Bunbury is the gateway to the South West—one of Western Australia’s most popular tourist destinations—and we’ve been getting passengers there since 1947. Initially, a steam locomotive travelling at 63 km/hr, our current train, the Australind, makes the 167 km journey in just two and a half hours. The train is an ADP/ADQ built by Comeng right here in WA.
With an onboard buffet and air-conditioning, sit back, enjoy the ride and start your trip off on the right foot.
It’s that time of year again when runner takes on the train. North Dandalup train station this Sunday, 17th July, to leave at whatever time it takes to get to Serpentine train station before 10:21am when the only returning train departs.
The premise is simple we leave North Dandalup as late as possible to make the 33k route on the Munda Biddi ( https://mundabiddi.org.au/ ) to Serpentine before the 10:21 train Australind train leaves heading to Bunbury. ( There is a longer version we use to run before part of the track was closed but the 33k route seems to be the route of choice at the moment ? I assume the GPX on the facebook page is the 33km route? https://www.facebook.com/events/1496964190782408 )
There’s no second chance as there is only one service per day so if you miss the train it’s either a long run back on the trail or a shorter run , as the crow flies, on the main road. Over the years we have had a few runners miss the train but they have always managed to grab a lift back to the start, a runner on the side of the road crying does attract attention apparently.Note: The Munda Biddi runs to Perth, if you get to Jarrahdale you’ve gone too far !
Ticket purchased and so excited, I’ve attached a few posts from the previous years to get you all in the mood. Also please bring some tukka as the best bit about racing a train is talking about how you beat it afterwards , with good friends while eating cake, simple.
One final word of advice , it’s called ‘Race the Train‘, not ‘Run to the Train’, please make an effort to actually race the train by not giving yourself too much time. Over the years I had a few close calls and that’s the point of the event, we need to give the train a chance. Note: in the eight or so years I’ve been racing, and beating, the train it’s always be late so you could probably factor that in, albeit not TransWA have read this they’ll probably be early ! But joking aside it is actually more fun to have that touch of danger hanging over you. There was talk of a fine for people arriving too early and we’ll discuss this at the feast afterwards, it could involve press ups equal to the number of minutes you arrived too early , multiplied by a factor of X !! Myself and Irwin will discuss this week.
Best $8.90 you’ll ever spend…including GST.
Racing trains is so much fun .. Choo Choo 2021
One of the last groups to leave at the start
The Choo Choo run has been going for around 10 years, a Simon Coates idea, but its been more of an underground run until last year when Irwin Swinny put out the word and the runners came, in droves. This year was no different and what a turn out. When we arrived at North Dandelup train station it looked like a car park at a mall in Christmas, cars everywhere. I have no idea what the locals thought, I reckon we doubled the population of Dandelup that morning ! (Funnily enough I have no idea why the station is called North Dandelup, trust me there’s no South, West or East Dandalup, it really is a one horse town and probably a pit pony at that !)
The image above is not the passenger train returning to Perth but an commercial train, probably mining, with about 100 carriages, estimated ! It was starting to get light before the last carriage passed us. In Australia we do big trains ! Great selfie by Mark to capture the image by the way.
This year we aired on side of caution and decided we were all nowhere near our fitness levels of last year so left just past 7am , giving us just over 3 hours for the 33k trail run. In our defence it had been raining for like weeks and the trail was going to be soft underfoot. No record breaking times this year and this seemed to be the case for all runners, it wasn’t a case of racing a train more like running between two train stations comfortably. This will need to be addressed next year with fines for arriving too early at Serpentine, maybe arriving 10 minutes or more before the train will attract some form of forfeit !
We were the last to leave and had a good group consisting of myself, Mark, Cedric, Tom, Mitch and ultra Jon. (I say ultra Jon as this is the bigger, and happier, version of marathon Jon, who is lighter and always grumpy!) The group set off at a good pace and this was to continue for the whole journey.
