from Zero to 240km in one year

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Coast to Kosciuszko Race Report 240km

I thought I better get off my fat ass and actually write something about my experiences at this year’s Coast to Kosciuzsko race before the memories start to slide.

My racing schedule over the past few years left a lot to be desired. A mix of laziness and corporate entertaining had taken its toll on my fitness. I managed 4:20 at the London Marathon on two weeks training in 2004. I was disappointed in that result so then started to train properly with Brian from Sporting Spirit. I set the 2004 Melbourne Marathon as my target race. This was significant because I had run my Marathon personal best (3:30) in 1984, 20 years earlier. My training for Melbourne went well but I injured a ligament in my left knee in an “idiotic injury incident” so I was out. No more races for 2004.

2003 Racing Schedule
No races

2004 Racing Schedule
London Marathon 42km

On New Year’s Eve in 2004 I decided to lose 10kg of body weight and run in the Comrades Marathon. My preparation went well and I was thrilled to have met both of my 2005 objectives of losing 10kg and completing the Comrades.

2005 Racing Schedule
Maroondah Dam 52km
6 foot track 46km
Canberra 50km
Brisbane 42km
Wahalla 65km (included 15km in addition to the course)
Williamstown 42km
Comrades 89km

After I completed Comrades in June I decided to see how far I could take my running in one calendar year. As you can see from the list below I managed finish quite a few long races.

2005 Racing Schedule continued
Gold Coast 100km
Sydney Trailwalker 100km
GH100 161km
NZ 24hr 163km
Melbourne 42km
Two Bays Trail 28km
Coast to Kosciuszko 240km

This report relates to the last, and longest, run on that list.

The C2K thread had been stagnant for a month and I was worried that interest in the race had fallen away since the official race status had not got through its various hoops.

I had managed to get a good finish at the Glasshouse 100 mile race, On paper I felt that I had the CV that would allow me to finish at C2K. I decided to strip all the mental and physical aspects of the decision aside and decided to give it a shot on the basis of the work that had been completed so far in 2005, I knew I could get to the top of Kosi because of races that I had done so far in 2005. In the end it was one of those “fuck it, lets give it a shot” impulsive decisions. No one chooses to run 240km the first time from logic and considered analysis, there needs to be a reckless component to the decision process.

I didn’t really worry too much about crew, in fact I thought that I might be able to give it a go without support. I remember Richard advising me that this was a dumb idea and that it would be certain death to consider taking on this event without support. I heeded his advice and went into crew recruitment mode. I won’t bore you with the details of the various crews only that Sean had offered to assist ‘at the pointy end’ if I needed help. I assumed the pointy end was the part of the race that occurs after 100 miles, ie. The last 80km.

Sean’s offer firmed up to the point where I’d only need to share support for the first 45km.

The evening before the race I flew into Merimbula on my private jet and managed to hitch a lift for the 25km to Eden with a Truckie called Darren who had a very entertaining Blue Dog (nicknamed Wayne) causing all sorts of chaos in cab of his rig. I was dropped at the Shadrack resort where there was a fantastic view of the ocean and an oil rig that was in from Bass strait for repairs.

The dinner at the Eden Fisherman’s club was nice and the beer was cold, Paul Every did an appropriate and stately speech, the various crews and runners made small talk about anything except C2K, I suspect that we were all shitting ourselves, at least I was. Funny enough, as I was leaving I ran into the Truckie and his dog who were procuring several long neck bottles of beer. The Truck man offered to get me back to Shadrack (4.5km from Eden) and I settled down into my luxury suite in the hotel.

I must admit I managed almost zero minutes of sleep on the night before the race, a combination of equipment faffing and nerves took away any desire to rest. Before I knew it one of my three alarms sounded at 4am. I had anally laid out my gear in the order that I’d put it on and called on my friendly Truckie and his belligerent Blue Dog to assist me with some foot taping.

Soon after Sean and Mel arrived having left Sydney late on Thursday and driven through the night taking time out to kip along the way. I promptly advised the Truckster and the Dawg that they were past their use by date and transferred my attention to Sean and Mel. Sean checked my foot tape and we were off to the start.

The start was amazing, lots of pictures and a festival like atmosphere, heaps of good luck hugs and back slapping. The beach was flat, the sun was nudging the horizion and we all performed some sort of ritual. Lawrence, Jan and Paul filled little bottles of water to be taken to the summit, I decided to get my feet soaked in an uncoordinated duel with the surf and took a mouthful of seawater that would travel with me to the top of Kosi.

