I am a fraud. This ugly thought dominated my thinking in the
lead up to the Coburg 6 hour ultra.
At last year’s marathon in October I had aimed to go sub-3
hours. I blew up badly and struggled across the line in 3.12. Although still
happy with the time itself, my second fastest, I was disappointed that I hadn’t
been able to stick to the race plan.
Following the marathon I was entered in a charity event in
the Dandenongs called the Moonwalk. 45km, during the night, with over 2000m of
elevation. A tough course, no question, but I had done it before and was
confident that it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Yup, got that one very
wrong. All sorts of pain and another plan that didn’t go to plan.
So the Coburg 6 hour was going to be my next opportunity to
get it right. Follow a plan and achieve a set goal. I had trained well, done
several 3, 4 and 5 hour runs. I’d eaten well, kept up weekly speed sessions and
I’d even stretched daily for weeks on end. Again I was getting pretty confident
that I was in for a good event. I enlisted the help of Kev Mannix to be my
support crew. Aside from being the greatest of mates who would do anything to
help, I was also tapping into someone who knows more about running, fuelling
and pacing than most nearly everyone. Standing with him on the day would be
Toby and Darren. Both of these blokes have done more ultras than they probably
even remember.
As well as these great runners being there to watch the most
boring of ultras there is, I also had my family coming along to support me. My
parents both the other side 70 years, my wife and our two young kids, my
brothers and my very pregnant sister in law would all be there in 35 degree
heat. They would be there because I asked them.
And so it was that a week out from the run, I couldn’t run.
I had pain in my right leg – shin splints. My taper started early and I
increased the stretching to alleviate the pain. The other thing stopping me
from running was pure fear of further damage. I couldn’t face pulling out and
letting down all of these people. If I couldn’t run for 6 hours………..well I
didn’t want to consider the option.
I would be a fraud, biting off more than I could chew,
trying to play on the big stage, with the real runners, but without the
ability. I was already getting embarrassed by the possibility.
If I spoke this to Kev, Toby or Darren or any of my family
they would all tell me I was being ridiculous and it wouldn’t matter at all if
I couldn’t start or couldn’t complete this particular run. I knew this and
believed it but these ugly thoughts kept rushing through my head.
Sunday morning I woke at 3.15am for the 6.00am start. I had
breakfast. Is it even called breakfast when it’s that early? Moments after
breakfast my guts started churning. Well that’s just fantastic. Late in the
week I had been able to run pain free and now this. Was I destined to not
complete Coburg. Two years ago I had entered but not made it to the start line
due to injury. Well the guts didn’t settle, things were decidedly uncomfortable
even just walking around. This was getting to be a joke.
Ah well, what are you gonna do? 6.00am came around and off
we went. I think being a touch NQR was good because it meant I went out slow.
First km was about 5.45. Only 5hours 54minutes 15seconds to go.
Over half an hour in and still my guts were terrible. This
was headed for disaster. I decided to bite the bullet, and the banana, and take
on some food. It was a gamble but I wouldn’t last long like this. The banana
went down ok. My guts went from 10 outa 10 ten unsettled to maybe a 7. I left
it at that for another thirty minutes and then took my next gamble, taking on a
liquid food called perpetuem. I hadn’t used it in an event before but today I
had it factored in to the fuelling plan. Well perpetuem is now my new hero.
Very shortly after sipping a bit of this not so tasty gear I was feeling all
shades of lovely in the gut. Big phew. So just under 90 minutes in and finally
my body was good and the thoughts of fraudulent behaviour had disappeared. Time
to get dizzy and enjoy.
We were pretty luck on the day that there was darkness
followed by cloud cover for nearly half of the six hours. My plan had been to
stay consistent around 5.30 – 5.40 per km. This felt to be a very slow pace for a flat event. I had to
keep reminding myself that the pain would come and that slow early would help
late. Others on the track were going a lot quicker and I was being lapped
constantly. Some of them had planned to make hay while the sun didn’t shine and
slow up when the heat of the day really kicked in. It was to prove to be a
tough way to go about it.
Aside from the early gut ache I only had two really tough
patches. The first lasted for about 40 minutes not long after the half way turn
around. It was a bit of excitement to go in the opposite direction but the
thrill only lasted maybe a lap and a half and then I hit struggle town. Everything
was hurting and taking on fuel was becoming a difficult assignment. The second
patch was at about 4h20m and that lasted for about 25 minutes. On both
occasions I remember thinking of Canadian runner Jason Loutit who said he
constantly moves his attention and focus from the scenery and all that was
going on around him and then back in very tight to shut all of that out and
focus on form. I found it very comforting to think that all I had to do was
shut it all out and run. Everything else was taken care of by my crew. My job
was easy.
I started taking laps back off people who had looked super
fresh and quick early. A heap of people on track were walking now, even the
leader. I just figured they’d gone out too fast and I was still chugging along
because of pacing. However that was only the half of it.
My crew was amazing. Of the 158 laps I did I would say there
was only a dozen where there was no interaction at all. Every other time there
was handing over food or drink or a quick comment or joke about how tricky the
course was and to follow it carefully. My family all turned up with just over
an hour to go and this was a huge lift. Seeing them and having my brother and
son do laps on the inside with me was something I loved and won’t ever forget.
Excitement seemed to be at fever pitch with everyone there
and my crew went into overdrive. Something was happening nearly every lap now.
I had two caps, one on my head and one in icy water in the esky that we would
rotate every 5 laps. Same thing with ice filled bandanas around my neck. Then
there was ice cream buckets of water that would be poured over me. Of course
drinking water, powerade and even another disgusting gel being taken with only
forty minutes to go. There was no time to be bored, I was always doing something.
I thought that the crew might have been bored and just offering stuff for
something to do. It was only after the race that I found out in that last hour
of the race the temperature had risen to 36 degrees and the crew was working
hard to keep me cool. Kev sometimes chased after me to pick up bottles I would
drop after use. He said he would get back under the market umbrella straight
away and comment on how hot it was out there.
My race finished after 6 Hours, 158 Laps, 63.316km in 36
degree heat. The crew was that good that I had no idea how hot it was. They
gave me every opportunity to achieve what I had planned to.
My dad hugged me where I had stopped on the track. He spoke
of it being a very emotional moment. It was. He said after he turned up it took
him about eight laps of clapping me as I passed for him to not be close to
tears.
Having my family there was the best thing about the day.
Being coherent, cool, happy and still running was….was….hmmm what’s the
opposite of fraud.
·
Cannot thank Kev, Darren, Toby, Brett on the
spray bottle and my family enough for helping me around the track.
