WAMC, Peninsula 10k , 3rd place. Quality time with Jon.
After the Darlington half last weekend I was buoyed and ready for another race to continue my comeback from the year from hell that was 2018. Seven months of no speed work what so ever had certainly taken it’s toll but the Elliptigo commuting ( http://www.elliptigo.com ) had kept my aerobic fitness and running around like a headless chicken in Kings Park has also helped, albeit on trails and as slow as Jon Pendse running Darlington with a hangover!
Rocking up to the start of the Peninsula I decided that, unlike last year when I set off like a scolded cat, this year I would try and hang onto the leaders and work my way into the race, hoping the time on the Elliptigo would give me enough cardio base to finish strong. I had tried this at the Point Walter 16k last year and it seemed to work, from what I remembered. Looking at the splits below it does look like we went out too fast but at the start of the race I was running within myself and I’m surprised the first kilometre was so fast. There was a 5k runner taking point but it was obvious he was not in the longer race, so ignored. At about the 2k mark the different race distance part ways and I was disappointed to see three runners ahead of me take a right turn indicating they were racing the 10k like myself. That put me in my least favourite position, 4th, the first person to win nothing (assuming the top 3 get medals , which in this case they do.) Worse still one of the runners ahead was a 12 year old running prodigy and who had never beaten me and I had boasted to the boys on many occasions that no runner less than 13 would ever beat me, was today going to be the day I ate my words, again !
Right, 3k in and fourth position, nestled a 100m’s or so behind the leading pack of three runners. Things took a turn for the worst when another runner over took me and I was relegated to 5th place, with the thoughts of a medal disappearing fast. It was at this point I decided to roll the dice on my fitness and put in three fast kilometres to try and get back into medal contention. The game plan was to establish a buffer for the last 2k which would be used to hang on to 3rd place. Digging in from the fifth to the seventh kilometre achieved this and I was confident the gap was enough, assuming I didn’t blow a gasket, to get me to the podium.
As it turned out the plan worked perfectly and the last two kilometres , although still very ‘trying‘ (and that’s putting it nicely), were do-able and there was no time blow-out as such. That’s not to say it was easy and that is the point of this post.
A ‘regressive’ 10k
What is the best way to run a good 10k ? First of all I believe you need to either race quite a few 10k races, on a regular basis, to nail them or in training put yourself in the 10k ‘pain box‘ once a week and continually improve your time. This could mean starting 2-4 minutes outside your PB time but getting to within a minute in training, once a week, on tired legs. Thus when you get on your racing shoes (I assume you’ll have the Nike Vaproflys 4% ?) and you’re rested , together with the racing mentality of a bib on your chest or training chip on your shoe. you can produce the time you need. As with all things running experience and practice play such an important role. The more you run 10k the better you will become at running 10k, it really isn’t rocket science. (I’ve lost track of the number of times I have said that .) This , of course, goes for all distances.
Looking at my ‘regressive’ splits above you’d be right in thinking that today was probably not the best way to run a 10k but I was more interested in the medal, not the time. At 52 years old my days of getting on the podium are probably limited and I treat every time now as the possibility it may be my last, especially at the shorter distances. Today I worked very hard to get that third place but I was always have that reminder in my medal collection and it will bring back all the happy(?) memories of the race. (Well I enjoyed the last 100m’s ?)
You can break a 10k down into three stages, the first 1-5k you should be able to maintain your desired pace, if you can’t the second 5k ain’t going to be pretty. The hardest part of the 10k is then upon you, maintaining your race pace through kilometres 6-8k, this is where the 10k is won or lost in relation to reaching your required time. The last 2k you can normally find something and the mind will release the last bit of energy left to get the job done, bye bye fatigue , hello ‘sprint to the finish’ and vow never to do this again. !
Why is the 10k so hard ? A 5k is a hard race but worst case scenario, you won’t hit the wall until 3k so only have to hang on for the final 2k. In the 10k this can be double that distance. So many runners set of , full of beans, at their 5k pace. The one problem with 5k pace is at 5k you suddenly realise why it’s 5k pace. Your body reminds the mind that 5k pace is good for, well, 5k ? Not surprise there, leaving you with maybe 1-2 kilometres to digest this information from body to brain and then unfortunately four kilometres to reflect on your mistake , deep, deep in the pain box. To compound your mistake your body starts to remind your mind that its time to shut down vital bits to survive your earlier exuberance, starting with your legs , lungs and eventually mind. Trust me it ain’t pretty.
Is a 10k harder than a half marathon ? Yes, because for a half you’re a tad more sensible. No 5k pace for a half and also no 10k pace because a half isn just too long to fall apart before half way. The same for a full marathon, these are planned and people are usually sensible enough to set a goal pace and stick to it, at least for the first half of the race. Of course the marathon is a 10k race in itself , albeit with a 32k warm up ! Anyhow the half and full lend themselves to sensible pacing.
So whats the answer to run a good 10k ? As I said earlier practice and this can be either run a 10k race once a month or try and run within 1-2 minutes of your 10k PB once a week. Another option is running a park run every Saturday because if you can get to the end of a 5k and still feel fresh you can certainly last a few more kilometres before hitting the wall. Also if you can get to 8k you can always find something for the last 2k, surely ?
Darlington half, 2k from the finish and it’s all downhill. One happy runner.
Consistency in running is paramount to success and historical data is a good way to predict the future.
Running success is very rarely an overnight thing. As I have said on many occasions ‘running is an honest sport’ and the more time you run the better you will eventually become. (barring long term injuries ofcourse) This is why the 80/20 method championed by Fitzgerald, Lydiard and Maffetone works so well. 80% of the time at a relaxed pace putting little strain on the body as you aren’t pushing the envelope, so
to speak. The faster you run the more pounding you give your joints and muscles, physics as my Dad use to say. Also running off road on trails is another way to avoid injuries (barring a twisted ankle etc) and also helps with the core as you engage the core and fire muscles you wouldn’t use on a flat, even, straight concrete road/path. With a good trail you need to be mentally on the ball and watch every step, compensating for gradient and surface changes. Trail running is also great fun and you get to meet a more ‘running friendly’ lot than the show pony’s of the asphalt racing world. Although as a show pony myself both communities are friendly and open but the trail runners are extra friendly and open; if that is possible.
Right back to consistency. Darlington half last weekend was my 9th in the last 11 years. I missed one through injury and one when they had a road cycling race and cut off the freeway leaving me and Mike on the wrong side of the road unable to get to the start line, very frustrating! (damn pesky cyclists! ) My times for Darlington have been consistent as detailed below.
What does this show me? Unfortunately, I’m slowing down but, after coming back from injury and the race being held on a particularly humid day, by how much is open to debate. Will I ever break 80 minutes again? Probably not but if I can run sub 90 minutes for a few more years I’ll be happy enough. Six top 10 finishes in the last seven years is something I am very proud of but more importantly I’ve had some great running battles with good friends and managed to do so much better than I ever thought possible back in 2009. To be running quicker 10 years late is a sign of consistent training, day in, day out and even today I thought to myself how much I still love running.
So, as you can see, I can gleam so much from historical results, what you can’t see of course is the memories and Darlington holds some great memories. 2009 I ran with my good friend Brett Coombes after we had run Comrades the year before and were training for Comrades 2010. We ran a controlled race and finished together, albeit I remember Brett left me a 100m’s from the line. I’m still smarting!
In 2010 I ran the whole race with Jon and we crossed the line hand in hand. Sounded like a good idea at the time but luckily no one took a photo! It was also the first time we bumped into my now good friend Mark Lee as he weaved in and out of the bush answering natures calls. Something he still does ten years later! How he was a professional football played in a previous life is beyond me?
2011 and me and Steve ‘Twinkle’ Mckean had a great battle and it was here he got his ‘twinkle’ nickname as he would sneak up behind you when you least expected him to. We pushed each other all the way and I just managed to edge past him and grab my first top 10 finish. Highlight was me swiping the last few drinks at one of the drinks stops leaving him with nothing, all is fair in love and racing twinkle.
Eight years ago.. Geoffa, The Duck, Twinkle (hidden) , myself and Wonderboy….
Funnily enough I can remember much about 2013 but another top 10 was the end result. 2014 was the year and a big PB for the course. I look at my splits for this run and now can’t comprehend how I ever went that fast. My last 10k is still the fastest I have ever ran that distance. I remember I was closing down on 4 th place and this was a runner who was always so far ahead of me. I think this really was a break out race for me coming after 2013, which was a breakout year of racing. Probably my running peak looking back now.