A few minutes past 5:30am Paul drew a line in the sand, we all got behind it for the start of the second run to Kosciuszko. As usual in these long runs the field stayed together for the first couple of kilometres then Paul, Martin and Kelvin as the three most accomplished runners took their place at the front and proceeded to ascend the first bit out of Eden as if they were running in the World Mountain running championships.

I took my position in the field, seventh out of seven and deliberately held back so that I would not burn out too quickly, this proved difficult as I was feeling good and wanted to be part of the fun going on up ahead. Truckie and Blue Dog were omni present ferrying water bags and generally being cheerful.

At about the 4km mark we saw all the crews, the race at this point had the feeling of a big race with cars leapfrogging each other and a high degree of fussing going on. Sean and Mel were catching up on some sleep back at Shadracks resort, this is exactly where I wanted them. The early parts of the race were not too demanding from a support crew perspective and a rested crew in the latter stages would prove valuable.

Through the next twenty or thirty km I remember school buses passing and large trucks stirring up dust, through this section I was being fed waterbags, bananas and the odd bread based appetiser from RB, Gaby and Kelvin’s crew (Lis and Garry). Things were getting hot and my HR went to 160bpm despite my slow pace.

I crossed the marathon in about 5hrs 20min ish. I remember Robert telling me that Richard had had a quick dip in the creek where the causeway marks the 42.2km. I also remember looking at my Garmin and noticing that it was more like 44.5km . But who cares what the distance is, we only have one objective and that is the summit of Mt Kosi (+9km).

Rolling along the next 20km was loads of fun, not. It was getting bloody hot, and dusty. It was along this section that my insect repellent somehow got onto the nozzle of my camelbak and onto my hands and onto the waterbags and into my gut. Needless to say I was feeling crook. In fact my tummy was never really good through the whole race. I was consuming my home made goo which tasted disgusting so I was surviving on a staple of glucose jelly beans and powerbars. Soon after I had a vanilla crisp powerbar, the first of my twenty that I had purchased especially only to discover that they have peanut flour as an ingredient, mmm what to do… My peanut allergy has never been a real problem so long as I don’t eat peanuts, this left me with a small issue of 20 useless powerbars which I had purchased in the states and were now a useless passenger on the highway to hell.

You guessed it I was listening to prime vintage AC/DC on my MP3 player, in fact I didn’t give a shit what my stupid stomach was up to I just had a fantastic array of cool sounds coming through my earphones.

I decided to push hard up Big Jack Mountain just to test my resolve for the first time. My tactic for this hill was to assume that it would never end. I decided that every corner would have a switchback that went up again. Sure it was hard but I felt good. At the top I saw Richard refuelling, he had obviously pushed hard as well because I was trying to catch him on the hill. I decided to keep going for the moment and rest a bit later.

It was a nice feeling getting that mountain out of the way, I can’t really remember what was going on with the crew apart from Mel telling me that I was going fast. It is probably worth mentioning that our team mascot, Dave, the rabbit, was doing a terrific job in his role as morale officer and wiggling his nose lots which was a hugely motivating factor in my progress.

Sean and Mel were kept busy making me honey sandwiches and giving me cordial bottles. It looked like I wouldn’t be eating much of the stuff I’d asked them to get on my behalf.

There has been much discussion on the CR bulletin board on how to crew for a runner; in many respects I probably needed a lesson on how to be crewed for because it was my first time with a crew.

Prior to the race I had given Sean specific instructions that I needed him to be hard on me, not to let me get away with too much. I knew this advice was going to come back to haunt me at some point during the run. But, for now, I was travelling well.

I can’t remember when I passed Jan and Lawrence but they were behind me at this point, but not too far because Gabi was still screaming past on a regular basis. I think I was on schedule to get to the Dragon Swamp Bridge at around 3:30pm, which made 10hrs of running so far. My plan was to run 8min/km for the first 70km and to have 5x 5 min breaks in the first 10 hours. I had asked Mel and Sean not to let me sit down until I had run 100km. From past experience at Glasshouse and NZ 24hr I knew that I’d probably need a rest at about 80 or 90km.

Being a total technophile, gadget geek freak I had created a triple redundancy wireless comms system that meant that I’d be able to communicate with my crew at any point. This system used GSM in built up areas, CDMA in rural and lightweight UHF 2way radios in remote areas.

I think it was around 80km that I radioed Sean to sat that I wanted to conduct some foot maintenance, the 2way was also good because I could let them know from a few km out what my food and liquid needs were. This system worked well.