The first hill as the sunrise peaks over the top…the hill is a lot steeper than it looks in the photo !
The start of the journey is a 6-7k uphill climb as you move from the bottom of the scarp to the top. This is mainly on road and being in the country you will be taking your live in your hands as country drivers make Lewis Hamilton look pedestrian. I suspect most of them are returning home from a ‘quiet night‘ , which probably involves drinking their own body weight in spirits ! You need to be very wary and always have an exit plan which would normally be a quick dive into the nearest field ! I was feeling brave so took a photo as the sun rose over the scarp, as always the photo never does the scene justice.
We continued on at a good pace until we had the compulsory photo at around 26k, you’ll see the same shot in all my posts on the Choo Choo runs, we are stickler’s for tradition. (or just boring as my many Daughters would say?) Funny story at this point, in the first few years of the Choo Choo Simon Coates use to leave water here but one year we turned up and it had been stolen ! What are the odds, on a Sunday morning, someone driving by and spotting bottles of water hidden in the undergrowth and then taking them ? ! Only in the country…
The compulsory just over half way photo.
After the compulsory water stop (if there is any water?) it’s probably the best running part of the route before the drop off the scarp which is worth the attendance fee alone. If you have anything left in the legs that drop into Serpentine is a thing of natural beauty. By the time I arrived at the top of the hill I was goosed so stumbled down at just over 4min/k pace, the guys had left me in their wake and were recording low 3min/k’s , at the end of a three hour run ! This more than makes up for the morning climb up the scarp three hours earlier risking life and limb with the Sunday Formula One drivers !
After a slightly hair raising run from the bottom of the scarp to Serpentine via the local main road it was time to regroup for the compulsory Serpentine General Store photo before ambling to the train station. As you can see a lot of very happy runners, refueled on chocolate milk, crisps and just about anything with carbs or sugar. Albeit we had to leave some space for the post tukka get together at North Dandalup Station, it’s tradition.
Next to the train station where we had another traditional photo before boarding the 10:21 train to North Dandalup, late as always by about 10 minutes. Next year I may factor in this 10 minute buffer and really make a big effort at leaving very, very late, albeit I’ll probably drop a car at the station in case I miss the train as there is no way I’m missing the post run food smorgasbord.! It’s basically the previous shot but at a train station rather than outside a deli.
Waiting for the train…
Finally the best photo of the day by a country mile, Transperth had reserved one of the two carriages for out 9-10 minute journey from Serpentine to North Dandalup, how good was that !!! Gold , you couldn’t make that up !! It was the coolest 10 or so minutes of the whole day, imagine that you’re own train carriage with your friend , priceless ! I reckon next year we could be in trouble as I’m not sure they’ll put on another carriage for us runners but you never know unless you join up and see for yourselves. Keep an eye out on facebook and an ear to the ground and be part of the coolest free trail run globally…Choo Choo 2022 ! All aboard….
If there’s one photo to sum up the day , this is it !
Choo-Choo 2020 , this time the train managed to beat a few runners !
Recently we had the 6th running of the ‘runner versus train‘ Choo-Choo race. The concept is simple, you leave North Dandalup station then run 33k (35k?) over mostly trails to Serpentine station to catch the 10:21am train back to the start. The game is deciding how late you leave North Dandelup. Over the years the record for the latest departure time was around 7am but this year, due to part of the course being shut and thus 2k shorter, we decided to try and break the sub 3 hours and leave at 7:22am. It was Mark’s idea and although I was onboard Jeff was none the wiser to our plan having never ran the Choo-Choo before. So we let the last few runners start their journey and held firm, waiting for 7:22am to come around.
One of the last groups standing, holding firm just before first light. This group left just after 7am.
