight ultras, Hardy’s Front yard ultra, Light horse 24 hour, KepV2 Ultra 100km, Birdy’s backyard, Delirious West 200 miler, Feral Pig 100 miler, Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra and the 6 inch trail ultra marathon.
2022 was all about doing more and I added the No time to die front yard ultra, the Unreasonable East 200 miler and the Melbourne marathon. I have added the posts for each of these events in 2022 as a review and also just in case you missed the posts.
First off in 2022 was the Delirious West 200 miler for the third time. It was 1-1 with a good finish in 2020 after a DNF in 2019. This year I had the run of my life and finished in just over 68 hours, good enough for a fourth place finish. Can’t wait to take this beast on for the fourth time in February 2023, already have the 2022 crew back on board.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/07/04/delirious-west-february-2022/
In March I ran Herdy’s Front yard ultra for the second time after an assist in the inaugural year in 2021. Not quite the 48 laps (hours) I was after albeit I was very happy with the 34 laps I completed before not making lap 35. Found after two days post Herdy’s I had COVID so explained why it was more testing that I thought it would be ?
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/03/27/herdys-frontyard-ultra-2022/
Post COVID and Herdy’s came the Light Horse 24 hour ultra. Another great Ultra Series event. With Rob Donkersloot ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) crewing me I managed 207km for the win in the 24 hour event, very unexpected and mainly down to Rob not letting me sit down.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/04/30/lighthorse-ultra-24-hours-2022/
Three weeks post Light Horse came the Kep V2 100km. Love this event, steeped in WA ultra running history. I was going to use this race as a long run with a medal at the end, leaving my poles at half way so I could cruise back to the start. Due to a small field I was lucky enough to pick up another win, well first male, so stoked.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/05/16/kep-v2-ultra-another-win-well-first-male/
Halfway through the year and I faced my biggest challenge yet, a 200 miler in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. The first 200 miler ever attempted in that region. The Unreasonable East was a beast of an event with stunning scenary, brutal climbs and more stairs than I have ever encountered in an event ever. Add in some seriously cold nights and long distances between aid stations , on the shortest days of the year, and you had a monster to slay.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/07/08/unreasonable-east-200-miler-done-and-dusted/
Next was time for my third Birdy’s backyard ultra. Plan was to enjoy myself and get to a course PB, anything over 28 laps. In the end managed 36 laps (150 miles) before the impending storm hit and I scuttled off to my car for a well earned sleep. Love this event and can’t wait for number four in 2023.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/03/27/herdys-frontyard-ultra-2022/
After Birdy’s it was another backyard ultra, this time No time to die in Adelaide. Managed to pick up my first , and probably last, backyard ultra win. Managed 33 laps which was good enough to take line honours. After two assists it was so good to get the win and a surreal feeling, running sometime gives back in spades.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/09/25/no-time-to-die-it-wasnt-and-i-didnt/
My only non ultra of 2022 was the Melbourne marathon , two weeks post No Time to Die. Running a 33 hour long run two weeks out from a marathon didn’t seem like a good idea and as it turned out it wasn’t. Ran with the sub 3 hour bus for 10km and was then unceremoniously kicked off the back, made the last 32km challenging to say the least. In the end finished in three hours and seventeen minutes, funnily enough bringing my average for the 46 marathons I have run to two hours, 59 mins and 59 seconds… a Don Bradman total albeit under my goal not over it. !
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/10/04/how-not-to-run-a-marathon-melbourne-2022/
Post Melbourne I suffered, my hamstrings seized big time and no amount of anti-inflammatories or dry needling really helped. This was a problem with back to back milers coming up, why wouldn’t you ? The first one was the Feral Pig 100 miler , a beast of an event with over 4,000 metres of elevation. I had not been able to train pre-event and only ran it as I had nothing else to do that weekend and I wouldn’t get my entry fee back leaving it so late to defer. It was going to be brutal and it didn’t disaapoint, finished just over 35 hours, ouch.
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/11/17/beating-a-pig-feral-2022/
Finally, so far this year, I ran the Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra, again in Adelaide, 5 days post Feral Pig. Back to back milers was the plan so I had to run at least 24 hours at Hysterical, in the end managed 27 before timing out on lap 28. Mission accomplished but not something I’d recommend. Lucky I have youth on my side ?
https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/11/18/back-to-back-milers-and-grand-slams-hysterical/
With one event left to run in December, the 6 Inch Trail ultra marathon, 2023 has been amazing, challenging, ace, ridiculous, stupid, inspiring, memorable and more besides. Can I top it in 2023 ? You bet I can.. watch this space…
As always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products… fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/
and facebook https://www.facebook.com/runbkrunoz
Hysterical Carnage 2022 was to be the last piece of the jigsaw in the Ultra Series backyard ultra Grand Slam, running all four of the backyard Ultras in a calendar year. Myself , Jen and Renton were the only three runners who would complete this magnificent task. The image below is the Grand Slam runners and the Race Director, well one of them, Michelle in fancy dress. (Well I am assuming it’s fancy dress ?) The three of us have had many adventures together over the four events and travelled to Adelaide twice ( No time to Die ( https://nttdfrontyard.com.au/ ) and Hysterical Carnage ( https://hystericalcarnage.com.au/ ) as well as Lake Towerinning in regional WA (for Birdy’s Backyard ultra https://birdysbackyardultra.com.au/ ) and inner city Perth for Herdys frontyard ultra ( https://herdysfrontyard.com.au/ ) A special mention to Margie Hadley who had run three of the four as well as the World team backyard Ultra in November (and set a new Women’s Australian record ) and also Nico Watkins who had also ran three of the four but fell at the last hurdle.
