Running with Scott

Back in May this year, I did TNF 100k. My brother and his wife came to look after my kids while I ran. Scott (my brother) wanted to know everything about the race. I left him a map, which he followed every step of my run, texting me encouragement and jokes along the way.

He was so excited by the whole thing, that he started running. Just a couple of km every other day, telling me he'd not do more than 4k/day at most, ever.

I recall a phone call from him recently, telling me he'd finished a 10k run, he was so excited!! Hooked, and loving it :) He asked whether he could pace/crew me at a race someday. I suggested Glasshouse in September 09.

Arrviving in Brisbane on 19 December for a holiday with my family, I was greeted by Scott with the question "When are we going running?"

So the next day we set out early (4am) to run up on Tamborine Mountain, the oldest national park in Queensland. It was spectacular. Old rainforest, waterfalls, bush turkeys, wallabies, wombats, and more than a few leeches! Scott was amazed to hear that this was the type of running some prefer. He decided right then trail running was what he'd been looking for.

We covered about 6k that morning, but it wasn't enough. Scott found another trail and we did another 3k before heading home. We went on to explore other parts of Brisbane... Mt Cootha, Mt Cotton, Daisy Hill Forest, Mt Nebo and more sections of Tamborine.

By the end of my trip, Scott had decided he would like to do the GlassHouse 50k in May and is now training his butt off. He shares my passion for barefoot running, and we spent some quality time comparing feet!!

Can't wait to do a 100k run with him soon......

It's been a long few weeks....

We are now officially Victorian dwellers.

After a mad scramble to pack up the house and finish off my work contract after GNW, the trucks arrived in late November to take our belongings south.

It was very sad to leave a place I've grown to love, and the people I've come to call my friends. I know that there are new friends to be made, but it doesn't make the leaving easier.

Arriving in Wodonga to the largest house I've ever lived in (almost too big in fact) I was struck by the landscape. Dry and hilly, very very hilly. A short drive south and you can be climbing the countries tallest mountains. Our street is situated at the base of a hill, so good running training there. Just 2km away is another much larger hill, so I will not be short of places to explore.

Getting things set up took time, hence my slackness in posting/blogging for so long.

I went for a run soon after arriving, only to find I was on the verge of a chest infection, and the run tipped me over. 10 days of drugs later, I tentatively did a couple of short runs.

We are off to Queensland for Christmas for almost a month shortly, so I hope I'm able to get back into some sort of ryhthm with running again while there.

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.