Making Your Own Energy Gels

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Hi, my name is Adam and I’m a sugar addict. I use it before, during and after running. I don’t get the deep lows that stop others from using it during races, so I consider myself to be fairly lucky. One thing I have noticed though, is that the guy in the running store looks at me a bit funny when I come in all the time for my fix, er I mean another box of gels. He looks at me even more strangely when I go through the racks and add to my pile a whole bunch of anything new. Most people have sensitive stomachs but I’m lucky enough that I can eat almost anything during a run. And I like pretty much all of the commercial gels on the market, except SIS- Science in Sport. Oh, you have them? Take a look on the side where it says ‘no simple sugars’. Are you f/ing kidding me? Where were my simple sugars when I needed them going up the side of Mt Solitary a few months ago, buddy? That mistake cost me at least 15 minutes…… but I digress.

I use Endura (Citrus and Raspberry, the grape tastes like some horrible lolly at the bottom of a cheap Christmas bucket)  but have to be careful of the (8mg) caffeine content. And I especially like the Accel Gel Key Lime with protein (tastes like cheesecake, yum!). However in a long race I’ve been finding that it’s a bit of a pain keeping the rubbish from flying out of your pocket. And if I forget to empty my pockets at checkpoints, the sticky rubbish really builds up. So I decided to make my own.

After much internet research I found a good starting recipe here, they even sell an ebook with recipes. But I wanted to start very simple, and wanted something that does not need cooking. I’m pleased to say after a few false starts, I finally have an easy recipe that works. Here are the ingredients-

The 1970’s called, they want their kitchen back

Maltodextrin
Available from health food shops or over the internet. This is a multiple chained carbohydrate often added to foods for bulk. It is easily digested and provides a runner with longer lasting energy than a simple sugar, and doesn’t ‘bonk’ so badly. I paid $28 for 2kg from a health food shop, but I’ve found out that this money would have bought me 5kg or more if I’d shopped around.

Salt
Yep, table salt. I’m sure some people will insist on using Himalayan rock salt, but this isn’t rocket science folks

Water
That stuff that comes out of a tap

Lime Juice
Originally from a lime, this time it came out of a squeezy bottle in my fridge

Honey
There’s a rumour that the worlds bee population is collapsing, you should read up on why this will possibly mean the death of all human life on the planet. Or perhaps you can just go to your cupboard and get out the sweet tasting fruits of the stinging insects labour

Brown Sugar
This is where I link to a Rolling Stones song isn’t it? This is my one concession against simplicity- I could have used any other kind of sugar, however this was available and it does have a decent flavour.

Here we go-

280g maltodextrin
1/4 teaspoon salt
100ml water
50ml lime juice
80ml honey
50g brown sugar

Put all the ‘other’ ingredients into a bowl and slowly add the water, while mixing. The mixture will need to be mixed quite a lot and it doesn’t hurt to leave it for a while and come back to attack those lumps. In general, the less water you add the less thin the result will be, but you’ll have to chase more lumps. This makes the equivalent of 16 gels, and I pour the mixture into Endura flasks (bottom of this page).

Calculations
The Endura flasks each store about 125ml of mixture. If you have a look at this page you’ll see that the average serving size is about 30-45ml, so I’m going to estimate a serving size of 32ml or 4 servings to a flask.

This gives the following specs for each serve-
Maltodextrin (96% carb, 16.05 kj per 1g)
280/16= 17.5 (x 0.96)= 16.8g of carbohydrate
17.5x 16.05=  280 Kj

Honey (27% carb, 12.72 kj per 1g)
80/16= 5 (x 0.27)= 1.35g of carbohydrate
5x 12.72 = 63.6 Kj

Brown Sugar (98% carb, 16.70 kj per 1g)
50/16 = 3.125 (x 0.98) = 3.0625g of carbohydrate
3.125 x 16.70 = 52.2 kj

Salt
1/4 teaspoon = 1g
1/16 = 0.0625 g per serving, and sodium accounts for 39.3% of the weight of NaCl
therefor each serving contains 24.6mg Sodium

assuming brown sugar and honey only contribute simple sugars, we then have-
Serving size = 32ml
simple carbs= 4.41g
complex carbs= 16.8g
Total carbs= 21.21g
Total energy= 396 kj

Comparing to the table again here, we find that both the carbohydrate and the energy available from our mix is roughly the same, gram for gram. Our serving size is a little smaller and our energy properties are correspondingly smaller, but definitely within the range we would expect. Sodium figures vary wildly between brands, we can easily change this but I’d have to say from experience the sodium is ‘adequate’.

Home made gel flasks

One of these flasks is not like the other ones

 

Storage
I store these in the freezer. They don’t actually freeze, but I figure they will last a bit longer in there.

Longevity
I had an unused flask left out of the fridge accidentally for over 2 weeks and it looked fine, so I’ve stopped worrying about whether it will give me some nasty bug. I’m not sure why- I guess it would have something to do with the natural preservative action of the honey, the PH of the mixture or the fact that I use lime juice with preservatives? Who knows a food technologist?

Flavour Options
You could swap the water for coffee- that would give you a small caffeine boost in each sip. One shot or 100mg of caffeine over 16 gels is 6.25 mg per gel, a little less than you’d get in an Endura. Or potentially make this a bit simpler by ditching the honey, brown sugar, water  and lime juice and substituting for a fruit based cordial. I didn’t do this because I didn’t want to re do all the calculations!

Anything else?
Each one of these flasks will help you to run 30-40km, but I usually supplement with something else to break the boredom. I always carry 2 flasks on me, but have one wrapped in a sandwich bag so it can go back in the freezer if not used. I always throw out whatever is left in the used flask at the end of a run. Also, as seen on another site, it’s not recommended to use any protein supplements in these home made gels as they will go off rapidly……

Please let me know if you have success with these ideas, or if you have any new recipes, thanks!

Coast to Kosciuzko 2012 (C2K)

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temporary course marker

Photo credits- thanks to Sarah-Jane Marshall and Diane Weaver for some of these pictures

So if you can run for a couple of hours you can complete a half marathon.
If you can run for half a day you can run a marathon.
If you can run for a full day and half the night you can do the North Face 100.
But if you’re either suicidal or running the Coast to Kosci you could run all day, all night, all the next day and half the next night.  That’s 240km, or nearly 6 marathons back to back. The distances, effort and organisation just stagger the mind.

Team photo at the start

It’s Australia’s longest single stage foot race, and since I’d first heard about it I’d been fascinated to find out what could possibly make someone run for that long. This year I was invited by Jane Trumper to be one of her 3 crew, which was a great honour for me. Here’s a few interesting points about the race- they have a maximum number of 50 runners per year. This year there were only 34 starters and 29 finishers- injury and illness made a few pull out. I’m not sure but I suspect they don’t have a waitlist for reasons that should become clear later- it would be impossible to organise a car and crew at short notice, let alone keeping up the training load. Most of the checkpoints are not manned- 3 out of the 6 checkpoints are in public phone boxes. When your runner goes through, one of the crew goes into the phone box and phones a marshall who records the time, you also write the time on a laminated card stuck to the side of the phone box. One of the checkpoints is in a bus shelter, one is a little plastic box beside an abandoned livestock race and another is beside a caravan park. A huge amount of trust is placed in the runners not to cheat, and therefor athlete selection is done very carefully. Paul Every the Race Director knows so much about each of his runners it’s scary! In a conversation after the race he admitted that if you send in a running resume with your qualifiers attached, he will also look up your other results on the internet. For instance if you run a 28 hour Glasshouse 100 miler but he finds out you have 3 DNF’s at the same race, you are likely to get a phone call asking you to justify why you think you can complete C2K. I got the impression that someone who had a bit of a cloud over one of their races was not invited to run despite having qualifiers, but Paul won’t talk about this. Paul is very particular about who gets to enter- he has stated that he wants everyone to finish, so he tries to pick athletes with consistent results, not necessarily fast runners. In some ways that makes it more of an egalitarian, he wants slow runners to fill out the field, but wants to know they will finish before the cutoffs. It’s a very inclusive policy for such a tough race. Another crew member asked Paul on my behalf if he would relax the ‘you must have completed a 100 miler to enter’ but the fact is that I would never contemplate a race like this without having done a 100 mile race, I wouldn’t feel like I’d earned my place.