Unfortunately, after the high of 2013 I had a shocker in 2014 after Darlington. I blew up in the Bunbury marathon, as defending champion, and this put me in a running slump for well over a year. In the early stages of 2015 I started to work with Raf and Darlington ( http://www.therunningcentre.com.au ) was the first race under his tutorage. It didn’t end well, and I went over 80 minutes and ran a shocker. With Raf’s help I rediscovered my love of running by adding distance and pace and this is something I take with me to this day.
2017 and 2018 were both sub 80 minutes and good top 10 finishes and I enjoyed good races with great completion on both occasions. Not at the dizzy heights of 2014 but I was now in my fifties so happy to win my age group and stay competitive.
This year though was slower, and I certainly felt the long lay off with Plantar Fasciitis. It was also humid, so the top 10 finish and a reasonable time was a big tick in the ‘comeback’ box. The only fly in the ointment is the continual increase in the ‘pain’ associated with running these times. The increase in time, albeit minimal, is not exponentially reflected in the increase in the pain of achieving these times. Basically, it hurts a lot more now than it did 10 years ago! I feel this is the reason you start to slow as a runner, age and your mind, conspire against you and the bearable pain threshold begins to come into play at a pace a lot slower than previous years and races. The pain is the same but the pace is a lot slower. Is it possible to raise the pain threshold? Possibly but it is probably a temporary situation at best. Let’s face it as you get older you eventually have to slow down, it’s just a case of when this happens and how much you slow?
This weekend I have another race, this time a 10k which I won last year ( a very rare occurance and probably my last 10k victory …) running sub 35 minutes. I’ll be happy to run 36.xx minutes on Sunday and if I achieve that it will be mainly down to the Nike Vaporflys 4% flyknits (I’ve mentioned these a few times right? ) Do I think I can go sub 37 minutes ? Not sure, I’d hope so as I’ve not run over 36 minutes for many years, actually 2010 at the WAMC run for gold 10k where I ran a 39:25 coming back from injury. (it felt a lot quicker i remember thinking when I crossed the line that day ! ) I remember that day doing my best impression of a scolded cat and basically hanging on for dear life in the last few kilometres, story of my racing life. This weekend I’m going to make an effort to start slower and finish stronger, maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks?
The table below highlights the effort I have needed to put in to keep reaching my your goals. Is that a problem ? No way, training is fun, racing is fun and writing about running is fun. I lead a charmed life really….
Running really is all about number and Strava of course..
So the point of this post. Keep a track of all your running in either a spreadsheet or Strava (you have got Strava right ? http://www.strava.com ) and use this to predict the future as well as setting realistic goals. Also remember it’s better to be consistent over a long period rather than having peaks and troughs in your training. Another valuable tip is to cross train as much as possible if you get injured. Swimming, cycling (on an Elliptigo of course http://www.elliptigo.com) or even gym work is better than nothing at all. If you can’t run do anything to get the heart rate pumping, it all helps long term and may make the comeback easier.
As I predicted in my post last week Nic Harman did break Robert De Castella’s (Deeks) Darlington half record today. Deek’s had ran 1:06:50 the day of his wedding and that record had stood for over 20 years. Today Nic ran a 1:06 dead to become the fastest runner to conquer the Darlington hills on the 50th anniversary of the event. In Deek’s defence Nic has no plans to get married today so he was probably a little more focused than Deek’s when he ran today.
So how good is Nic ? He has a PB for the half of 1:03:46 set in Cardiff this year as a member of the Australian Commonwealth team and he is at that stage in his career when every run is a personal best. (How I miss those days but unfortunately Father Time seems to have caught up with me , finally! ) If he was to find four minutes for the half he’s running sub one hour and all of a sudden he’s playing with the Kenyans and setting Australian best times. Of course finding four minutes is a big task but he is up for it and has the right team behind him to achieve this and more beside.
Speaking to Nic after the Darlington half this morning it’s clear his new goal is the marathon and specifically his first in July this year, the Gold Coast Marathon, on the 7th. To me the marathon is the perfect distance for Nic , he is the ideal weight, has the mental toughness required to compete at the highest level, the boy is focused , motivated and has Raf in his corner. Put all that together and you have the possibility of greatness.
Winners are Grinners.. can Nic become Australia’s greatest ever marathon runner?
Right enough about Nic , a talented runner with his whole glittering career ahead of him and more hair than is fair ! Let’s talk about a runner hanging on for dear life before being dragged, kicking and screaming, back to the pack with very little hair, which is unfair. After such a long lay off I always knew Darlington was going to be mentally and physically tough. I was not let down on either count. At 5k I was ready to pull the pin and started to think about all the posts I could write on failure and taking the positives from the negatives. It was only my good mate the T-train ( https://www.tonysmithruncoaching.com ) catching me at around the 5k mark that kept me honest. I slotted in behind Tony for a few kilometres and left the group I was running with and continued up the hill.
As you can see from the elevation below Darlington is about 12k up hill and 9k downhill (I’m never sure how that works but there is a loop you don’t run on the way back?) Anyhow I convinced myself things would be better on the final 9k and if I could get to this point I could ‘stumble’ home for a semi-reasonable time. So between 6k and 12k I got my head down and just kept Tony in sight as he gradually moved away from me.
As with all racing it’s easy to think you could have gone faster when you’re sitting at your computer screen, freshly showered and fed and watered. All of a sudden you think you could have gone a few seconds faster here, pushed a bit harder there but truth be told people you ran your heart out and there probably was nothing left in the tank to give. Well that’s racing for me and today was no different. I was not a pretty sight at the end of this little adventure but I’m blaming the humidity which was brutal.
Right we left with me watching the T-train disappear into the distance hanging on to a top 10 position with the downhill section of the race ahead of me. Not much to report on this part really , got my head down and knew if I could maintain some resemblance of pace I’d be a shoe in for a top 10 , which before the start was the main goal. I’ve raced Darlington seven time before and on a few occasions I’ve ‘exploded ‘down the hill hitting times I have never repeated on the flat, today was not going to be one of those days. My splits were best described as consistent and my last 5k was the quickest but really this is a given at Darlington. That’s not to say it’s easy , you just go faster for the same amount of pain ! The Nike Vaporfly 4%’s flyknit’s got their first hit out and I am happy to report they are even better than the original versions. Lighter and more ‘bounce‘ and they fitted perfectly. Thankyou Nike, we really are not worthy.
Finished in 1:22:55 which of course will be rounded down to 1:22 at work tomorrow, sounds so much better and no need to bother non-runners with seconds, it confuses them. I think I was 9th ( mainly due to runners ahead of me deciding to reinvent the course and getting lost within spitting distance of the finish. ) which will be great is that is confirmed and pretty sure I was the ‘first old bugger‘ as Tony puts it. (50-55 age group) All in all a very successfully day but not for all.
Jon had decided to sacrifice a good time at Darlington by watching Kylie Minogue last night and taking on board 6 beers and a bottle of wine. Let’s just say he was not firing on all cylinders and looked like death warmed up at the finish. Certainly proves the well held theory that alcohol and racing really do not mix, like beer and wine eh Jon ? H made up for his slow running by driving like ‘Michael Schumacher on meth‘ to and from the event, blaming his BMW , apparently that’s the way you have to drive it? He also wore the oldest and most worn racing flats I have ever seen. Jon is famous for running the Rottnest marathon in 2017 and then attempting the 5k straight after, with his kids, when the soles of his racing shoes came away from the rest of the shoe, the show literally broke in half ! Jon likes to get his money’s worth from his trainers!
One of the few half marathons where a negative split is just about a dead cert.
So the lesson learned from today is trust in your training and although it would be easy to pull the pin early that initial feeling of despair , and ‘total abject pain‘ will normally subside over time. Your training will eventually kick in and some sort of bearable pain threshold achieved, this is racing. Nothing beats a bib on your chest and the feeling your heart is about to explode through your ribcage, nothing. The benefits far out weight the pain that you need to put yourself in during the event, you come out the other end a better runner.(or in Jon’s case ….sober!)