Jeff was a tad confused when the last group left just after 7am and myself and Mark continued to pontificate and make no effort to move away from the station. Eventually we let him in on our plan but he was less than excited, expecting a relaxed amble from one station to the next , stopping for selfies and rose smelling. He knew if we left at 7:22am it would be on for young and old and if you stopped there would be a good chance the train would be well gone when you eventually arrived at Serpentine Station. Of course he was in a catch 22 situation as the last group had left and he had no idea where he was going , so would need us for directions. There was much head shaking and grumbling but all this served to do was to gee up myself and Mark , who then took great pleasure in talking up the challenge ahead. We can be a cruel lot us runners !
The first sub3 group, with one very unhappy China man !!
So at 7:22am precisely we set off for Serpentine Station, giving ourselves 2 hours and 59 minutes, assuming the train was on time. From past experience I knew we could make the 35k version of the course in 3 hours, including a 5 minute drink stop. Having a nasty 2k loop taken out due to storm damage would probably give us 10 minutes , so we should have 10-20 minutes to play with. As I said earlier Jeff had not ran the Choo-Choo before , where as myself and Mark were old hands and knew what to expect. As you can see from the graphic below the run starts with about 8k of serious hill, as you rise onto the scarp. It then undulates, mostly uphill , until the 25k mark at which time it’s all guns blazing to the best finish ever !! Knowing this is coming it allows you to do the numbers in your head factoring in the fast finish. Jeff did not have this prior knowledge and at every kilometre got more and more discouraged as our pace dropped due to the terrain ahead of us. Again Mark and I did nothing to alleviate his angst and just kept on, knowing we were on track but not divulging this to Jeffrey.
Choo-Choo elevation.
The run itself was pretty uneventful as we had the GPX of the route on Mark’s Garmin (what did we do before GPS watches ?) so the couple of time we wondered of course we were made aware by the watch and we turned around and continued on the right track. Not having this would prove to be the undoing of a few runners because although the course is predominately on the Mundi Bindi bike trail ( https://www.mundabiddi.org.au/ ) eventually you have to leave the trail and return to the road and ultimately the train station. Some runners missed that turn and ended up in Jarrahdale , luckily the two runners in question where able to blag a lift to Serpentine and still made the train in time, after running over 40 kilometres, outstanding job ladies. Some runners thought were less fortunate and my mate Adam was unable to make the train in time, missing it by nearly 10 minutes. He was given a left back to the start and had to endure a slow clap as he arrived , rightly so of course. He was eventually allowed to take food from the tukka table but there was grumblings of discontent from the runners who had completed the course, these was talk of banishing him to a separate part of the park, as I said earlier we are a cruel lot us runners .
The best Deli in Serpentine.
You’ll notice in the image above no sign of Jeff, we had left him to his own devices about 5k from the finish as it was every man for himself at that stage and me and Mark fancied a Mocha before the train. Jeff did make the Serpentine Train station show below (far right) but was still smarting over the whole affair and will probably leave a lot earlier next year, a lesson learned.
All the runners bar the 5 DNF and TB who cut it very, very late (as usual!)
The Australind Train on it’s way to Bunbury via Serpentine Station, 10:29am; 8 minutes late I seem to remember.
The train ride itself is a bit of an anti-climax due to a number of factors. One, it takes an ‘as the crow flies ‘ approach to travel between the two stations, funnily enough, and two, it is a lot quicker than us runners ! The journey itself takes about 12 minutes for the 18km or so distance. Thus you just about sit down , get comfy, before it time to get up again and leave the train, not even time for a cup of tea from the buffet (which was actually shut this year anyhow?) No worries, we had organised for everyone to bring tukka for a post run debriefing because we all know that runners love talking about running as much as running.
Irwin and I enjoying the moment just before the train arrives.
I need to give a big shout out to Irwin Swinny who kick started the Choo-Choo this year after a leave of absence in 2019. He set up the Facebook page and, with his influence, we had a record turn out. With Irwin’s help I feel this event can go from strength to strength with more and more people experiencing the stress of racing a train. He has an excellent podcast, Stimulate Run, that is well worth a visit ( https://anchor.fm/irwin-swinny ) ,you’ll be surprised who you can listen to.