I sat down and I think Sean asked me If I wanted to switch shoes, “nah, I didn’t bring any spares shoes or clothes” I replied. “What you’re going the whole thing in one set of gear?” Sean responded with a horrified look. Lesson for next year, more than one outfit.

At this point I was stopping roughly every 10 or 12km, I think. Sean and Mel cruised by in the kombi and Sean gave me a target, make the Dalgety Rd turnoff (104.3km) by sunset. The next section was from Bibbenluke across all the cattle grids through higher country was the most enjoyable for me, not only was it extremely beautiful in fading light but I was in an euphoric state. I was pushing hard because I wanted to complete the challenge that Sean had set me. Travelling through here I was visited by a farmer complete with sheepdog on the back of a trail bike who rode beside me for about a mile because he thought I could use some company, I can’t remember his name but I think his dog was called Silver. Anyhow future C2K runners watchout for friendly farmers along this section at about the 100km mark. I think it was around 8:30pm on Friday night.

I think I was a little behind target when I got to the Dalgety Rd turn off but the team were very happy with my progress. May need to be corrected but we’re at about 105km and roughly15hrs into the race.

The night-time section was really blurry so these next bits may seem a bit scant.

I think I first experienced micro-sleeps at around 10pm which is really early for me and it took lots of concentration to keep moving in a straight line.

For the next 40km or so All I really remember is Sean pacing me through the most brilliant starry night in the middle of nowhere. We seemed to be moving quickly and we were both wearing headlamps and our world was that thin beam of light that cocoons you from the surrounding darkness. At some point along here I listened to the Church’s song “under the milky way” a few times and it seemed like I was the only person in the world, I was still stumbling around from tiredness and no matter how close my pacer was I still felt alone, it was a similar feeling that I got at the Glasshouse race. For some reason this is how I imagine a mother of a newborn who gets up in the early morning to feed a screaming child must feel kind of like solitary confinement, total seclusion, aloneness.

Along here somewhere we stumbled upon the ever-resourceful Mel who was adept to building warming fires and cooking hot food. Was it here we had a great pasta? Wherever it was it was great. My stomach was still not happy and felt crook for the first half an hour after any food, nothing to do with the cooking just a crap constitution.

Mel took over the pacing duties for the next hour or two and boy did she do a good job. Her focus was on walking. Walking in events like this is inevitable. Mel gave me my marching orders. When we run we run as far as I did with Sean. When we walk we walk fast, walk with purpose, big steps. I’m sure Mel got me through that section much faster because she walked me faster, no stuffing around.

The new target was Dalgety by 3am (?) phew and we pushed hard to get there. What a quaint and secluded little place. Can you imagine what a place like Dalgety is up to at 3:30am on a Friday night? Right, nothing!

Moving along we decided to shorten the breaks. I ran by myself again and selected some hard driving electronic music to keep me going. The van was parked near a cemetery (thanks guys) at the top of a hill four km or so from the Beloka range Mel handed me a cup of hot coffee which always spurs on a gastrointestinal reaction apart from the awakening qualities. 400m after I have left the van I see Kelvin’s Subaru and with Lis ferreting around in the boot. Soon after I see Garry. Lis kindly loaned me some toilet paper. As I’m pushing off I see and hear Kelvin in the passenger’s seat. Turns out he had a rest and would be back on the road quite soon. (bloody good strategy).

Sean comes past to get the coffee cup and asks where Kelvin is. “He’s in the car” Quick as a flash. “that makes you third, get moving”. I did move, I ascended the Beloka range and went through 100miles in about 25:30 (?) got to the top feeling ok but not great. Collected a honey sandwich and waited for van to disappear around a corner and chucked the food away. After a few more Km I was given some fruitcake and more sandwiches and did the same, threw the food to the Currawongs. I was finding it difficult to take in any calories, even cordial was not working.

Was it here that things started to deteriorate for me? Sitting and writing this, it certainly seems like I was on road to nowhere. At the top of a big hill Mel cooked me a fantastic looking rice meal, which I rejected. Robert appeared on the scene soon after and paced me for ages. I was not eating and only drinking water.

Passing through Jindabyne Sean and Mel turned up with a box of icy poles. These were fantastic, I had no problem keeping them down.

The long section up to Charlottes took forever, At 186km I was walking almost all the way. Robert kept pushing me but there was very little left. A 10min nap at 200km sparked me into action for a little while.

Martin and crew came past then a few hours later Paul came through both looked in better shape than me.

