Last weekend marked the end of the Ultra Series WA involvement in the Lighthorse Ultra after ten years. ( https://www.ultraseries.com.au/ ) I’m hoping another organisation or group of ultra runners will take over the mantle and continue the event as it’s a little ripper and the only 24-hour timed event in Western Australia. The course had been shortened to just over two kilometres due to road works at one end of the course which disrupted parking, this was actually a good thing as it took out a little hill and it meant you ran past your gazebo, and comfortable chair, more often.  (Running past your gazebo more times could be a double-edged sword of course especially when you’re buggered as it starts calling your name!)

I first ran the 12 hour event in 2020 and raced around thirty three kilometers before scuttling home , it was a mixture of never experiencing a timed event and the midnight start. Three hours in I was cooked although I blame Jon Pendse who set the pace and an eventual course record!  Funnily enough the following morning I got up and ran another thirty three kilometres. I could have gone back to the event and logged many more kilometres and actually got a reasonable total. In my defence I had moved house the previous week and was probably not in the best mind set for a twelve-hour event, it being my first, add in the midnight start, another first, and I was probably doomed from the start.

Since then, I have raced the 24-hour version five times from 2021 to 2025, I missed last year as my beloved Fremantle Dockers were playing finals footie and being a Freo’ tragic couldn’t miss it. (We lost by a point!)  After racing the Transcend Ultra two weeks prior I knew this final event would be a test, but truth be told underestimated how much of a test.  I set my A goal on getting as close to two hundred kilometres without destroying myself, I wanted to enjoy this last dance.  Plan B was a miler distance, one hundred and sixty kilometres, and there was no plan C.

I would be self-crewed for the first time as no one from my usual Yelo crew were not interested but I was happy enough to take on the event alone as I had experience and a good set up on my side, a complete opposite to my naivety in 2020.  Karen drove me to the start line thirty minutes before the start, and we set up my gazebo at the end of the start/finish corral, being one of the last to arrive. Once I had my gazebo setup with my chair and table I started to put out all the food I would not eat during the event. It’s a tradition of all ultra runners to buy about ten times more food than they actually consume, it’s more of a ‘comfy blanket’ situation I suppose.  When you can’t eat and feel actually sick as a dog it’s good to look around at all the food you brought, which now disgusts you, no one said ultra running was smart !

This year I had outdone myself and only brought my food stash on the way to the event via a local IGA store which was being refurbished so was half empty. I still spent over seventy dollars but really brought very little, the cost-of-living crisis is real in sunny Perth it seems.  I did have weetbix for breakfast and lots of milk as well as hot water in flasks for sweet tea, I figured this would be enough after adding a few bix gu’s. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/en-au ) During the event it turned out not to be enough as I missed a good evening meal, instead settling for a protein shake, which probably wasn’t enough. This may have contributed to my downfall in the early hours of the morning when at one point I think I did about ten kilometres in three hours, that and the torrential rain.

The twenty-four  hour race starts at midday Saturday finishing midday Sunday, funnily enough, there is also a twelve-hour race starting at midnight, a six-hour race starting at six am Sunday morning and a three-hour race starting at nine am Sunday. They all finish at midday Sunday. This year was the biggest entry ever with over one hundred and sixty competitors in the twenty-four event alone, overall, I think there was close to four hundred competitors including the relay runners.

So let’s get started, I scuttled to the start and met up with the eventual winner and second place, Shane and Tom, on the start line as well as Edywn, the Birdy’s backyard Ultra runner from a few months earlier, a very packed field. Ed went off like a rocket and was chasing the relay runners while Tom and I also started far too fast, but I thought I might as well enjoy a bit of pace early as it would soon turn into an ‘ultra slog‘ later into the event.  Looking at Strava (you have Strava right? Remember if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen ! https://www.strava.com)  I ran at a good pace for the first thirteen kilometres before a quick stop to rehydrate and take a Bix Gu. I then continued to about thirty-six kilometres with no real breaks bar refueling every other lap and taking a bix gu onboard or a chocolate bar.