I also had another objective for this event after running the Feral Pig 100 miler the previous weekend, I was after back to back milers, a feat I had never achieved or even attempted. To do this I needed to complete 24 laps.
The conditions in sunny Loxton were as the name suggests, sunny. It was going to be a hot one but after Feral the previous week I wasn’t that worried, living and training in the heat of Western Australian summers had acclimatised me to the heat and it was no longer a worry. I have said many times I consider the climate of Western Australia to be just about perfect all year around for running. We haven’t a Winter to speak off , Spring and Autumn are great temperatures and you can avoid the heat in Summer by running early if you so desire or just slower in the heat of the day if that’s your thing.
Shaun Kaesler and his pregnant Wife Sarah were also running and the five of us posed for the cameras before the start of the event, all smiles before the first lap. Sarah had targeted three or maybe four laps while Shaun was keen to smash his 10 lap PB and see how deep he could go. Shaun’s father, Frank, was also running and is as big a character as his son, surprisingly.
The course had changed since last year which was a pity as it was one of my favourite courses. A large hill you had to walk and then a few kilometres of level running before a road section into a nice trail and then a swamp section before some more level road running to finish. It made for fast laps which meant more time to recover, on the hour every hour. We also had great conditions last year and I managed an assist to Phil Gore, for the second time that year. More than happy with my 37 laps coming two weeks after the Feral miler.
This year, as the image below of last years race village shows, we had water issues. The Murray River had burst its banks and Shaun had to come up with a new course. He did this by adding a big hill and a loop section around the Pioneer Village. On the plus side we actually got to run through the Pioneer Village this year , rather than around it last year. This was pretty cool , especially late at night when you had the place to yourself bar one disgruntled security guard. I’m not sure it made up for the extra elevation but I can’t complain, I still enjoyed the course as the last hill was a good reason to walk for a few hundred metres.
Another bonus was the Loxton Council had been busy and put in stairs to help the runners climb the first hill. Last year the path got more and more challenging as the event went on with new ruts forming each lap. This year no such problem although I’m sure, as last year, the hill grew during the event, it certainly got harder. We started the event in the caravan park and ran to a improvised trail before the stairs and this trail was undulating and technical, made for some near misses as we tired.
The 10am start was upon us and we were off into the heat of a spring day in Loxton. As the images below show it was a beautiful day initially but we all knew the heat was coming and it didn’t let us down. I ran a few laps with Shaun Kaesler who was enjoying his last event of the year for the Ultra Series, I think it was number 18 ? ( https://ultraseries.com.au/ ) This has been a great year for Shaun but I feel he has found his limits and I hope he had put things in place to make 2023 easier on him and his loyal staff. It has certainly been a case of famine and feast after the COVID years and I see a bright future for the Ultra Series moving forward. I highly recommend you get on board and participate in one of the many events offered, there are some seriously good ones. Check out the website for more details.
As I mentioned before Loxton in South Australia, where the event is run, is Shaun’s home town and his family even have their own street. It was only a hundred metres off the course so we couldn’t resist sneaking a photo though please note we exited and reentered the course at the same point. I love the photo, me trying to see my iphone over the top of my sunnies and Shaun just being Shaun, sometimes an image can capture the moment perfectly.
Right back to racing. I always divide any backyard ultra course into three separate sections, this is a big tip so make sure you digest it. For Hysterical the first part is from the start (obviously) to the top of the hill after the first road section. This encompasses the first hill , the next kilometre or so through the paddock and then the trail section before the road. This was the hardest section as the paddock was sapping on the legs and there was some gradient gain. From the top of the road to the end off the Pioneer Village was section two. Mostly all down hill or level this was easy running although the gradient was steep enough to test the legs later in the event. The final section was from the exit of the Pioneer Village back to the start which included some level running before the road hill you ran down on the way out and a steep final descent back to the event village.
By breaking down the course into three sections you hit targets quicker and can also gauge where you are , time wise, if you are struggling to make the loop within the hour cut off. You also know when to put in more effort and when you can cruise. For me the first section was the hardest and when I got to the top of the road hill I could cruise to the end of the Pioneer Village before putting in some more effort to finish. By doing this the lap passes quicker.
This event was always going to hurt coming so soon after Feral and it didn’t disappoint. I always struggle for the fist 15 or so laps at any backyard ultra but if I can get past 100km then the 24 hour lap becomes a target and I can normally find a second wind to get there. This proved to be the case at Hysterical. I enjoyed the heat of the day but was also relieved when it was time to don head torches and the temperature dropped. Night running is where you can lose yourself on the course and everybody retreats to their small circle of light ahead of them. This is where a good audible book comes in very handy, I was lucky enough to find Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir at Birdys and this makes such a difference. You actually can’t wait for the next chapter and time, and laps, disappears. I also used audible at Unreasonable earlier in the year and the Matthew McConaughey biography Green Light kept me entertained for hours. For Hysterical I had Kevin Hart talking me though his life in ‘I can’t make this up’, another great book and it makes such a difference.
The sunset came quickly on Friday which was a good sign. I was finishing each lap around 45 minutes which is where I wanted to be, towards the front of the field. It gave me time to get everything charged, nutrition and hydration and also a few minutes with the shoes off relaxing in my chair. I was sharing a marquee with Renton and Jen who were both relaxed early on, both experienced enough to pace themselves, remember in this event its’ the runner who finishes last that eventually wins. Time between laps is as important as the running time. Get it right and you’ll be fresh for the lap , fueled and watered, get it wrong and fatigue will start to creep in and as Lazerus says ‘running a backyard ultra is easy until it isn’t‘.