First light, just before the start

There are 4 aid stations in the first 20km, but crews are not allowed to see their runners until the 24km mark. After that there’s no food or water provided, except at Dalgety, and the food there is mostly for the crews! Each runner has a car with crew that take care of their runner, so the runner carries less than they would in a normal race. For instance, in a trail race I would carry some gels and a backpack with 2l of water in a bladder. In this race Jane carried a handheld bottle of water but almost nothing else as we provided crew service about every 5km.
It goes like this- we drive the car 5km up the road from our runner, pull some chairs out of the car, make up a bottle of sports drink/ electrolyte solution, get some chilled water ready, every few stops we get suncream ready, some stops we had changes of socks and shoes, some required first aid kit to pop blisters or to set up a stove to heat water for cup noodles. We had a bowl full of snacks, so we would change these over often in case we could tempt our runner into eating something. When we see our runner, someone runs down the road with the electrolyte and snack bowl, we try to get the runners to drink and eat, grab her hand held bottle to fill up, and take orders for anything else she may need. That person then runs back to the car and yells out the orders (we had walkie talkies but it was easier to yell). we get the requests ready and someone will then take them up to the runner (most of the race was actually walking) and the other person packs up the car and drives up to pick up the other crew member. The runner does not stop unless there is shoe changing etc to be done. So that’s one crew member with the runner pacing, one taking stuff out to the runner and one organising the car.

I can’t possibly report everything that happened in this report but I will try to give a sense of what it was like to be there. If you want a summary- mostly very tired, with moments of hilarity and pathos.

The Start
There’s no gun going off, no bell, little evidence of electronic timing. Just a bunch of people on a beach at sunrise counting down from 10, then they’re off! It was kind of magical, and a real contrast to any other race! Here’s a video

After the start we had to go back to the caravan park, pack up the car, go into town and get ice, pens bread rolls and have breakfast. This all made us late to meet Jane at the 24km mark, so the first thing out of her mouth was ‘ah, you f@cking @rseholes!’ but at least she smiled, so we were possibly forgiven sometime in the next 200km.

Jane is very camera shy

The Hills
If you’re going from sea level to the top of Kosciuzko there’s going to be a few hills. We were banned from having pacers until sunset on Friday, but Paul the RD said he would not disqualify anyone for having some friends walk with them up Big Jack Mountain (a 7km hill), which we did. At this time Kieron Blackmore and his crew were with us so we had a nice bunch and a bit of a laugh to distract our runners from the size of the hill.

Rocky Hall- the checkpoint is that little phone box on the left

The Checkpoints
At Rocky Hall (50km into the race) there’s a um, hall. And the toilets were open so a lot of people made use of them as until that point you’re basically running through dirt roads with farms. This was the scene of the first sign of the full horror that was to come. About 200m from the hall a runner was on his hands and knees recycling his food. But in true ultra runner style, he got up, declared that he needed to change his nutrition strategy, and kept going. At Cathcart (70km from the start) the Post Office is also the General Store, and the only store for miles around. I had a pie, took a photo of the gun bags (on special) and walked out the front only to be confronted with one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen in daylight. There was a bloke covered head to toe in a hand made leather suit of sorts. The back looked as if it had been not so carefully removed from the cow, and perhaps not tanned well. He had oil stains all over him, and the bit of leather covering his face reminded me of (unsurprisingly) Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Suddenly I could hear banjo music and chainsaws. Then I heard the guy tell another crew member that his skin is photo sensitive to the point where even moonlight will burn him. I wasn’t comforted, because, well, that could just be another explanation for vampirism. So I kept waiting for the sounds of a chainsaw. I should point out that the store itself was wonderful and the lady staff member was super excited to be having her busiest sales day of the year. I just couldn’t help wondering if the ‘locally made pie’ that I ate contained some of last years crew. But Roger Hanney was running, so no.

Cathcart General Store. Gun Bags on special, now I just need a gun.

100km mark. We didn’t have the presence of mind to do one for 200km

The dead tree. It’s dead Jim

The dead tree isn’t a checkpoint but it is a significant landmark (102km), and this is where Kieron and Jane decided to have dinner. So I took many photos of a bit of dead wood sticking out of the ground. Apparently it used to be much more impressive. Only 4km on from here is the next checkpoint , and it was bang on 8:30pm so I suited up and went with Jane for the night shift. Jane was about half an hour behind her splits from the previous year at this point which was a remarkable achievement considering 2011 was a personal best time plus she was sick before we started in 2012. I had no intention of speeding her up, and we’d already discussed as a crew that if she made it to this intersection (106km into the race) in a reasonable time she could walk the rest of the way and still make the cut offs. I had 2 choices her- I could tell jokes, ask about her kids, work, religion etc to take her mind off things, or I could just shut the hell up and walk beside her. I figured that if the brain uses 30% of your energy I should shut up and take a bit of strain off. Good choice, because Jane spent the next 8 hours alternating between saying ‘oh dear’ and dry retching. So I got to play a mind game of ‘where will Jane spew next?’ It was obvious she was in a bad way, but she managed to control it and continue to eat and drink. It was very difficult to be positive about the situation and I don’t think she would have appreciated me making light of it, but I did manage to say ‘look as long as we can get past the witching hours of 12-4am, we will be ok’. Little goals.
I hadn’t properly prepared for my stint which meant I needed some Body Glide, but one of our crew members was sleeping on top of it! I turned off my headlamp for a while to check out the stars, but Jane said ‘watch out for the snakes that like to get warmth from the road’, so I switched it back on. When we arrived in Dalgety (148km) I was so relieved that my stint was over, but very worried that Jane was resting her head on the table. We had made good time on this stint, it was probably 4:15am when we arrived at Dalgety and we had walked most of the way. Departure at 4:30am put us back to 30 minutes behind last years time, but at least Jane was on the move again.

Jane and Kieron’s crew. Not having fun, obviously

run along then

Ron took the next shift and bless him forever- he told us just to park the car, he would get Jane’s essentials and we could sleep. He would tap on the window so we could move 5km up the road. Using this method I got about 3x 20-40 minute sleeps and felt a bit better. Ron put Jane in the car for a 12 minute nap and she was much better after this. Sarah Jane (the other crew member) was very excited to take the final stint from Jindabyne Caravan Park (184km)- only a marathon and a half to go! It was Saturday morning by now, and the sun was baking hot. Unfortunately the course follows a road and there is no shade, so we had to step up the sunscreen, water and occasionally use a spray gun with water to cool down Jane and Sarah Jane. I was having little micro sleeps, forgetting peoples names and generally not making any sense by now. If anyone knows how to make a decent coffee (as in espresso coffee) in a car please let me know. Another checkpoint at Perisher Village in a bus shelter (212km).  At 35km from Jindabyne to Charlotte’s Pass (221km) there were a lot of stops as we shortened the length for safety, but we finally made it just before 7pm. Ron and I had put out all of the mandatory cold weather gear and had it checked off, but of course the girls turned up and they both said ‘that’s not my gear!’ We suited up and all of us took off for what was to be the last 18km of the race- the trip to the top of Mt Kosci and back, 9km each way.

on our way up to the top of Kosci

Actual frozen water. Yes, I did have a play!