Best thing about running , is talking about running after you finish running , over cake ! Look’s like I’m doing all the talking for a change ?
So at the moment the record for the last to leave will stand at 7:22am, albeit with an asterix for the short course option. We later found the 2k loop we missed was runable it’s just not part of the Munda Biddi anymore as this is built mainly for bikes. Sam Hoffman ran the fastest time for the day albeit stopping his watch when waiting for his running partners. Still outside the course record set in 2018, 2hrs 27mins by Allister Caird, an average of 4:11min/k. At that pace you could chance your arm and leave at 8am and pry the train is a few minutes late, not that would be a story worth telling !!!!
Footnote: After this adventure my good friend Amy (wearing purple in the picture above) decided she would do the Choo-Choo in reverse. This meant catching the train from Perth to Serpentine, running to North Dandalup and then hanging around at the local servo’ station before catching the train from North Dandalup back to Perth, in the afternoon. Of course you could kill time by running longer , the possibilities are endless. Amy did report that there is a lot more elevation running it backwards and the hill up the scarp is a killer. Of course this then lends itself to a double Choo-Choo but the logistics would be quite complicated. It it to be noted one runner ran from Serpentine to North Dandalup , starting before 2am , and then ran the Choo-Choo. (well done Chemie Banger) I’m calling this a Choo-choo-choo; ultra runners always find a way to push the envelope, I suppose that’s the point ?
Man versus Train, again !
Right a quick post on the 2018 man versus train race where we leave North Dandalup train station and run the 35k to Serpentine train station and catch the only return train back to the start. Miss the train and you have a 18k run on a busy road or a 35k trail run back to North Dandalup. !!
The Serpentine train leaves North Dandalap at 10:20am so we decided this year to leave a tad earlier than previous years due to the various running injuries we were all embracing. Calf strains, Achilles issues, carrying too much weight (I’m not sure this is an injury Barts!) and good old Plantar Fasciitis to name a few. Thus at 6:40am we set off up the scarp, mainly due to Bart’s insisting we get a move on as he really wasn’t ready for a 35k sprint to the finish. He had got lost last year when he was dropped halfway up the scarp and had to run a lonely thirty or so kilometres to the finish. This year he was determined to stay the course and refused to leave a key hidden on the car so if he got lost he knew I’d have to find him and my lift home. Little did he know I had arranged alternative transport if we ‘lost’ him. In the end he made it and ran a large proportion of the run with us, complaining most of the way of course. I don’t think Bart’s like any hill in any direction, up or down, as both seem to set him off on a tirade of abuse. This from a man who loves trail running ?
The photo below shows the starting line up for 2018 taken at North Dandalup train station, funnily enough we were the only people about early on a Sunday morning in the country. I managed to persuade five ‘newbies’ to join us and supplied all of these with a GPX file of the course as I didn’t want them to suffer the same fate as Bart’s from last year, bless him.
So off we went up the scarp, which is a road section and probably one of the hardest sections of the run as you’re in danger of getting collected by mad country drivers cutting corners. Thankfully this year it was very quiet and I don’t remember seeing any cars, which is unusual, they were probably all still in bed after the West Coast Eagles, a local footy team, managed to sneak into the Grand Final the day before. As you can see from the elevation below the start is a challenge but the finish is ‘to die for’. It was a this point last year we lost Bart’s (the start not the finish.) and history repeated itself with Mark, a new runner from Brisbane, dropping off the pace early and, in Choo-Choo tradition, left to fend for himself. I felt a small amount of guilt but this was quickly forgotten when I realised the task ahead and I had supplied Mark with a GPX file of the course , so he had no excuse to get lost.
Choo-Choo run elevation. It’s all about the finish….