Somewhere before Smiggins (208km) Kelvin ran past me like a man possessed, before I knew it he’d put a whole kilometre into me. Things got tough. Sean took over pacing duties. I was tired, cranky and probably not very nice to be with but we kept walking.

At Perisher I felt like I had almost Perished. I lay down on the ground and slept for 5min. It was cold but I didn’t care anymore, I so wanted this bloody thing to end and I needed sleep.

We finally got to Charlottes and started the climb, my feet were mince meat and the trail is made from rocks the size of golf bals, Mel and Sean were fantastic.

I probably would not have risked going up from Charlottes if I didn’t have Sean and Mel to pace me through that last 18km section. Getting there was fantastic but it was very much a case of “tick, I’m freezing, just get me out of here before I collapse”, not an anticlimax but no real reason to linger in the dark after the picture had been taken.

A funny thing has changed. It’s my perspective on the whole debate around the split between mental vs. physical strength. This year when people asked me how it’s possible to finish a 50km plus event I’ve responded that it’s 90% mental. Training only takes you so far, and then you need to mentally manage the race so that you get to the end in reasonable shape, that’s still true.

C2K was different, my nutrition strategy was less than perfect nothing to do with the crew, I just didn’t eat enough) and I had to rely on my (poorly fuelled) body to get me through, no amount of positive thinking could have kept me going, it came down to training, no, it probably came down to physical experience which is different to training, my body just knew what level to operate at for the last 55km.

Overall this physical experience was gained in this year’s events. Sounds basic but until C2K I never thought I would find myself in a DNF situation, 5km out of Charlottes the acronym came into my head for the first time in my life, it was a close one.

Thank you Richard you were right, I needed a crew. I needed a crew that had the guts to say no.

Dave and Sean and Mel got me through this one, thank you.

Thanks to all the runners who started and thanks to the various crews who made it possible for each runner to participate.

Thanks to all the families that put up with our ultrarunning absence.

Glasshouse 100 mile Trail Run Race Report 10 Sept 2005

Crossing Over to the Dark Side of Running

Glasshouse 100 mile Trail Run Race Report

10th & 11th September 2005

Summary
Absolutely Stoked! My finishing time was 26hrs 25min, Wow!

Longer Version
If you wanted to write a ‘how not prepare for an ultra’ report you would talk about a few of these things:

Do the 100km Trailwalker two weeks before the GH event
don’t do either of the preparation events held on the course in May & July
fly in from Melbourne the night before just in time to get to the race briefing
And use a pair of shoes that have been causing achilles problems since they were purchased.

I had a good race and finished with both my objectives intact:

· To complete the event in less than 30hrs
· run for a 28hr finish if the chance arose

Arriving at the Friday night dinner with my “bulletproof” t-shirt which was worn to tempt fate I was really shit scared. It was one of those events where you look at people like Paul Every and say to yourself, ok that’s what an ultramarathoner looks like. Here I was with a bunch of friends, few of whom I had ever met.

The briefing was confusing (my fault for having never looked at a map) and the, frequent, jokes about anyone south Coolangatta made it clear that we were in Queensland and we were going to laugh at Queenslanders jokes or we were to leave Queensland. J.

I made it back to the Glasshouse village and ran into Darlo who wanted me to check to see if he had woken the next morning. I was in bed by 11:30pm after faffing around for too long with my drop bags.

From a pacing perspective I decided that I would try not to stop at every checkpoint. Instead I’d run for about 2hrs each time before stopping. Figuring it out this way allowed me to determine where each bag should go to and how many times I would be visiting it. Within each drop bag I had placed the following food for one visit:

A small bag of glucose jelly beans
A small tin of Spaghetti
A small tin of creamed rice
A powerbar
A sack of homemade Goo (Basically maltodextrin and electrolyte)

I would take the Goo, the Powerbar and the jellybeans on the trail and I’d eat one of the tins at the check point depending on which one I preferred.


On the morning of the event the Glassman sent us on our way at 5:30. The first few kilometres felt like the final stage of the Tour de France, everyone was jovial and joking. I was easily able to keep up with the gun runners like Paul, Kelvin and David Waugh. I was wearing a cheapo polar HR monitor that told me my HR was 137. How could I be posting such a high HR at this slow (7min/km) pace.

We passed over Hamburger Hill and I noted that it seemed easy, (he says with a HR of 156), from that comment I received a tsunami of “YOU WAIT UNTIL 28hrs INTO THE RACE” “IT WON”T BE EASY THEN”. Ok, I’m a newbie; I’ll keep my big trap shut.