It’s a lovely walk, and gave us the opportunity to see other athletes and their crews coming up and down the mountain. We arrived at the top around 8:50pm and just as the last rays of light were disappearing over other mountains in the area. A quick photo, add a few layers of clothing and we were on our way back down. Again I turned off the headlamp to enjoy the incredible star show, but had to turn it back on when I remembered the quite large, and aggressive looking black spiders that had come out to play on the trail. The others were slightly ahead and Jane was getting worse again, it was only a few km from the end but she was starting to weave along the track and ask in an anguished voice how far to go. I couldn’t lie and tried to minimise the bad news by using a calm voice to tell her how far. At one point she said ‘what would you do if I collapsed right now?’ and I realised she would not mention it unless it was becoming likely, so I replied ‘I’ll pick you up in a firemans lift’ ‘but that’s mechanical assistance and I’ll get disqualified’ Ahhh, so she can still think, and she’s worried that I will carry out my threat. This means she will probably stay upright. And she did. So just before 11pm on Saturday night- Forty one hours, twenty eight minutes and eight seconds after starting, Jane crossed the finish line for her fourth C2K. Her last C2K apparently- until 22 hours later when she said she wasn’t sure……..

Jane did not slip so we’ve got nothing to send to Funniest Home Videos. This time.

We got everyone into the car and I drove the 35km back down to Jindabyne. I was in the best condition of everyone, but I had some hallucinations coming down the mountain and came close to stopping the car a couple of times. Pretty sure I saw at least one real wombat, but the family of wombats turned out to be some low shrubs…….

At the top, sun just gone.

After the Race
We got to sleep by 12:30am, but I woke at 6:15am and stayed up as I needed a shower and was worried I would  be unable to wake again until the end of time. A big breakfast (mmmm, bacon!), several coffees and I was ready for the presentation at 9am.

Male and Female podium

Presentation
Oh boy were there some broken people at this event. I’d say most of the runners were unable to wear shoes, some couldn’t even get thongs on their feet. But I can’t describe the emotion and love in that room. Paul Every called out every single finisher and gave a small speech about each person. He knew their race history, highs and lows and how much they had gone through to get to the start line. There was a huge cheer for the guy who came last- Brett Saxon had stopped the clock at 45 hours 54 minutes and some seconds- a mere 6 minutes before the cutoff. Everyone who finished got up on stage, everyone got a hug from Paul and his partner Diane. Paul told stories about the history of the race- some were funny and some made us all cry. He called Jane ‘bomb proof’ which of course she is. Nick had a 12 hour pb vs 2011. A couple of people got ‘ugly feet awards’, one guy was told by his Doctor to run to avoid back pain and ended up at C2K. Pam Muston had a blister about twice the size of my little toe. Keirons toes looked like they’d been through a meat grinder.
A note about prizes. There is no prize money. If you finish the race, you get an Akubra hat and a hat pin. But only the first time- each subsequent time gets you a hat pin but no more Akubras. If you’ve done the race before you’re expected to bring your hat for the ‘team’ photo after the presentation. You’d better believe those hats are like olympic gold medals.

The finishers- every one’s a winner baby!

Glamour
This is not a terribly glamorous sport (as you may have noticed). After the presentation I found one of the runners asking others ‘how many times did you poo during the race?’ Luckily everyone was happy to share. Unfortunately this person then held up some fingers and I was worried the next question would be ‘how much?’ so I hurried away.

After Party
You’d think with an average of 3 hours a night of sleep (for the crew, runners even less) that we’d be happy to curl up and have the dreamless sleep of the half dead. But no. We went out for dinner on the Sunday night and swapped unlikely (but true) stories until we were kicked out of the bar/ restaurant. Then the barman came outside to tell us to go home 20 minutes later as everyone was still chatting away on the front step.

The Laughs
Kieron Blackmore getting his pacer to radio forward an order to his crew ‘I’d like 2 cherry tomatoes, a cos lettuce leaf and some sparkling water. Even funnier was the reaction of the crew ‘Shit, we don’t have any cos lettuce!’.
Being told that it was our ‘duty’ as Jane Trumper’s crew to get naked and stand in this creepy garden of mannequins by the side of the road. Luckily we didn’t have time for this. Coming around the corner to see a dead wallaby acting as an unofficial course marker. Kieron and Joey marching past us about 2am on Saturday yelling US Marine songs ‘I don’t know what I’ve been told’. Guys, that song has thousands of responses, please learn some of them. Hearing the same thing for 40 minutes made me want to slow down so I couldn’t hear you any more- maybe that was your strategy? Some time later the energy disappeared, and the next time I saw Kieron he was walking like a zombie with one hand on his pacers shoulder for direction while his eyes were closed.
Apparently after the race he went to see a Doctor about his toes and the following exchange took place- Doctor ‘how did you damage your little toe?’. Kieron ‘I ran a 240km race’. Doctor ‘you’re f@cked in the head’.
One of Kierons crew after a toilet stop ‘that was the best dump ever’. Me ‘you should post that on FaceBook’.
The look on the face of the lady in the cafe when Joey ordered a ‘soy decaf latte’.

Heroes
One of the runners came down the mountain and said the clamber over the ice was a bit treacherous. He’s and expert at mountain safety, but rather than leave it to someone else, he organised a shovel, star pickets and some rope, suited up and went back up the mountain to cut some stairs in the ice. Kevin Heaton (Brick on CoolRunning) you are a bloody legend, and fully deserving of the teams prize for outstanding contribution to the race.

The Winners
If you want to know what human aspects make the winners of an event like this so special, I have 2 stories for you. Firstly the male winner Ewan Horsburgh- I’d seen him race at Glenbrook only 2 weeks before. He’s won the 25km race and was way ahead of the next competitor. It was turning into a massively hot day (multiple ambulances were called for other runners), so what did he do? After a few minutes rest he said quietly to his wife ‘I’ve got 30km on the program today, so I’m just going to run 5km up that hill, see you in a little while’. He had no idea that I could hear this.
Now to the female winner, Bernadette Benson- during the presentation ceremony she gave a little speech in which she said the thing that annoyed her most about the race was the race medic coming up beside her and asking 4 times ‘how do you feel’. Now 4 times during a 240km race is not that much but she made sense when she said ‘don’t ask me how I feel, it’s completely irrelevant how I FEEL!’. The answer to that question is obviously ‘I feel like crap’ but a better question would be ‘are you having any medical problems that would cause you to stop?’ Answer- ‘I still feel like crap, but there’s no way I’m going to stop!’ Tough as nails doesn’t adequately describe these people.

The Sublime
Every single view was a picture postcard. The pics don’t do the sheer beauty of every scene justice. I took loads of photos of the dead tree just because of the way the light fell around it. If you never consider doing this race (OK good, you may be sane) you should travel through this countryside. At a slow pace.

The Ridiculous
The whole scope of this thing is ridiculous, but out of that something strange and wonderful shines. You get to meet a whole bunch of crazy people and become their best mates for a few days, sharing success, ambition, steadfastness and sometimes failure. It’s more zen than a zen master, and crazier than a bag of snakes.