Highlights of the evening was definitely running through the Pioneer Village alone or with a disgruntled security guard. It was very cool having the place to yourself and the bonus of public toilets was the cherry on the cake. The evening laps seem to disappear quickly and the temperature was never an issue, warm enough that you didn’t freeze when you stopped but cool enough you didn’t over heat running. I wore a singlet for the first day and night which was perfect, maybe adding a towel as a blanket when I sat in my reclining chair while I drank my tea, with three sugars of course.
Once the sun came up every runner was reinvigorated, the sunrise has that effect on people and you can just about guarantee another 4-5 laps just on the adrenalin rush of making it through the night. The morning was cooler than the previous day as we had some cloud cover and the impending storm was brewing on the horizon. It was predicted to rain on Saturday and boy did it rain later in the day. The storm that was predicted also arrived , with avengence but that’s later in the story.
Love this view, below, from the top of the stairs looking back to the start line. The Murray River looking resplendent , it really did put on a show for us over the few days we were there. The locals were saying this was a once in a decade like conditions so next year it’ll probably be dry and dusty , which is the norm apparently. On the Saturday we had a months rain in a few hours and for a lucky few we were able to appreciate it on the course. Luckily my Kathmandu Gore-Tex jacket did its job and even though I was nearly drowning while standing up I was never uncomfortable.
As you can see from the image below the sky started to turn early morning , around 9am I think I noticed something afoot. You could see trouble ahead. They had predicted a good storm and you could feel it coming. I have other things on my mind though. Once I hit sunrise I knew I was a shoe in for the 24 hour mark I coveted. I began to enjoy the loops and with the aid of fisiocrem and some Panadol my legs were behaving. I know I say this constantly but fisiocrem really does make a huge difference on multi-day events, just puts the spring back into tired muscles. No idea what they put in the product but it works.
Seven runners left for the 100 mile lap, not sure where Kevin Muller was ?, anyhow mission accomplished and even better all the three Grand Slam runners made 24 hours, how good is that? Backyard Ultra number four for the year and Renton, Jen and I can still finish high up the field, it looks like experience really does make a difference for this format but I always knew that. A massive congratulations to Renton on a PB and he looked so good , until he wasn’t which happened quickly, lap 25 and he DNF’d. Not a problem he was stoked to finally make the 100 mile club on a backyard ultra. I’m sure if Nico Watkins had made it to the start he’d have also made the 100 mile distance but alas no, he is still on the outer and has to wait outside , probably in the rain, while we bask in the glory of the 100 mile club.
As is now tradition I finished lap 24 and adopted the ‘dead runner’ pose , as I call it. Again as usual everybody takes a photo rather than check I’m ok, they could at least pause my Coros.? The photo below is a classic from Michelle and it sums up the day, bleak and lonely with worse to come, the weather gods were about to play their hand and it was a good one.
The final laps and thing began to hurt. It seemed my strong anti-inflammatories were starting to give in to the pain from the now visibly swelling ankle. This was an injury I had picked up from the Feral Pig ultra caused by tightening the ankle timing bracelet too tight, rookie error. I had not ran , or even attempted to run, in-between the two events but knew that eventually the ankle would probably say enough is enough. Around lap 26 I mentioned this to the Race Director at the time, Michelle, expecting sympathy, and she responded by pulling up my sock over the offending swelling and sending me back out onto lap 27, priceless.
I nearly forgot to mention lap 26 when the heavens opened up and I mean opened up. It had be brewing all morning and when it came it was a serious down pour. I’ve been on this planet for over 55 years but I can’t honestly remember a downpour as bad, or good if you’re a farmer which at the time I wasn’t ! The course changed completely and I went from running in a dust bowl to running in a river with a strength to nearly take your feet from under you. It was crazy but also pretty cool as as I said earlier I was prepared for the deluge and enjoyed the experience of running in extreme conditions, albeit for half a lap. I managed to get back to the start , dry off and then Michelle kicked me out again, one more lap.
Lap 27 and all was dry again, so quickly, where did all that rain go ? Must be really porous ground in Loxton ? I struggled from the start and was left alone with my thoughts by the other 5 runners. Wayne Chapman was on course clapping us as we passed and he could see I was suffering. Wayne was brilliant the whole time. He managed 5 laps himself then spent the rest of the day and night supporting us, popping up at every corner it seemed at the time. His support did make a difference. I managed to get in around 55 minutes and the five minute warning song was already playing as I slumped into my chair. By this time the foot had gone very troublesome, to annoying and was moving towards very painful with possible long term injury. I had achieved all my goals and was obviously the weakest of the remaining five runners as I was being dropped early each lap.
Undeterred I thought I’d go for one more lap and call it if I made it to the finish. Again I was dropped by the top of the hill but this time I was walking early with little chance of even a stumble. I eventually made the left turn before the road with Wayne patiently waiting for me. This time though there was no words of encouragement good enough to send me on my way. I took up his offer of a lift back to the start after making a quick detour to say my goodbye’s to the remining runners on the course.
Wayne drove me right up to the start line, through the event village, and I popped out of his front seat and ran that bell for all I was worth. DNF lap 28, bloody awesome result. This left five runners on the course but the weather had yet to play its trump card, a thunder and lightning storm for the ages. This was enough to stop the event at lap 30, the right call, and that was it. The last five runners’ DNF’d with Mother Nature the winner, such is life.