I’ve always maintained the fastest way to improve is to race, as much as humanly possible, after your initial “building” training block of course. (and maybe a speed block and some resting ?, check out anything by Arthur Lydiard.) I’m hoping today will be the springboard to a reasonable 10k next Sunday and then maybe, just maybe, the Bunbury Marathon in April. I won this event in 2013 and went back in 2014 fitter and more focused than ever but totally blew up at 10k, made for a very painful lesson. Haven’t been back so it’s about time I returned to right a few wrongs….
Apart from the start line this is the closest I got to Nic all day ! The boy is quick….
This weekend is the 50th running of the Darlington half marathon, ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) the longest running race in the West Australian Racing calendar. ( I mean longest running race in the sense it has been running the longest , it’s not the longest running race in distance of course. .. but you probably realised that and I’ve wasted my time typing this and wasted your time reading it…I digress…..) It will also be an opportunity for young Nic Harman to take on the Darlington Half course record set by the great Robert De Castella. How great is Robert De Castella (Deeks) ? Well his Boston Marathon winning time of 2:07:51 is still an Australian record and he set it in 1986. His Darlington record is 66 minutes and change and he ran it on the morning of his wedding, so he probably had other things on his mind. I told you he was a great !!
An Aussi Icon. “Deeks” Castella
I predict, if conditions are right, Nic will beat the time set by “Deeks” and I’m even going to go as far as to say I also predict one day he will beat the Australian Marathon time as well, the boy has talent. Nic is running his maiden marathon at the Gold Coast in July this year and if he runs to his potential I reckon he’s got a chance of a Olympic Qualifier for next years big dance in Japan. It’s probably a year or two too early but I believe when you’re good enough you’re good enough, age is not a pre-requisite. Experience would be nice of course and for the next Olympics if Nic continues to improve I would think he would be a shoe-in for the team. There is the Commonwealth Games in two years of course which is probably the wiser option but sometimes youth disregards wisdom and exuberance wins the day. It’ll come down to his coach and manager I suppose and with Raf and his team currently on a high from his latest racing results the sky could be the limit. ( http://therunningcentre.com.au )
The next Deeks… time will tell ?
Talking of Raf, he took a team of runners to Japan recently and they all outdid even what he thought possible. None more than local celebrity Rochelle ‘rocket’ Rogers who propelled herself into Olympic contention. Rochelle worked in Raf’s store for many years and has been a prodigy of his for some time. In Japan she shocked herself and the Australian running community with a run that basically redefined her. A quantum leap in running times and if she can keep on improving the Olympics is a real possibility. Wow ! Local girl done good , big time. With Rochelle and Nic firing Western Australia is well and truly in the running spotlight….Enjoy the article below from http://www.runnerstribe.com .
Before you read the article below I’d like to put what Rochelle did into context. Mature marathon runners have a set time they aim for and pace themselves accordingly. We all know it is suicide to run how you feel at the start of a marathon as you are fully rested, carboloaded and full of adrenaline for the task ahead. You could easily run a 10k PB but after that you’re spent with 32k of pain infront of you. This as I have always said ‘the fastest marathon runner is the one who slows the least’. This means set yourself a goal pace and stick to it. If you do for the 42.2k you have your goal time, easy really. The only downside to this is you never really have the opportunity to smash a PB as you mature because you restrict yourself by sometimes holding back until it’s too late to do any real damage to your PB. I can normally predict between 1-5 minutes my finish time in any marathon, I can do this through experience of finishing forty three of them and counting. I know my chances of running anything faster than 5 minutes from my goal pace will never happen because I pace myself to a set time; also at 52 my days of running PB’s are probably behind me (probably?). Rochelle ignored all her experience and that of her coach and ran on feel, throwing caution to the wind and just basically ‘going for it’. This was going end one of two ways, total success or abject failure. in this instance total success.
I believe another reason for her startling time comes down to her footwear. The new Nike Vaporflys 4% flyknit I reckon is good for between 3-5 minutes , depending on your finish time, in a marathon, minimum. Longer if you’re a plodder with the caveat you need to get on your toes for these bad boys to really kick-in. I saw a photo of the start of the Tokyo marathon and all you could see on the elite runners were these new red flyknits. They really are game changers and now they seem to be available, just in time for the new Nike 5%’s to come out . Yep, Nike have overhauled the 4% and produced another 1% from somewhere. To non-runners this is negligible, to runners this is huge. Another 1% boost in pace and efficiency, with no extra training, where do I sign up. Word on the street is they are even more expensive than the 4%’s of course but whatever the cost I’ll be buying a pair to add to my two pairs of 4%’s I currently own. (not including my first pair of 4%’s which are now done.)
Of course the now ‘fly in young Nic’s running ointment’ is he is sponsored by Saucony. Now I rate Saucony, they make great shoes as do Adidas, Asics, New Balance etc etc.. but no one, and I mean no one, produces anything that comes close to the Nike Vaprofly 4%’s… not even in the same ball park, hell the same planet ! If Nic is really serious about breaking records and going to the Olympics he will eventually need to buy a pair of Vaporflys and I’m not sure how Saucony will feel about this. This is an issue for next year I suppose and one Nic and his coach will have to think very carefully about. Personally it’s a done deal, you want to compete with the best you need to be on a level playing field; at the moment Nic isn’t. On the bright side Nike do seem to have a bit of money to throw around so I’m sure once Nic has moved onto their radar he’ll be propositioned and before long I’m sure we’ll see him zipping around Carine in his Porsche 911 covered in Nike ‘ticks’, he just has to learn to drive first ?
Legalised cheating ? Who cares, just get a pair quickly before they get banned !!!
The art of placing one foot in front of another offers up an infinite collection of incredible stories. Too many of which will never be told. It is an inadvertent omission, a regrettable consequence of the modern worlds saturation of inspiration. Due to this, some people simply fly under the radar, only noticed when they stare you in the face. One of these people is Rochelle Rodgers. She is now one of Australia’s best marathon runners.
On February 24, Rodgers won the Shizuoka Marathon (Japan), her time of 2:34:45 shaving a nine-minute chunk from her previous best time set in Melbourne two years earlier. As she battled to the line, her bewildered coach Raf Baugh had screamed support from the side of the road, barely believing what he was witnessing. It was not just the Australian running community that would be shocked by the performance. Even her closest teammates did not see it coming — at least not yet. Nevertheless, it was real; there was no more need for dreaming. The new contender had arrived. The only question: where had she come from?
Shizuoka Marathon podium 2019
One reason for Rodgers’ relative anonymity in the upper echelons of the Australian running scene might have been her geographic placement. Residing in Perth (WA), her steadily improving results would often go unnoticed by her eastern competitors. For years, her performances consistently placed her on the precipice of the elite level, always thereabouts but not quite.
In 2013, aged 26, Rodgers ran her first Marathon in Melbourne. Placing 17th in a time of 2:57:20, she was introduced to the gruelling nature of the distance. Instead of being perturbed, it emboldened her. It was confirmation that she was exactly where she wanted to be.
“I can’t remember a thing about it,” she said, recalling that first race. “[But] I love the Marathon. I kind of find it therapeutic. I just enjoy my own time, my own space, and I love the challenge about it as well. I really enjoy the process.”
The next few years were indeed a process. Joining forces with Raf Baugh’s Front Runner Performance squad, she began to chip away at her time. A 2:50:19 for 6th in the 2015 Melbourne Marathon, followed by a 2:47:19 for 5th the following year signalled the first steps of progression. A 2:44:35 in Tokyo then preceded her first podium at Melbourne in 2017, where she placed 3rd in 2:43:50. In 2018, there was no improvement, but a win in Perth assured her that she had lost no ground. These were all good results, but nothing that foreshadowed what was to come.
“I couldn’t quite comprehend [her breakthrough run in Shizuoka],” Baugh said. “I’ve been coaching her for a lot of time. We’ve seen a lot of breakthroughs, but I think we were all a little bewildered by this one. There was no conscious expectation that running that fast was possible.”
Shizuoka Marathon
The goal heading into the Shizuoka Marathon was to run under 2:40:00. A modest aim in hindsight, but a time that would still have delivered a significant improvement on Rodgers’ fastest time. It was this aim that established the plan to run no quicker than 3:42/km, but no matter how hard she tried, holding back proved impossible.
“I felt really refreshed. I woke up feeling quite fresh in the legs, feeling quite good. I just felt comfortable and at ease with what I was about to do,” she said. “Early on we realised we were going too fast. We tried to slow the pace down, but then at the same time I felt really comfortable with how we were running, and I wanted to hold onto that for as long as possible.”
