This race was the culmination of a training block beginning after the Pemby Trail Fest 10km race last October, so a fairly lengthy period of training building up to it, but I did throw myself into just a little 47km race at Six Inch in December. As you’ll know if you read that race report, the indications coming out of that one were that I was heading in the right direction and since then I’ve beavered away on the trails. I still wouldn’t call myself a ‘trail runner’ and think of myself as a road runner that is dabbling more than anything, but I’m clearly building up a better level of experience in the bush.
During the training block I got off road long runs up to 35km in the bank, some with 3x10min or 3x15min at tempo effort and while I didn’t do much in the way of speed work, I clocked 17:04 in the WA State Masters 5000m on the track last month. That’s still a fair way off my PB, but definitely showing progress. I knocked the confidence going into the race as a couple of weeks before the race I came out of a tempo run on the road with some weirdness in my lower right leg. It was a bit tight and sore at first but then just felt… weird, right up until the beginning of race week. On balance, while I maybe niggled it just slightly (lesson: don’t try to slam dunk basketballs when egged on by son #1), but anxiety brain took over after that.
Fortunately, with a bit of time and a good talking to from a wife, a friend and a coach, I made it to race weekend in one piece and with confidence in the leg restored. These kinds of race weekends can’t be entirely without drama though and the decision to camp was one I regretted as our air mattress had a puncture and my wife and I ended up sleeping in the tent but on the ground. I say sleeping, but really I mean not sleeping.
A night on the floor is not really the best way to prep for a race but people have coped with worse so up I got at just after 5am to get my pre-race breakfast down: two tins of Ensure Plus, a liquid breakfast that has served me well since RP, President of the Flyers, suggested it to me nearly a decade ago. Wife and kids dropped me off at the rainy start area and before long we were off running out into the bush where it turned out, I did not feel great. I had heard this course was almost 100% on single track but that wasn’t the whole story and it turned out to be nearly 100% mountain bike single track, which is an important distinction. My Fenix 6 clocked 650m elevation over the distance with its barometric altimeter (not huge for a trail marathon), but the little, constant ups and downs of the MTB track combined with twists, turns, banks and even 4 foot ramps occasionally, really took a toll. Early sections had a lot of rock to be avoided in the track too and the technical nature of the course over long distance really took its toll. Mentally and physically it felt like quite a grind surprisingly early.
One bit of happenstance did have me meeting Nigell, another athlete coached by my coach Chris Dorman, while on course and hoofing it along the single track. After I nearly missed a bit of flagging tape he passed me and led the way and we ran together until about 12km when the track widened just a bit for a downhill section that enabled me to find a groove, open up and settle down a bit. Once we got onto that section I pulled away from Nigell fairly quickly and didn’t see him (or anyone else other than half runners I passed) until the finish.
Drama number 2 for the weekend happened pretty early too when, going for my first drink of liquid nutrition (Maurten drink mix), the top popped off my liquid flask and 50-60% ish of the contents spilled out. Oops. That made for a sticky run and a good bit less nutrition for me to take on. I still had a small amount in that flask and the second flask plus 3 gels, but had to rely on that to get me through.
The biggest win of the day for me was probably staying on my feet. At Six Inch I managed to trip over three times, but this time? Stayed on my feet for the distance! Score. After grinding my way round the course, with a final handful of kilometres that weren’t pretty but not the ugliest I’ve ever done, I crossed the line second in 3hs 13 and 38 seconds. It’s pretty hard to ballpark finish times on these trail courses when you haven’t run them before, but I’m quite happy with going under 3:15 for that one. The quite technical nature of the track doesn’t suit me or my running style at all, so signs of my improvement and fitness continue to be good.
After ducking back to camp to get showered and changed, smashing a Dominos pizza and coffee for lunch (I wanted to eat anything in sight really) we popped back for presentations, got a quick pic for Chris (Nigell placed 3rd too, good day for Chris Dorman athletes) and made the decision to pack up and head home rather than stay in the campsite for the second night. Had a good race and enjoy spending time with the family, but none of us were enamoured with Collie or the campsite itself. It was very nice to get home and spend a night in our own beds though, the cold beer from the fridge well down well too. Next on the agenda is a roughly 10 week training block through to the local Elleker Half Marathon which is hosted by Albany Athletics club. I’m looking forward to doing a bit more road training and see what I can do in June!
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