The Bug
So have I got the bug and want to do this race? I don’t know. To state the obvious, it’s a very long way. And if one of my heroes like Keith Hong takes 2 goes to finish, it doesn’t look good for me. Just getting to the start line would be a major achievement, but remember I don’t even meet the minimum qualifier. Could I do it? Maybe- but it’s pretty obvious this isn’t a ‘maybe’ race. This is a full on, fully committed, one track mind event. That also means I would need support from my closest buddy Sarah, my wife. Also there’s a financial commitment. I have no idea what the race fee is but I’m sure it’s only about 10% of the total cost. Jane paid for 4 nights accommodation for 4 people and so many sundry expenses as well.

Thanks
I want to express my deep appreciation to Ronald Stevens, who didn’t say much, but remained even tempered and useful while the rest of us went gaga from lack of sleep. He’s a very interesting guy to have a conversation with. To Sarah Jane Marshall, who always had loads of enthusiasm and made everything easier to deal with. Sarah Jane also had the car packed with stuff  before we even set off which was beyond excellent. To the other crews and runners, particularly Kieron, Joey, Emma and Lise you made those long waits lots of fun. To the runners, I’m in awe. To Paul and Dianne the race organisers- I finally understand why you would work so hard for a race with so few starters, please don’t change! And to Jane, I learn so much every time I run with you, thanks for everything. And for finishing, even though you probably shouldn’t have started.

Not Enough?
for more photos, please have a look here and some video here

GNW100s- Great North Walk 100 Miler- Pacing

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‘So let me get this right- you meet a runner in the middle of the night. You run with them for 70km through some fairly remote and tricky bushland, you finish sometime the next afternoon, you don’t get a medal, T-Shirt or an official time, and yet you consider it a great honour?’

Well, yes! I can’t exactly say I’m an experienced ultra runner, but the attraction of running 100 miles has always escaped me. I’ve given people the flippant excuse that ‘I can’t stay awake that long’ to explain why 100 miles is not on the bucket list. And truthfully, I’m pretty sure I could run/walk the distance, but doing Trailwalker in 2010 and taking nearly 30 hours made me fear for my sanity due to tiredness.

So when I mentioned to Jane Trumper during the Glow Worm Tunnel Marathon that I’d like to crew for her if she was doing the GNW, she immediately accepted. I thought I’d be meeting her at checkpoints and making cups of tea, but she had other ideas. The course is not marked at all, so after the first 100km runners are tired and looking for a little help getting the right route. I became the guy who was going to steer us through the last 70+km of this epic trip.

Which meant I had to train for a 70km walk/run and more importantly- know the course! I only did a couple of training runs out there, and by race day I’d only missed covering about 10km.

Adam Darwin was doing exactly the same job for Michael McGrath, so we headed out together for Checkpoint 4, Yarramalong Public School. Luckily we went out early because both of our runners were about an hour ahead of schedule. Yarramalong is approximately the 103km mark of a 175km race (about 108 miles) and it’s the finish line for the ‘shorter’ race. Now I have to apologise to my wife here- as all of the runners came in, all I could think was ‘you look bloody terrible’. Honey, if I look like this at the end of 100km, I’m sorry. It’s not a good look, jerky movements, slow thinking, staring eyes and those hollow cheekbones of the truly insane. I couldn’t believe that many of these people were going to willingly go out for another 14 hours or so of hideous punishment. Now I have a new reason for never doing a 100 miler. Sure enough they fueled up, checked out the misshapen things they use for feet and headed out into the night up Bumble Hill Rd. How appropriate.

Michael and Adam had left about 30 minutes ahead of us and Jane dragged along Kirrily Dear and a random bloke called Michael. Michael looked to be at risk of sticking to the chair and not making it out of the checkpoint so it was a great move for Jane and a brave move for him to come along. It turns out that doing a 100 mile race was not the worst thing that had happened to him that week, and we all tried to think of things to make him feel better. Getting to the top of the hill under the electricity towers was one good thing, but getting completely freaking lost in a gully named Dead Horse Creek was probably not a highlight. Trouble is the trail is not well used and covered with leaf litter, so if you concentrate you can sometimes see footprints, but if everyone else gets lost, you’re stuffed. And stuffed we were. Luckily I had loaded the course on to my iPhone, I managed to find the trail again (it went unexpectedly downhill). Another runner was not so lucky- getting lost in the same spot for 4 hours meant she was disqualified from the race.

Eventually we came out to some lovely flat roads near some farms and opened up a bit. Michael was not doing so well and we agreed to give him some tips about the last 6km of this section and took off. I was pretty happy to be heading towards the shop- we’d been told it would be open from midnight, so I raced ahead and ordered a short black coffee and a couple of greasy scallops- yum!

Back to the checkpoint to meet Jane and then off again into the rapidly dying night. We were entering the shortest section at 16km, and it was an awesome feeling with the birds just waking up, feeling the coffee buzz and seeing light streak across the sky, just amazing. Kirrily caught up to us and we dived off into the scrub again. I’d been quite worried about Kirrily, as she seemed to be having periods where she couldn’t keep going, but she always surprised me by turning up looking fresh and ready to attack the course, she’s one tough chick. If you want proof, check this out. She’s ‘Trailpuddin’ from Coolrunning………

At the Mooney Mooney checkpoint it’s about 8am and my coffee is wearing off. But they have no hot water, oh well it’s time to make sure Jane has everything she needs and get out of there- next stop Patonga Beach! It’s about 26km and runs the full gamut of steep climbs, crawling over hot rocks, white reflective sand and fire trail, with a waterfall and a garbage dump thrown in. I’ve checked the clock and know we are looking good for a 33 hour finish, which is Jane’s stated aim. Everyone is slowing down now, and I’ve got to keep thinking about my job- get my runner home!

The sun is getting hotter and the heat is reflecting up from the rocks too- it was meant to be 19 degrees and overcast, and I didn’t think to put on sunscreen at 11pm last night…..
We climb down a big rock hill just past the dump, cross the small creek and stop for a rest in a section where the trees bow over our heads, creating a ‘secret’ covered walkway. Jane shares her last can of Coke, and we wander off to do the last 6-8km. I’m counting them down to try to give a bit of motivation, but I can’t tell if anyone cares. I know Jane wants to finish with Kirrily, who seems to be slowing down again, so I ask if she’s eaten- ‘oh yes I’ve had some Gatorade and some Apple’. I’m not 100% happy with that answer but I figure she’s not going to eat more if I get grumpy so I leave it. Unfortunately she gets further behind- I’m fairly calm, but I can see a sub 32 hour finish that was so close 10 minutes ago fading like my sanity in this heat. I won’t disclose what was said, but let’s just say there were tears, hugs, joy and finally a decisive ‘let’s get this done’ and we clambered down from Warrah Trig point to Patonga beach. It’s a long way, but nothing is more welcome than the sound of that bell welcoming the runners home.

Jane and Kirrily finished hand in hand in 31:43. I don’t know exactly how they felt, but I felt wonderful- I’d managed to keep up with Jane, get her to a personal best time and (we learned later) an equal 3rd placing (with Kirrily) in the Female category! It really could not have gone better.

Another thing that makes this race so special is the party atmosphere at the end. It’s a small race (only about 50 people finished the 100 miler) and I was surprised to see Brendan Davies, Shona Stephenson, Andy Bowen, Andy Dubois and a whole bunch of others just hanging around chatting at the finish. Big props to Michael our mate from section 4-5 who made it to the end in 34 hours, congratulations!