Moving into the lead at the halfway mark spurred Rodgers on, and by 30km it began to dawn on her that something special was on the cards.
“I realised I was probably going to achieve a faster time that I had set out to run,” she said. “But in the back of my mind, I knew that I had never run that fast for this long before. I didn’t know what the next 12km was going to be like.”
Now the only thing that could stand between Rodgers and the greatest run of her life was the will of her mind in dealing with the mounting discomfort. Utilising mental imagery that took her back to the idyllic sanctuary of her local trails, she powered on. Meanwhile, following on the train, coach Baugh was riddled by nerves.
“I’m pretty invested. I love it. It gets to the point where I’m almost like — I’m sitting on the train completely waiting for the next timing split to come through,” he said. “You’re just willing the athletes on even though, at that point, you can have no impact on what’s going on in front of you. You’re praying to the gods.”
Shizuoka Marathon
Ultimately those prayers were answered. With one final effort, Rodgers breached the tape, recording a monumental victory.
“We turned a corner and Matt (her training/racing partner) looked behind me and said ‘you’ve got this’. Then I heard Raf say I was on for 2:34, and I just legged it,” she said. “I crossed the line and collapsed to the ground, and was like ‘what have I just done?’”
Rodgers’ time of 2:34:45 was not just a mammoth personal best, but also over two minutes quicker than the IAAF world championship qualifying standard of 2:37:00. It took nearly an hour for her to realise the significance of what she achieved.
“When I crossed the line I didn’t realise I’d run the world champs qualifying time. I didn’t realise until later, once we got back to the hotel. I didn’t even know what the [qualifying] time was. It wasn’t even in the back of my mind,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all. It was never the plan.”
With many marathon runners considering to opt out of the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha (Qatar), Rodgers is well aware of the opportunity she may receive. It would be the completion of a lifelong dream to pull on the green and gold.
“Ever since I was a little girl my dream has been to represent Australia. For me that’s always been my main focus,” she said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s an opportunity that I’m going to grab with both hands and take it. It’s incredible that I’ve been able to put myself in a position where it’s possible that I could be running for Australia.”
Such an achievement could potentially place Rodgers alongside some of the runners she looks up to the most, such as Sinead Diver and Jess Trengove. It is something that may take a while to sink in.
“It’s almost surreal,” she said. “I look up to those women because they inspire and motivate me to run and push myself. So, to be saying that I’m in that same sort of category is unbelievable. It’s just so surreal.”
Shizuoka Marathon
If she does stand on that midnight start line in Qatar, it will be a treasured moment. At 31 years of age, it would be a reward for her persistence. The innumerable kilometres covered chasing the faint glint of hope — the dream that came true.
“I’m willing to take on the challenge,” she said. “I’ll be soaking it up. It will be an unforgettable moment and a very overwhelming moment, but I will be very proud if I am able to [run for Australia].”
The inevitable question: what about 2020? What about the Olympic Games? Her response is measured, but her voice betrays the once impossible thought. Why not?
“Never say never. I’ve learnt that the body is capable of a lot more than what you believe it is. Impossible is nothing.”
Her days of flying under the radar are gone. Rochelle Rodgers is here to stay.
200 miles, how hard can that be, you have 104 hours to finish ?
Last week I spent most of my time watching 40 or so dots move along a map from Northcliffe to Great Southern Distillery Company, Albany, on the Bibbulmum track, a distance of nearly 350km’s. ( http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au ) The race started at Wednesday 7am and there was a 104 hour cut-off, yep you read that right, 104 hours !! There was a sweeper but it looked like he was more a pacer than a sweeper and the few people that did drop out where not ‘swept up‘ but chose to bail on their own terms for a number of very valid reasons. The scenery was stunning running along the West Australian coastline and the elevation was brutal, chuck in some serious heat and you have all the ingredients for a life changing experience. I was so close to entering so many times pre-event and in the end decided discretion was the better part of valour , at least for 2018 anyway. Watching the dots move along my screen (there was live tracking via a competitor and their ‘spot’ which was compulsory) I was very envious and regretted my decision but consoled myself with the knowledge that 2020 would be even bigger and maybe the 100 cap could be nudged, which meant more competitors and better racing.
Ultra running in WA is going through a bit of a boom at the moment with the Shaun Kaesler inspired Ultra Series WA ( http://ultraserieswa.com.au ) , the Perth Trail Series ( http://www.perthtrailseries.com.au ) as well as Ron McGlinns Australia Day Ultra ( http://australiadayultra.com ) and Dave Kennedy’s various events including the 6 inch ultra ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) ; there would probably be an ultra a month available if you were mad enough to take them all on. Of course the Delirious West is a step up from all of these events being over double the distance of the longest alternative but the stepping stone races are now available and you can work yourself up from 25k (from the Perth Trail Series) through the distances to the 335k (335k is an estimate; the final distance of the Delirious West will probably change annually on Shaun Kaesler’s whim; with the number probably always going up !) ) Delirious West main course.
Ultra running has some benefits as I have mentioned before in a post below, the main one being people are impressed by the longer you take and the distance. This means if you were to finish last you get more kudos than the eventual winner. Ultra’s really are the events that just keep giving…
Running has become more and more popular , not seen since the days of the Sony Walkman revolution of the early eighties when for the first time you could run with music. (To the young generation amongst us we used a thing called a ‘tape’, analog not digital music. ) People new to running inevitably join a running club or run with more experienced friends and before they know it they’ve signed up for their first race. This is a good thing as I believe you never push yourself as much as when the competitive juices start to flow with a racing bib on your chest. One thing leads to another and before too long you’ve entered your first half or full marathon.
Invariably this distance is conquered and you’ve informed all your friends via Facebook and normally your work colleagues via daily updates on your progress. The problem arises though when the marathon doesn’t seem to cut it for kudos like it use to. In the office there seems to be quite a few marathoners and worse most are faster than you. You start to get compared to John in accounts who ran sub3 or even Sheila in Purchasing who ran has ran 10 marathons while juggling family commitments and a busy career. So these days to get some real kudos it’s time to take this running to the next level, the ultra-marathon.
The ultra has the added benefit of the slower you run the more kudos you get, where as the marathon is, these days, about not only completing it but also setting a good time. Non runners are getting use to people telling them they’ve ran a marathon and have responded asking how long they took. Again they are wise to what they consider a good time and if you reply ‘4 hours’ they look at you with pity and ask ‘what went wrong’? Not so with the ultra-marathon. Because it is still not mainstream a non runner has no idea what a good or bad time is for an ultra and even if they did the distance can be varied to confuse them. Remember an ultra is anything longer than a marathon distance, it can be 42.3k upwards.
The ultra gets even better, they tend to be in far flung locations and have pretty serious titles, again earning kudos points. How good does an ‘ultra-marathon in Death Valley‘ sound. Death valley, c’mon, if that doesn’t get serious kudos around the drink fountain nothing will. Ok, Sheila from Purchasing has ran 10 marathons but she’s never ran an ultra-marathon in Death Valley. They have no idea where Death Valley is or even what an ultra-marathon is but who cares, you are now the running god in the office, someone who wouldn’t waste their time with silly ‘girl distance’ like marathons. The universe is realigned and you can ‘strut’ around the office yet gain.
The only downside to this new running adventure is the office folk then look to you for more and more longer distances and/or exotic locations. After your first ultra you can never repeat that distance as non-runners , although initially impressed , soon become impervious to distance running unless there is a serious upgrade or the location adds some spice. e.g. The Marathon Des Sable ( http://www.marathondessables.com/en/), the toughest footrace on Earth. ! ( ..On Earth? are they saying there’s a tougher footrace not on earth, the Moon 100k maybe? Now that would be worth talking about !??)
A word of warning of course, you may come across the non runner who knows a thing or two about ultra-running and while you strut around the office sprouting off about a 100k race on the local trails, basking in the adulation of the finance department, they walk past and grunt it was ‘no Marathon Des Sables’. Instantly your credibility is destroyed and you sneak off back to your desk plotting your next adventure.
So to sum up, an ultra marathon may fill the void in the office kudos states. It has the benefit of still being relatively hardcore, in the view of the uneducated, allows you to focus on distance and not time (to counter that nasty sub3 runner in Accounts) and even allows you to slow down and take your time as the longer you take will actually earn more brownie points. I won’t even start to mention the extra equipment you get to buy and use on ultra-marathons. The wardrobe options are endless and include camelbacks, gators, water belts and my mate Mark’s favourite, a cappuccino machine. ! (He doesn’t actually bring along a cappuccino machine but he wore a water belt once that had so many accessories he might as well have!) This can become more of a hindrance than a help as I always remember feeling my mate TB’s camelback at the end of the 6 inch ultra-marathon ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) and it must have weighted 10k; and that was at the END of the race not the beginning !!
