Prologue:
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| At the runner check-in with Paul |
The weekend of the 2013 North Face 100km Ultra Marathon
began for me with a long day of unpacking and tidying of the new apartment.
Finally at 4pm I drove to pick Jem up from work before returning home to pack
the last of my gear for the race. My good friend and lead crew member Belinda
arrived to Jem and I up around about 5:30pm and we started the cruise up
towards Leura.
We arrived at the Fairmont Resort at approx. 7:30pm to an absolute
hive of activity. Hundreds of runners were collecting their race numbers and
timing chips and the excitement was certainly starting to build. We ran into
Paul just as he was finishing picking up his gear. He ended up waiting for us so
we could then go and get a bite to eat.
We went to a nice little café for dinner before meeting up
with Robin and Louise and making our way to the ‘Serenity Cottage’ which would
be our accommodation for the weekend. After everything was inside I quickly got
to preparing my gear for the big race. It took a little longer than I was
hoping and I finally hopped into bed just after midnight.
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| Pinning the number onto the race shorts |
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| Paul preparing the night before the race |
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| All the gear ready to go! |
Race Day:
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| Moments before the start! |
After a restless start in bed I managed a pitiful 1.5 hours
of sleep awaking not long after 3:15am. I tossed and turned for a while before
realising that it was all I was going to get instead choosing to flick on the
iPod and crank some pump up tunes. Out of bed about 4am I got dressed into my
race gear and then quickly downed some toast with Nutella to get me started. It
wasn’t long before we were out the door and on our way to the Fairmont Resort
for the Race Briefing. The briefing went well and then I raced up to the
bathroom along with everyone else. The line was painful and I could see the
minutes ticking away until the gun was due to go off. I legged it out of there
with 2 minutes to go and entered a mass of confusion as runners where all
trying to offload extra clothing to their crews. I ran back to the main
entrance to look for Paul and could spot him so I headed back towards the start
line……3….2…..1….. Runners started cruising out of the start and I will still
wearing my tracksuit pants. After a minute or two I finally located Rob and
gave him my pants but I had missed the start window and now would be running
the entire race separated from Paul. After some hugs from Jem, Rob and Belinda
I lined up waiting in anticipation for the race to begin. After a few short
minutes the crowd started counting down from 10 and finally we were underway!
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| Descending down to Leura Forest |
It wasn’t long at all before I settled into a nice rhythm in the top
15-20 places of the wave. There were lots of well wishes out on the streets of
Katoomba including one old guy that looked particularly toasty in his trackies
and beanie with a steaming mug of tea. After approximately 6km we hit the Amphitheater Track and started descending steep stairs into the Leura Forest.
There was a bit of congestion here and we all slowed to a walk on many
occasions. Whilst a little frustrating at first I decided that it was a long
day ahead and a little extra walking now would make for fresher legs later. The
normally bustling Scenic Railway was whisper quiet and we made our way quickly
towards the really technical trail of the landslide at the 14km point. This
part was particularly slow going as everyone was still quite bunched up. 2km
later we hit the first big climb of the day, The Golden Staircase. I stopped
for a quick leak here and then joined the back of the train of people marching
their way slowly up towards the summit. After about 15 minutes or so of solid
climbing we reached the summit and then jumped onto the Narrowneck fire trail.
After another 1km of uphill I cruised into the first Aid Station at the 18km mark. I was in 308th place with a current
elapsed time of 2:26:46.
Unfortunately this is where my race would really take a turn for the worse
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| Cruising along Narrowneck early in the morning |
My plan for nutrition was simple. On the half-hour I would eat
something solid which was normally to be a muesli bar or some sesame snaps. And
every hour on the hour I would take a gel and an electrolyte cap. After a
little over an hour of running my stomach at started to feel a little so-so. As
I was coming up to a ‘real food’ time to eat I grabbed two bananas from one of
the volunteers, filled my bottle with electrolyte solution and was out of the
Aid Station within a minute. Within ten minutes my stomach had gone from so-so
to well and truly queasy. Not long after this I found myself darting off the
track and dry reaching. After 30 seconds of this I got back onto the track and
started out at a walk. Shortly thereafter I was able to wind it back up to a
trot and stat in alongside a nice guy, Mike from Canberra. We ended up chatting
and cruising along together. After 15 minutes it was gel time and although I
was dreading it I forced it down and it ended up not really making the stomach
feel any worse than it did already. We cruised past the huge fire tower and
then started the final stretch towards the tip of Narrowneck. The views here of
the Megalong Valley, Wild Dog Range and Three Peaks region are nothing short of
spectacular. I constantly found myself getting distracted by the view and forcing
myself to remain focussed on running, this was a race after all. It wasn’t too
long before we got off the fire trail and made our way down the steep and
slippery track leading to the Tarros Ladders.
