Inspiration

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and who comes short again and again and again.

There is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do deeds, who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause.

Who at best knows the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat or victory.

Roosevelt.

Out, But not Down

Friday afternoon 7th November, with enough gear to clothe half of the entered runners and enough food to feed a small army, we set off for Teralba in Warners Bay. I get very nervous driving to the start of a long race….. Did I pack the headlamp, compass, maps, camelback, the list goes on. It turns out I had.

Craig and I joined Vic, Bart and Kristy at the motel. Advertised as a 4 bed room, it was big enough for 2 of us, so we all squeezed in and had the worst nights sleep ever! Alarm was set for 4am, but really we didn’t need it. The ritual last minute checking of drop bags for the checkpoints, filling of camelbacks and application of tonnes of bodyglide, bushman’s repellant and plaster to prevent blisters quickly burned up the next hour.

The start area saw about 80 nervous faces milling around and the instructions from the Race Director were given. Before long we were off, with about 7k on the road to start with before heading up the side of a cliff (perhaps I exaggerate slightly, but only slightly) on trails. Kristy and Bart were to run together, Vic after them, and me taking up my traditional position right at the back of the pack. Craig had very kindly offered to be support crew for the race, and carried our multitude of supplies in his car from checkpoint to checkpoint.I started out ok, running for a fair bit of the first section, which is 28k long. I managed to somehow damage my hip flexor early in the climbing, which made the hills painful to negotiate. And this whole section was HILLS!

I got to CP1 with only 8 minutes to spare, with 6 hours allowed for the lunacy that is section 1. I had kind of decided to toss the race in, until one of the volunteers said "No one has EVER pulled out at CP1". So at 11.59 I grabbed my camelback and a vegemite sandwich from Craig and headed off for the next section, 24k of less hilly terrain. I was only walking/shuffling by this point so just enjoyed the scenery. I ran this whole bit on my own, pretty much as I had done the last, and had a wonderful afternoon.I had to pull out at CP2 as I was a few minutes over the cut-off time, but I was pleased to have made it half way on my first attempt of this monster course. I was feeling great except for my hip, so next year should be good. Despite being unceremoniously tossed off the course, it was still the fastest I had covered this distance, so there is hope for me yet ;)

I then joined Craig crewing for the others and before long we had a call from Bart saying Kristy required assistance. After several hours of driving up and down the same road trying to find the turn off for CheckPoint 3, we arrived, completely out of petrol, cold and ever so slightly annoyed with the lack of adequate road signage. Our first step was to organize some (permission given by the owner) petrol siphoning. Disaster avoided, we then saw Bart and Kristy arrive, followed shortly by Vic, who was the only one of us left on the trail. He had a very quick stop and departed for the last Check Point.

After 21.15 Vic arrived at the finish, looking so fresh and cheery that it belied what he has just achieved. The hardest 100k trail race around. We then all piled back into Craigs car and took the scenic, longer, windier route back, via every small community in the whole area. Finally arriving at a motel in Wyong, which thankfully, this time, had plenty of room for us all. A few hours sleep and then up to pack and drive home.

Lessons learned:
* GNW really is as hard as everyone says!
* I can read maps and find my way around without any trouble.
* I quite enjoy running alone in the bush.
* Magpies still attack in November.
* Cows scare me.
* Good crew (thanks Craig) is invaluable.
* Even though I didn't make the full distance, this is still the most fun you can have standing up!

Less than 2 weeks to GNW

Well it's now starting to get scary! 100km run coming up all too soon.

Less than 2 weeks to go and today was sooo hot. I decided to see how my body would stand up to a couple of hours in the midday sun, running.

If I'd known it was 34 degrees I might have thought differently. But I didn't :) I ran for 2 hours and felt good most of the way. I didn't overheat too badly, but by the end of it the soles of my feet were quite tender.

Running on warm bitumen is one thing, but by the end of today's trip my feet were very very sore. I must have looked like a right idiot out there. No permanent damage done, and they'll just be a bit tougher when the chips are down next month.

I've managed to sort out some shoes for the Great North 100 as well. Five fingers KSO's with injinji's will be the plan. I feel like a bit of a fraud wearing shoes and socks and calling myself a barefoot runner, but hey, it's the only way to get to the end. I'll have to live with the shame ;)

Happenings

I haven't had much to say here, due to a busy work/home life that has prevented me from doing a lot.

We were always due to move at the end of this year, with Marty already away since January of this year. The plan was to go to Wodonga, but the army decided at the last minute that it might be Canberra. They then changed this about 10 times in 2 weeks, making for a very stressful time for us all.

Finally they settled on Wodonga in Victoria, but well have to move again in 12 months to Canberra!! My time has been spent sorting out the 4 kids to move schools and finding a house. House - tick. Schools - tick. Netball club - tick. Footy club - tick. Tennis - tick.

And the important things...... I found a great Athletics club (who we've already had a run with) and have started looking at trail runs in the Victorian Alpine area. I will need to work very very hard to get fit enough, but I'll have nothing else to do :)

A friend very kindly gave me their racing bike (it's done 7 ironmans) and I'm learning to ride it. Turns out its harder than it looks. And shoes are definately the go!! With a large indoor pool at my disposal and lots of time on my hands, I might end up doing a small tri next year, though nothing will ever be as good as trail running.

On the running front, I did the 9k Bridge Run with my girls in September, which was a wonderful day, albeit a little warm. We then cheered on the marathoners, from the first runner to the very last. It was very emotional to see people of all ages/shapes and abilities struggling or cruising to the line. I'm glad to have seen it from the other side of the tape.

I ran today as well in the SMC half marathon. I found it tough going, trying out the new KSO's. They rubbed my feet badly, and within 2km, I had several areas of no skin. Injinjis are the go with these I think.