The 6 inch is a good example of the small step up needed from the marathon distance. Remember anything longer than a marathon is classed an ultra. The 6 inch is 46k (assuming you don’t get lost, which I have on a number of occasions!), so for that extra 4k you get to shoot down Sheila in Purchasing as you’ve ran an ultra-marathon and ,as everybody knows , so much harder than the silly marathon…
So lookout Sheila, we’re coming for you ?
Am I mad enough to tackle the Delirious West in 2020 ? Hell yeah, I’m gutted I missed the inaugural running but I’m certainly looking to get to the start line next year. As soon as entries open I’m in, the only fly in the possible Delirious West ointment is the possibility that it will the same weekend as Daughter No2’s ball, I’m sure she’ll understand, eventually and the best bit is I have Daughter no3’s ball to go to assuming I don’t run the Delirious in 2025 ? (I am a creature of habit as I missed Daughter No1’s graduation meal when I was running the Rottnest Marathon!)
The last couple of years have been a testing time for the BK running career. Struck down by a calf tear in 2017 and Plantar Fasciitis in 2018 I have been unable to string together a full racing season. I never really have a ‘down time’ and the last 10 years have been a continual circle of train, race, train repeat, always a race to get ready for and then a small recovery period before of we go again. This has served me well over the years and I was probably a few months short of a good 10 year of unbroken injury free running. Of course as I always say on this blog eventually the piper comes calling and he needs to be paid. I consider the last two years my payment, in full !
2018 started well with an Australian Ultra Association ( https://www.aura.asn.au/data/Records/AURA%20Age_Group_Records-MEN-18December2018.pdf ) Age Group 100k record and 8 gold medals at the Australian Masters ( four state and four national) but it all went downhill pretty rapidly when Plantar Fasciitis came calling. As soon as I knew I had PF I just about wrote the year off. PF is an injury that just takes time to heal due to affected area having little blood flow and the fasciitis itself. This combination just makes the whole healing process a slow one. Personally I think I was quite lucky to return to full training after 7 months of trail running on sand. Speaking to my fellow runners there was stories of 1-2 years recovery and at my age that isn’t an option.
So after my return in December at the 6 inch ultra I was ready for another crack at the AURA Age Group record for 100k at the Australian Day Ultra. Unfortunately I got ‘man-flu’ a week out and just couldn’t recover in time, truth be told I’m still recovering now a month later. This leads me to the point of this post. Recovery is all part of a runners journey and if it is approached with the right attitude can be just as stimulating as full on training. The knack is to take it slow and just try and get a bit better every day/run. Don’t worry about pace or even distance, every recovery run is judged on its own merits and how you feel on the day. Want to cut it short, fine, or go a bit longer , ok . The point is for recovery you can free yourself from the tight reins of a training plan or daily run expectations. It can actually be quiet liberating.
As you can see from the graphic below I was building up nicely from the 6 inch before ‘man-flu‘ struck, I’d say on January 11th ! With hindsight doing a double-double day the day before (A Yelo progressive, commute to work on the Elliptigo, a 10k lunch time run and then a commute home; three hours of exercising) was probably the straw that broke the camels back. Of course that is easy to say now but I must admit to feeling weary after the Thursday morning progressive run at Yelo and promising myself I’d have the lunch time off but of course when midday comes all is forgotten and off you go. Even when I retired to my bed on Friday I was confident I could make the ADU the following Friday, it was a taper week anyhow so a few days in bed would probably do me good. Not to be this time I was still weak as a kitten a week later and as you can see from my training log was out of action for over two weeks. So back to recovery I stumbled starting with a long run with the NSRG ( http://www.nsrg.org.au ) , 18k that probably should have been 10k but mission accomplished I was back. I even stumbled out for a second run but this proved to be my undoing and I had to have Monday off before building up again, putting in the time on legs without worrying about pace or distance. So far I’m on track and starting to enjoy my running, although I never really don’t enjoy my running but running with a post man-flu glow can be testing.
Build up, get sick, build up…repeat…
As you can see from my Strava extract above ( you are on Strava aren’t you? ( http://www.strava.com)) I have also been loving my time on the Elliptigo and the Bionic Gen1 . These extra hours spent commuting I’m sure will pay dividends when I eventually get myself back to full fitness and race ready. The Bionic especially is a hard stand up bike to master and I only managed a week before I scuttled off back to the Elliptigo. I’m blaming my recent illness but the Bionic really is just plain old fashioned hard work and I feel I need to be better prepared for the beating you take. Of course when I say ‘beating’ it is in the best way possible. I’m stoked that I’m now getting 6-8 hours a week extra aerobic/cardio fitness time compared to sitting on a train of commuters glued to their phones. Commuting to work on the Go or Bionic is hard work , yes, but so enjoyable and its doing me so much good it really is the ultimate win-win situation. Hell I even save money daily, albeit the running costs of the bikes probably cost as much as the train fare but that’s not the point is it.
Living in Perth I am so lucky with the climate which is either ‘perfect for running, anytime ‘ or ‘prefect for running but you need to run early mornings (summer)‘ ; it also has hundreds of kilometres of bike paths so you can ride all day and never enter the territory of those nasty ‘bike hating’ cars! I understand a lot of you don’t live in such a hospitable environment and commuting on a bike is out of the question but if you can even drop the car a few kilometres from the office and run in that would help; anything is better than nothing. As I said in previous posts I was inspired by Tim ‘the man in the Halo‘ Don who still averaged 15 hours a week exercising with a broken neck wearing a halo. ! ( https://www.on-running.com/en-au/athletes/tim-don ) For me to average 15 hours a week running would be injury suicide, thus my commuting on the stand up bikes , running without the pounding and thus no chance of injury. So fast this has worked well and the 6th place finish at the 6 inch ultra marathon in December showed my lack of running mileage could be supplemented by the cardio benefits of the Elliptigo. ( http://www.elliptigo.com )
Bionic Gen1 , this thing is a monster !
Back to recovery , which was the reason behind this post I think, I sometimes just ramble on and never know where these posts take me. After an injury or illness treat recovery as a ‘gift not a hinderance’. Embrace the feeling of just running for the pure love of running and slowly increase the distance/pace of each recovery run but if for any reason you ‘aren’t feeling it’ , pull the pin. Arthur Lydiard was a big believer is this and that man knew a thing or three about running ! ( http://www.runningwizard.com/lydiard-principles ) Don’t be forced back into racing too early, a sure fire way to regress and also demotivate yourself when you run a slower than expected finish time. Nothing demotivates a runner more than slowing down but you can slow the process with a good recovery plan. I’ll be putting this to the test over the next few months and I’ll keep you informed of progress, right, I’m off for a run albeit a slow one.
Yesterday I managed to run for the first time in nearly three weeks after successfully surviving the near death experience that is ‘man-flu‘. Please note this is something only men can understand because for some reason women, and especially my current Wife, do not understand this potentially fatal condition. I had six days off work which culminated in a 4am call to the mobile doctors and a request from them to go to hospital. They were thinking heart attack, I was thinking pneumonia, my Wife was thinking ‘it’s a bloody cold , get over it!’ (I told you , they don’t understand?) In the end I decided I didn’t want to bother anybody and there was probably really sick people at hospital and if I was going to check out I wanted to do it surrounded by my loved ones and also make it as hard as possible on No1 Wife to teach her a lesson. Luckily I managed to survive to run another day and so the rehabilitation began in earnest.
By rehabilitation I mean wandering about with a ‘woe is me‘ look on my face for a week and letting all interested parties , of which there was one, Mum!, know how I was lucky to be alive , no thanks to my current Wife. (I never did find my bell I used to summon her the first few days when I needed a cup of tea (as all men know a cup of tea cures all known ailments, and doubly quick if you make it sweet.) I had my suspicions to its whereabouts as I can hear it every time I ‘twerk’… ?) Anyhow I digress….