So that’s it, four backyard ultras for the Grand Slam, 130 laps, (Herdys 34 /6th /Birdys 36 /5th NTTD 33 /LOS / Hysterical 27/6th ) just over 870km of fun, fun, fun, at least I think it was. ? That’s eight backyard ultras and I hope to compete in many more, it’s an event like no other and when you know, you know. If you haven’t tried one , do you won’t regret it, you’ll go further than you ever thought you could and at some point you’ll enjoy it, remember as Lazarus Lake says ‘ it’s easy until it’s not’…..
I have so many people to thank for this event. My Grand Slam buddies Renton and Jen, we had so many laughs over the events, so many. Shaun Kaesler and his army of volunteers including the three race directors , Michelle, Georges and Kirk. These guys put in a monster shift and coped with all Mother Nature could throw at them. All my fellow competitors who always encouraged me and everybody around them, it really is a brotherhood (or sisterhood?) of suffering but this bonds us. Wayne Chapman for just being there , on every corner, encouraging us all. Tamas for being Tamas.Everybody who made me a cup of tea and there were a few of you. Georges or Michelle’s Mum ?, for the best omelette ever and also the best Anzac biscuits. My Wife for crewing and doing a damn good job, Charlotte and Jasmin, two of my three daughters, for tuning up occasionally and not complaining too much and finally Michelle for the medical advice, I never knew you can fix most running injuries’ just by hiding them.
Finally as always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products… fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/
and facebook https://www.facebook.com/runbkrunoz
This weekend is redemption part#1 as I take on my first ever DNF , the Light Horse Ultra. ( http://lighthorseultra.com.au/race-information/ ) Last year I pulled out after 3 hours, a quarter of the way through the 12 hour event. I can think of many reasons why I did what I did but none make the DNF any easier to swallow, especially as it was my first. So what went wrong, basically I talked myself out of the event and gave myself too many reasons to stop rather than concentrating on a reason to continue. Running is a large part mental and the mind will always try and persuade you to stop, thus limiting the exposure to the pain of competitive running, be it a 400m lap or a multi-day ultra. Tim Noakes called this the Central Governor. ( Note: Please make sure you have a copy of ‘ the Lore of Running’ by Tim Noakes, it is the running equivalent of the Bible and every runner MUST have a copy. )
The text below is from Wikipedia so it must be true ?
The central governor is a proposed process in the brain that regulates exercise in regard to a neurally calculated safe exertion by the body. In particular, physical activity is controlled so that its intensity cannot threaten the body’s homeostasis by causing anoxic damage to the heart muscle. The central governor limits exercise by reducing the neural recruitment of muscle fibers. This reduced recruitment causes the sensation of fatigue. The existence of a central governor was suggested to explain fatigue after prolonged strenuous exercise in long-distance running and other endurance sports, but its ideas could also apply to other causes of exertion-induced fatigue.
The existence of a central governor was proposed by Tim Noakes in 1997, but a similar idea was suggested in 1924 by Archibald Hill.
In contrast to this idea is the one that fatigue is due to peripheral ‘limitation’ or ‘catastrophe’. In this view, regulation by fatigue occurs as a consequence of a failure of homeostasis directly in muscles.
The 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner Archibald Hill proposed in 1924 that the heart was protected from anoxia in strenuous exercise by the existence of a governor.
The heart is able to regulate its output, to some extent, in accordance with the degree of saturation of the arterial blood … we suggest that, in the body (either in the heart muscle itself or in the nervous system), there is some mechanism which causes a slowing of the circulation as soon as a serious degree of unsaturation occurs, and vice versa. This mechanism would tend, to some degree, to act as a ‘governor’, maintaining a reasonably high degree of saturation of the blood: the breathing of a gas mixture rich in oxygen would produce a greater degree of saturation of the blood and so allow the output to increase until the ‘governor’ stopped it again. We realise the danger of a hypothesis partly suggested by teleological reasoning: in this case, however, we can see no other explanation of our experimental results
This hypothesis was disregarded and further research upon exercise fatigue was modeled in terms of it being due to a mechanical failure of the exercising muscles (“peripheral muscle fatigue”). This failure was caused either by an inadequate oxygen supply to the exercising muscles, lactic acid buildup, or total energy depletion in the exhausted muscles.
Tim Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town, in 1997 has renewed Hill’s argument on the basis of modern research.
In his approach, the power output by muscles during exercise is continuously adjusted in regard to calculations made by the brain in regard to a safe level of exertion. These neural calculations factor in earlier experience with strenuous exercise, the planning duration of the exercise, and the present metabolic state of the body. These brain models ensure that body homeostasis is protected, and an emergency reserve margin is maintained. This neural control adjusts the number of activated skeletal muscle motor units, a control which is subjectively experienced as fatigue. This process, though occurring in the brain, is outside conscious control.
The rising perception of discomfort produced by exhausting exercise progressively reduces the conscious desire to over-ride this control mechanism, which, if it were to be reduced, would lead to the recruitment of more motor units. Thus the presence of conscious over-ride would be undesirable because it would increase or maintain the exercise intensity, thereby threatening homoeostasis … as exercise performance is centrally regulated by the CNS, then fatigue should no longer be considered a physical event but rather a sensation or emotion, separate from an overt physical manifestation—for example, the reduction in force output by the active muscles. Rather we now suggest that the physical manifestation of any increasing perception of fatigue may simply be an alteration in the subconsciously regulated pace at which the exercise is performed. Hence the novel suggestion is that the conventional understanding of fatigue is flawed because it makes no distinction between the sensation itself and the physical expression of that sensation which, we suggest, is the alteration in the subconsciously regulated pacing strategy consequent on changing motor unit recruitment/derecruitment by the CNS.
