In the first two weeks after my last blog, I ran a relatively modest 21km, then ran 50km in the pouring rain up in Canberra, and then another 14km under the Domain and over the Bolte last weekend... And now ramping up the training for Mothers Day Classic :)
I did the ultramarathon in our nation's capital last year and really struggled – this year I was again definitely questioning my sanity to continue after the 'finish line' at 42km and even more so when leg cramps kicked in at the 46km mark and but nothing was going to stop me from beating last year's time by 22min – VICTORY!!
Since few readers would have ever enjoyed the 'thrill' of running an ultramarathon, here's a 'race report':
The half-marathoners, full-marathoners and ultra-marathoners all started on the one gun at 7am - it was a miserable 5 degrees Celsius and rain was threatening. 1,229 runners completed the half marathon, 947 the full marathon and only 114 completed the 50km – the average time for the ultra was 4:37:48, which was quite miraculously three seconds faster than my time! The fastest was 3:03:08 – this is a sport that always has a way of proving that there is somebody in a different league!!
Now in my haste to make it to the airport check-in counter in time, I failed to purchase any GU gel =( So I bought a couple of Mars bars and a pack of Life Savers after dinner the night before and in the morning just whacked that in a plastic bag with an apple... Now I didn't end up eating the apple because you can't eat an apple whilst running and the Life Savers got soaked by the rain and stuck to the wrapping so I couldn't eat those either - so stupidly I ended up carrying an apple in a plastic bag for 50km haha!!!!! (That's up there with one marathon that I forgot to wear a watch!!) The Mars bars were gold though – after spending 2-3 minutes trying to open each wrapper with slippery fingers in the pouring rain!!!
I stayed overnight a ten-minute walk from the start line, which became a hasty five-minute jog as I ran through empty Canberra's street-scape to the main hall, located the bag drop and jumped the fence to start ten rows back from the pointy end of the field – must admit I'm the BIGGEST queue-jumper at running events =) Low-key start - nobody working the microphone, no Advance Australia Fair, just 30 second warning and 10 second countdown and GO!!
Got some serious pain on the balls of my left toes at about 10-12km – this has happened on more than one previous occasion, I just favoured my right foot for a while and the pain dissipated over the next few km...
En route I discovered more gold – GU gel on a table at the 15km and 30km marks!!!! Took two each time and honestly that made such a difference!!! The thing with long-distance running is you need a ridiculous amount of water but then you also need a ridiculous amount of carbs – GU is an acquired taste, just mix it in with lots of water =D Hit the wall at 28km: it was accompanied by a simple realisation that I couldn't maintain my pace for another 22km, just turned it down a gear and watched my placing progressively slip...
Crossing the finish line for the marathon distance was an emotional moment, everybody's cheering you on saying “ONLY 500 METRES TO GOOOOO!!!!!!!” and you don't have the energy to say “Sorry, 8.5km in my case” but the buzz of the crowd and the fellow runners help the adrenalin kick in, then you cross the line and the other runners look at you thinking "Jesus Christ, I'm completely done, I finished a marathon and that guy's off for another 7.805 km of punishment?" One minute later there's nobody cheering you on and it's just you and the empty road ahead.
THEN my right hamstring cramped up at 46km and it was simply a matter of bringing it home, time was an irrelevancy, but unfortunately I had a noon booking for brunch with a friend at Manuka – well I got there at 11:58am and before her, haaaaa! But I digress...
Then finally with 200m left I could taste it, turned on the nitro (which in retrospect only increased my pace from snail to wombat) and saluted at the line in 59th place – managed to hold back the water-works but they weren't far off as I hadn't worked that hard for a good while just to finish :) Was that moment of pure joy was reward enough for maintaining the rage for over 4.5 hours? Some brave guy in his 50s finished last in 6:04:50 – what motivated him to keep going for that many hours? Now we all love a good story of triumph after suffering, and I simply can't compete with this guy: http://www.coolrunning.com.au/forums/index.php?app=blog&module=display§ion=blog&blogid=422&showentry=8295
And just to finish off the Canberra experience, the other exciting from that evening was that I signed my mum up for Mothers Day Classic!! Yes, Mother's Day will soon be upon us and what better idea than to have the present ready for your mum?!? If you're anything like me, you normally leave it to the last Saturday afternoon, but she now she will remember this year's present forever =D
It wasn't until the Wednesday that I felt normal again – the legs were still spongy last weekend as I borrowed somebody else's bib for R4TK – a late withdrawal, thanks for organising Cath!!! So hence ANOTHER race report ;P
Picked up the bib before the race and met some her friends, and there she goes and blurts out that my pre-R4TK training consisted of an ultramarathon last weekend – immediately ostracising me as her weirdo friend. After that set-back, we headed over to the bag drop and there was this ridiculous queue running literally about 200m and people cutting in about 5m from the start – so after a quick moral discussion with the angel (Good Damo) and devil (Evil Damo) who were perched on my shoulders, we cut also cut the queue.
Then headed off to the start line only to find a mass of humanity waiting, so I wandered up to the start line to find a couple of other runners waiting outside the railing for the last second before sneaking in – I managed to start five rows back from the front, out of about 30,000 competitors haha, what did I mention earlier about queue-jumping? ;P Note that Mothers Day Classic does not condone queue-jumping, just in case you're getting that impression. You will be forced to carry large quantities of fruit if you are caught!
Enjoyed the run, split smack on 30min but faded to finish at 1:02:22... My high-school housemaster past me on the Bolte Bridge – last year was my ten-year high school reunion and in response to the “so what have you been up to for the last ten years?” question, I told him amongst other things that I'd been busy running marathons – he told me his PB and it was one frigging minute faster than mine!!!! GRRRRR :( So he's given me MASSIVE motivation to get a new PB, but when he went past me on the bridge, he didn't do anything to damage his title as my running archnemesis hehe ;)
The other group that really annoy me are those 12-year-olds who cruise past. Their legs are two-thirds the length of mine so their three strides are my two!!! Are these kids the Tiger Woods and Martina Hingis of Australian running? They had better get drug-tested afterwards because I'm very cynical!! It reminds me of the demoralisation of being a skiier, when those 6-year-old midgets glide effortlessly past your twisted wreck of a body lying head first on the cold snow.
As I mentioned training is ramping up, only eight days to the Great Puffing Billy Train Race then 15 days to Mothers Day Classic!! I hope you're all hitting peak training next week, lots of laps of Anderson St hill haha, even my dentist was telling me about his training regime, very disclipined!!
That's it folks, if you want to show your love, you have to write comments!! Repeat after me: "Book MDC, Book MDC, Book MDC, Book MDC, Book MDC..." Happy Easter, love to you all xx
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