For my return to running I selected a run with the Northern Suburb Running Group (NSRG http://www.nsrg.org.au ) a social running group that has been going for longer than I can remember and is always welcoming to new runners, old runners or even runners who have survived ‘man-flu‘ and need some company. (and also someone to talk to about the experience in great detail.) I took Jon along because he always loves company and is still seeking his new Wife after jettisoning the old one. (For any runners who are looking for love Jon is available on tinder and would make a great mate. http://www.tinderdating.com.au For any of my readers (and my Mum!) under 18 please do not click on the tinder link.)
For the NSRG Sunday long run there was about ten of us and we all thoroughly enjoyed the company and the route taking in a local bushland loop and a lake before retreating from the heat to the local Dome Cafe for waffles and coffee; a runners post long run treat. Actually the conversation post run was probably as long as the run itself, I take this as a positive personally. For all runners looking to either start running or just wanting some great company the NSRG is the place to go, you won’t find a better bunch of runners in Perth. They also spend time in the company of the T-train and a few have jumped on board his coaching programs which seem to be going great guns. ( https://www.tonysmithruncoaching.com )
It was about the company , not the pace or distance.
Feeling excited about running again I did manage a 8k second run that evening which started slowly, sped up in the middle and ended as it started. No problem, it was about getting out twice which I believe is a massive benefit and improves running quicker than a new pair of Nike Vaporfly 4%’s… (You all have a pair of these now don’t you ? https://www.nike.com/gb/t/vaporfly-4-flyknit-running-shoe-7R7zSn ) probably. Funnily enough at the end I thought I had a 5:18 average, turned out to be 5:38; ouch. Looking at previous runs on that route (thanks Strava) I was informed this was the slowest, ever, but quite a margin. Was I upset? No, it was never about pace , all about just getting out there on tired legs and putting some time in. I really enjoyed the run, bar the enforced Mark Lee toilet stop in the middle and it served the purpose it was meant to. Remember people Matt Fitzgerald 80/20, Arthur Lydiard and Phil Maffetone. The three wise men of running.
Not pretty but second run box ticked.
More news in the runbkrun assault on a potential marathon PB this year. I have added a new stand up bike to the stable. (Is two bikes a stable or a garage?) I managed to find a brand new (virtually) Bionic Gen1 from a friend on Strava and I pick it up tonight. I am more than excited as the Bionic (Gen1 and 2) and the Predator were stand up bike invented by an Australian Company (run4) which has since gone out of business due to dubious Chinese suppliers . It’s a pity because these bikes were well built and also built for runners specifically. I managed to get a test ride on a Bionic after I brought the Elliptigo ( https://www.elliptigo.com.au ) and was really impressed with the product. Unfortunately the company then went out of business so finding one virtually brand new is a real find. (I have also sourced a brand new Predator and aim to add that to my stable soon but the Wife is still not overly excited about me purchasing another bike so maybe purchasing another two bikes would push her over the edge? …maybe ? Women really are from different planets, maybe even different solar systems!!!)
All the fun of running with no impact.
Is there alternatives still available on the inter web ? hell yeah. https://cyclete.com This bad boy looks the business but is hand built to specific orders rather tham mass produced, that means it very expensive. It looks very, very good but the price is a show stopper for me. For any runners out there with some serious coin to throw about this bike looks very, very good. Unfortunately (I say that a lot when my current Wife is then also mentioned in the same sentence?) my current Wife would divorce me if I paid the $10k Australian needed to bring one of these into the country. I’ll get in touch them and see if they fancy sponsoring an old, balding runner with a beard and a blog supported mainly by his mother ? (Actually if you google ‘stand up bikes‘ and check out the images there are some really ‘out there‘ versions; and I mean out there!)
The point of this post is twofold. First, I am recovering from time out from running and when you do this you need to think of recovery as a day by day activity with small progress, be it in pace or distance, the target not reaching the dizzy heights of where you were pre-injury (illness). Matt Fitzgerald summed it up when he stated he actually enjoyed recovery as the pressure of obtaining certain goals was not there. You can get back to the pure joy of running without the need to ‘improve bu hitting targets’. I always think of this when I return from injury and this is why yesterdays second run, with an average pace of 5:38min/k, is still seen as a positive and a small step forward. I loved the feeling of getting out there for a second time and just ‘running’ for the pure love of running, admittedly i could have down without the ‘Mark Lee‘ toilet stop.
Second I am again talking up the benefit of stand-up bikes. Trust me people these are the Nike Vaproflys 4%’s of bikes, forget the usual version, for a runner you need a bike built for improving your running not improving your cycling. (Unless of course you are a triathlete reading this post by mistake; remember its runbkrun not swimrunbikekbrunswimbike.com !) These bikes really do work and I cannot wait to get on my bionic and see what benefit I can gain from this compared to the Ellipitgo. Does this mean I’m selling the Elliptigo? Well I may have mentioned to my Wife I was going to sell the Elliptigo to pay for the Bionic but I suspect this may not happen and I may keep both, funnier things have happened.
Mines the cheaper Australian version, but then we are ‘battlers’…
As I was taken down with the dreaded man-flu a week out from the Australia Day Ultra I will leave the race report to my usual partner in crime, Jon ‘swipe right’ Pendse. Jon is a marathon and ultra marathon running machine and it has been a honour to run with him over the last 10 years or so, after meeting in out office changing rooms.
In the early days Jon was a lot quicker than me and I regularly ran with him for the first 10-20k of a marathon before dropping off the pace. It wasn’t until the City to Surf Marathon of 2011 when I was able to pip him to the finish line by a few seconds after we both discussed finishing together. Sorry Jon but white line fever got the better of me !! Since then we have ran most events together and a large proportion of my training runs.
Anyhow I digress, Jon has written a great race report on the Australia Day Ultra which is certainly worth a read and it’s fitting he should be the first ‘guest writer’ for the blog as he has been involved with most of my posts in some manner and had to put up with man hours of BK putting the world to rights, which, truth be told has normally been a two way process… Enjoy.
Coming in to this year’s 100km ultra (http://australiadayultra.com/) I felt I had done my apprenticeship having completed the previous 3 years of ADU (having ran 8.53, 8.56, and 8.06), and this year was to be my first year ‘racing’ over 100km. This is a ‘race’, not a long training run right?
Although I had a breakthrough result in 2018, I didn’t really feel I was ‘racing‘ the distance at that time. Off the back of a consistent year with plenty of k’s in the legs (around 6,300 clocked up over the year), 2018 completing 7 marathons, 3 ultras, 5 half marathons, I felt I was ready to push for a sub8 hour 100km, given 2018 I only really aimed for sub 8.30 and managed 8.06!
Going in this year I set the following Goals; A sub 8 hours, B sub 8hrs-30, and C sub 9hours. Hmm an hour difference between an A goal and C goal, only races over 100km could you get away with such a large variance!
So here are my race splits;
Lap splits (12.5k) of 55, 57, 60, 67, 80, 80, 72, 64
25k splits of 112, 127, 160 (ouch), 136
Spoiler (it’s a very long race report!): I finished in 8:58:53
What I didn’t really consider was ‘racing’ in humid warm conditions, ok, even if its 18-20 degrees, the sun isn’t out so surely it’s not that bad? After all I’ve ran the previous years before in similar conditions (although I guess I treated those as long training runs), whereas this year I was going out at race pace, basically 10-15 minutes slower than a 50k race time.
To make things harder, my wingman & ultra-extraordinaire BK (www.runbkrun.com) narrowly avoided pneumonia only 2 nights before race night and gallantly chose to DNS rather than risk a death sentence.
So, this race was set to be a solo time trial. This is not a Sunday stroll! 😊
Unfortunately, I came undone in the 4th lap where I knew I was working way to hard and dropping too much time. 8 laps and sub 8 hour target even my 8-year-old can work out the pacing strategy… 1-hour laps or less and repeat x 8, easy?
Well the first lap was quick, but I felt good (probably due to the taper) and more importantly I felt in control. Second lap slightly slower but 57 was about spot on to where i needed to be (57-58), knowing I would need close to 10 minutes banked by 50k for the customary slow down on the second 50k. The plan was to hit 50k in 3.48-3.55 (which is 12-20 minutes slower than 50k race pace).
The 4th lap blowout meant I hit 50k just on 4hrs, at this point i knew sub8 was off the cards.
