2011 - A year in review

2011 marked my first full year of running ultra marathons. My first official ultra was a 50km trail run in the Glasshouse Mountains in September 2010, however 2011 was the year that I truly embarked upon my ultra journey. 2011 was a year where I ran a 5km and 10km road race, a half and full marathon and five ultra marathons. Of those races I had two significant failures, my first DNF's in any races and although I failed to achieve my goals on those occasions I have learned so much. It has not been easy and I have 'retired' from running ultras a couple of times in response to getting sick during these endurance footraces. However, if these events were easy they wouldn't be worth doing. After my last race, where I suffered through the last 44km of a 74km run in very hot conditions, I thought that I was finally finished but once my body had recovered and the pain became a distant memory I could not resist the lure of running long again.

Some people ask me why I do this to myself and compete in these events and I struggle to give them an answer. I don't run long for fame or reward but because I love the feeling of freedom, the sense of achievement and satisfaction I get when pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to achieve great things. I believe that we are all capable of greatness and have the innate ability to extend ourselves beyond what we perceive as our limitations. All we need is the courage to believe in ourselves and the strength to lay it all on the line when it matters the most. This attitude is not just limited to running or sport in general, I believe that it applies to all the areas of our busy modern lives. Too many times we find an excuse to give up because something has become too hard, we miss the opportunities because we are scared to try, and scared to fail. I continue to make mistakes and I have failed but I will not give in, I will continue to get up again and it is because of these failures that I will prevail.

At the time of my DNF's at The North Face 100km and the Glasshouse 100 mile races I was tired, I was sore, I was dehydrated, I was sick and I didn't think I could continue so I quit. In hindsight and disassociated with the pain and feelings I had on those occasions I know deep down that if I really really wanted to I could have finished those races. Although I couldn't see it then, I know now that I needed those failures to motivate me and to allow myself to understand that I am stronger than that. So this year, in 2012, I am giving myself the mantra of 'NO EXCUSES'. I will also think about Aaron Ralston and about the immense strength of character he displayed in 2003.

Late last year I saw the movie 127 hours which is based on the book 'Between a rock and a hard place' written by Aaron Ralston. The book relates to an incident in 2003 when Aaron was hiking through canyons in Utah (U.S.A.) and fell down a crevice resulting in a large boulder crushing his arm and pinning him to the canyon wall. Aaron was stuck in that canyon for five days and on the morning of the sixth day he amputated his own arm by breaking the bones and then using a small and somewhat blunt knife from a multi-tool to cut away the skin, muscles, tendons and tissue. Severely dehydrated, bleeding profusely and in shock he managed to climb out of the canyon, rappel down a rock wall and hike his way out of the canyons before being rescued. In the future whenever I think that I am suffering and unable to continue I will try and think of Aaron Ralston and know that we can overcome almost anything, all we need is self-belief and the strength and courage to never give up.

In 2011 I ran a total of 4,163.98 kilometres which is an average of 11.40km's a day or 80.07km's per week. I had some very good blocks of big volume running with consistent weeks of between 100-175km. I also had a couple of periods where I took a couple of weeks off or had very low volume weeks. In 2012 I hope to run somewhere in the range of 5,000 to 6,000km and improve upon my consistency.

In 2011 I ran at least a marathon 17 times in training or racing. The majority of these sessions were in the 45-55km range with the two biggest training runs consisting of 60km and 68km. My three biggest races were the 74km Cairns to Port Douglas trail run, The North Face 100 trail run where I ran 83km and the Glasshouse 100 mile trail run where I managed 127.5km.

I have just come back from a three week family holiday to New Zealand for Christmas. I did some running on some of my old favourite courses which was great fun. Wellington is inundated with a huge variety of exciting and challenging trails and hills. I didn't run often and only when I felt like it. We were generally pretty busy catching up with family and friends which was the main reason for going over in the first place. I ran in the Eastern hills of Lower Hutt along the firebreaks. The views of the Hutt Valley are wonderful and I took a few rest breaks to admire them. I ran up to the top of the Belmont Trig via a bush trail with a few stream crossings and some steep sections. When I got to the top it was very windy and cold (11 degrees) so I was surprised to see a couple of mountain bikers up there and even more surprised to recognise one of them as an old triathlon training buddy of mine. I also got to run around one of my favourite courses on Mt Victoria which was the location of the 2005 World Mountain Running Championships. I also managed to get in a couple of flat runs around the Petone foreshore and Wellington Bays as well as a 12km round the block run from Karori to Wadestown and Wilton before returning to the start.

The break away has helped me recover from a big year of breakthroughs and exciting adventures. I'm really excited about what 2012 has in store for me and I'm looking forward to catching up with familiar faces, meeting new people, seeing new places, completing unfinished business, and continuing to challenge myself, but mostly I want to..............

Keep running.

P.S. - Stay tuned for next week's post which will contain a bit of a surprise report.