Today I ran the 6 inch ultra marathon ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) for the 8th time in perfect conditions , or about as perfect as you can get for Perth in December. Rather than drive down from Perth on the morning of the race, which means a 1am alarm call as the race starts at 4:30am, we stayed locally so had a lie in until 2:50am, luxury. (I may have been woken a tad earlier thanks to Felix Meister as he was volunteering this year after setting a new course record of 62k last year, the course is officially measured at around 47.5k. I think it’s safer if Felix volunteers rather than runs. )  Dave Kennedy, the Race Director,  organises a finely tuned race which includes a bus from the check in point to the start and three aid stations crammed with goodies before a final smorgasbord of sandwiches and drink at the finish. (including alcohol, naughty Dave.) Even an esky to cool down with, but that’s a different story for another time.

The 6 inch is more about the comradery of running than a race itself.  Truth be told it seems all ultra-marathons and trail runs are similar. There is a togetherness that you will not find in marathons because I feel a marathon is more about personal time and goals where-as an ultra, or trail run, is about a community together trying to achieve the same goal, which is usually to finish. Time, although not totally irrelevant, is something just to measure how long you took on the course and not as a mark of achievement. The achievement was finishing and this is shared by all. At the end of an ultra all you hear is tales of the journey and not the time taken to complete the journey. Of course the front of the field pays some attention to position and time but on the whole it is all about the journey from the start to finish and the experiences embraced along the way.

Even now tying this post my mind is wandering back to some of the scenes on the trail yesterday. Running with good friends discussing all sorts of topics while moving forward towards an end goal, combined with some wonderful scenery and you start to see why some many runners move away from the sterile concrete world. It reminds me of the opening scene of the Wizard of Oz with Dorothy in Texas filmed in black and white before being taken, by a tornado, to the Land of Oz where the world is all of a sudden in Technicolor Colour. Maybe that was a tad over the top but yesterday I feel this analogy was justified. The morning sunrise through the trees really was that inspiring. Maybe I better look into buying some more trail shoes on sale this Christmas, the old Brooks ‘Pure Grit’, after 4 successful 6 inch runs are looking a tad worse for wear. Soon time to join my other 60 pairs of trainers in the garage in semi-retirement. That again is another story.

So back to the race. The start of the 6 inch is a 2k hill with some serious steep sections. You’ll be lucky to make 6min/k average for the first 2k, and that will put you at the front of the 330 runner field.  You seriously question whether you can make the full 47k distance after this 2k introduction. It does get easier, briefly. Overall the race is testing, and that’s putting it mildly. Being a trail race there are some serious rises together with some encouraging descents. The race itself takes about an hour longer that a ‘normal’ marathon distance, albeit the race is only 5k’s longer.  This shows how challenging the terrain is and what it can do to the unprepared runner. I was lucky enough to finish high up the field this year, a 7th place finish with a 4min course PB of 3hrs44mins. Other runners weren’t so ‘lucky’  with an 8 hour cutoff they cut if very fine. Running can be a cruel sport with the quickest (and thus normally fittest)  runners finishing first , the less ‘fit‘ runners (this is in italics because there could be a number of reasons for taking a little longer to finish)  are forced to spend more time running in conditions which can be really testing. Today I stayed at the finish line to cheer in the slower runners who had been ‘out on the course’ for anything between 4 hours to 8 hours. There is an 8 hours cutoff for the 6 inch but I think all the runners who were past the last aid point finished within this cut off, though I’m talking a few minutes for the last runners. Serious kudos to these guys.

I attached the Strava race report to highlight the start I described earlier in previous paragraph. Goldmine Hill is highlighted within the first 3k, thanks for that Dave. The escalator or elevator as it is called is at 37k and that, although very short, is a monster of a hill which is just about unrunable in both directions. (photo attached below) Admittedly it looks very minimal on the chart above but trust me it can break you if you are unprepared as you still have 10k to go if the legs give way and the last 10k, although not overally testing elevation wise, is slightly uphill for the most the way, and as it’s the last 10k it soon becomes a big deal !  On the 6 inch ultra it really is the person who slows down the least who wins or at least , in the last 10k, cuts through the field like a hot knife through butter. ( On a side note Jon fell into one of the ruts on this hill last year and never made it out until June, he never speaks of what went on in the dark recesses of that rutted hill but  as you will note later in this post he now drinks with both hands. )

Todays race was, as I already mentioned,  ran in perfect conditions but it was more than the conditions which were memorable. The trails today shone in the natural first light as the sun rose for another summers morning. Running into the sunrise, at times, lit up the trail infront of you and it was a pleasure to be out there running with friends. The bib on your chest was a secondary afterthought at times as you turned another corner and marvelled at the wonders that presented themselves to you.

Highlights of the day was most of the BK running posse running the event and all having a great run. Jon managed a sub 4 hour run for the second year on the trot and instantly started drinking in preparation for the Australia Day Ultra in a months time. I tried to convince him I had read on the internet that beer has been proved not to be any good for carboloading but he ignored me and just said he’d start drinking twice as much just to be on the safe side. I’m not sure his logic is sound myself, we’ll find out in a month I suppose.

Another highlight was ‘Barts’ get his ‘red spike’ for completing six 6 inch ultramarathons, in the picture below shown with the Race Director Dave Kennedy, a three times winner of the event. That’s over 24 hours and nearly 300km’s of trail running for one red spike, that people is a good deal.  There is some contention about this award and Barts has an asterix next to this name in the all time excel finishers sheet but that is something only Jon knows about.

Finally no 6 inch finish is complete without the head in the esky shot. Unfortunately this year I left my head in the esky too long and ended up burning my forehead. Lesson learnt for next year, maybe , and there will be a next year I promise you that as I’m missing my trail fix already, somebody get me to a tree quickly I need a hug.