Interestingly Rob, Michael and Jane/ Kirrily all finished within the same half hour. At the last checkpoint (number 6) we entered the checkpoint only 4 minutes after Michael had gone, but we never caught him- he finished 15 minutes in front. Shona Stephenson had to pull out at just over 100km, when I spoke to her at the finish she still didn’t sound great, but I believe she’ll be back to conquer a 100 miler some day, she’s been on fire this year. Geoff Evison pulled off a top 10 finish by placing 8th, wow. Special cheers to Brendan Davies who finished in under 19 and a half hours and in doing so took 2.5 hours off the course record. Incredible. And to Gill Fowler, 4th overall, 1st female, and first ever female to come under 24 hours and get a gold medal (she made it in 23:58)

Place           Name                           Time
1                  Brendan Davies          19:27
=8               Geoff Evison                27:43
=13              Andy Bowen                28:48
18               Todd Hayward              29:41
20               Andy DuBois                30:05
24               Rob Mattingly              31:15
25               Michael McGrath         31:27
=26             Kirrily Dear                  31:43
=26             Jane Trumper               31:43
36               Michael Hardie             34:12
43               Ronald Stevens             35:30

As you might gather, some extremely tough people did not make it. What an insane race.

Other Race Reports
Brendan Davies (winner)
Shona Stephenson
Andy DuBois
Jane Trumper
Andy Bowen
Peter Colaguiri 

TNF100 2013 Training Program Notes

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OK the beginner program hasn’t changed in the last couple of years, so we’ll concentrate on explaining the others.

Intermediate
This program has had the most people go through over the last 2 years, and this is the most important thing about it-
1. If you turn up to the training, you’ll make your goal. We’ve had one or 2 people train with us who DNF’d, but mostly these were people who didn’t come consistently. Overwhelmingly if people turned up and did the training, made their target.

Mondays
You’ll most likely cover about 8km, but distance is not the key here, effort is. You’ll be doing some sort of repeated effort to build speed. A typical workout might go like this-
1km warm up to start line, then 5x repeats around a apx 800m block, with the emphasis on speed around 3 sides with an active recovery on the 4th side. 1km warm down
Tuesday
Find a route that has plenty of hills, and run up and down like a mad person. Here’s an example . You need this session to prepare you for the TNF course.
Wednesday
Lucky you- a rest day!
Thursday
Pace run- this is a middle distance run that you should do at a decent pace. You should feel uncomfortable, striving to cover the distance, training yourself to operate longer at higher speed.
Friday
Rest day/ Cross Training. Consider going to the gym to get in some core strength exercises. You don’t need big guns (arms) for running, but a strong core will make you feel like the running is a bit easier.
Saturday
LSD- Long Slow Distance. This is where you build up your endurance. You’ll notice that most of these runs are labelled ‘NRG’ this is because I’ve stolen the runs from the Northside Running Groups‘ Six Foot Track training program. I’ve found that it matches what we want to do very neatly. If you have a running group in your area, consider joining them, or make up your own runs to match the distance/ difficulty. The Sydney Striders also have a Six Foot Track program. Note- if doing your own program you’ll generally want to make your Saturday runs progressively harder over the first 3 weeks then schedule an easy week. Also note that after Six Foot Track, we’ve scheduled a whole bunch of runs to fill in the time before the North Face race. There is some training on the course, some races to keep you honest and even a run through the mountains with Brendan Davies. All of these are free to attend so please come along. You will find people who run at your pace so don’t worry about getting left behind.
Sunday
An easy 10km to get the lactic acid moving!

Advanced
the advanced program is very similar to the Intermediate, but with less days off, some more km covered and (for me) some time goals attached. I don’t know if the time goals are needed or desirable, but I’ve decided to give myself these goals to monitor my progress.
Monday
Same session as Intermediate, but my goal is to keep up with a faster group. I’ve already been working on this for several months, and I figure I’m about 60-70% there
Tuesday
Do the hills session that the Intermediate group does on Wed.
Wednesday
A new addition is the mid week long run. This should be about 20km and take about 2 hours. The time is more important than the distance so if you are going significantly over 2 hours, cut down the distance. This is an easy run so keep the pace under control. My chosen run is the ‘7 Bridges‘ as it’s about the flattest I can get with the correct distance. If you’d like to join us, we leave from the corner of Pacific Highway and Shirley Rd at Crows Nest approximately 4:30pm each Wednesday. But please let me know if you are coming via the Facebook page
Thursday
Same as Intermediate, for me it’s trying to keep up with the ‘Fast Middies’ group at NRG, they run about 5min/km average over 12km on a Thursday night.
Friday
Cross training- remember, it’s worth it……..
Saturday
Long Slow Distance. You’ll notice that most of these runs are labelled ‘NRG’, this is because I’ve stolen the runs from the Northside Running Groups‘ Six Foot Track training program. I’ve found that it matches what we want to do very neatly. If you have a running group in your area, consider joining them, or make up your own runs to match the distance/ difficulty. The Sydney Striders also have a Six Foot Track program. Note- if doing your own program you’ll generally want to make your Saturday runs progressively harder over the first 3 weeks then schedule an easy week. This year my goal is to run with the ‘Fast Middies’ as my endurance is ok, I just need some speed……Also note that after Six Foot Track, we’ve scheduled a whole bunch of runs to fill in the time before the North Face race. There is some training on the course, some races to keep you honest and even a run through the mountains with Brendan Davies. All of these are free to attend so please come along. You will find people who run at your pace so don’t worry about getting left behind.
Sunday
Another easy run, mine is a little bit less than 16km as I run across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and back, you should find a run that makes you feel good- because next week you’re doing it all again!

A word about goals. I’m just a normal, middle of the pack runner. I’m trying for a sub 14 hour finish this year, but I’ll admit it’s pretty unlikely. In 2011 I finished in 18:39, in 2012 I made 16:34 so it’s just this side of possible. I’m going to train like I need it and if something happens to stop me I won’t be too upset, but there’s no harm in dreaming! To get there, my (very loose) goals are this-

Six Foot Track 5:30
Canberra Marathon 3:35

Good luck to everybody who joins us, and let’s see what the race brings!

Fitzroy Falls Fire Trail Marathon 2012 (FFFTM)

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Thanks to Doug Richardson for this photo

I’ve just had one of those magical weekends that will live with me for a very long time. So if you hate happy stories, don’t read on! We drove down to the Southern Highlands on Friday night to stay the weekend with our friends, who run the Sutton Forest Inn in er, Sutton Forest. Now I don’t consider myself a big drinker, however it is difficult to stay in a pub on Friday night and not have a beer!

For Paul Hilliard (one half of the pub running team) and Sarah Connor (my wife) it was to be their first marathon. I’m not quite sure why the both chose a race billed as ‘NSW Toughest Marathon’ as their first, but neither of them are people you want to argue with once they’ve made up their mind. I hoped that this quality would help both of them during the race.

I’d done this race for the first time in 2011, but I’d had a touch of man flu and as a consequence of not feeling well, had relaxed the ‘no drinking before a marathon’ rule. Bad mistake, and one I won’t make again. I took it easy (no choice really) and finished in a decent 4:50 which gave me one of 6 Six Foot Track qualifiers for the year, but not a good one……

Friday had been horribly hot, but the forecast was for a cool mostly dry day, and that’s how it turned out. Beautiful running weather!

