It seemed I may have spoken to soon when I commended the T-Train on his recovery run the day after he took an almighty beating at the World Masters marathon. Tone had set his sights higher than he actually finished, with good logic as he has been training with me and keeping me  honest at the end of our long runs as he always finds an extra gear when he smells the coffee and pancakes. (maybe that was what affected his world masters time, no coffee and pancakes to explode towards in the last 5k. I’ll make sure this is sorted for his next marathon, or maybe not? )

I had noticed that Tony was very quite this week on Strava,  which is unlike him. As I mentioned in a previous post there is nothing Tone enjoys more than running a sub 4min/k average 10k the day after a marathon just to fish a reprimand from yours truely. I’m sure he must be smiling to himself on that ‘recovery’ run every time as he imagines the rebuke I will send his way via Strava.

It was later in the week it all became clear. It seems the T-Train had entered a 12hour race the week after the marathon, one I discussed yesterday the Light Horse Ultra, a 3/6/12 hour race around the ‘beaut 2.5k loop.’  So much for taking it easy the 2 weeks after a marathon, the T-Train was going to run over 120km in 12 hours, starting at midnight less than 7 days after racing to a good sub3 at Perth. One word, suicidal. ! To put this in perspective I ran 12k today and was glad to finish.  I couldn’t imagine another 10k no matter 110k .  In the end Tone managed to run 125km, I wonder if he thought the 2.5km track was a ‘beaut little track when he ran it for the 50th time…?

You would have thought there would only be one person that crazy to attempt a T-Train double in less than a week but no, looking through the results I see the female version, Margie Hadley, went one better than Tone and won the female 12 hour race after also competing last week at the World Masters.  Margie managed 120km.

Looking at the photos on Facebook the event looked amazing and I said yesterday you will not find the comradery anywhere else like at an ultra or trail event.  If you have never tried one I strongly recommend you put that right and either get into the nearest trail or find the longest ultra you can and run it, albeit slowly and eating and drinking a lot. (As discussed previously I consider an ultra an eating and drinking competition with the running bit a means of getting to the next aid table to eat and drink some more. The first person to get to the finish is the winner, they also get to really dig into the tukka at the end first, another benefit of finishing as quickly as possible)

After being blown away by the runners at the Light Horse Ultra I then saw on Strava my mate Jon had got up at 3am and ran 70km before the kids woke up and then umpired a Tee-ball game. What is happening to WA runners today?  Jon has started his training for the Australia Day Ultra when he debuted last year with an impressive 2nd place in the 100k. This race still has entries available so if you’re reading this and fancy a move up to the ultra world this is the one to go for in WA. ( http://australiadayultra.com ) I’m even tempted to enter the 100k myself after I ran the 50k last year.

If you live in WA there is an ultra series you can run, including the two races mentioned above ( http://ultraserieswa.com.au ). Well worth a look and a great way to get into ultras. These events are organised by some awesome runners turned race directors and the time and effort they put into organising these cannot be over stated. These guys rock !

Footnote:- Like going shopping when you’re hungry , blogging about Ultra marathons when you know there is an event you can enter can be fatal. Just followed my advice and entered the Australia Day Ultra, the 100k option. (I did actually enter the 100k last year but dropped down to the 50k after a few bad runs in the heat of a Perth summer.) This year I will be stronger and all that blogging has inspired me. Albeit I did check I could get a full refund before January 7th. You don’t get that at a supermarket after you’ve over spent by about $100 because you were hungry when you were shopping. How good is running ? Of course you’ll be able to follow my progress as I move to three figure racing for the first time, and it’ll be my last race in my forties so seems like a good time to step up to the ultra world.