Camping. Trail racing. I’m changing (growing?) as a person.
Back in Newcastle I would do the occasional Wednesday ‘Dad’s run’ with a couple of the guys or more likely get dragged into Glenrock by the Newcastle Flyers as part of the Sunday long run but it’s no secret that I wasn’t particularly keen. It wasn’t something I’d done a lot of and didn’t feel competent at. In a social run all well and good but I almost never ran off road by myself.
Since moving to Albany in 2019 I have dabbled in trail running more and more. WA’s coast line was espoused by a clubmate and former WA resident before I even left Newcastle. A new location and beginning seemed as good a time as any to try it out more. Anyway, fast forward a couple of years (nearly 3!) and getting off the road has been a key part of my rehab and rebuild post groin injury and I’m enjoying it quite a lot now, with it making up a decent chunk of my running time. So it only seems natural to try racing off the road too, see what all the fuss is about.
And thus I found myself setting up a tent in the pouring rain on a Friday afternoon just outside Pemberton. The campgrounds completely sodden from a very wet winter season, the whole family’s shoes and socks wet all the time and not a lot to do because the rain was heavy and persistent the first night and most of the next day. Fun times! I am not a natural camper and have a relatively low frustration point so my wife pretty much had to convince me we should stay for the rest of the weekend. Of course as usual she was right. The weather cleared up, both we and the kids had fun and I completed my first 10km trail race, bagging the win in the process.
Shuffling back a bit, my training in the weeks leading up to the race had been 50-60km/week, consisting of a mix of surfaces (grass, trail, road) and sessions being some hilly fartlek sessions on the hills around Mt Clarence here in Albany. In addition, the recent introduction of some tempo runs on the road, starting at fairly slow paces and gradually increasing week on week had been what felt like a key move for my continued rebuild. Coach Chris has had me working the hills for months steadily building strength but some achilles niggles meant faster road work had been on the back burner. Being a natural born road runner though, getting to do some of those tempos was a window into what I can and will be doing. Those are my bread and butter sessions, giving me the chance to hone my running economy.
Having done the Denmark Half a couple of weeks prior I had a long, hard effort in the legs and the confidence that yes, I can still push myself close to the red line and hold it. The speed/strength/fitness is not near my peak yet, but I haven’t lost the willingness to push it and it was good to have that confidence going into this Pemby race.
These trail runner folks at Perth Trail Series make a big weekend of events and so Friday night I did a 7km night run, hoofing it round the Karri forests in pitch darkness except for the light of runners’ headtorches. I don’t do much of any running on the trails outside of daylight and the extra mental processing it involved was an eye opener. The big ultras where you can be running through the night must have a big mental component! Saturday the family and I went into Pemby to spectate the ultra, which Coach Chris was running and the kids did the event put on for them but by Sunday it was my turn.
Packing up the tent and loading the car beforehand so we could check out and head off to a later than normal (or later than any race I’ve ever done anyway) wasn’t particularly ideal, but after getting to the race area, jogging out for a warm up and strides it was soon time to get on with things. The race director made a point of telling us at the front that we’d be straight onto single track and thus elbows needed to stay in until the track widened out. However we couldn’t start until a bunch of people from the later-starting 5k got out of the start area. They’d mentioned which bibs/race was starting multiple times but I guess not everyone was listening…
The gun went off (well, the race director and crowd counted down…) and it was time to do my thing. I got away fairly quick but not as quick as the young guy who eventually finished second because he was off like a rocket, chewing up the single track. He only managed that for about 1500m though and by the time the track widened out I headed past him and… never saw him again. The course for this event (which they call the Rainbow course, the Saturday 10K is on a different one) had a mix of single track and wider almost 4x4 track and plenty of up and down. Around 200m of elevation mostly in the first half and mostly down in the second half, but certainly ups and downs throughout. I pretty much managed to find my effort and plug away only having to slow for one particularly wet/muddy section where cars had torn it up and a hill that was steep enough I had to walk up it.
So I’m a proper trail runner now.
By the time I got back to the single track on the return I was overtaking 5k and half marathon runners which presented problems in one or two places but most people jumped straight out of the way after a quick shout of ‘passing on the right’. Over the line in first and, it turns out, about six minutes in front of second. So not too much in the way of competition, but I very much enjoyed revving my engine up and putting both the physical and mental effort in. Plus it turns out I look good in a trail vest, which was required gear along with 500ml water. Seems a waste over 10k but thems the rules!
After the presentation (the local Pemberton red wine that I won went down a treat later that week) we headed into town for lunch with Coach Chris, his family and our friend Kelley and after that an overall very fun weekend was complete. The wet start to camping was definitely a downer, but the racing made up for all that and I’m looking forward to trying more (and longer) trail events.
Opmerkingen