My marathon virgins were extremely nervous, but I know it’s just wasting energy to tell people not to worry. Far better to get their minds busy thinking about the race and strategies, tips and options. The downside of staying in a pub on a friday night was that it was difficult to sleep with the band going downstairs. The upside was that the band were pretty good.

Up early for breakfast and off to the start. It was great to see so many of the same people as last year, strange that I didn’t know any of them 12 months ago! I spotted Michael McGrath sporting a pair of runner held together with MASKING TAPE! So I lent him my old road shoes- yes mine were just about ready to be donated to underprivileged international joggers, but still many times more useful than Mikes clogs. Did he steal them from a homeless man? No he’d forgotten to bring his proper shoes. Lots of smiles, good wishes and then we all lined up behind the start line, aaand we’re off! The start is tight and downhill until the first creek crossing. Last year this was muddy and we had to run through the freezing water, this year dry and we got across with dry feet. I got into a nice rhythm, although a bit worried that I was going out too fast, hitting 5-5:20/km. However I felt comfortable and I know I’ve picked up a bit of speed lately so I figured I’d be ok. After about 10km I noticed that I’d been dicing with a lady, blazing past her on the downhill and getting slaughtered on the uphill so I caught up with her and had a chat. Turns out I was chatting with Pam Muston who was training for her 3rd Coast to Koscioszko race, the 240km epic run every December. I asked her what time she was aiming for and was told around 4 hours, I said ‘I’m definitely going too fast!’ and let her go. So what were my goals? I was fairly sure I could beat 4:50 from last year, so I was looking for

3. Better than 4:50
2. Better than 4:40
and my ‘outperform’ goal was 4:30 (Michael McGraths time from last year)

Pam had put the fear into me about the hills in the second half, but perhaps I shouldn’t have listened to her as there isn’t anything that would be classed as a hill to a Six Foot Track survivor. Michael McGrath caught up to me at around 20km (I thought he was way in front) and we passed the halfway mark at 1:59 so it was a great position to be in, still worried I was going too fast…… The course has a couple of out and back sections which gives you a great opportunity to see who is in front on the way in, and see those behind on the way back.

At about 24km I saw Sarah and Paul looking relaxed and happy. From about 22km until 34km I ran with a Striders runner called Peter that I’d been dicing with for a while. He was bombing the downhills but virtually walking the uphills so I thought we could help each other and smooth out the consistency. We had a great chat but by 32km his lack of training was showing and he was having trouble (his marathon pb was more than half an hour better than mine, I’m not trying to talk myself up!), I hope I wasn’t pushing him too hard. At that point I’d realised I was likely to beat 4:30 and was anxious not to let the opportunity pass. I told Peter that I was going to try a bit harder and pushed the pace up a bit. As the km’s counted down I saw a few people on my tail and hoped I could outlast them, luckily I still felt good although the tiredness was starting to bite. It probably means I didn’t run hard enough while I was with Peter, but on the other hand not busting myself on that section could have saved me from breaking early…….

In the last 3km I realised I could beat 4:20 if I kept up the pressure, those last few steps seemed to go forever and I knew my Garmin was reading slightly long- even though ths seems to be a magically accurate course. So I came through the gates at 4:17:25 having blown away my most optimistic goals and knowing I could have gone a bit faster. Happy doesn’t even begin to describe my feelings! (official result of 4:17:32 differs by 7 seconds because this race does not have timing chips, i.e.. they work on gun time so it must have taken me 7 seconds to cross the start line which is where I hit start on my Garmin)

A note about nutrition. I have recently been experimenting with making my own energy gels and this was the first time I had used them during a race. That worked out very well, I never ran out of energy and felt good during the race. More about that in another post.

We were getting close to the 5:30 time limit but I was a little worried- we sent a friend out to push Paul to the end and I ran out to collect Sarah. It was very difficult to see her in that position and I knew that I couldn’t help her by taking her pack, and I knew we only had a couple of minutes to beat the sweep. So I simply tried to reassure her we were close to the end and to keep the legs ticking over. Success! Sarah in 5:25 and Paul in 5:27

Apparently she’d had a dose of the ‘tired sillies’ while running and started singing ’99 bottles of beer on the wall’ and Paul told her to shut up! Then after crossing the line she said ‘that was definitely harder than giving birth!’ Does that mean if I cut out some running we can have more babies?

Back to the pub for beer, wine, champagne, cider and spirits. Of course I avoided fortified wines, are you crazy? That’s a recipe for a hangover…….

Results

Doug Richardson           3:50:30
Michael McGrath           4:03:33
Adam Connor               4:17:32
Sarah Connor              5:25:49
Paul Hilliard             5:27:33

If you’d like to read last years report, check it out here

Blackmores Sydney Marathon 2012

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Early on, still enough energy to smile. Thanks to Tony Sharpe for this pic

This race in 2010 was my first marathon, and I still had enough mental scarring to be very wary. In fact I’d decided to give up all hopes of a pb (not very likely anyway) and attempt to help Martyn Dawson over the line in under 4 hours. He’s a better runner than me, and very mentally tough but he’d never done a sub 4 hour marathon. I know he can do it, and it seemed like a simple task to pace him to victory. This would also make sure that I wouldn’t blow up and could get the monkey off my back about this particular race.
The weather was great, a little crisp but nice in the sun, and we started just behind the 4 hour pacers. We got in front of them and started hitting very consistent 5:20/km pace to give us a bit of time for drink stops etc (a 4 hour marathon is an average of 5:41/km) and things were flowing nicely until I heard Martyns ragged breathing over my shoulder. Normally it’s me who puffs like a train, but this was an early warning that I might not have everything go my way. Then the 4 hour group passed us again- I looked at my Garmin and they had sped up significantly, we were still on target so we let them go. As they went past I mentioned to Pat Farmer that they were going way too fast and he said he was going to swap places with the pacer in front and moderate the speed a bit. And yes I’m a name dropper, and no he has no idea who I am. By the way, he came across the line in 4:00:00 what an outstanding result for a pacer!
The original plan was ‘take it easy until 25-30km, see how much we’ve got left and go from there’ which quickly turned into ‘hang on for as long as you can’. It turned out that Martyn’s massive effort at Trailwalker only a few weeks back had sapped too much out of his legs, and by the time we turned back towards the city, he was very unhappy. I searched my mind for any way I could help him but came up empty, so at about the 27km mark and about the 5th time he’d encouraged me to go on, I did. I’d failed in my primary goal, but I still had a good chance of my secondary, which was a sub 4 hour time for myself. Coming down Oxford St we saw Keith Hong waving a sign that said ‘HTFU’ er, thanks Keith!
Through Hyde Park and the city and out towards Anzac Bridge I started to flag, but at the turnaround someone came up to me and started to chat ‘you look like you’re doing it easy’ ‘you look fresh and happy’ I pushed away the veil of pain and looked up to see one of the 4 hour pacers trying to engage me in a conversation. Normally that would make me very happy, but all I could think was ‘6500m, you only have to run another 6500m. It’s not that bad, it’s only 6400m from here’. So I did my best to try to be polite and then pushed on so I could save some energy for running. I saw Pete from the fast middies with about 4km to go looking a bit lost. He’s such a strong runner it seemed inconceivable that he might not make a sub 4 hour time. I think seeing a friendly face helped, and he came with me for a bit. Then with less than 2km to go Michelle Payne, who we’d been dicing with all day, came blazing past hoping to definitively crush me. It worked, she pushed me too close to the vom limit and I had to back off!
The natural order of things prevailed and I finished in about the time and order I expected to. My final time of 3:55:09 was a solid result considering my mental problem with this course. Maybe next year I’ll race it properly. I could claim to have beaten Pat Farmer, Jane Trumper and Tony Abbott however the first 2 were pacers and the leader of the opposition was running with a blind man…….. so maybe not. Chris Dawe put in an amazing performance to score a 3:41 but I’ll have to have a little chat about negative splits- he was setting himself up for a 3:34 if you look at his first half. Steve pulled another brilliant effort out while coming back from injury, and Colette who now claims to be a bush specialist (ooh, er Vicar) got a PB. The way she convincingly trounces me in the bush runs I think she can expect many more PB’s in her future.
It was truly beautiful to see so many friends lining the finish chute, sorry I couldn’t rustle up a smile. And a great party afterwards. Let’s just say that I would probably run 42km again just to share a few drinks with you crazy people!