I ended up barefoot, which is not great on this course, with so much broken glass and large rocks. Trying to be safe and run in the gutter, I managed to kick my big toe and split the toenail. OWWW. This resulted in a limping walk home for me. Not quite a personal worst time for 21k, but very close!

Next big run in the Great North 100k in 3 weeks. It's going to be interesting......

Trailwalker 08

My 3rd 100k trail run, and 7th ultra in a year.

This year saw us doing the reverse of last years trail. So all the really hard sections at the start, and the easy stuff at the end. Funny though, how after 80k, even the easy stuff seems difficult.

We had the late start of 10am, which sees so much daylight burned before you even start, that you feel a bit 'behind' before you even leave the start area. With 2 teams from Westies, we arrived bright and early and checked in quickly to gain a good starting spot.

The first 3 sections were great. Though tricky terrain and lots of climbs and drops, all 8 handled it well. It is harder keeping 8 people together on the trail, when all are of varying levels in fitness and experience. There were 3 veterans (6th trailwalker), a couple of second timers and the rest first time walkers.

After the night section, it became apparent that one team member could no longer continue. His knees were shot to pieces and he was in a great deal of pain. He recultantly decided to drop at this point. Part of me was jealous as he took off his shoes and put on ugg boots and warmer clothes, sitting down to breakfast.

At this point I became very very cold and memories of The North Face hypothermia crept back into my mind. I quickly got out all the layers I could find, and ate some extra food, though I didn't feel like it. A couple of cups of hot coffee helped as well. Leaving this checkpoint, I ran some sections, just to warm up and get the blood flowing.

Once I was sweating and cursing all the extra layers I had to carry, I resumed walking and waited for the rest of the crew to catch up.

The remainder of the day was fairly uneventful, working our way from checkpoint to checkpoint, answering everyones questions about my strange choice of footwear. So many people were worried about me, thinking I couldn't continue in slippers. I assured them all I thought I'd make it ok.

We realised at CP7 that we were going to see the start of another night, so did a battery swap for the headlamp and grabbed the thermals again to head off. CP8 actually came around before the night set in, so we had picked up a little speed over this section.

Pulling out of the last checkpoint was a relief. Only 12k to go, with 7k in the bush and the rest on the road. By this stage I was longing for the bitumen, so I could take the vibrams off and 'rest' my bare feet on something. My feet had had enough of being closed in. We had been walking for close to 34 hours by now.

I cried when the road appeared. I ripped my vibrams off and rubbed my feet on the ground. Nothing has ever felt better, except perhaps, about half an hour later when we ran beside the beach. At least everyone else ran beside it, I ran straight down to the surf. The icy salt water and cold sand were heaven to my aching feet. The last 7k or so was barefoot. By the end of the race, my feet were feeling about 70% better.

I recall Kevin Tiller once saying in his blog about running barefoot at night with no headlamp. I gave it a go on the last leg of the course. I was just too damn lazy to get the lamp out. Surfaces ranged from bitumen, concrete, sand, dirt, rocks, trail, wooden steps, grass and even some steel grating at the end. Light varied from street light to pitch dark. I didn't step on anything nasty, or stub my toes. It's interesting how the 'sixth sense' takes over, and I enjoyed this little bit of silliness at the end.

Makes me wonder whether I could actually do a race like this completely barefoot. I'd love to try one day.

Wisdom of the Learned

run, run, run. Get you miles up bit by bit. Do as much as you can without injury.

Some ultra runners can live of 45km a week others like 200km+.

I like the idea of an apprenticeship and you start with a nice easy race like the 6 foot and then move to a 60km and then a 100km and then the 100 mile.

Just going for the GNW or even worse the C2K as your first ultra takes a special breed of madman.

The beauty of running and ultra running is it takes time to learn what works for you.

There is no book on what works for you you just get out there and try it.

Some days it all works and other days you are sitting in blue vomit.

Some days you are in love with the world and other days crow's steal your food.

I love that we can part of something so great with nothing more then the desire to be there.

But the first step is getting out the door everyday and running mile after mile.

And being a little crazy does not hurt.

(Tim Turner 2008)

Sixth City to Surf

Although I really only count myself as a new runner (about 18months) I have turned up for this event 6 years in a row now.

I love it! 70,000 people all lined up on the city streets, ready to do the 14km dash to Bondi Beach. As a run, it's hard to find your rythm, you have to constantly dodge people, and you don't get a finish line photo of yourself... there's usually at least 20 people in the shot. But the atmosphere is spectacular, and the views of the streets packed with runners as you wind your way east is nothing short of amazing!



The characters make up this event. People dress up in all kinds of weird costumes, and bands come out on to the streets to entertain the crowds. There are no quiet boring bits to this race. Spectators line the course, having parties and bbq's out on the balconies of apartments or front lawns. Little kids all waiting for you to give them a 'high five' as you run past.

I started in the second group start with my daughter and good friend Jo. This meant we had a 5 minute wait after the first gun sounded sending the elite runners off, before we set out. I went out at a pace I knew was too fast for me (under 6min/km) but managed to hold this for the first few km. I had NO hope of keeping up with my daughter.... she sped off and I never saw her again until after the finish!

The hills came and went and I enjoyed not having to drag myself up them. All the long distance trail running has paid off. I had a bit of trouble about 10-11k, as the bitumen is very rough and rutted and my feet started to hurt a fair bit. But, it is my choice to run without shoes, so 'suck it up and run' I say.

Coming down the last hill and around the corner into Bondi was fantastic. Usually I am spent by this point, so to up the pace a little and cruise home in about 93 minutes was very exciting for me. I had never thought I would break 100minutes for this race, or do it without extreme pain. I now think that I could probably go closer to 80 minutes.... bring on next year!

"I'm with stupid"