We got to Mt Beerburrum. Mr G and others literally walked away from me. By now my HR was 177 and my body was behaving like a lactate factory. (Hope that’s the correct spelling, I’m not a feeding mum). I was scared, 8 km into the race and I was suffering. It was about 7:20am and the sun was already heating the side of the hill. As we ascended we got a great view of the Glasshouse area and a hot air balloon that had decided to tour the area in style. We also got a view of the first of many squashed cane toads for the day.

On the way down Beerburrum Hill I heard a pounding like Shrek chasing his Princess Fiona into a dormitory. It was Whippet Man descending like a man possessed, absolutely flying. I don’t think he heard me ask “got a light pal?”

Chugged along at a fair clip, most of the field had now passed me. Obviously I had got this 100 mile ultra thing totally wrong. I didn’t realise we were supposed to run it like a Sydney Striders 10km series race. By this stage I was running with a few of the 100km runners who had started half an hour after us. Tank Girl came past me with Boonarga in hot pursuit, had a chuckle and said to myself “he never runs like that normally”. Went through CP3 and noticed that the CP8 bags were there so I grabbed a tin of spaghetti and shovelled it in. We had been going for 2hrs now and I needed to refill my Camelbak Lobo with my special mix of 150ml of Cottees cordial to 2 litres of water.

I jogged and walked and jogged some more, hmm, bored. What’s that noise? Oh Boonarga and Tankie are having a burping contest, lovely. Time for the MP3 player. Listened to AC/DC circa 1974 first. “Dirty Deeds, done dirt cheap” perfect. By know we are 18km in and I passed Louis who looked to be struggling a bit. A friendly wave from Louis and I continued on my way.

18km in. I have now got a headache, no hat and no sunnies. (same thing happened at the Canberra Marathon where it was very hot, and Comrades where I dropped my hat in the first 10km) The fluids are going in (and coming out) and the food and gel thing seems to be working well. Simon Thompson picks me up and we run for a while, I let him go, then I catch him, then I run with Tank and Boon and participate in the fun times for a while, Simon and I yo-yo for a while before he runs off into the sun.

I arrived at CP5 absolutely flying and in fact did a glider impression as I approached the CP. I decided to stop hanging around at the CPs and literally refilled the Camelbak and went through with Steve Appleby and Repete and another Peter in the 100km. At this point (about 10am, 4.5hrs into the race) I grabbed a tuna sandwich bid Boonarga farewell and shoved myself back out on the course. (I wouldn’t see him again until 3am that night)

By this stage I was with Repete and Peter. I was feeling good, except for the headache, which I assumed was just the sun. We went through a hard bit of track and caught some others. And started to feel stronger than I had all day. The HR was still not behaving itself and posting 155 – 160 on the flat. ie. way too high.

Repete and I stuck together for a long way. I realised that, with 36km in, I was 1hr 20min in front of my 28hr schedule. Got to the notorious goat track section between CP6 and CP8 and decided to let Steve run ahead and I’d take all of the 1hr 41min that I had allocated for this section to complete it. By now it was midday and it was very hot. The tummy was sloshing food and fluids. “ok the liquids are not going in” so I stopped eating and taking sugar and focussed on getting water into me.

The goat track section was terrible, it was very hard, real ankle breaking terrain and bloody hot. Repete and I regrouped at the end of it and we walked it into CP8 (45km) while we were talking to my ‘emergency contact’ Plu on the mobile. I got a report the other 100 milers and concluded that more than half the field were on a pace that would result in a sub 24hr finish. I could feel it then there was going to be toast on the menu. ie. It’s not possible that half the field would make sub 24hrs, this race is too hard for a result like that. I hoped that I would be proven wrong.

After CP8 my body started to take in fluids again, I also started to eat and digest, “ata boy” I thought. CP8 was very inviting. Lots happening, drama, distressed & hot runners, Undercover Brother was there taking pics as well as plenty of supporters, great fun. I broke my promise to myself that I wouldn’t sit down until after 100km and dressed a couple of blisters then I decided to weigh myself, 95kg, same weight as I was at the beginning, that’s fantastic.

I embarked on the (8a) western loop, which is 10.8km long. The terrain was nice and shady and relatively flat. Apparently there was a train that used to travel through there. At about the 5km mark I decided that I would start pushing harder, I had now completed 50km. Towards the end of the first loop (called 8a) I caught Adam who was suffering. I didn’t realise it but he was 8km in front of me having already almost completed both loops. He was cramping so I gave him a few salt tablets and walked it up to the party checkpoint (8) with him.

