A few rambling thoughts, highlights and remarks of the NorthFace100 2013. I have used some photos to illustrate my points & also to jog my memory (no pun intended) .
Facts:
Goal time 14 hours, finish time 14.5 hours.
Winner receives a gold belt buckle, under 14 hours gets silver buckle; under 20 hours receives bronze belt buckle. Now I know the course and what to expect from my body I will aim for silver next year.
I consumed 12 bananas; 6 vegimite sandwiches - crusts cut off; 12 winners bars; 2 other nut bars I took from checkpoint 3; 8 Endura Gels; 2 cups of Endura electrolyte, checkpoint 3 also; 3.0L of water and 11.0L of Hydrolyte.
Did well:
Organised a formal training plan 10 weeks out from Hanny Alston (well known Ultra Coach).
Set a countdown timer to go off each 45 mins which meant that I had to eat & drink as per the plan - no excuses.
Excellent choice for hydration was Hydrolyte - 3x the NaCl of Endura and half the sugar. This was great advice, I filled my bladder up at each checkpoint from the water truck and sprinkled in 2 sachets of Hydrolyte.
Whole foods worked better for me than blended non-organic foods.
Woollen gloves helped me slide down Giant stairs (railing), kept me warm and absorbed sweat...etc very well.
All the gear from Salomon worked extremely well, I will stick with them.
Trained at night. Did plenty of hill work.
Obsessively loved using Strava to track my progress.
Had some fantastic music on my iPod which pepped me up a little when needed.
Did not do well:
Front number bib ripped one eyelet off and I had to hold onto it for about 12kms at the beginning of the race. I borrowed a knife at a checkpoint 2 and made my own hole.
Left too much in the tank till the end of the race.
Spent 35mins in last 3 checkpoints - way too long for me to run under 14 hours.
Did not train on steep down-hills enough - this meant that my toes copped a hammering as they smashed constantly into the front of my shoes.
Loved:
Views. Camaraderie. Speaking to the sponsored athletes and realising that they are just as human as I am - well, maby not quite ;-) SMS's from everyone wishing me well, I looked at these during the race and the phone kept vibrating through out the race as people would log onto twitter or facebook and see how I was tracking to my checkpoint goal times (this was possibly the biggest confidence booster of all). Calling Chay about 15mins from each (last 3) checkpoint telling her I would be seeing her soon. Running into the checkpoints and feeling 10foot tall and bullet proof as everyone was cheering.
There was about 3.6kgs of gear to carry through out the race (+ 2 L of fluid) and there were spot checks at checkpoint 2, checkpoint 4 and halfway up Kedumba pass to ensure that we were all carrying the appropriate gear.
The start - this was wave one start 6:50am, I started 3 minutes later in wave two at 6:53am.
The first climb out of Leura was on bitumen. Many of the people that I started with I saw through out the final stages of the race.
The scenery was beautiful and a lot of the course was running along hills / ridge lines which meant that the views were to die for.
The walk up Ironpot ridge was extremely steep, you can see the vertical climb in the cross section image below - see KM 17 mark.
Cross section - what hammered me was the run down from Katoomba into the Kedumba Valley - KMs 70 to 81, including the Golden stairs at KM 70.
At the top of Ironpot ridge - what a view, a haunting sound & a sight that I will never forget. A bloke playing the didgeridoo and a bloke playing message sticks. Both guys claim that their aboriginal ancestors walked this part of the Blue Mountains 10,000 years ago. There was a 100m drop on the other side of the rock they were sitting on.
Hills, hills, hills....it was very nice to see the top of this one.
Chay was my support crew and took this photo at checkpoint 4 (Katoomba Aquatic Centre). She also gave me a great hamstring, quad and calf massage which really helped me open my stride during the next stage of the race.
Heading out after checkpoint 4 there was a beautiful open paddock with ankle deep soft grass - great for the feet & legs with some much needed cushioning. I felt a little trippy at this stage (I was having my own moment) & I remember holding my arms out like a bird as I raced through this field with fresh legs from Chay's massage.