The Light Horse is free to current or former Armed Forces Personnel , to quote the organiser Shaun Kaesler
I’ve participated in some pretty special events. Some short, some over a week. One thing I can promise you, this September 12th & 13th, the Lighthorse Ultra will be the most touching, emotional, respectful and memorable weekend that will pass all those events before. So many people coming together to mark our respect. This is our way to honour. Our way to remember. Our way to never forget.
The event also raised funds for Run for Resilience , a charity created by my good friend Wayne McMurtrie ( https://www.run4resilience.org/donate ) What more of an excuse do you need to run this event ?
For me, last year at the Light Horse Ultra , at 3am in the morning my central governor offered me the chance to get into my car and drive home to a good night’s sleep. It was an offer too good to refuse ! I feel as you get older you get mentally stronger, which explains the take up of Ultra running for us older runners. There is a downside to this of course with the added time on your feet giving the Central Governor more time to get to work and try and persuade you to stop. In my defense this was the first time I had attempted a time rather than distance race and also such a long period of time. I wasn’t mentally prepared for the 12 hours and never got my head around the whole ‘time on feet, just keep moving forward’ approach.
After Birdy’s ultra this year I was able to finally run a 24 hour race and, more importantly , run through the night, where the race is won or lost. Running through the night is so harder than running on a beautiful day bathed in sunshine, funny that. I remember at Birdy’s as soon as the sun came up I was invigorated and all with the world was now right. All my fatigue virtually disappeared and my last laps were the quickest. What happened , I reckon, was I could see the end of the race (I have set myself a 24 hour finish) , thus the Central Governor started to turn off fatigue and let me enjoy my last few laps. If I hadn’t given myself a time limit and ran too exhaustion I feel my last few laps would have been a different story. I’ll hopefully find out next year at Birdys’, this time it will be run to DNF.
So 12 hours of fun this weekend, not really , I’m not one to shy away from a challenge and always enter the longest option so this weekend we’re going 24 hours. What could go wrong ? On the plus side it’s a 6pm start so I get the night over first and then can enjoy the second half. (Is that even a thing?) Last year it was midnight start so I was tired from the start , which made the 3pm DNF easy to embrace. A 6pm start is easier to digest, I hope ? If nothing else mentally I’m stronger with my Birdy’s experience and also the memory of last years DNF. I shall call on my experience from last year to get me through this one and also this post and the one next week talking up my glorious run ! I don’t want another DNF post, you, as my readers, would expect more !
If you bored this weekend you can probably get updates on the Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/1030338320430987/ ) , feel free to sit through the whole 24 hours with me ? Now that would be an Ultra !
Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/
For the first time since I started this blog I didn’t write a post for a calendar month. October 2019 was probably a low point in my running career highlighting in a 37:37 10k at the John Gilmour track last Friday evening. With Strava there’s no hiding from the truth and, looking back, I’d ran the John Gilmour 10k twice previously. The first time was in 2015, two weeks after the Rottnest marathon, but I still ran a respectable 35:34 minutes, the second time , 2017, I managed to snare a podium finish with a third place 36:01 minutes. On this occasion I was trying to break 35 minutes but couldn’t hold it together for the final 5k. On Friday I was aiming for around the 37 minute mark and eventually stumbled home in 37:37. To add insult to injury Steve ‘Twinkle Toes‘ McKean ran past me on the last bend, a perfect end to a perfect night , not !
As you can see from the splits below I managed to hang on for first 5k but then started a downward spiral to half marathon pace, which is fine in a half marathon but not in a 10k. On the bright side I faired a tad better than Jon ‘the Kingsley bullet” Pendse who blew a head gasket with three kilometres to go and crawled home at nearly 5min/k pace. That being said he had ran , and won , a 50k race five days earlier and a won a marathon a few weeks before that. It goes to prove eventually the piper comes calling and ,when he does, sometimes the price you pay is painful. !
As I crawled off the track I reminded myself that I have said many times a 10k is one of the hardest races as , in my opinion, you normally go out at 5k pace and feel great for 5k, the fly in your ointment of course is theres still 5k to go when you find you have am empty tank. Trust me people 5k , with am empty tank, takes an eternity ! In a 5k the worst case scenario you’d only have a few kilometres to run on empty. In a half and a marathon you’re normally more reserved as you respect the distance but for some reason the 10k doesn’t have that fear factor until you’re 5k in and prying for a quick and painless death.
Mentally this race came a bit early after my man-flu a few months ago. After blood tests, urine tests and even a stress echocardiogram , I wasn’t ready for a 10k track race but needed one more race finish to complete my 7 nominated races for the West Australian Marathon Club age group award. Rather than risk waiting any longer the track seemed the ideal time to complete my racing year. I knew I was in pretty poor form with no speed work for months but decided if I could just complete in 36-37 minutes it would be job done. The first few kilometres tucked in behind Jon were painless enough but once Jon stepped up I was content to cruise for as long as possible. My good friend Luke Munro ran past me around 4k and he was aiming for the same time as me so I tried to hang on but he eventually left me. After that it was round and round in circles in every increasing times , 25 times for a 10k . Many times I contemplated stopping but with each lap the end was nearing and I was content looking at the bigger picture, the age group win.