A few runners were in CP8. All seemed to be suffering a bit, It was still hot and some were getting tired. I blasted through CP8 in less than 5 min and went out for the second (8km?) loop. Apparently G.T. was 28 mins in front of me. I decided to see if I could catch him. I didn’t. Coming back to CP8 for the third time I came across Kerrie Hall who had scraped up knees, I enquired as to her health. She seemed to be in good spirits and we waved each other away. The CP8 team commented that I had just posted a good time for that 2nd loop. I thanked them and pulled out of CP8 at 2:15pm. Captain’s log: 64km down, less than 100km to go.

By now my legs were starting to get sore, but I thought I was moving quickly relative to the rest of the field. Thankfully it was cooling down a bit and my heart rate was starting to behave again. The headache was still there and most importantly it wasn’t getting worse. Flat running (128bpm, hooray!). I ran hard to catch G.T. (and saw a scary big goanna) and got in to CP7 with G.T.

CP7 was another great festive aid station I think Karisma and Run67 were there too. I seem to remember Carol’s husband and others giving me all sorts of great encouragement. The chicken sandwiches were brilliant. By now I was 2hrs in front of my 28hr schedule. Fantastic. I had a short break at cp7 and decided to run the whole of the loop back to cp7. Another short rest and decided to get going after about 10min. It was now 5:45pm so I donned my lights; I was 86km into the race. More than half way, great but keep moving forward.

I remember the moment when I noticed that my headache had been beaten it was 6:30pm and I was just making the transition from day running to night running. I was feeling great, ok a bit tired, and I was trying to focus on foot placement and not twisting my ankle. Ok no excuses now I thought time for the afterburners. Perhaps a bit early for the afterburners but lets test them for an hour or two and see how we go.

The next few checkpoints were a bit of a haze. I do remember that my feet were hurting but I decided to ignore the blister pain and treat them after the race.

I think it was on arrival back at CP6 (93km) when I came across Tim sitting and not looking so hot, undercover bro was with him, He was in trouble; he was struggling with a dilemma. Do I keep going or do I stop. He was injured and tired, obviously had been travelling on a dicky knee had sapped the life out of him. This is the moment that every endurance athlete dreads, Stay? Go? (Stay? Retire from an event that I’ve been living and breathing for the last six months) (Go? Risk permanent injury and probably still not make it to the end).

I offered Tim my Voltarin Gel that I keep in my trail first aid kit and he declined. I think I said something stupid like; just keep moving and you’ll probably get there. I found out an hour or so later that he’d bailed from the race. I thought he’d made the right decision he was really going to struggle to complete another 67km (which is a long ultramarathon in its own right). (Tim if you read this and my facts are out then please correct me)

I think I saw Steve Appleby again on the way from 6a to 5 having both done about 97km. By now I was playing the game called, hunt and chase the light. I was full of beans. I left Steve to chase another light, which I caught on a hard downhill section, it was Mr G who was feeling “fugly”. We chatted for 5 min and I moved on.

Amazingly I was running and my heart rate had come down to it’s lowest all day. 108bpm, try and figure that out?? I felt great, the headache was history.

At 1a (110km) I was told that Rodney (Herm) was 10 minutes in front of me. The next stage took us over Hamburger Hill. I arrived back at the checkpoint and found 3 or 4 runners there. Rod, Kelvin, Whippet and one other I think. I didn’t want to seem rude but I thought to myself that I had to get back out there as soon as I had refilled the Camelbak and eaten some spaghetti (cold of course). Obviously this is a major checkpoint and I probably should have taken some hot soup, or something substantial like that, but I was feeling good and I didn’t want to sit down and get stuck. I think I stayed there for 7-8mins.

A crook Kelvin & I departed base camp (cp2) with 114km in the legs. I felt like running but Kelvin was doing a very efficient power walk, which was about the same speed as my buggered running. Almost back to CP1a we came across a very bewildered Rodney on a hard section of the track. He was in trouble and finding it hard to stay on his feet. He dropped out at 1a having completed 118km. This race is so unforgiving.

I left the CP before Kelvin and thought to myself “savour this moment pal it’s only going to happen on his worst day”. I was running along the road, adjusting my MP3 player, and David Waugh came past me with a friendly wave. I must admit that I thought he was moving well but not at warp speed. What am I saying he was about 35km in front of me!!