Suddenly I hit the dreaded marathon wall around 53k and was soon reduced to a walk/jog strategy… problem being hitting the wall in a marathon and you might have 10-15k left to go (I’ve hit the wall many times in marathons) … but this time around I still have 47k to go! I remember thinking how the f**k am i going to run the remaining 47k (which is the 6-inch trail marathon distance minus the hills). I was walking and could barely run. This km split was around 10minutes! Doing maths at this pace I’d be lucky to finish before noon! I should have been finishing around 8-8.30am.
This was never part of the plan, what the f**k can I do… (Please note Runbkrun does not condone this language but in the context of this post it is allowable!)
I did have a few positives going for me though… 1. Yes, I’ve hit the wall but it’s very early and only around 4.30am, the sun hasn’t even come up yet. 2. the chase pack (Margie and Chris) will very shortly be approaching 3. I wasn’t cramping or injured, so it was ‘possible’ I could regroup and rebuild.
So once Margie and Chris joined me, I soon found out they were in quite a similar state having hit a similar wall not that much earlier…
All 3 of us ran several km’s together, running low 6-minute k’s.
At this point I was happy just moving along and ticking of a few more km’s.
Margie told me she’d been running through a couple of niggles/injuries and was now seriously considering stopping. It was here I also agreed and said I’m seriously thinking of making it to 75k and calling it a day. Only in Ron’s race can you stop at any shorter distance and still claim a finishers medal albeit a shorter distance. (There was that famous DNF from Rhys a few years earlier when he stopped at 25k thus winning the race 3-4 hours before it had even started!) Besides 75km is still an ‘Ultra’ marathon and you get a finish time. That’s still a good day out in my books, and an experience to learn from for next time.
So, at my slower pace laps 5 & 6 I managed 80 minutes each, but usually in a marathon you get slower not quicker, and so after some more maths i was staring at 90 minutes for lap 7 and +90 minutes for the last lap… that would put me around a marginal sub10 hours.
This was all in the back of my mind, I’d now been dropped by Margie and Chris, and was heading back to complete my 5th lap.
It was here I saw Mick Francis on the middle aid station (must have been about 59km), and I quickly stopped for a brief chat, I heard he had to withdraw earlier with injury! But was still out supporting those remaining in the race, what a champ! [Mick’s our local legend and ultra-marathon god (he’s run more than 100 marathons and if that wasn’t enough has also ran more than 100 ultra-marathons), I’ve known mick for many years now, good mate and many races completed together], perfect place now for me to pick Mick’s running brain;
I told Mick I’d hit the wall at 50k and i could probably just make it to 75k and what’s the ultra-etiquette for pulling the pin…? Surely no point me running the extra 25km just to finish, that could be an extra 3hours in the sun walking and jogging! Besides I’ve run the 100km three times previous so have nothing to prove, surely he would agree and say yes stop at 75k call it a day recover and look for the next race, or try again next year.
Mick said it so simply… Jon are you injured? No. Then get back out and do the job. You’ll get respect and will teach you something you can’t read about. (Wise words from the man known as ‘Yoda‘ in the WA running community. A real , true blue Aussi’ Icon; Mick not Yoda.. please note I am assuming Yoda is not from the WA?)
Well the way he said it I was like why did I even ask, ha-ha. I knew the answer already, but I was also seeking acceptance that it would have been ok for me to stop. (Obviously I still could have stopped, but ultras aren’t for the faint hearted, those out there have something regular runners don’t have and many will never experience – no offence, but wait until you’ve done 100km, it will teach you many many lessons – I’m still learning).
This gave me a bit of a mental boost, and I continued my marathon shuffle at 6min k’s.
Margie was still a good 6 or 7 minutes ahead, I was stoked to see she went back out for the 6th lap which meant she’d make at least 75km, and likewise I went back out to start my 6th lap.
Meanwhile T-Train express had been setting a blistering pace in the 50km, well in front of his counterparts… he went on to win and smash out a PB and run 3hrs-27, wow!
But when T-Train was coming back on his final lap I yelled out to him phone BK at the finish line tell him Jon’s f’d, reckons he won’t break 10hours, can he do a quick poll in the BK Run Group and get the opinion on stopping at 75km?
I needed at least one person to say stop if anyone would the BK Group would… surely better to claim a 75km finishers medal than the +10hour potential finishing time (please).. Besides 75km is the point of no return, once you run past 75km there are no more finishers medals left other than the next barrier at 100km.
So, if you’re going to pull the pin, stop at 75km!
So now on this 6th lap I was still struggling and still shuffling.
I saw Margie again on the turnaround and she was going back out again for her 7th lap, wow what a champ especially with injuries and hitting the wall. Well that was it, if Margie is going to see it through, so am I (not that Mick hadn’t already told me earlier). And just before i went back out again for my 7th lap, T-Train looking fresh as ever… goes “spoke with BK he says it’s a 100km race not a 75km race.” (He lied, Tone never called me , though I would have said that !)
Alright decision made well and truly.
So, going back out now on my 7th lap things are warming up, but I’ve had almost 25k of shuffling along, and I’m starting to feel a slight second wind.
I started running a few sub 6-minute k’s, and soon enough was running around 5.30’s… so a lot more running and a lot less walking! Albeit tough and still a challenge ahead but at least I only have less than 2 laps to go! Things are starting to look up.
The whole race I’d been consistent with nutrition/hydration, had my strategy and didn’t really deviate. Setup my own esky at mid aid station, have a gel every 10k, and grab 2x250ml water bottles every time i passed that aid station. Although I’d been drinking around 600ml-700ml per hour (the other 300ml-400ml) I’d tip on my head to try and cool the core body temp) I still felt dehydrated and physically couldn’t take on any more fluids. It had been a long warm night that was for sure.
So with my new determination, I had the remaining 25k to go. Between 75k-82k I averaged around 6:30s, however I was definitely starting to feel some running legs returning, a lot less walking! The tide had turned. At the out turn-around I had a quick toilet stop, and then I was good to go. It was from here I was able to hold 5:15s, more importantly I was feeling great again, and could almost feel the finish line in sight although I did still have the final lap to run. Ron had chocolate medals this year right…! We often joke ultra-running is not actually about the running, it’s all about the food and my impartial attraction to the distance.
On completion of the 7th lap I clocked in at 7:54:05, which was a 1:12:45 lap time. Maths time again… I was feeling great, could it be possible I could break 9 hours? Sub 1:06 final lap?? Hmm. Challenge accepted. After all, given how I was feeling and could taste the finishers 100k medal, may as well go for it I had nothing to lose. Sub9 hours would be a fantastic result given where I was at 53km. Still managing to hold 5:15s, felt great at this speed again… I couldn’t work out what pace the sub 1:06 equated to, however if I could hold the 5:15s and get to the final turn-around in 33 minutes, then I would be in the ball park. And that’s exactly what happened, held the pace and got to the turnaround just under 33 minutes, a look at my watch slightly under 8hrs27. About bang on if I wanted to go under 9 hours. Still feeling great at this stage, no sign of cramping, and this was it, the final home stretch. Only 6.25km remaining and the last time I’ll see this end of the course for 12 months. It’s game on. I didn’t really have to do anything special, I didn’t need to speed up, just hold the pace and see it through to the finish. As I left the mid aid station, I yelled out to Mick I’ve got a sniff of a sub9 hour so bring it on. The final 3k was magical, this is how I had hoped I would run the final lap or at least this feeling, something you can’t replicate. I’d smashed my mental barriers and now I could enjoy the achievement of finishing my fourth 100km. I soaked up the atmosphere and ran beaming with smiles. Ok, not a sub8 and not a sub8:30, but who cares. I was so close to calling it a day, getting to this point everything was forgotten. The endorphin runners high here was more than worth hitting the wall at 53km.
This was a personal journey and my story of the day. Never give up. Respect. Pride. Proud. Redemption. And just plain mental! We are runners. And we are warriors.
I’ll be back next year to join the 500 Club -ADU Hall of Fame! Hopefully BK will have recovered by then and raring to go, I still have a sub8 hour in me?? (have I learnt anything, hmm)
Anyone interested here is my Australian 100 marathon club profile page as I endeavour to run 100 marathons (currently at 56 and 13 ultras).
2018 was probably not my best year with seven months wasted due to Plantar Fasciitis. The year did start and end well but injury made for a very sad BK for most of the year. There was a slight glimmer of hope after a top 10 finish at the 6 inch trail ultra marathon ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) and I started to believe that maybe 2019 was going to be a better year.