The conditions this year was perfect and we had given ourselves more than enough time to finish by leaving probably half an hour earlier than the year before. This certainly made the journey less stressful than previous years and we settled into a good rhythm with enough pace to complete the task at hand but not enough we couldn’t natter away discussing a plethora of topics and generally putting the world to rights. We as a group splintered early which seemed silly truth be told as it wasn’t a race and there seemed no point running a few hundred metres infront of each other. I ran with Jon, because he had the GPX route loaded into his Garmin 310, and Liam for conversation. (with Bart’s always a few hundred metres behind us complaining about something?) The three of us eventually caught up with the two Mark’s at the ‘drinks stop‘. I say drinks stop in italics because there was no drinks. Simon had hidden a carton of water and a box of Gu’s behind a tree but it seems these country people are resourceful with good eyesight because there was no supplies to be seen. Not a problem though but it did the make the last 5k or so a challenge as we were into the ‘dead zone’ (over 32k) with little water and no nutrition, a good test of your bodies capabilities to survive on it’s won internal fat resources I suppose. Luckily the last 10k is predominantly downhill so you can sort of ‘fall‘ to the finish line. ( It is to be noted this year Trish refused to bake for us which made the return trip to Dandalap a bit of an anti-climax as the reward of Trish’s baking (which is awesome by the way) would not be there to greet us, in the end we made do with McDonalds pancakes but thrust me they ain’t the same!, anyhow I digress.)
After regrouping with the two Mark’s the group of five set off to the finish and the conversation continued to improve with numbers. The highlight of the last part of the run was most of us falling prey to the only puddle on the whole course, how does that happen ? Mark C,. attached it with gusto (he’s Scottish you know and use to large expanses of water !) and nearly went in, this made me more cautious but it was to no avail and I ended up in the same situation, soggy socks and shoes for the last 10k or so.! Once we started to descend of course it was ever man for himself and Mark C. probably set the record for the fastest kilometre with a 3:10 down the steepest part of the hill. He was very excited and reported feeling a runners high as he snowballed down the hill at speed, more probably he was just totally knackered as we had all just ran just about 35k on a few sips of water.
It’s hard to put into words the run itself as it really was just about the perfect day. A good distance, beautiful trails and great company rounded off with Brownes Mocha and a danish at the Deli. Chuck in a train ride where the guard announced to the whole train of our adventures as we boarded and departed and the day really couldn’t of got any better. Talk at the Deli (see below) centred on next years departure time as we had plenty of time to relax at the deli before the train, well most of us that is. If you remember at the start I mentioned Mark from Brisbane getting dropped at the 3k mark, you’ll see he’s not in the photo below. We all thought he was gone and I had even arranged at the Deli to let him know we’d drive back and pick him up, save him the 18k walk back to the train station. Well he made it with 3 minutes to spare, albeit the train was late as usual so he could have probably stopped at the Deli for a danish.
At the Deli after a Brownes Mocha and a Danish, life really is that simple sometimes! (Notice no Mark from Brisbane)
As you can see from the photo below taken at Serpentine train station Mark is back into the fold and happy to be there, he currently holds the record for cutting it closest to missing the train, probably beating Trailblazers record set a few years ago. I’m sure Jon can get closer with a bit of effort ? Honourable mentions must go to Allister Caird who set a course record running the route in 2hrs 27 minutes, thats a 4:11k average, sub 3 pace for a hilly trail run, Boom! He could have left nearly as hour after us and still made it. Nigel also went well considering he twisted his ankle at 15k and ‘hobbled‘ to the finish in good time, a big call as if the ankle had given way completely it would have been a long night on the trails. Of course Mark gets a mention for running the whole route by himself under the stress of a potential long walk back to the car. He looked relaxed when he finish and puts his time down to this was his first trail run back in Perth, he’s from Brisbane you know. Bart’s also went well after we dropped him just after halfway, we actually dropped him earlier but always made sure he could see us, sort off. At least this year he ran the whole course after his miracle run last year.