Arriving at cp9 I started to feel the strain of the day. So stopped for a break. I can’t remember the names of the people at CP9 (they had accents) but I felt so welcome and so comfortable there I didn’t want to leave. Undercover Bro was there and advised that Rod was out. Jeez UCB had a huge day. Probably worse than running in terms of fatigue. Eventually I left but the longish break was nice.

Where are we? Oh yeah, CP9. We get given a little ticket and we have to climb the Wildhorse Mountain and put the ticket in a moneybox to prove that we were there.

I returned to CP9 and Whippet Man was running in to CP9. Departure moment: I chased Whippet Man all day. He has the same shoes as me and I just kept seeing the treads on the ground. After a dozen hours you start to talk to the treads, “Hello left Leona Divide, how are you? Are you hurting too? Me? The headache? Oh I’m just fine and dandy. Jeez I’m hot though” And the internal banter goes on and on and on.

I struggled a bit from CP9 out to CP10; I had run 128km and was over it. But I had to run because I didn’t want anyone to catch me. There were a number of people close by and either just in front or just behind.

Coming into CP10 there was a campsite where there was a wafting of loud music, the Cougar and cola drinks were flowing and there was a wafting of marijuana in the air. Here’s my conversation with the male that was urinating on the road (maybe we’re not so different after all).

Bogan: Oi mate!
Me: G’Day how are you
Bogan: What did you say?
Me: I said, It’s a nice night for a run
Bogan: Where are you going?
Me: We’ve got about 23km to go
Bogan: You’re all idiots if you ask me
Me: Have a good one, I’ll probably crack a stubbie when I finish
Bogan: Yeah, grunt

I think it was at cp10 (137km) where I felt bad and was in a bit of trouble. I remember Jane Thompson at the CP and I got the feeling I had resurrected Mum. She had all the right questions. I think I stayed for too long, probably about 10mins. On the down side I think CP10 was where the killer mozzies lived. I remember noticing that the mozzies were trying to suck blood out of the wall in my Camelbak. Little did I realise that the backs of my legs were covered in Mozzies and would soon be covered in red lumps.

I did a mix of trot and walk back to CP9. Must keep moving If I do I’ll finish. Then back up to the top of that Wildhorse Mountain again. And, who is this. It’s our mate Boonarga. Who was starting to sniff home and smiling from ear to ear.

So my little excursion to the eastern section was over and I had 14.1km to go to complete the race, I ditched my maps because I knew where to go. Big mistake.

I was told at CP9 that I was in fifth or sixth place, wow! No idea what the time was. But I remember thinking that I’d miss 24hrs under any scenario. Looking at the results I must have been sixth at that point.

Jogging back along to the Bruce Highway I started to feel tired, ok I had been tired all day, but this was sleepy tired. I’d be running along and then I’d doze off and trip or stagger. Oh no, I can’t DNF now. Only 12km to go. But 12km is sooooo far. What will I do? Lie down in the track and wait. No I must keep moving. Eventually I got to the highway.

So then it happened. I came under the little bridge that goes under the road, I saw the arrow but missed the next arrow. And followed my nose. Ok I now know I should have turned right. So I walked and ran for bloody ages. Of course I should have known that no ribbons means I’m on the wrong trail. But I knew where I was supposed to go; unfortunately the race went in another direction.

I rang Whippet. “Hi it’s Brendan. I’m lost and I don’t have my map.” And the palaver went on from there. I didn’t realise it at the time but Andrew was battling his own problem, his ankle had flared and he needed to manage it or else.

I did have a choice. I could have gone down Red Road and this would have taken me back to Beerburrum and I could have connected back to CP1a from there. This would have been roughly the same distance as if I had taken the correct turn.

My fuzzy logic went like this.. I’ve been running for a day. My objective is to finish, or better the time of 28hrs. I’m 4km or 5 km off course. Can I get back on the course? Yes. Do I want anyone doubting whether I completed the course? No. So get your arse into gear and go back to the bridge where you stuffed up.

I was pissed off, demoralised and surprised with my stupidity and the situation I managed to get myself into. So I slowly walked back to the scene of the crime and rejoined the track. By now I had decided to walk the last 11km into base.

The last trip over Hamburger Hill was sad. I knew that I had done well. It was now 7:30am on Sunday I had been going for 26 hours. I had experienced every emotion in one day. My highs and my lows were still fresh in my mind. I had witnessed many people suffering but effectively I had finished a 100 mile run on my first attempt.

A great achievement.

I’m not upset about getting lost because I effectively fixed the problem and kept going.