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| Waiting to descend Tarros Ladders |
Upon reaching the ladders we found a large group of runners
queued up so I decided to quickly whip out the phone and take this shot. You
can make out Blackhorse Mountain just beyond the trees and beyond that the
towering Three Peaks. Since we were stopped I decided to try and eat something
solid. I munched down a nut bar as I made my way slowly to the front of the
queue and was just finishing the last of it as I started descending the ladders
down the 10-15m cliff face. At the bottom Mike said that he was going to take
it easy on the next single track so I cruised onwards. This section of track is
awesome it sweeps left and right through the trees and is pretty buffed out so
you can really blast along. I was really enjoying it until the nut bar decided
that it wasn’t enjoying being in my stomach. Darting off the track again I
parted ways with the nut bar. After washing my mouth out with water I started
trudging down the track and eventually increased it to a light trot again. It
wasn’t long before Mike caught up to me and we made our way together down to
the fire trail. Mike and I ran stride for stride for this 10km fire trail
section. It was nice to have someone to chat with and take my mind off my
stomach. Although still feeling queasy the entire time I was able to keep down
my next gel and my first fruit puree of the day. It was after this that I
decided that solid foods were pretty much out for the rest of the run.
Bypassing the turnoff to Bellbird Ridge I knew we were getting extremely close
to Dunphys Camp. Slipping and sliding our way down the loose gravel we were
welcomed into the Aid Station with cheers and music. With 38km covered I had moved up a few places into 301st place with an elapsed time of 4:55:48.
At the Aid Station they checked that we were carrying our
waterproof matches as well as our main and backup headlamps. I didn’t want to
eat anything solid here so I grabbed as many pieces of watermelon as I could
carry which ended up being six and started walking out of the Aid Station while
I waited for Mike to catch up. It took a while to consume all six pieces as we
made our way up towards the dreaded Ironpot Ridge section of the course. Then
just as we passed the 40km marker…. Holy Shit!!! A wall just appeared in front
of us. The dreaded Ironpot Ridge was upon us. The climb extended up for 300-400
metres in front of us at a 40-50% gradient. There was a long line of runners
trudging up the climb at a snail’s pace so we slotted in to the back and
started making our way up. Runners slowly peeled off one by one as exhaustion
took over. Eventually there was only a few of us left and I was sad to see that
Mike had slowed and dropped off the back as he had previously seemed to be
going stronger than I was. I later discovered that he unfortunately pulled the
pin at the next Aid Station
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| Running through the Megalong Valley, 53km mark |
Finally after considerable struggle we made it to the top and onto
the short out and back section along the ridge itself. The atmosphere on the
ridge was cool as there were runners constantly passing in the opposite direction
and there were even two Aboriginal men playing a didgeridoo welcoming us onto
their land. I kept an eye out for Paul along this section but it looked like he
was having a good day and had already left the ridge before I got onto it. The
descent down off the ridge was extremely slippery and technical. Even after
reaching the end of the descent it seemed to take forever to reach Megalong
Valley Rd. During this section it took 25 whole minutes to consume 4 sesame
snaps. Once back on the road I was able to get a steady jog going again. The
climb from the 48.5km point to the 50km point is quite a tough one but I
managed a really solid powerhike the whole way up.
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| Rob bringing me over the crew setup at the Six Foot Track Aid Station, 54km mark |
It was certainly a good feeling to pass the half way mark and I
virtually ran every step from the 50km sign until we got off the road several
kilometres later. From here we ran through a private farm field. Seeing the
spectators at the top of a little rise ahead I was able to manage a gentle jog
up the hill and then bombed down the hill into the Six Foot Track Aid Station
with 54km under the belt. Total
elapsed time to this point was 7:19:54
and although I didn’t really realise it at the time I had made up a few places
and was sitting in 267th
spot. It was so good to see a friendly face or two and hear Belinda cheering
for me as I cruised in. I quickly filled my water bladder which had run out
several kilometres back and then made my way over to Rob. He led me through the
crowd of supporters to where the guys had setup while informing me that Paul
had passed through 40 minutes beforehand. I quickly chugged some flattened coke
and started restocking my pack with gels and baby food (fruit puree). I asked
Bel to pick up some extra gels and more baby food on the way to the next Aid
Station as I had pretty much given up on trying to eat solid food. Once
restocked I grabbed another quick hug from Jem, Bel, Rob and Lou before having
another chug of the coke and grabbing the biggest handful of salt and vinegar
chips I could manage. I was pleased to get through the checkpoint and be back
on my way in a tick under 7 minutes.
