Mount Solitary Ultramarathon 2014

That was one hell of a tough race put on brilliantly as always by Running Wild. My weekend started out as a camping trip with Jem and two mates, Matt & Nick. After getting a late start we made our way over the Mountains via Bells Line of Road to rendezvous in Lithgow. Matt discovered that there was a medieval festival taking place in the town called Ironfest so we decided that it was absolutely essential that we go and check it out. After looking at all of the swords, axes and suits of armour we eventually made our way out to our campsite at Lake Windemere.

Once the camp was setup we enjoyed some beers and a pasta meal that was beautifully prepared by Jem. After enjoying the fire and stargazing for a few hours we finished off the night with a whiskey and then headed off to bed. I was up at 4am and enjoyed my breakfast in complete silence and darkness. The stars were incredible and it was tempting to stay for longer but I needed to get moving. I was in the car and rolling by 4:30 for the 2 hour drive up to the start at Kings Tableland.

Paul and I Charging up the outside of the field in the first 100 metres

The check-in was very smooth and I was quickly ready and waiting on the start line where I caught up with Paul. As the gun went off we settled into a fast pace as we charged down Kedumba Walls into the Jamieson Valley. After about 1.5km’s or so I said to Paul that I hoped I would start to feel better as the race went on…. Unfortunately this was not to be the case. We continued to blast down the firetrail and onto the singletrack that leads down to Kedumba Ck. Finally at the bottom we crossed over the creek and started the climb up Mount Solitary.

Within the first few hundred metres I could tell that the legs weren’t feeling good and I let Paul go past. It wasn’t too long before I knew that I wasn’t having a good day at all and this was going to hurt a lot. People started passing me in ones and twos and my legs started to get heavier and heavier with every step. Eventually I managed to find a group that was going a similar speed but I was going as hard as I possibly could just to hold onto them. It was an absolute death march, so much so that one of the kilometres took me over 23 minutes. It was during this period were I was seriously questioning whether or not I would be able to finish, not good thoughts to be going through your head before you have even made it 25% of the way into the race.

Finally we made it to the top of the hill and we started traversing our way across the top of the mountain. The track is super rough, windy and overgrown which makes for very tough going. The only advantage here for me was the fact that although everyone else around me was way fresher they couldn’t really put a big gap on me as there were so many sections that had to be walked anyway. The decent is very technical and the group I was in took it pretty easy. We passed one guy who had sliced his arm on a rock and he was covered in blood. He said he was ok and was going to continue on slowly to try and get patched up by a marshal.

Making my way across The Landslide at
the 21km mark

Off the bottom of the descent you finally hit a beautifully buffed out and flat singletrack. The problem was that I was too stuffed to take advantage of it. I had a killer stitch and was only able to muster 6:30-7:00/km pace. Originally I had set myself a goal of 6.5 hours for the run with a stretch goal of 6 hours. Across the top of the Mountain I had maintained hopes of a sub 7 hour finish but this seemed to be fading as I couldn’t even maintain a run on some of the flat sections. Finally we made it to the base of Furber Steps and started the march up to the only Aid Station on the course at the 24km point. It’s a brutally steep climb and every step was a challenge of its own. The one good thing about this section was the fact that the detour to the Aid Station was an out & back so we were getting heaps of encouragement from the runners coming back down the hill.

It was the Aid Station that saved my race. I got to the top of the stair a broken man and decided to take 5 minutes to try and regroup rather than get in and out quickly. One of the ladies was awesome and took my pack for me. She refilled the water bladder and even took out the front bottle and refilled it with electrolytes, what amazing service!!! Meanwhile I tried to consume as many calories as possible without upsetting my stomach. I had three massive pieces of watermelon, a banana, a few snakes and two cups of coke. Thanking the staff I put my pack back on and started cruising back down the Furber Steps. A few hundred metres out of the station I unleashed an almighty burp which received a hearty “NICE!!” from one of the runners making their way up the steps.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and started making my way along Federal Pass towards the Leura Forest. I was still utterly exhausted but something about the experience of the Aid Station and possibly the caffeine in the two cups of coke was allowing me to atleast maintain a run. I tucked in behind another runner and tried to ignore the pain by staring at his feet. I managed to stick with him all the way until the final climb up to Leura Forest at the 29km mark. There was a quick mandatory gear check here before we started the descent down Sublime Point. My quads were absolutely trashed and I had to make my way down very gingerly while unfortunately being passed by many runners. I was glad to reach the bottom as the downhill running was excruciating and dunking my head in the icy water of Jamieson Creek was super refreshing.

The climb out was tough and I was getting passed by heaps of people that were simply out-walking me. The final descent down to Kedumba Creek was horrible and it took every ounce of mental willpower to maintain a run and not slow down to a walk. At the bottom I dunked my head in the creek again which felt great. I had a gel and took 30 seconds to prepare myself mentally for the final climb to the finish. I settled into the fastest walk I could manage and tried to just zone out. Every now and then I would get passed by someone but the sense of comradely between everyone made it easy to not be too depressed by this. To be honest I knew I was going to finish and at that point that was more than enough for me, I wasn’t even worried about the time.

I reached the halfway point of the climb and looked down at my watch, I knew there was a very outside chance of a sub 7 hour finish but I was going to have to absolutely bury myself. I started to push a jog on the less ridiculous sections and maintain a strong walk the rest of the time. About one kilometre from the top I was passed by a runner who said the thought of the finish line was the only thing that was keeping him moving. When he was about 50 metres ahead he yelled at himself “Come On!” and started running up a particularly steep section. It gave me a massive surge of adrenaline and I started running up the hill in his footsteps. Unfortunately after 100 metres or so I got a massive cramp in my left calve and was forced back to a walk. Approaching the final corner of the climb I passed a runner who had run out of water. I stopped for 15-20 seconds so he could take a swig from my water. He said that he too was hoping for a sub 7 hour finish but was wrecked and was going to have to walk it all the way into the finish.