I think I crossed the finish in 26hrs 25min in eighth place. One day I’ll go under 24hrs.

From an injury perspective, it’s Wednesday and I’m still a little sore in the legs. I had quite bad blistering which is feeling better and should be 100% within a week of finishing the race and a few mozzie bites on the lower legs that have popped up in welts. Nothing to worry about really.

Congratulations to all who competed in one of the ultramarathons at Glasshouse this year.



I must thank a few people:

Ian Javes and his team. Truly great events are those that are well organised, consistently every year and that get the support of the community where the event is held. Thank you, I hope to be back.

Martin thanks very much for taking on the responsibility of being my emergency contact for this race. Thank you so much for allowing me to trust you with this huge responsibility.

John Lindsay, thanks for helping me (and mentoring me) with information that assists me with my preparation for Glasshouse and the Marathon des Sables to be held in April 2006. Well done on a fantastic result too.

Brian Schepisi from Sporting Spirit providing training advice and killer interval sessions down on the Tan in Melbourne.

And Nigel McCarthy from Total Health in Elwood for helping me stretch for the first time in my life. To both of you I promise to turn up more often

A bunch of really great guys that spur each other, and me, on from the bulletin board, Andrew, Joe, Tim, Phil, David, George, Kelvin, Sean and the list goes on. Thanks guys, if not for you I wouldn’t have had the confidence to start the 100-mile race this year.

All the volunteers who gave me all of their day on and all of their night, Thank You.
My wife, Juliet, and my two kids, Mia & Rory for putting up with my new obsession

Glasshouse Race Plan Sept 5, 2005

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Glasshouse 100 Mile Run

Brendan's Race Plan

I will decide before I start what will stop me. If these things don’t happen I will keep going

I am running, not racing, my main goal is to finish before the 30-hour cut-off, which will occur at 11:30am on Sunday. My time goal if I get the chance is 28 hours. The time goal is not etched in stone. Something may go wrong out there, some adjustments will need to be made. I’ll just make those adjustments and keep going.

I’ll post a plan and run to it. I’ll stay within the relative comfort zone of the plan. When some one passes me I won’t feel bad and I won’t celebrate when I pass someone. I will keep the main goal in mind and keep the big picture in view at all times. I will start slowly and I will keep pressing on. If I feel good I will pick it up a bit maybe it will be one of those days where I will keep on picking it up.

I’ll have faith in walking. I’ll walk when I need to, or when I want to, I will walk with purpose like my trailwalker team taught me how to two weeks ago. No trudging, no survival shuffle, just a good positive mindset and strong walking with purpose.

I won’t have a crew but if someone helps me I’ll try to warn them that sometimes, when tired, I can turn from nice person to not so nice person. They must not let me lurk at checkpoints, kick me back out onto the course. Sympathy is fine but concessions are not.

Problems. Is this a problem? Or is it just an inconvenience? Decide which. Find a solution for the problem. Block it out; it’s just an inconvenience.

Food. Stick with the food I bought with me. Choose only bland generic food from the aid stations. If things are not perfect don’t be inflexible. Be flexible and get on with it.

Equipment. If an equipment change comes into my head I will ask. Is this a need ar a want. If it is a need sort it out at the next drop-bag point. If it is a want and it can't be easily fixed then drop the thought. Keep going.

Illness: Spewing may happen. It has never happened before. It is not fatal. It is just an inconvenience. I’ll need more water to make sure I don’t dehydrate. Drink more at the next checkpoint. Stay in the aid station and drink and eat. Now I am low on fuel and water. Fluids will restore fast but food may take a while. Eat more. Don’t vomit on another person, especially a volunteer.

Keep moving all the time. Don’t stop at a checkpoint for more than 5 minutes until darkness. Don’t sit down unless I really must. Each time I sit down I lose 10 minutes. Don’t sit down until after 100km into the race.

Be encouraging to others. Smiles, jokes and laughter will help everyone including me. Have fun with the aid station volunteers. Say thankyou. They are there to help me all day and all night, be good to them. They will give me energy and inspiration.

Don’t externalise the negatives. Negativity spreads. Keep a positive mind. Keep those negative thoughts to myself.

Just believe in myself, all of that training and all of those the races this year:

Maroondah Dam 52km, Six foot track 46km, Canberra Ultra 50km, Brisbane Marathon, Williamstown Marathon, Walhalla 65km, Comrades 89km, Gold Coast 100km, Trailwalker 100km.
Glasshouse I m ready for you and I am up for the challenge.

I can make it. Bring it on