I drove from Rockhampton leaving before 7am on the Saturday morning and arrived at about 3pm that afternoon. I stayed at the closest place I could find, The Radison Resort, which was about a 10 minute drive away.
I unpacked and continued my race tradition of setting out all my race gear on the couch and went through a race visualization to ensure I had everything I would need.
I got up at about 4:30am and had a big bowl of cornflakes and some Gatorade before checking out and heading down to the race start.
I met up with some QPS colleagues (whom I hadn't met before) who were also doing the 50km as part of their build up for The North Face 100, which is six weeks later. We were all treating this as a bit of a test run with full packs containing our mandatory gear. My pack weighed in at about 5kg which is the same weight that I have been using for all of my hill and long runs.
There were over two hundred people at the race start. The race had two options, a single lap of 25km which could be run or walked and a two lap option open to runners only as there was a 3hr 45min cut-off to start the second lap.
I initially intended to run with the other lads but we all had different time goals so when I lined up with the masses I decided to run my own race. I positioned myself at about mid pack and away from the guns who were obviously going for fast times. There were a few others with big packs but the majority of runners had hand held or waistbelt waterbottles.
We were off. Within about 100m we came to a small fence crossing which needed to be climbed and caused a bit of a bottle-neck. Immediately after that we started climbing. It wasn't much of an incline but I was running relaxed and concentrated on taking my time and not trying to stay with the leaders. I was determined not to have the same race experience that I had with my first ultra.
The first kilometre took 7mins 01sec and people in front of me were already walking. The track was pretty good, nice and wide but it was very rocky meaning that foot placement was important and slowed everyone down. The scenery was great, the trees provided shade from the sun which was already beginning to feel quite warm. My mid-pack starting position meant that I was passing quite a few people who had overestimated their abilities. I was also playing yo-yo with others who walked on the undulating hills and then caught up to me on the short flat and downhill sections. I didn't pay much attention to anyone else and continued to run my own race and enjoying a fabulous run in the bush.
After walking up "heartbreak hill" which was an incredibly steep climb I took a wrong turn. So two ultras, two wrong turns. I was catching a couple of guys as we were walking up the hill and when I got to the top I turned left. I ran for about 250m before realising that I had gone the wrong way. I couldn't see them up ahead, there were no footprints and I ran into a spider-web which shouldn't be there if others were in front of me. I stopped and checked my course description and realised my error. I started runing back the opposite way and saw one of my colleagues who had just crested heartbreak hill. I told him not to go the way I had come and I carried on. In total I had run about 500m extra which was alot better than my 15mins at my first ultra.
I was running too quickly after my course correction and had to tell myself to slow down and not worry about the 3 or 4 minutes I had lost. I was re-passing people and had got back to my original position by the first aid station. The first aid station was at about the 12.5km mark and there is an out and back leg where I got to see the leaders of the 50km race. This out and back loop contains a short amount of road on a steepish decline. I was counting the 50km runners (identifiable by the green background on their race numbers) and was in about 15th position when I hit the turn-around. I was quite surprised at how many were ahead of me as there were only about 30 or so entered in the two-lap race.
After a quick refuel at the aid station I began the steep slog back up to the bush track. I had to walk alot of this part and tried to concentrate on on conserving energy and ensuring that I was sticking to my nutrition and hydration plan. I was feeling good and my competitive nature was starting to take hold. I was concentrating on catching the runners ahead of me as I saw them further up the track.
My feet were beginning to get sore and I was developing some blisters due to the rough rocks on the course. It didn't affect me much because I was having so much fun. I was loving every minute of it and would smile and say hi to all of the runners I caught. The majority of these runners were in the one lap race as the 50km runners were becoming quite spread out.
As we were heading down the hill with about 4km to go I came across the 50km leaders heading back out on their second lap. I couldn't believe how fast they were running and how far ahead they were. I continued to count the places and finished my first lap in 2hrs 35mins 27secs which put me in 12th place for the 50km runners and 28th out of 215 for the one lappers.
I was feeling a bit tired at this point but I made sure I refilled my 2L water bladder and took off on my second lap. I walked a lot of the hills that I ran on the first lap but kept up a good consistent pace and it was not long before I started catching other runners. Being a two lap course I was recognising a lot of the landmarks which made me feel quite comfortable with the course.