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| Getting some calories in fast! |
The next 11km was the absolute low point of the race for me.
Within a few hundred metres of leaving the Aid Station I could feel that the coke
and chips weren’t sitting too well so I dropped back to a powerhike whilst
finishing off the last of the chips. I was able to get jogging again after a
while but my stomach was feeling worse than ever. To make matters worse I was
dreading the huge climb up Nellie’s Glen that was fast approaching. I could see
a cluster of runners a few hundred metres ahead and decided that I would try to
catch them so I would have some company on the climb. Slowly but surely I
caught up to them pulling alongside them just as the road started to head ever
so slightly up woods. After not too long the climb was approaching 10% and we
had all well and truly dropped back into a steady hike at this stage. The climb
drags on like this for at least another kilometre before it switches to
singletrack. Once you finally reach the single track you still have another 500+
stairs to climb before reaching the summit. The track is slippery, steep and
the stairs vary in height from about 10cm to 70cm. It’s pretty much hell when
you hit it after 60km covered. I remember hitting the first of the stairs and
one of the other guys asking “are we almost at the top?” I turned around to him
with a wry smile and said “mate, this is just the appetiser”.
As we trudged up the stairs I could feel my energy levels
plunging. It felt like I was in a bubble as my focus on the task at hand seemed
to be fading away. After not too long no one was talking and it was eerily
silent. The only thing I could hear was my own breath and the gentle sound of
the nearby creek. The only thing that broke the silence was when either I or
one of the others would mutter under their breath to themselves something along
the lines of “bloody hell” or “f^*k me”. After a while I found myself just
staring at the shoes infront of me. When you reach the final kilometre there is
a small creek crossing before it kicks up brutally towards the summit. I
remember saying here “mate, we’re about to start the main course” before
turning around only to discover that old mate was nowhere to be seen. He must
have dropped off the back without me even realising it. Within a few hundred
metres of the summit I came across a familiar face, Steve, a guy whom I had met
on a training run with Paul two weeks prior. He looked in pretty bad shape and
said that he too had been having stomach issues. I stopped for a minute to chat
with him, he hadn’t eaten or drank a thing for the last two and half hours and
as a result had completely hit the wall. I tried to gee him up to keep moving
but he said that he was going to sit there for a little while longer before
walking it into the Aid Station and pulling the pin.
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| Trudging into the Katoomba Aquatic Centre, 65km mark |
Once I finally reached the top of the climb I was completely
exhausted both mentally and physically and virtually walked the entire 2
kilometres of flat trail before getting back into the streets of Katoomba.
There was a chick in a hi-vis vest going absolutely crazy cheering us on and I
managed a gentle jog and my first smile in quite a while. I gave her a massive
high five on the way past and she informed me that it was only 1 kilometre of
downhill road until the Aid Station. Fortunately she was right and it wasn’t
too long before I walked into the Katoomba Aquatic Centre (Aid Station 4) with 65km covered. Elapsed time at this
point was 9:11:43 and I was sitting
in 262nd position. I felt
like crap and had such little motivation to continue onwards with the upset
stomach. Looking back on it now I am sure it physically hadn’t gotten any worse
since I had actually thrown up almost 40km earlier but the fact that I had been
feeling queasy now for almost 7 hours had really worn me down mentally. I
remember thinking that it was just going to be survival to the finish which is
not particularly pleasant when you almost have an entire marathon still to go.
I was met of course with words of encouragement from the crew. I forced myself
to eat a sweet bun and then went for a quick bathroom stop. I splashed some
water on my face and washed off all of the salt which was caked on after the
effort so far. It certainly freshened me up a little. I went back out to the
guys and tried to eat a nutella sandwich but it simply wasn’t happening. The
guys had topped up the water bladder as well as filling up the front bottle
with coke and loading my pack up with more gels and baby food than you could
poke a stick at. The only thing that excited me about continuing was the fact
that I was finally going to allow myself to switch on the iPod. After a lengthy
break of almost 27 minutes I walked out of the Aid Station having dropped back
to 272nd position with
tunes finally pumping in my ears.
