There's no rush.

‘I choose to laugh, move on and continue to try to run to the hills.’

The above quote is the final sentence of my last post. What are ya gonna do??? Well yesterday I got my wish. There was plenty of hill. 2761m total ascent across 50km of the Maroondah Dam Ultra. It was brutal. I’m glad I didn’t know the stats before the run. I had seen the elevation map before the event so I knew when the hills were coming and that definitely helped mentally but I didn’t know the total climb and I think that helped even more.

There are two pieces of advice that I’ve been given about running ultras that is probably as important to me as any training I do. If follow the advice, I run well. If I don’t, I run poorly. The first golden piece of knowledge gained is to simply keep on the move. Whether that is running or walking doesn’t matter, just keep going. The second is to walk up the hills. Both of these things require a mindset that sometimes goes against everything you’re feeling or thinking at the time.  

Early on in the run yesterday I was feeling fresh after a good week of tapering and there were some hills that weren’t too disgusting that I definitely could have run up. In previous events I have always run those sort of hils and in previous events I have always blown up and struggled to the line. Yesterday I finally used the advice and walked them. It was amazing to see the yo-yo effect happening with me being passed on ascent and then picking up and passing those same runners on the flats and downhills. That gave me confidence in the strategy and I kept it up for the whole race. There was one runner I saw at the last checkpoint who had taken off up a hill a few kms earlier, he looked absolutely spent. I crossed the line ahead of him and felt his pain, I’ve been there before several times. To be honest though it wasn’t whether or not I was keeping pace with other runners or even beating them, I just wanted to finish strong for myself. With 100km in the Blue Mountains fast approaching I really needed to put together a performance that gave me hope of finishing the ultimate beast.

The other piece of advice to ‘just keep on the move’ sounds simple and it can be if you keep yourself together. If you stop or walk painfully slowly  then the task ahead can seem unachievable. The demons in the mind kick in and you’re in a world of trouble.Yesterday even when I walked up the hills I made sure it was a brisk power walk. This helped mentally because I still felt like I was in control of my race. I still felt that I was eating up the distance even when walking and recovering for the next running section.

All I wanted to do yesterday was to finish strong and I did. Another key factor was not caring what time I did. I think it was around 6h 20m but I can’t be sure, I didn’t really look at the clock at the finish. You’ll agree when you look at the photos, there was too much other important stuff to look at.