At the hub of Serpentine, the ‘bustling’ train station. That’s a lot of smile , while I’m putting on my best ‘just finished 35k grimace’ face…
Right that’s the Choo-Choo for another year. I’ll try and drum up some more enthusiasm next year as if you live in Perth you really need to do this run. We all agreed we’d leave later next year but the departure time is personal to your ability and general fitness and also if you want that added bonus of really ‘racing a train’ and trying to cut it closer tham Mark, from Brisbane’s, valiant effort of three minutes to go. Up for the challenge ? All aboard…..
Choo-Choo run 2017, man against train.
The Choo-Choo run was an idea of Simon Coates a few years back. Basically we all drive to North Dandelup Station (and I use the word ‘station’ in the broadest sense of the word, it is actually a small raised platform and a car park.) and run to Serpentine train station to catch the only train back to the start. Miss the train and you are faced with either a 10k walk back via the road (and in the country running on the road is suicide due to the drivers all believing they are Michael Schumacher, before the skiing accident !) or worse, repeating the 35k trail run in reverse. (Now there’s a thought ? )
It’s not a race as such, more of a man versus train type run with friends. Everyone leaves at different times with the idea being you’ll all arrive together at the finish, a handicap run I suppose. There was talk of a prize for the last person to leave North Dandelup and make the train but this, for this year at least, was shelved. As it was I have attached a photo of the runners who left last @ 7am, this was 30 minutes after last years leaving time so we’d given ourselves little margin for error . Its a 35k testing trail run which should take around 3hours and the return train leaves Serpentine @ 10:20am.
All aboard the Choo-Choo run 2017, the last to leave @ 7am.
So off we went full of the joys of spring bounding up the first 6k which is all uphill and on road. As I mentioned earlier this is testing for two reasons, one, the hill is large , unforgiving and long (as all good hills should be) but there is also the threat of getting cleaned up by the ‘country drivers’. In the country life may be slower but the driving is anything but. There’s a reason that even Kangaroos get wiped out on a regular basis. Faced with slowing down country drivers decided to speed up and fit ‘bull bars’ to their cars, so rather than avoid Kangaroos(or runners!) they accelerate into them . Bless ’em.
We managed to get to the top of the road section intact after one close call when three cars cut a corner and we happen to be on it, you certainly feel alive when that happens trust me. Once we regrouped a quick headcount indicated we were one short (literally!) . Bart’s , who had driven me down to the start, was missing so I volunteered to run down the ‘hill of death’ and find him. After a longer run that I had wanted to take on at such an early stage of the adventure I found Bart’s ‘huffing and puffing’ up the road in a world of pain. This after 6km’s into 35k challenging trail run , racing a train. Not a good start and I indicated the best thing he could do was return to the car and wait for us or at least give me his car keys (as my bag was in his car, it wasn’t about the bag though , honest ?) Bart’s insisted on carrying on and asked me to come back and check on him during the run. Due to the time constraint we had set ourselves I told him in no uncertain terms this was not going to happen and once I left him he was on his own. Surprisingly he was ok with this and, with no prior knowledge of the route and less than 3 hours to run the remaining 29k, was happy to take on this adventure , alone. So Barts was dropped quicker than Hilary Clinton endorsements after the American Election, never to be seen again, or so we thought ?
Drinks stop @ 21k.. notice no sign of Barts ?
After dropping Barts like a bad habit I caught up with the back markers and eventually the main group. We continued on our merry way commenting how enjoyable trail running was and how we should do it more often. Please note this is the same conversation we have at the beginning of every trail run, unfortunately our views on trails can sometimes be a tad different by the time we finish; and that’s be nice about it ! Anyhow we made it to the 21k mark where our ‘race director’ Simon Coakes had dropped water and gu’s, it was the least he could do after DNS’s the previous evening due to umpiring his son’s footy game and pulling a hammy. (He’s getting old Si, bless him.)
What goes up must come down.