After 22 weeks of Elliptigo commuting to work and some good quality training towards the back end of 2018 I was ready to defend my ADU title. ( http://australiadayultra.com ) Last year I probably had the run of my life to win the 100k event and set a sub 8 hour time. I had certainly left a few minutes on the course and reckoned with a new pair of Fly 4%’er’s I would be able to collect these and maybe even nudge a sub 7:45 finish. Unfortunately (I seem to be typing that a lot lately?) this was not to be as a week out I came down with ‘man-cold’, this then morphed into ‘man-flu’ (which can kill !) and finally a throat infection and onto the antibiotics. Needless to say after over a week off work I was in no condition to run 100k. So the ADU 2019 was added to my ever growing list of races I had entered and not started, the dreaded DNS. (Did Not Start). In my defence there was no way I was going to make the start line , even with the best Goggin’s motivational lines; and there are many !! ( https://davidgoggins.com )
So how many DNS races have there been in my career ? The first one , and the most expensive by far, was the 2015 Disney Goofy challenge. I think the entry was over $500US and unfortunately the Oil price put paid to that trip to sunny Florida when Chevron decided they’d had enough of me and I had to move to Schlumberger, for a massive pay cut ! Current Wife and many Daughters were not happy with that decision. In Disney’s defence they did refund me a few hundred dollars gift card which I never used. (Their retail site really is very, very sad; sorry Disney.)
Next in line was the Darlington half 2016 when due to a bike race shutting down the freeway we couldn’t actually get to the start line in time. I blame the guys at TRC for putting out a route that was flawed and left me and Mike the wrong side of the Reid highway unable to cross. on the bright side it was stinking hot and humid and they probably done us a favour ! Mike had actually worked out a route to the start which would have worked but for once the ‘trust in TRC‘ mantra backfired; sorry Mike.
Next was the Bunbury Marathon of 2017 when I picked up a nasty 5cm calf tear there week before after racing the WAMC Bridges 10k. With hindsight I probably should have given that race a miss so close to a marathon and this was a lesson learned. This calf tear cost me three months and was my biggest injury at that time. I blame hanging around at the finish for the age group medal I had won and then jogging back to the car. That jog back , while dehydrated and tired after running a 10k, was the reason behind the tear. Preventable for sure and a real rookie error. Funnily enough I had risked the run back and made a big effort to take it as easy as possible. The tear happened as I exited the shower somehow ? Still I could have probably avoided the injury with some forethought.
The good old fashioned calf tear, the curse of the older runner !
Finally the City to Surf in 2018 was another race I had entered early but due to injury couldn’t make the start line. This was to be a big race as it was the 10th in a row and also I was part of a small group of runners who had all previous nine. 25 of us had made this elusive club after running the inaugural marathon in 2009. This one hurt and it was very emotional on the morning of the race as I walked the dogs rather than compete. With hindsight I could have probably completed the course but was worried about breaking my 27 in a row sub3 streak I was (am) on. If I had my time again….
The Spartan group now has one less member. Made the photo shoot but not the race !
That’s it, five races all in the last 4 years, and at least I got my annual DNS out the way early this year? Overall I suppose I got to be happy with that and I’m still to experience the dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish). The quandary I am now in of course is is the fear of either DNF’ing or finishing a marathon slower than sub three hours going to start to eat away at the reason why I run in the first place, , my love of running ? Is the fear of failure going to eventually outweigh the pursuit of running goals that keep you coming back to the sport. Will I start to avoid events that may result in me not performing as well as I would have liked. ? I remember once somebody said to me why do you train so hard and my response was fear, fear of slowing down; was that the wrong reason ? Surely it should be for the love of running and pace and time should be secondary. ? Probably, but on the other hand I am a competitive runner and every time I put on a race bib it really is on for young and old. there is no grey area here people, just a switch, on and off. This is why I am able to replicate times I have achieved ten years previous, even in my early fifties, good old fashioned hard work and the fear of failure. Of course there is also the love of competing and, as I have said many times , the pack may be calling but I’m still not ready to go back to it. A few more years in the sun I reckon , keeping a few young guns honest, albeit for less and less distance after the start of a race but it’s still nice to be at the pointy end, albeit briefly, and feel alive doing what I love to do with like minded people.
This was what made missing the ADU yesterday so painful, the camaraderie of the event and general atmosphere. I have a whole year to wait before I can experience that again and I’m not the most patient person in the world, that is why a DNS sucks. On the bright side I feel a lot better today and may even start running again next week so the year isn’t a right off just yet. This extended break has also given my PF time to finally fully heal and I’m confident I can start to add some pace work to my endless Kings Park trail running rehabilitation program. This is much needed with the WAMC racing catalogue about to start for 2019 and I need to get back my age group win after losing it last year due to not completing the required number of races to qualify. Will miss the February presentations for the first time in many years , got to love getting old. ( I seem to have typed that a lot lately as well?) Not much of a positive post this one but unfortunately (there’s that word again.) sometimes running is a cruel mistress and once in a while the piper needs paying. Personally I think I’m paid in full for a few years so lets get back to writing about what I love writing about, racing and training with the BK posse…. yours in running… BK
I have talked up the Nike Vaporfly 4% many times on my blog but still people race wearing other brands so I’m going to try one more time to make you see the light before moving on to the next running product. How good are these shoes ? Very, very good. Do you need a pair ? If you are serious about running yes, you need a pair and yesterday. Can you get a pair ? Probably not, they sell out quicker than a Rolling Stones concert at your local old peoples home, and that is fast ! What makes them so good ? Easy, you run faster for longer with less effort ; as there say on the show 4% performance increase for a perceived 4% less expelled energy; that’s right people they really make you faster while also making it easier to achieve these new found pace. I mean why wouldn’t you buy a pair , unless you want to stay the same pace and not get a 4% increased performance boost for nothing ? Well when I say nothing they do coast $350 AUD or similar but c’mon, a 4% performance increase for $350; I’ll take that all day. I reckon to get that through training alone you’d have to put in 1,000 – 2,000 kilometres of hard yakka. $350 is cheap at double the price…
Right, so after Nike sponsored the breaking 2 adventure ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2ZLG-Fij_4 ) and came so close they have created the marketing man dreams of a shoe with demand far outstripping supply thus keeping the price inflated. I know I said $350 was a small price to pay, and I stand by that, but it’s still a large amount of money for a running shoe, to the untrained eye (Unfortunately No1 Wife has a couple of those untrained eye’s and I still haven’t mentioned what I paid for my second pair of fly’s, well over retail and I mean well over retail !! Never got to use them, to add insult to injury , excuse the pun, as I picked up a nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis virtually the week after buying them. The Lord really does move in mysterious ways sometimes ?)
I brought a couple of version ones I suppose but managed to snag a pair of the latest and greatest via http://www.nike.com.au, these bad boys pictured above are the fly knit versions with a one piece flyknit upper attached to the foam and carbo fibre insole; a deadly combination by all accounts. Opening the box was like being a child again at Christmas Day with the one present you asked for in front of you. For me it would have been my Stretch Armstrong when I was nearly 10 years old, around 1976, man I loved Stretch Armstrong. My brother got Godzilla I think, basically the same idea; you stretch the sh*t out of the toy and it always returns to its original shape. To a 10 year old this was life changing, the flyknits have the same effect on a 51 year old. Personally that’s the $350 purchase price covered right there, the fact they also make me run faster for less effort is a bonus. Of course the only fly in the ointment is the possibility of me now searching on eBay for an original Stretch Armstrong and paying thousands of dollars to replicate that feeling I got as a 10 year old again. That would be difficult to get past no1 Wife for sure, even harder than the shoes!
1976 apparently, I was nearly 10 when I got Stretch…. I got the same feeling over 40 years later with the new Vaproflys flyknits,
So last few words… to me the Bugatti Veyron of running shoes, probably the most expensive shoe on the market but , like the Bugatti, the best of the best. Of course there will be haters who dish this post but that’s fine because I have enough experience to know a game changer when I encounter it, either as a 10 year old with the latest toy or a 51 year old with the best running show every invented, bar none. Really I should just keep quiet and let my competitors stumble around in their run of the mill trainers but that’s not me. We all run and race but really it’s ourselves we are racing against and our PB’s (PR’s) define us ; these shoes can help you rediscover yourself and to me that is a good thing and if even one person reads this post and goes out and buys (finds?) a pair I would have succeeded in giving that runner the same feeling I got when I opened my Stretch Armstrong box over 40 years ago, and that really is priceless.