As I was climbing "heartbreak hill" for the second time I caught up to a runner that I had run with for my first ultra in the Glasshouse Mountains. I said hi as I passed him on the very steep climb. He said that he was finding it tough as he had done the 6ft track (45km) a week or two before. It was quite ironic as he was the runner who caught and passed me in my first ultra with about 5km to go. I made sure that I took the correct turn at the top and found the orange witch's hats indicating the course direction that I should have seen on the first lap.
It was quite lonely on the second lap but I had myself for company and was singing songs to myself in my head. At the detour for the turn around point I only saw a few of the other runners as the leaders had already completed the detour and were on their way to the finish. I got to the aid-station in 8th place with two other runners a few minutes ahead of me. I downed two cups of coke and opened my packet of chippies that I had in my bag. I was pretty tired at this point and walking all of the steeper climbs. I could only eat about half of the bag of chippies as my mouth was so dry.
It took about 5 or 6km to catch the next runner who was the second placed female. She was running really well and was steady the whole way. I would catch her on the flats and declines and she would pull away on the climbs as I walked. The walking strategy is quite strange and coming from road running and marathons in-particular, it was something that I was not used to. But it works. In a marathon or Ironman as soon as you begin walking you make it so much harder to run again and lose a lot of time. But in ultras, walking the climbs allowed me to catch my breath and it helped with stretching my legs which were beginning to feel quite tight. Although I lost a bit of time and distance to those who ran the climbs, my legs were in better shape due to the recovery that the walking breaks gave me and overall it allowed me to make up ground and pass them. I was quite strict though and would give myself little goals such as; run to that tree and then walk to the ridge, or walk until I relaxed my breathing before running again. The longest period of walking would have been less than 500m, any longer and I would have found it harder to start running again.
At about the 45km mark I was in 7th position and was starting to feel the effects of the run. Thankfully we had a bit of drizzle on the second lap which kept the temperature from getting too high but I was starting to hit the wall a little. I had been sticking to my drinking and eating schedule and at one point I saw the runner in 6th place further ahead. I didn't have much energy to spare so continued to run my own race and didn't push the pace to try and catch him. I had been passing walkers who were doing a one lap walk and at one point saw a group about 100m ahead of me. I'm not sure what happened but the next thing I knew I was falling. I hit the ground and rolled over onto my back and up to a hands and knees position before getting up and running on. I made a mental check and found that nothing was damaged. I was releived and slightly embarrased but lucky for me nobody had seen my tumble.
My hands were dirty with mud and as I ran I tried to clean them up. I was having a bit of a rough time with my energy levels and my legs were pretty tired. I was getting a bit of stitch and I could feel the tendons in my calves. I concentrated on my breathing and before I knew it I was on the final downhill and crossing the finish.
I finished the race in 5hrs 26mins 29secs in 7th place overall. I was very pleased with my run which I felt was more controlled than my first 50km race. Although I was tired and sore I was not too trashed. I stood around for a few minutes and talked to the guy in 6th who finished two and a half minutes ahead of me. He too was training for The North Face 100 and had a backpack on (although it looked much smaller and lighter than mine).
I then went for a bit of a cool down jog with my pack on to ensure that I had done the full 50km as my Garmin GPS watch was showing about 600m less. I felt pretty good on my cool down which was surprising and could have run on a bit further. My Garmin stats showed that I had burned approximately 3885 calories and the course had 2619 metres of ascent and 2545 metres of descent. I didn't use a heart rate monitor so didn't have a gauge of how hard I had been working but for the 50.05km I ran at an average of 6.33min/km. I consumed 7 Endure gels, half a packet of chippies, a bag of powerbar gel blasts, two cups of Endure electrolyte, two cups of coke, a few lollies and at least 4L of water. My stomach held up much better than previous long races but still got the stitch near the end and my stomach was starting to get a bit upset.
Overall I am very pleased with my run and it gave me a good indication of how my training has been progressing. For TNF100 my pace will be slower again which should help prevent stitch and stomach upset. I am definitely on track for a good race and am pleased to have worked out a good run / walk strategy that works for me and that I will be able to use in the Blue Mountains.
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