Crossing the Finish Line

Still inspired by the last guy that had passed me I told him that I was going to give it one hell of a crack. I ran the final few hundred metres of the climb and crested it with 2km to go to the finish. I followed old mate’s lead and yelled at myself as loud as I could “Come On!”. It was excruciatingly painful to run and both calves as well as my quads were cramping with almost every step which ultimately made it more of a semi controlled stumble. There is a final uphill sting in the tail with 1 kilometre to go and I yelled at myself again before settling into the strongest power hike I could muster. I made it to the top and looked down at my GPS, I had 6 minutes to complete the final 500 metres. I couldn’t believe I was going to make it. I yelled at myself one final time and started running for good. I was flooded with emotion after what I had put my mind and body through to get me to that point and was fighting back a tear as I rounded the final corner. As I approached the finish I heard my name called out over the loudspeaker and I raised my arms in triumph.

I had finished in 6 hours, 56 minutes and 33 seconds. I know that each one of these events has its own unique challenges but this was something else. I didn’t have the stomach issues of TNF100 but I just had no energy in the legs. From about the 8 kilometre mark I literally had to fight for every step. It was pure suffering on a level I’ve not experienced before. Despite not achieving my original target time I am really proud of my effort. I had to absolutely bury myself to even finish and in the end breaking 7 hours is a pretty respectable result. The cramps after the race were intense and it took several electrolyte caps to bring them under control. My whole body is in agony today and it’s tough to even walk, it’s going to take a while to recover from this one!

Paul ended up smashing it and broke 6 hours, good enough for a top 20 finish! Returning to Lake Windemere I had one of the most satisfying showers ever and enjoyed an extremely well earned beer by the campfire. Congrats to Paul on an awesome run and thanks to Jem, Matt, Nick and BK for their support on the day.

Strava GPS Data.

Celebratory beer by the campfire

Race Number and 2014 Finisher's Medal

Jabulani Challenge 22km 2014

Once again the guys put on another cracking event. It was my third Jabulani Challenge, it always attracts a great bunch of entrants and is very well put on. I arrived with ample time before the start which was nice as I wasn’t at all rushed. 5 minutes or so before 8am we gathered around the start and listened to the pre-race briefing and then we were off.

Cruising at the 1km mark

I wasn’t really sure how things would go, my preparation hasn’t exactly been ideal with a few sporadic weeks of mileage due to an ITB niggle. It seems to have sorted itself out thanks to the fantastic work of James at The Body Mechanic. The pace at the very start wasn’t crazy and I managed to settle into 3rd position leading into the first singletrack section of the Gibberagong Track. The pace through here was a little hot for me but I managed to stay right behind the two leaders until the first big climb at the 4.4km mark. I immediately feel into a powerhike on the climb and had dropped back into 5th spot about half way up the climb. My legs were feeling the effects of a couple of tough training days on Wednesday & Thursday and soon were screaming with lactic acid.

Finally after a number of steep rocky switchbacks I crested the climb I managed to get moving again and cruised up to the Grosvenor St aid station at 6.4km. 4th spot still had about a 100m gap on me which I was able to maintain all the way along the fire trail that circumnavigates Cliff Reserve. At the 8.5km mark I hit the big steep climb that leads up to the Golden Jubilee Field. My legs were on fire here and running was out of the question. I was hiking strong but got passed by one runner about halfway up and then another caught up to me near the top. We crested the climb together and blasted down the other side. I dropped a gel here which perked up my energy levels a little but unfortunately I couldn’t hold onto old mate and he slowly opened a gap on me on the next few kilometres of fire trail. 8th place was also closing in which was a bit of a worry, I was determined to stay in the top 10.

At the 11.8km mark I hit the next single track section with a small gap over 8th and managed to hold him off for a while before he eventually passed me on a short steep section at the 14.3km mark. I had another gel straight after he passed me and maintained a pretty solid pace through to the second aid station at the 15km mark. The legs were finally starting to feel a little better and I could see a runner up ahead who was clearly cracking as he had been in 3rd postion when I had last seen him almost 10km earlier. I bridged the gap and passed him approaching the road crossing at Bobbin Head Road.

Back in 7th position I was determined to stay there and decided to turn up the throttle. I absolutely bombed down the Sphinx Track which drops about 150m over 1.5km and pops out right alongside Cowan Creek. I knew it was about 4km to the finish so I took my final gel and just tried to hold it right on the limit. The trail ungulates quite a lot and is reasonably techy so a fast pace proved to be pretty difficult. I was certainly pretty shattered but the kilometres ticked by and eventually I popped out of the trail into the Bobbin Head Marina. I looked at my watch and saw that I was going to be pushing it fine to crack my goal time of 2:06:00 (an average of 6min/km for 21km – the race ended up being 22km). I pushed as hard as I possibly could through the carpark, over the bridge and crossed under the finishing gantry in a time of 2:05:36.

I am really stoked with this time, especially since it was a kilometre longer than the half marathon distance. 7th place overall is also a pretty sweet bonus. Although I don’t always enjoy the higher pace of these shorter distance events there is the definite advantage of getting the finish and recovering quicker without the body being totally destroyed. It was ton of fun and I really enjoyed hanging around at the end chatting with the other runners for an hour or so. It was the exact hit out that I needed in the lead up to the Mount Solitary Ultra at the end of the month

Not only was it a great run with some awesome folks but more importantly, the money that was raised by the event is going to feed 300 children in the Kayamandi community in South Africa for the next 12 months. Such a great cause! Looking forward to next year already!

Strava GPS Data.