Mt Solitary 2012

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It’s not how fast you run, it’s who spots your name on the entry list!

After the postponement of the Mt Solitary race early this year, you’d think I’d be well prepared. I was, but nothing could make me ready me for the relentless agony of hill after hill after…. (except I’ve done it before. I must be very good at blocking things out)

 

It all started well, several cars full of NRG’ers met at the start, the first photons of light just giving a little colour to the trees. The old Queen Victoria Hospital (I like to call it an ‘abandoned mental hospital’ to freak people out) sits at the end of Tableland Rd in Wentworth falls. Surrounded by tall forest, it’s quite a spooky place. After a quick gear check (the mandatory gear list is quite long) we had enough time to have a nervous chat amongst ourselves, and for me to find my Garmin wasn’t working. Then a medical briefing from Keith Hong ‘if you need help off the course, tell someone who will tell a marshall, if you have a little blister, maybe you need to toughen up’. Well said Buzz.

 

The air horn sounded and we were off down the fire trail towards Jamison Creek. A couple of km of fast downhill then we veer off into the single track and descend even further. This was a lot of fun, and I was feeling well prepared and confident. I also knew that there would be some monumental climbing, and I’ve have to absolutely nail my nutrition plan to do well. However I also knew this would be a problem, as I’d run out of my normal gels, and was using a whole bunch of random ones picked up from showbags etc. And with no Garmin, I’d be guessing my food slots.

 

I’d decided to practice my race craft in this race- I’m very prone to stopping to chat to people, hang around too long at checkpoints and do lots of stuff that doesn’t get me to the end quicker. The lack of a Garmin made it all a little more challenging.

 

When we arrived at the creek there was a pleasant surprise- a log that we could climb on! Very happy about that as it’s not fun to run for 40km in wet feet. After the creek we started the climb. It’s not bad at first with plenty of runnable bits alternating bits of scrub with bush. It was here I dropped off the back of the train driven by Michael McGrath, letting him go so I could suck down a gel. My critical mistake here was selecting an SIS (Science in Sport) gel. It didn’t taste very sweet, and I believe this is because they don’t contain sucrose/ fructose, all the carbs are from maltodextrin. Well, let’s just say it didn’t work. I rely heavily on sugar and gels to get me through these races, and this was a big slap in the face because by the time I’d worked out this failure, I was deep into the mongrel climb- 650m of vertical in 3km. I lost about 30 places here, getting passed by all the other NRG’ers. Martyn stopped to ask me what was wrong and I made light of it, but I was already wondering if the promised fruit cake at the checkpoint would help me at the same time as cursing every pie I’d ever eaten. I stopped on the top of the mountain for another nutrition break, then took off to see if I could catch Chris Dawe who was just ahead. I ran pretty hard but couldn’t find him. I figured there was no way he could be that far in front (we’d started and insanely steep descent that included some rock climbing) and I looked back and he was there! He’d taken a wrong turn. I looked up and asked if he could see any pink tape just in time to see another runner fall off the mountain. Luckily it wasn’t a big fall, but he’d badly sprained/ lightly broken his ankle. I can’t think of a much worse place for this to happen, we were still 10km from the checkpoint, but apparently he got down safely- you wouldn’t have been able to stretcher him out as it wouldn’t have fitted though the holes in the rocks.

 

A bit more single track, past the scenic railway and we were greeted by another long climb up the Furber steps to the only checkpoint of the race. I saw both Martyn Dawson and Jane Trumper coming back down, so I had an idea of how far in front they were. I’d told Chris Dawe I was going to spend a bit of time at the checkpoint and not to wait for me but after I discovered there was no fruitcake, had a couple of Pepsis, I filled up my bladder there was nothing left to do except go.

 

I was feeling much stronger now, and since running with the fast middies a few times I’ve realised that my redline is a bit higher than previously thought. Still not 100% but no longer wishing some supreme being to put me out of my misery on the trail. I told Chris and Tanya who I was running with that if you’ve got anything left, this is the time to use it. It was about this stage that Chris said ‘my doctor told me I shouldn’t run today’. I figured if I could keep up a decent pace to the abandoned sewerage works I could stretch my legs on the fast downhills along Federal Pass, push to Jamison Creek, then hang on for the last 8km hill up Kedumba. As a bonus if I could catch either Jane or Martyn I might be able to stay with them, they are both very consistent runners with a great ‘never give up’ attitude. It wasn’t to be, they both finished well in front of me but it was fun chasing them. I did make up about 10 spots in the last 20km, and only 2 of those came back and passed me again. One was a woman (don’t worry I get ‘chicked’ a lot) and the other was a guy wearing home made sandals. Sigh.

 

Here comes grumpy bum

Anyway I’m happy that my plan to ‘race’ worked (well, for the second half anyway) and that I was able to recover from a bad start (over confident? bad planning? bad luck?), I beat 8 hours, got a 48 minute PB and I finished within an hour of Rob Mattingly……… and went from 53rd of 56 finishers in 2011 to 88th of 112 finishers. And my Garmin was simply flat, both my wife and son had noticed that it was turned on but hadn’t mentioned it to me. My responsibility though, I’ll be sure to check next time!

 

On the way home one of our crew needed a powerchunder (do they put diced carrot in gels?) and we stopped off for a beer in Lane Cove where another of our runners walked in and said ‘Gday Maggot, how are you?’. Why don’t I have any friends called Maggot?

 

Anyway I’m incredibly pleased to report some outstanding performances- Kathy Madden and Colette Woodliffe came in 6th and 7th female respectively. Excellent!

 

In case you think I’m joking about how tough this course is, here’s a selection of quotes stolen from Facebook after the race (names withheld to protect the comedians). I did not make these up-

 

It’s too painful to live

man, that race was a pain in the ass, literally – I have never had my glutes so sore! Whoever wants to squeeze my bum, be my guest!
 Mt Solitary – at this stage of recovery I never want to hear those words mentioned again
I can’t walk or do anything else today
I saw the elevation chart, and cringed.Then laughed, long, and loud <<<(this person did not do the race)
 That is the meanest nastiest evil hill / mountain I have ever climbed!!

 

 

At the pointy end, the race was won by Matt ‘Coops’ Cooper, in a new course record of 4:41 This is a guy who believes that through some form of NLP you can access an unlimited source of energy. While I could probably make a joke about him being the fruitcake that was promised in the race description, you can’t argue with those results, what an outstanding athlete. Maybe if I remove the fruitcake joke he’ll show me how to access that energy, I sure could have used it on Sunday!