Finally……and I mean Finally, the tables were starting to
turn. I was able to eat my nutella sandwich over the next 2km or so as we made
our way down towards Scenic World. I decided to start off with my old school
funk and disco playlist with classics from all the favourites such as Kool &
the Gang, Funkadelic and many more. I had tucked in behind a small group of
three other runners on the way down to Scenic World. Upon reaching the Katoomba
Oval I found myself wanting to pass them. I cruised by them just before we
entered the Cliff View track. All of a sudden I almost stopped dead. The trees
had opened up and I was treated to a spectacular view of my favourite mountain,
Mount Solitary, lit up by a glorious sunset. I forced myself to continue
onwards but it wasn’t long before I caught myself running with a smile on my
face. Ultra runners often talk about the high that will follow the lows if you
persevere long enough. It turns out that that high finally arrived for me at
the 70km mark. I cruised through the Echo Point lookout to cheers from at least
50 or so tourists and locals which really got me moving. The shot below was
taken just after we passed through Echo Point. Mount Solitary is towering on
the far side of the Jamison Valley. I am convinced when compared with the
previous shot of me at the Katoomba Aquatic Centre (taken just 5km earlier), it
is hard scientific evidence that supports my findings below:
“One cannot possibly listen to Earth Wind
& Fire without
feeling better than one did before
listening to Earth
Wind & Fire” (Emslie, 2013, TNF100, 70km mark)
Shortly after passing the photographer I reached The Three
Sisters and started the descent of the Giant Staircase. I passed a couple of
guys on the way down the stairs and plunged into darkness once reaching the
canopy of the Leura Forest. I slowed to a walk while I rustled through my pack
to retrieve my headlamp. All of a sudden the Leura Forest was lit up with 900
lumens of brilliant white light from my Exposure Diablo. After a moment of
enjoying the forest I throttled back the headlamp to save battery and pressed
on. I was in my own little world surrounded by complete darkness with only the
10 metres or so of trail in front of me lit up. It was only really at this
point after 75km covered that I realised how much pain the legs were feeling. Up
until now my stomach was annoying me so much that any pain in the legs hadn’t
even really been an issue. It was affecting me mostly on the downhills as the
quads had endured almost 4000m of descent at this stage. I was able to distract
myself easily enough with the music and trying to catch and pass anyone that I
could see in the distance. Once we hit the firetrail we were treated to an
amazing night sky with millions of twinkling stars. I made really steady
progress across the Jamison Valley and in general was having a total blast. I finally
arrived at the 80km sign and stopped to switch to my epic playlist on the iPod.
After another 300m I crossed the Jamison Creek stopping
briefly to splash some water on my face. I remember smiling and saying to myself
“there is no point finishing this bad boy with anything left in the tank”. I
turned to face the road and the brutal climb up Kedumba walls, 8km long with an
elevation gain of 800m. With the sound of Sirius
by The Alan Parsons Project (made famous as the Chicago Bulls intro song)
in my ears I started to run up the climb. I ran for as long as I could until
the lactic acid in my legs became unbearable. When I reached this point I
dropped back into a powerhike for a few hundred metres until I felt I could run
again. Spurred on by Metallica, Dream Theater, Slayer, Iron Maiden and many
others, I gave the climb absolutely everything that I had left. I was passing
runners in ones and twos every few hundred metres. Some of them commented on
how strong I was looking, surprised that I was even attempting to run this part
of the course. Halfway up the climb there was another mandatory gear check to
make sure we were carrying our thermal gear. With the check done and my bladder
filled I was out of there in less than two minutes, straight back into my
rhythm of running and hiking. Shortly after the gear check the road hairpins
and then kicks up to over 30% as you head under a rocky overhang. I managed to
maintain a really solid rhythm just rocking out the whole way. Inside the final
kilometre of the climb I was completely alone I had a pretty special moment
with myself. I knew I was close to the gate which more or less marks the top of
the climb and decided to try and jog the rest of the way to the gate. The legs
were heavy but this time it didn’t seem to get worse. So there I was, running
up a 15% grade with over 85km in the legs. I was listening to a pretty
inspiring tune (Outro by M83), and I
knew for the first time with 100% certainty that I was going to finish. It was
a pretty emotional moment for me after everything that had transpired during
the day and Ill happily admit that I had a tear or two rolling down my cheek.
I finally reached the gate and it felt like I was flying on
the flat stretch although I am sure I wasn’t doing much quicker than 6min/km
pace. I could see three headlamps up the road and set myself the goal of
passing them in the next 1.5km before the Aid Station. The gap seemed to close
at a snail’s pace but sure enough I caught up to them cresting the last rise
and cruised by them on the short downhill stretch into the Queen Victoria
Hospital Aid Station. With 89km
covered so far my elapsed time was 12:53:44.