Aother ridge-line run. This was actually near the Giant Stairs heading to checkpoint 5, just round the corner from the three sisters. The guy behind me was from France and had flown in just for the race - found out at the finish.
Again, at the Giant Stairs - you can see this at the 70kms mark in the cross section above - the Frenchman was still in pursuit. In face we duelled for most of the last 35kms. I snuck up behind him as we ran out of the scrub with 1.5kms to go - strong finish took him a bit by surprise I think. We both laughed about it after the race.
Then nightfall came. This was actually quite easy for me because I had done a lot of morning miles in the dark with headlamp on. This photo was taken in a sandstone cave with opening that looked out over the Kedumba Valley. If you lost your footing here there was about 60m to fall before you hit the bottom of the valley. Chay put on the reflective vest as I left checkpoint 5. This was a mandatory requirement.
Then came checkpoint 5. What a thrill running to the top of the Kedumba wall and then seeing floodlights, open fires and Chay offering me a big hug. I was looking forward to that hug the whole leg of the race. I can remember a lady saying how lovely it was seeing me give Chay a long embrace. I spent 18mins at this checkpoint which cost me precious time but I remember saying to Chay that it was just like camping and it was bliss warming my tight hamstrings by the open fire. About halfway up Kedumba wall (a 7 km hill, seen above in the cross section between 80kms & 87kms) there was a final surprise spot gear check. This was fantastic timing for me as I had run out of hydration with 5 kms to go to checkpoint 5. At this gear check the volunteers have the ability to pull you out of the race if you don't appear to have all your facilities. I remember them asking me how I feel. I said "what do you think...I have just run 85kms, it is 3deg C, night time and I have run out of water on the longest & steepest constant hill in the whole race, then you both appear out of the dark...you are both bloody legends". Even if they had tried to pull me out of the race at this stage they would not have been able to!
Running up this pass I also remember turning off my iPod when I heard a deep hooting call from an Owl which was on one side of the trail. Then I could hear another equally deep howl from an Owl on the other side of the trail - stereo owl hoots! As a lover of nature this was a real buzz and it really put me into a trance on one of the toughest parts of the course. I remember also loosing my ability to sense when I had reached a flatspot on top of a hill in the dark. I guess it was some sort of middle-ear imbalance, this was pretty weird but only lasted for a few minutes until the flat part of the trail morphed into another hill.
The last leg was 11kms of stairs, stairs & stairs, lots of tough trails, some road and then a golf course fairway to the finish line. Again Chay was there to take a photo and smile at me :-) There was no real pain during this last part of the race there was adrenaline which counter-balanced the really tight leg muscles, mainly my hamstrings. About 1.5kms out you can hear the announcer bringing people across the line and my brain went into overdrive. I wanted to sprint but remembered what I had said to myself the whole race....if I finish and end up like I did at the Gold Coast Marathon then Chay would not sanction another race like this for me. So, I just soaked up every minute and remembered the key to running - to smile - just like the Tarahumura!
If I am really honest about why I ran this race, it was more about the training sessions and the time by myself to really ponder. I spent a lot of time thinking about Dad. I had convinced myself that when I was going to run through a mental flat spot in the race that I would use my memory of Dad to pull me out by somehow extracting confidence from him that I would be able to get through it. In actual fact I did not have to think this at all, what I realised is that I dont need to call on him to help me because he will always always be there with me. He was there with me during the race the whole way, smiling and thinking to himself how much he would like to be ruinning the race also. He would be enjoying the scenery, remarking on the fine athletes and striking up a conversation with someone who would no doubt have recognised him.
I bumped into Tom Landon-Smith's parents having dinner the night before the race and they both commented that Dad had passed 18 months ago. Tom's Dad said that he can remember Dad getting him into running at the Turramurra trotters about 30 years ago and he has never forgotten it. I told him that Dad would be running with me tomorrow and I am sure he will be enjoying the race.
