I am a fraud!!!

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.