The first six hours were uneventful; I wasn’t feeling great but was lapping relatively consistently between late five-minute and early six-minute kilometre pace. The first test came about eight when the heavens opened and I scuttled to my chair and decided to wait it out with a nice cuppa. As I said earlier, I wanted to enjoy this last Lighthorse and there’s something comforting about sitting in your reclining chair, protected by your gazebo, all nice and warm as you watch runners scuttle past in torrential rain. Unfortunately, I knew I couldn’t sit there forever so changed my top, put on a thermal, gortex rain jacket and waterproof trousers and exploded into the night.  I was listening to Hail Mary, one of my favourite novels, and just walked a few kilomters enjoying the conditions before returning to my earlier pace.

Looking at Strava kilometre sixty-four was my first major stop, probably thirty-five minutes. I remember sitting down in the chair and setting my iPhone for a ten-minute timer which I think I may have snoozed. This would have been around seven thirty in the evening, and I should have been eating a good meal but as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have one, this would come back and bite me late in the evening. An hour later I took another long break, this time nearly fifty minutes but I think this was mainly due to more rain. I would take three more long breaks at around one in the morning, three in the morning and just before sunrise at five in the morning.  It just came down to fatigue and not eating enough, which in the end slowed progress to a crawl.  It was during this one am to five am period I lost a lot of time to the other runners and was sitting around 18th overall when the sun rose.

This is one of the major drawbacks of no crew, you are left to your own devices and there’s no one there to push you out of your comfortable chair into the dark or even offer words of encouragement. It was just too easy to set timers starting at ten minutes and then twenty minutes and hit snooze when the call to action eventually arrives.  My two hundred kilometre goal was well and truly over and early on in the morning my plan B, of a miler distance total, looked under threat. I would need to pull my finger out to make one hundred and sixty kilometres.

The only bright side of running very little in the early morning was my legs had pretty well recovered so as soon as the sunrose I got to work, ticking off laps and moving up the field. I was now lapping probably as quick as the front runners, but they have many laps on me. I was able to catch and pass nine runners in the last three hours and grab seventh male and ninth overall, with a reasonable total of 173 kilometres, according to Strava.  After the disaster of the previous evening, I was stoked to finish strong and kept running to the very end.  This one goes down as a what could have been but with the Transcend Ultra still in my legs I’m pretty happy with a top ten finish, albeit if this event is kept on I will be going again to break two hundred in my sixties, you’d be mad not to right?

So the main take away from Lighthorse 2026 is I can still do hard shit but it’s getting harder, funny that.  Training wise, post Transcend Ultra, has been mainly down the local gym on a treadmill with little road running and this has been the story of the last six months. I’m not putting in any ware near enough kilometres for the races I have entered and for the events coming my way towards the end of the year and into 2027.  I can get through the Perth marathon in October and the Feral Pig miler in November on experience but the Montane Winter Spine in January is a whole different ball game.  ( https://www.thespinerace.com/race/montane-winter-spine/ ) It’s bad enough that any training I do will be in a Perth summer when the event is in an English winter. Training in high thirties to then race in minus temperatures normally doesn’t end well, add in the actual Spine terrain, which is something I don’t have in Perth, and I’m taking this bad boy on blind.  The only way I can get to finish is to just go overboard on fitness and get as cardio fit as possible and then hope that fitness and mental toughness will get me to the finish line, after all there will be more hiking than running it seems.

The Winter Spine is billed as the most brutal event in Britain and the suffering seems to be turned up to a ‘Spinal tap eleven’, I seem to have typed that a lot lately? I’m ok with that but do I want to put myself through the mental torture the Spine race will dish out, add in the eighteen hours of darkness ,as you’re running through the depths of January, and it seems to be a sufferfest , which is the point of course but after so many sufferfests when is enough enough?

For the moment I need to start thinking about the Perth marathon in October. I have four weeks to try and inject some pace back into the legs and the goal is a three-hour fifteen minute finish or better. It’ll be my fifteenth Perth marathon and fifty first marathon, to go with my sixty-seven ultras, the numbers are starting to get pretty large which as I approach sixty is probably expected. Post Perth it’s the Feral Pig Miler in November ( https://www.feralpigultra.com.au/ ) and then I suppose I’ll know if I’m going to take on the Spine?  Right, better get busy I have a marathon to train for…..

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Big shout out to fisiocrem , this product is just incredible for tired and aching legs. I use it daily and have noticed a vast improvement in recovery.

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 Hong 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/)

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