One of the benefits of track racing, I use the word benefit loosely, is you get lapped by the leaders and realise how fast they really are travelling as they go past you like you’re standing still. The winner on the night, Gerry Hill, ran 31 minutes so lapped me at least 4 times, just what you need when you’re struggling of course. Its amazing how quickly your Mr.Hill runs as he cruises past around 3:05min/k pace.
Right, so what’s behind my slide down the running pecking order in sunny Perth. One thing really, and one thing only, time on feet, or lack off. I just haven’t been running as much as I use to. Of course there have been a number of reasons for my decline in distance, namely moving house three times in the last 2 years, two bad cases of man-flu, two bad injuries and a general feeling of fatigue culminating in more time thinking about running than actually running ! I’ve mentioned all of these a number of times but if you need solid proof then our old friend Strava has the stats. (You are on Strava? … http://www.strava.com ) As you can see from the graphic below I had a good block of training leading up to the City to Surf marathon (end of August) but was then undone by man-flu which put me on a downward spiral for a few months. I managed to start training again middle of September but this has been sporadic at best and my weekend training has been non-existent. On the bright side I have been exercising more week by week and this has been helped by my time on the Giant Prelude bike commuting to work. I must admit to enjoying being cocooned in lycra on my morning and afternoon rides but justify this as cross training (and cross dressing!) and, as such , acceptable. It starts to become a problem if you find yourself clip-clopping around a cafe, dressed in sweaty lycra , ordering skinny, frothy frappacino’s !
The graphic below from Strava shows how each week I’m improving , albeit slowly , but it also highlights my lack of activities on the weekend which I need to address quickly. The numbers are certainly nothing like the 140-160k a week I use to regularly knock out in 2016-2017 and this explains my performance , add in a few extra years and kilo’s and everything becomes clear. The secret to running is consistency and as you can see, lately, it just hasn’t been there enough. So what’s the way forward. It’s three fold really, First I need to ramp up the kilometres to at least 100k a week , week in week out , for a 10 week block. Next lose at least 4-5kgs of weight. (don’t mention this to no1 Wife , she’s not a fan of my ‘prison of war on hunger strike‘ look?) , finally add some speed work on a weekly basis. There is a place for the Maffetone and Fitzgerald techniques advocating distance over all else but eventually you need to add the cream to the cake and add pace. This is another reason I put myself through the grinder last Friday, I needed to feel the pain that only a 10k race gives you.
Is running that simple, distance, weight and pace; well really, yes it is. I’m sorry if all of the coaches out there suddenly realise I’ve summed up the sport in less than one sentence but their job is more motivational and keeping runners to a plan, the secret is no secret really. If you want to look at this in practive you need to look no further than my good friend Jon Pendse. Jon, this year , has been nothing short of a revelation. Running Australia record times for the 12 hour, winning marathons and ultras weeks apart, smashing his 5k park run PB weekly and still hitting 160k a week totals, week in , week out. Of course the distraction of a Wife has been jettisoned with his first divorce and this has turbo-charged his training. Maybe I should ‘ single life‘ as another secret to improving your running; albeit a costly price to pay as you get to my age ! Another big reason Jon puts his improvement down to is weight loss. The old Jon, or Mr.Squishy as his Son called him, was always carrying a bit of extra padding around the mid-rift, this has been eradicated as he now looks like a jockey with an eating disorder . I’ve mentioned this before but Jon really is living the dream at the moment and he puts a large part of this down to his diet, which surprising avoids too many carbs. I’m not going to get into the diet thing in this post but I will say Kenyans eat carbs and a lot of carbs, that is all.
I’ve been very quiet on the blogging front and, truth be told , I’m still suffering from my first DNF at the Light Horse 12 hour race at then end of May. Since then I’ve only been to the keyboard twice, most unlike me. So what have I been doing for the last 4-6 weeks ?
Luckily I had the Rottnest Marathon to prepare for. This is without doubt one of the most idyllic , beautiful and brutal marathons in the West Australian Calendar. I have run this bad boy eleven times and managed to sub3 on six occasions. (The last 6 funnily enough). Over the years I been at the pointy end of the race many times and ran second on two occasions, as well as all positions upwards to 7th and a few other top 10 finishes. In my defence it’s normally a small field of less than two hundred runners as marathon runners are not big fan of hills and at Rottnest there’s four, that’s four per lap of course and there’s four laps, you get the picture!
One of the main reasons for Rottnest this year, bar a confidence booster ahead of the 2019 marathon season (which would include the Perth City to Surf Marathon for the 10th time and the Perth ‘Running Festival’ (ex-Perth Marathon) for the 13th time) , was also to take the record for the number of sub three marathon times on the Island. Currently I share this with Mark Page, both having run sub3 six times, this was to be my seventh. So the goal was a 7th sub3, age group win and the cherry on the cake would be a top 5 finish.
Jon had organised accommodation and I was staying with his family, minus his ex-Wife, the T-train and the mighty TB; that’s trailblazer not Thomas Bruins. (Although Thomas Bruins is mighty but there’s really only one TB, the one, and only, original Trail Blazer, Jon Phillips) There was the obligatory pasta meal, pre-race, cooked by Jon this year due to his ex-Wife not being invited on the trip. In Karen’s absence Jon did a good job so I feel her days are numbered, actually they are well and truly finished!
The first lap was controlled with a big group of runners settling into a sub 3 bus and moving along comfortably at around 4:10min/k pace, faster in places when gradient allowed and slower when faced with the hills. For the first lap we went through averaging 4:06min/k, right on track. We had splintered into a group of five runners by this point with Tony, and two other runners, leaving the pack to go on and finish in the top 5.
