Having said that I was pretty confident going in. Marysville in November had been my best ultra yet. It still hurt but I finished strongly and felt good-ish all the way through. Two Bays is pretty flat in comparison. Arthurs Seat is the only real nasty section. One thing against me might be an interrupted few weeks of training over Christmas. Honestly I haven’t really trained with the single minded obsession that was so prevalent pre-stress fracture. That is about to change but more on that later.
Two Bays has a unique feel to it. The race director awards a priority start to anyone wearing board shorts or hawaiin shirts or lays. At the start he holds a pirate flag and explains how this event with hundreds of competitors now has only been a legal event for two years. Before that runners had to tackle the 56km while on the lookout for any official council or Parks and Gardens workers. Before it was legal it was what is known as a FAT ASS event. This means "No Fees, No Awards, No Aid, No Wimps". FAT ASS was born out of a lack of enough competitive events for passionate runners to compete in. This is no longer so much of an issue as their are heaps of events now all over Victoria and Australia to choose form. The sport is exploding.
As an example of the explosion my race time this year was 6hours 39mins. That places me 91st out of the 142 strong field doing the 56km in 2012. However in 2008 that same time would have placed me 5th out of a field of just 6. The last time Two Bays ran under the pirate flag there was 66 competitors in the 28km option and 18 in the 56km option. Two years later there was 646 runners across the two distances.
Not only quantity but quality is making its way to the trails. Last year a greying 41 year old smashed the course record to win the event in 4h 48m. This year the greying, now 42 year old, broke his own record by 7 minutes. That PB placed him sixth in 2012, the winner Mick Donges getting home in 4h 12m. The sport is going nuts. Mick beat Magnus Michaelson into second. Magnus has won the Melbourne Marathon twice. NUTS!!!
My race time mentioned above was a bit disappointing. I went 25 minutes quicker the year before when I had actually run a poor race. I went out too quick and blew up severely. I also took a wrong turn that probably cost the best part of ten minutes. So I had been thinking I’d break 6 hours without too much trouble. Problem was with about 20km to go I encountered ‘too much trouble’.
Everything had been going super smooth. I wasn’t even looking at my watch too much in the first 28km. Just cruising along, not worrying about getting caught in traffic. The slower I went in the first half meant the more likely I beat last year’s time. As I rang the bell to turn on the out and back course I felt great. I remember feeling so much worse at the same time 12 months ago. So more kind of cruising with a push at the end and I was in for a great day.
You expect your legs to be hurting after 30km. Mine were feeling fresh. Just some minor discomfort and tightness across my back was hinting at a possible problem. I had experienced this before though, in some races and training, and it never got too bad. I began passing people at regular intervals and was thrilled with how the race plan was developing. It was Marysville all over again.
I’m not sure when I first realised things might be turning. It was probably somewhere between the 33 – 36km mark. But with 20km to go there was no doubt in my mind that a six hour finish was out of the question. My back had tightened up to the point that each step was painful. Twenty more kms at the pace I had now slowed to, was going to equal no less than 2 ½ hours of tough times.
What am I doing?
The questioned entered my head again for the second time that day. Then another question, What am I going to do?
The answer was simple. Small arms, small legs, over and over again. Two days prior to the event I started training/coaching a couple of kids to run endurance. For them that will be an 8km event in a couple of months. I had said to them to have small arms and legs, don’t waste energy all over the track. It was time for me to practise what I had preached. My arms always swing small. But out there with each step shooting pain up and across my back I found myself having to check my stride many times to give myself best chance of finishing. Will and Tess came in to my mind more than once. Each time I brought the task back down to what was manageable. Small arms and small legs, I could manage.
I was pretty composed throughout the ugly period of the race. Winston Churchill once said; “When you’re in hell, keep going”. There was really no other choice. A DNF is something I only want enforced upon me if absolutely medically necessary.
As I got within a couple of km of the finish I started getting pretty emotional. All I wanted to do was get to the line and see my mates who had by now already finished. It was as about this stage that the answer to the question became clear.
What am I doing?
Three years ago I was turning into this bloke.
I needed to change that for these two.
Now I am this bloke.
I am doing what I am doing because of these blokes.
Thanks.