 

 

Stats

200 spots, 129 starters, 112 finishers, 17 DNF. Cut off time 9 hours, distance 45km

 

Rob Mattingly 6:54:13

Michael McGrath 7:04:44

Katherine Madden 7:12:06

Colette Woodliffe 7:25:26

Martyn Dawson 7:36:00

Adam Connor 7:49:12

Chris Dawe 8:01:58

David Little 8:54:17

Steve Tancred RET

3 Marathons in 3 Days

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when the invite to 3 marathons in 3 days arrived I didn’t think much about it, but over the next few months I wondered how it would feel to try to emulate in a small way the achievements of people like Pat Farmer, Mal Law, Seb Perhauz and Jane Trumper. I’ve got no ambition to do the same, but what’s it like to get out of bed each day knowing you have to run a marathon, even for just a few days?

Start, Day 1

Day 1
We met outside the tourist information centre at Kuranda in the hills overlooking Cairns. I knew this would be a small event, but it struck home that there were just 38 people registered for the event, and only 32 doing all three marathons. And small means friendly- within 5 minutes I had arranged a ride from the end back home with a perfect stranger. Jane Trumper was there being interviewed by the local TV station and about to attempt her 94th marathon. The gun went off and we all descended into a path next to the Barron River. Just beautiful, but I soon learned that the locals avoid vegetation that we would just crash through. They have this stuff called ‘lawyer vine’ or ‘wait a while’ that dangles down from overhead, and will rip you to shreds at any chance. I found this out when a bit attached to my arm and tried to rip my face off. By the 20km mark I was talking to a couple of guys
who had entered thinking the event was going to be mostly road. I’m guilty of not looking at some things very closely but what on earth were they thinking? There was no sign of snakes, wild pigs or cassowary, except for some fresh turds that couldn’t have weighed less than ~1.5kg. I really don’t want to meet a bird that can do that……. The second half of day 1 was much easier, but by the end we’d covered more elevation than Six Foot Track. Ouch. I’d told my father in law that I expected to take 6 hours, and came through the finish in 6:00:23. How’s that for timing!

Results- 18th overall, 3rd in age group

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/197722128

Stuffing my face, but always have time for a chat and a photo

Day 2
Saturday started and finished at Cedar Park eco Resort, and looped through the forest around Kuranda. Thankfully there was little of the ankle snapping single track of the previous day, but we’d been warned that it would be harder, with some competitors expected to be out there for up to 8 hours.  This one was like death by a thousand cuts, with little hills constantly sapping energy. Then some big hills that wanted to smash me mentally. Overall elevation was higher than day 1, but I managed to finish a little faster, coming in at 5:49:15 officially. The last 10km were hideously painful, simply trying to keep my rhythm and get one foot in front of the other. It was here that I had my low point, wondering whether it was possible to complete the 3rd day, but conversely thinking ‘wow, I just have to tough out one more day, I think I can do it’. I slept in my compression tights, hoping that this would help with recovery.

Results- 16th overall, 2nd in age group

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/197722152

Day 3
This one started at Cedar Park and ended in Cairns, making it a substantially downhill run although we still managed 1200m of ascent on the day. I started with a bunch that I finished in front of previously, simply looking for a finish rather than any glory. This group of 4 were out in front before long, and I actually managed to lead in a marathon a few times that day. It’s not really as impressive as it sounds- it was a staggered start, and the fast people were starting 1 and 2 hours behind us. I tried to pace myself against Jane Trumper- she’s very consistent (which I’m not) and is happy to walk most hills (which I am too). I knew it would be difficult to stay with her all day, as she can dig deeper than me and can keep going when I’m begging for mercy. This run included a couple of out and back sections to make up the distance with a few rises to the top of Copperload Dam where my wife met us and ran to the end, then about 10km of smashing downhills into Cairns. We lost the other 2 runners on the downhill, and I turned into a zombie, almost unable to speak. This provided plenty of entertainment for Jane and my wife. A drink station at 39km, cross a highway then 3km up a hill for the finish. And yes this last hill had plenty of false summits, there were little pleading sounds coming from my mouth by the time we got to the spectators, only to find we had to run up another rise to the trig point to finish! Diabolical.

Results- 14th overall, 2nd in age group, 4th across the line (due to my early start)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/197722181

The End. Yes, it really felt that good

So what did I learn?
You can run marathons day after day, but not well. I felt great on day 4 and ready to go again, but how much of that was knowing I didn’t have to? And would I have felt the same after 10km? Out of 32 registered for all 3, only 25 competitors finished. You secretly kind of hope that a few will drop out and boost your ranking, but I’d rather gain places with sweat than others misfortune. I love smaller events, and by the time we finished, I’d made some great new friends. Here’s a list of the things on my body that DIDN’T hurt after 3 days of running- ear lobes, some patches of skin, that’s about it. The organisation of the entire thing was impeccable- the only thing that went wrong was the checkpoint drop for cp1 did not turn up on day 3. I didn’t use the drop service so I didn’t care. Pretty amazing when you consider they had water drops about every 5km for the whole 3 days. The food was amazing- chocolate cake and home made slice as well as the usual suspects. Oh, and did I mention the entire 3 days cost me $65?

Jane, David and I swapped the lead for a while. Photographic proof that I’ve been in first place in a marathon. Briefly

http://3marathonsin3days.com/

 

Woodford to Glenbrook 2012

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There are moments when I kid myself that I can run like Adam Darwin. Usually when he’s injured, sick or simply not running. But I’ll readily admit that he always manages to beat me with racecraft, cunning or actual talent. Still, I was feeling cocky when he flew past me on a minor rise about 2km into this race. In my defence, I had no idea how astonishingly fast this race is. I usually take a few km to get into the rhythm, but after a 4:38 first km I tried to slow down. Bad move. After passing about 100 people just after the start line, they all started to reel me back in. I had a stack at about 8-9km, not painful but an impressive amount of blood. Then after the 12km mark it’s all downhill. Wow, I couldn’t believe how fast we were running- pulling off a 4:27 at 18km was simply mind boggling for me. Passed a lot of people in the last few k’s but it got very painful, I was desperate to see the clearing and some signs to indicate the finish.

 

I came through the gates in 2:14 to find that Adam D had finished in 2:02. Tony Sharpe, Walter Edgar and a number of NRG’ers finished around the same time as me.

 

See you next year for a rematch Adam D, and I’ll need the number for your speed dealer, er coach. The photo is about 150m from the finish line. Look happy, don’t I?

 

runners

Nicola Darwin 2:37

Adam Darwin 2:02

Adam Connor 2:14

Geoff Evison  1:55

Richard Bettles 1:46

Alison Carlin 2:26

Sarah Connor 2:26

Leigh Reynolds 2:30

Teresa Liu 2:38

Rose Pengilly 3:04

Walter Edgar 2:23

Tony Sharpe 2:26

 

Also some of you might know Anne Powell, who crossed the line in 2:19 to win her age category!

 

results

http://www.multisportaustralia.com.au/RaceTecResults/Search.aspx?CId=1&RId=719&EId=2

2012 Race Results

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Six Foot Track (cancelled) ran anyway apx 7 hours

Canberra Marathon 3:46
Canberra 50km 4:42

Fatass Hellgate Gorge (fatass)

The North Face 100 16:34

Glow Worm Marathon 6:47

Woodford to Glenbrook 2:14

Cairns 3 marathons in 3 days
Day 1 6:00:23
Day 2 5:49:15
Day 3 5:10:44
Cumulative 17:01:27, 14th place overall (25 finishers), 2nd in age group

Mt Solitary 7:49

Fitzroy Falls Fire Trails Marathon

Coastal Classic

Great North Walk 100s (crewing)