On a side note I must add that this was without doubt the best conditions we had ever encountered at Rottnest. Moving the race from its usual October slot, which is spring in sunny Perth, so normally a tad warm, was certainly justified. The sun rising as we moved along the causeway, between the salt lakes, is an image that will go with me to the grave, it was inspiring. One of those ‘wish I had a camera moments‘, I can only hope someone did have an iPhone and took a photo because it was biblical. Normally there’s a howling wind with ‘foam balls ‘ rolling towards you, not today, it was perfect. If we weren’t racing me and Jon would have stopped for a hug ! Right, I digress…..
The second lap was similar to the first with the pack dropping down to four and Jon pushing the pace through the start line onto lap three. Again we were right on time still averaging 4:06min/k, maybe not as comfortable as last one but still nowhere near the ‘red zone‘, yet. Now if you race Rottnest you know that lap one is comfortable and you breath in the scenery and the occasion. Lap two and things are normally heating up , literally, and you’re not so bothered with the scenery just the concrete road infront of you. By lap three you are well and truly over Rottnest, big time, and dream of long, flat, courses . Lap three is what makes or breaks you at Rotto. Survive and you tee yourself up for a great Rotto, fall apart and that last lap can last a very, very long time.
On this occasion I was lucky enough to find another gear and my third lap was my fastest. I jettisoned the last two members of the sub 3 bus and was now alone with my thoughts , the bus had become more of a personalised Uber ride ? I knew I was outside the top 5 so concentrated on my sub3 finish, my primary goal. I had 3-5 minutes up my sleeve but knew I would be paying the piper sometime very soon, both figuratively and literally . My fears were realised at around the 35k mark where the legs decided they had had enough for the day and started to misbehave. I probably dropped two minutes over the last 5k which cost me a sub 2:55 finish and a top 5 placing.
As I crawled up the last few hills I was handed a gold coin which you then have to hand to the pipe a few hundred metres up the road, this is a WAMC tradition and one I always look forward. Paying the piper means you have less than 4k to the finish and, with my experience, there’s no way I ain’t finishing that close, it’s just a case of what state I’ll be in. A top 5 finish was there if I could have kept my pace for the final 5-6k but today I was just beaten by the hills. I predicted somewhere around 2:55 so two minutes over was acceptable. I had gone through half way in 1:27:30 so a positive split off less than three minutes , on Rottnest , is just about perfect pacing.
So, after paying the piper, I held it together to finish just under two hours and fifty eight minutes with a 4:10min/k average. (The course measured 42.7k on Strava http://www.strava.com. so the average reflects that.) Mission accomplished, sub three number seven on Rotto, 31 overall , and my sub streak moves to 28 in a row, a perfect day really. To say I was stoked is an understatement. This may have been my 44th marathon but given the last two years of injury it meant as much as my first in 2003. Overall I had ran a ‘controlled’ race with only the last 5 kilometres between me and a perfect finish. I’m not too overly bothered about dropping the ball , slightly , over the last 30 minutes as I’m sure with more training I’ll get my finishing kick back. Remember ‘distance unlocks your running dreams‘ and I just need to run more, simple really.
So lessons learnt for all you sub3 runners.
- Do the hard yards first, and that means distance and plenty of it. Research Phil Maffetone (the running bit and the diet if you can stomach a diet with very little carbs, initially?) , Arthur Lydiard and Matt Fitzgerald. Theses three preach the distance is king mantle before adding the turbo charger that is pace before finally fine tuning to your chosen event.
- Indicator races are a valuable source of confidence. Coming into Rottnest I had ran 10 three times in 2019 , each time faster than the previous. I managed a 36:17, 35:55 and 35:38 in the weeks leading up to the marathon and these times gave me the confidence that I could sub3, even on a hilly course. Add in a 1:22 and a 1:19 in my two half marathons this year and I knew I could go out at 4:10min/k pace comfortably.
- Trust in your training. If you’ve done the hard work you will get the reward. There is no secret to doing well at races, it really is about putting the work in, with your training, for the pay back with a bib on your chest. No surprises. This is another mantra I live by and I use sometimes when I am deep in the pain box, questioning the way forward.
- The race is your time to shine, don’t be afraid of it but instead embrace it. The final part of your training is the race itself and this is where all that hard work pays off. The final 42.2km’s of any 12 week training program should be the most enjoyable. This is when the previous 12 weeks of hard work is suddenly worth the price you pay, sacrificing your social life, family life and work life. The race itself is pay back for all of this, enjoy it. !
- After you finish and achieve one goal, start on the next. Without a goal we become joggers and start saying things like ‘ I don’t run with a watch, I run by feel’, ‘I just run because it makes me happy’; you’ll be hugging trees next. We run to challenge ourselves to be a better person today than we were yesterday, and even better tomorrow. The only person we are really racing is ourselves and you need to continually work to better the old you , or get as close as you can to the old you as Father Time starts to add seconds to your race times and pace.
- Search the runbkrun website for my Golden Rules. These are my nuggets of information that will help you bring down your times. Not real surprises here but just good old fashioned advice from someone who knows, or at least thinks they do ?
After the obligatory warm shower it was off to the pub for the awards ceremony, I told you Rottnest was a magical place. After being presented with my 50-59 age group medal by my good friend Visna Jareb it was onto another one of my goals for the weekend, to drink the pub dry of Guinness. This sounds a lot harder than it actually is as the sub only serves Guinness in cans and one year there was only five and I managed to drink them all, hence the street goal every year since. This year I saw there was eight cans so had to get my good mates Zac and Steve ‘Twinkle toes’ McKean in to help me. I put in a good effort by demolishing three cans but that was me done. I staggered down to the 4:30pm ferry and back to the mainland I went. Bye bye Rottnest, as always it was a blast and I’ll see you in 2020….
