The thought of running 100kms with 4.5kms of vertical was quite daunting so the best way I knew of to prepare for the race on the 18th May was to run hills and run as much as possible on trails. There is no better place than the hills around West Head - there are some crackers at over 20% incline, including the Basin Track and the Elvina Bay track. So I set about running these as much as possible when I was at Mackerel with the family.
The other habit I got into was running very early in the morning with the headlamp on. A very spiritual experience (quiet time and a bit eerie) and it also would not eat into the family time. This meant 4:30am - 5am starts but was a great experience and one that I hope to continue.
No run on the West Head headland would be complete without running to the end of West Head Road. The views are too good to be true, as you can see below. Dad always said that you should take the time to smell the roses (probably because he did not force himself to take the time).
West Head just after sunrise taken by a cyclist also enjoying the view.
A Panorama of West Head 30 seconds before the photo above
The West Head trails are well maintained and there are also some unusual examples of flora & fauna to keep me interested on the longer runs. The addition of some new gear helped make the longer runs easier to manage.
A new 12L Salomon backpack and some new Salomon shoes (that the pros use) assisted greatly to hold the right levels of hydration & nutrition and also keep plenty of grip on the trails when it poured with rain.
Running with my headlamp was also great fun - I bought the latest Petzl headlamp (online) that powers up to 300 lumens which is blindingly strong.
I also enlisted the support of a Coach (of sorts). Hanny Alston put together a training program for me which gave me the confidence to know that the training program I was using was written, tried & tested by a champion. (Hanny won the World Orienteering Championship on 2006) and is extremely well respected in the Ultra running scene.She was also available to provide feedback to me on my nutrition & hydration strategy.
The view from the top of Mackerel Track.
Running & walking with Chay was very special and I loved every minute of this. More of this please :-)
For those of you who don't know, Chay doesn't walk slowly anywhere, in fact she power walks everywhere so she was a great training partner.
For those of you who don't know, Chay doesn't walk slowly anywhere, in fact she power walks everywhere so she was a great training partner.
The girls also helped me with my iPod music choice and the dancey songs assisted me to grind out the kms with a little up-beat music to help me along. In fact many times I had to slow down because the cool music would take me into a trance and I would forget I was on on 4 hour run! My Garmin (GPS watch) finally packed it in after 4 years of faithful service and I bought a Suunto Ambit which was supposed to last for over 15 hours (on 3 sec GPS tracking) which I figured would see me through the NF.
Most of all this preparation contributed to me being as ready as I could be for the NF. The question is would I get to the startline un-injured and then could I even finish?
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