I quickly filled my water bladder and raced over to Jem and Rob. They gave me
an extra 2 gels and 2 baby foods as well as re-filled my front bottle with coke
(I had finished the 500ml since the last aid station). Rob commented that I
looked so much better than I had at the Aquatic Centre. I was feeling great, I
knew I had really nailed that section but looking at the official results you
can see that I made up 42 positions between the Aquatic Centre and Queen
Victoria Hospital and was sitting in 230th
spot. One final hug from Jem and Rob and I cruised out of the Aid Station
carrying one final nutella sandwich.
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| Lovin it with 95km covered! |
The first part of the last leg is a 1.5km road climb with about 100m
elevation gain, just because Kedumba Walls wasn’t enough. I felt pretty good
heading up the climb and probably ran about 60-70% of it. At the top of the
climb you enter the final stretch of single track to the finish. It is a really
tough way to finish the event. The track winds its way in every conceivable
direction, left, right, over a bridge, 10 steps up, through a creek, 10 steps
down, through a cave…. It was just impossible to get into a rhythm. It was
tough but none the less I pushed on. Every now and then I would see a hi-vis
vest up ahead. Slowly but surely I would reel them in and pass them. Eventually
a little sign appeared on the side of the track, 5km to go. Just around the
corner from that point this awesome photo was taken. Any advantage that I had gotten from my burst
of energy was now gone and I had really more or less reached my limit. My quads
were completely trashed at this point so running down stairs was impossible.
Instead I gingerly hobbled down stairs like and old man. I was still managing a
decent powerhike on the uphills and somewhat of a shuffle every time it was
flat for a few metres. Needless to say it was pretty slow going. After what
seemed forever the 4km and 3km to go signs had passed and eventually I found
myself staring down at the sign….2 km to go. I think I literally looked at my
GPS every 100m over the next kilometre counting down 1.3km… 1.2km….1.1km… until
there it was, The Flamme Rouge…. 1000m to go!!!
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| About to raise my arms in triumph! |
I passed a guy right as I went past the sign and tapped him on the
back saying “almost home mate”, he replied with a hearty “yeeeeeeew”. I began
wondering what the final song would be to play on my playlist. With about 700m
to go Lose Yourself by Eminem
started. It was perfect! It’s pretty hard to think of a better song to pump you
up to bring it home strong. All pain in my legs ceased to exist. I slowly began
to wind up the pace. I could see two runners up ahead. Closing in on them
quickly I passed them as we entered a small clearing. Across the clearing and
back onto one final section of single track. I hammered it along here flying by
another two runners before bursting out onto a grass field with The Fairmont
Resort towering above. I started running up the small incline following a trail
of glow sticks on the grass. I pulled my earphones out as I started to pass by
spectators who were all congratulating and cheering me on. At the top of the
rise I passed by a bunch of TNF100 signs and then finally rounded a small
hedge…. There she was…. The finishing banner was less than 30 metres away! I
put in one final charge to the line as Bel cheered out “Gooo Timmy!!!”. I
raised my arms as I crossed the line with a final elapsed time of 14:41:51 in 214th position. Jem was waiting at the finish for me and
gave me a huge hug. Leaving the finishers area one of the staff handed me my
Bronze Belt Buckle (for sub 20 hour finishers) which certainly flooded me with
emotion and satisfaction. Congrats came from Bel, Rob and Lou. It was awesome
to finally see Paul after having not seen him for the whole run. He smashed it
with a time of 13:33:45, good enough
for 123rd place!
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| Bronze Belt Buckle & Little Creatures Bright Ale in hand! |
Rob was extremely quick to get a Little Creatures Bright Ale
cracked open for me to celebrate with. The crew ferried me into the ballroom
where hundreds of other bruised and battered runners were either sprawled out
sharing war stories or simply just passed out. I crashed out on the floor for a
while whilst enjoying my beer. It felt so amazing to sit down after such a long
time on the feet. After about 30 minutes or so I peeled myself off the floor
and Rob drove us all back to the house. The hot shower that followed was
probably one of the most satisfying of my life. After freshening up Bel and Lou
had prepared a mighty feast for the whole team which went down and absolute
treat. We stayed up late eating and sharing stories of the day. Hitting the
sack shortly after 1am I completely crashed. In the morning it was great to go
to the presentation. My physio Mark Green had absolutely shredded it with a
time of 10:12:39 for 6th place outright. The run
of the day was the super human performance by Brendan Davies, winning the event
and beating Killian Jornet’s Course Record with a time of 9:16:12.
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| Absolutely exhausted at the finish! |
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| 100 kilometres of dust, probably need a shower right about now |
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| The Race Presentation the following day |
Run Stats:
Distance: 100km
Total Time: 14:41:51
Moving Time: 14:07:08
Avg Pace: 8:23/km
Vertical Ascent: ~4500m
Calories Burned: 11,727
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