Last weekend was the Bridges 10k where I managed to win my age group with a respectable finishing time of 35:55, albeit a minute slower than last year. The field was loaded this year , where as last year I was 8th , this year I was 33rd and well and truly beaten by two women. In my defence the two women that beat me are on the cusp of Commonwealth or even Olympic call up’s so I’m ok with it . Anyhow as you can see in the photo I was certainly enjoying the first 100 metres , sharing jokes with my fellow competitors and looking forward to what lay ahead. Not my normal scalded cat start (please note the correct spelling of scalded after many “scoulded cats” in previous posts …..) , can you teach an old runner new tricks ?
Of course it was a different picture a kilometre or two later as I moved backwards down the field at a rapid rate of knots. Initially it was nice to run in a pack of runners but I spat out the back pretty quickly and it was time to open the pain box, jump in, lock the door behind me and assume the foetal position ! Got to love racing ! I managed to hold position from about 4k onwards and even pegged a few back in the second half so all in all a great day racing. Of course it was painful and of course you ask yourself why you do it but as soon as you finish and you have that medal in your hand all is forgotten.
This weekend I get to enjoy the experience again as I’m racing the Joondalup half marathon. I actually prefer a half to a 10k as you can ease into the race and it’s not all at threshold, there may even be a small amount of fun involved in a half, maybe ? I’ve raced Joondalup many times and always enjoyed the run as it’s a lap of the lake with a small loop to start to make the distance. No hills , bar a nasty rise at the finish, so it’s pretty quick. Predicted time would be around the 80 minutes which would be my slowest time but I’m still recovering from injury and it just takes time. The most important thing is I’m actually looking forward to the race with the pressure of a finishing time not as prevalent as normal. That’s not to say I’ll be giving it my all, if there’s a bib on my chest then it’s on for young and old… (I may have said that a few times ….)
So how can you stay motivated as you ease into back into the pack , assuming you are on the wrong side of forty. The answer of course is age groups. For the bridges in the 50-59 age group there was nearly 100 runners and it was my number one goal to be the first 50-59 runner over that finish line. This would then give me another medal and a voucher for another bag (to add to the 10 or more I already have?) Of course it’s not the medal or bag that’s really important , it’s the bragging rights as the 2nd and 3rd place runners were my good friends, a force competitors, Steve ‘Twinkle Toes’ McKean and Stephen ‘ the Surge’ Stockwell. In their defence I think both are either recovering from injury or nursing an injury but I’ll take the win.
Another way to level the racing playing field as we get older is to add distance to the mix. Anything less than a marathon and I’m starting to move back to the pack but I still reckon I got a few years in the ultra world closer to the front. To this end I’ve entered the Lighthouse Ultra 12 hour race http://lighthorseultra.com.au (my first) , the Wild Goose three days trail ultra http://wildgoosechaseultra.com.au (my first) and of course the 200 mile Delirious West Ultra http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au (my first) . These three events will certainly test my theory. The only fly in the ointment of course is my infamous lack of navigational trail running skills. As my mate Zac Jeps once famously said “You know you’re lost when Kevin Matthews says ‘I know where we are”…?” I’m hoping the GPX files that are available are accurate otherwise my blogging days may be over!
There is also the small issue with elevation. Apparently these trail runners like their elevation, something us concrete hugging show ponies normally avoid. Lets face it there’s a reason that the Boston Marathon is so popular anD of the big 6 marathons most , if not all, are virtually flat. Marathon runners don’t like elevation, trail runners are the complete opposite, they crave elevation.! I’m pretty confident I can survive in both worlds due to basic cardio fitness and the stubbornness of a long time runner who hates nothing more than the thought of slowing, or worse, walking! Of course I expect to do some walking over the three events I’ve entered but I steadfastly refuse to take poles along, sorry people but I’m a runner who may be forced to walk (quickly) because of distance , but I ain’t a skier and there will be no poles unless there is snow . Why do I get the sense I’m going to regret that last statement ? Maybe I’ll make my partner in crime , Jon ‘Tinder’ Pendse, bring along some poles and if we need them I can just ‘borrow them from him‘ (when he’s not looking?)
All joking aside I do need to start to think seriously about the Wild Goose in June as it’s a three day event starting with a 18k hill run on Friday (see, elevation!), a 106k hilly 2 lap loop Saturday and then a 53k version Sunday, 1 lap. That’s a lot of distance plus a lot of hills and some serious navigation. Just writing that I’m starting to get nervous !
Other news last weekend was Jon running another sub three at Bunbury for a 5th place finish , I think that was 11th Bunbury marathon in a row , and the T-train getting derailed with 800m’s to go to the finish of the Bunbury 50k while leading the race. ( https://www.tonysmithruncoaching.com ) Another Northern Suburbs Coach , Ray Orchison ( https://runetics.com.au ) ran over the top of the T-train after giving him over 9 minutes earlier in the race. Tone was going for his third victory in this event but even trains get derailed once in a while. In his defence Tony had gone out chasing a huge time and went though the marathon distance less than a minute slower than his PB time, a time that would have got him a podium finish in the main event. After that unfortunately it all went horribly wrong and that just serves to show us mortals even the greats of running can have a bad day at the office. Steve Prefontaine sums it up beautifully ….