The last 14k after the drinks stop is the best part of the Choo-Choo run as you run off the scarp which means some wicked descents into Serpentine. Last year I was able to take advantage of the terrain and put in some seriously fast splits but this year, due to it being 2 weeks after the Perth City-to-Surf marathon, my hammy’s had tightened up so every step was painful as I hobbled (and that’s being nice) down the hill. No worries. reached the Deli and tucked into my first Brownes Mocha for probably 6 months, man did that taste good !!
Choc milk time at the Deli, job done.
We had 20 minutes until the train arrived so just enjoyed telling tales of the day when all of a sudden who comes into sight, walking the wrong way to the Deli, but Barts. ! Unbelievably he had somehow managed to get to the finish in time for the train, albeit running 3k less , somehow ? At the time of writing this post it has to be noted we have not seen any Strava evidence ( http://www.strava.com) of Barts and whatever trail he did run but assuming he said he did what he did I am in awe of the man.
A Lazarus comeback from Barts, almost made me believe in religion
Funnily enough the train was graffitied at the main depot so was cleaned before it set out on its journey, resulting in a 45 minute delay. We could have started at 8am, not 7am, and still made it easily. When the train did arrive at the station there was no sign of any graffiti and maybe next year this could be a cunning plan for a lie-in, just got to persuade someone with a spray can to get the train before it leaves ? That’s wrong, right?
Graffiti, a likely story, more like the train driver fancied a sleep in !
The photo below is all the crew who made the finish including a few runners who left before the 7am sweepers. There has already been lots of talk of leaving even later next year but we’ll see; no one has actually missed the train yet so there will be a first. One thing for sure it won’t be Barts, if he can recover from near exhaustion at 6k and then still finish less than 3 hours later after running 32k I reckon the man could fly if he wanted to. Running gives you so much and on that Sunday it allowed me to witness a miracle, how does one go about nominating someone for a sainthood ? Saint Barts of lost causes, it has a nice ring to it, if only he was taller…..
The last 200 miler in the Triple Crown Down Under was perhaps the most testing. A 200 miler in the Blue Mountains had never been attempted before and Shaun Kaesler, owner of the Ultra Series WA and SA ( https://ultraserieswa.com.au/ ) had to jump through more hoops than a circus clown to get this bad boy of the ground. There were course changes right up to registration due to park closures and I lost count the number of times I uploaded the GPX file onto my watch and Gaia. In the end though we all converged on Glenbrook for registration and race briefing on Monday 20th June. The 200 mile race was due to start Tuesday at 11am (120 hours cut off) , with the 100 mile version starting Friday afternoon (44 hours cut off) . I had spoken to Rob Donkersloot, ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) my crew for the event, about a possible finishing time and he reckoned 80 hours would be a good effort. Personally I was hoping to finish before the 100 milers started late Friday afternoon. This really was not the main objective though, due to the unknown nature of the event I was more concentrating on enjoying the journey and finishing with a smile on my face. No pressure, just enjoy the whole experience. Of course once we got going and after a few days into the race you start to give yourself targets, makes things interesting and it is a race after all.
The 11AM kick off on Tuesday allowed myself, Rob and Veronika to sneak off to our favourite cafe in Penrith where we were based, just outside Glenbrook. The High Street Depot was an oasis of quality food and coffee in sunny Penrith and I reckon we went there at least 6 times, and I had pancakes maybe five times.
A late start meant one last breakfast pre-race in our favourite Penrith cafe, High Street Depot.
This is why I run Ultra marathons and specifically 200 milers, quality pancakes consumed with no guilt what so ever ! High Street Depot, Penrith, if you are ever in Penrith go , the food is incredible. ( https://www.yelp.com/biz/high-st-depot-penrith )
High Street Depot, best cafe in Penrith.
An oasis of calm in a sea of chaos, Rob Donkersloot.
I was very lucky to get Rob to crew for me as he has a wealth of experience and has crewed for podium finishers at locations as diverse as the Death Valley ( https://www.badwater.com/event/badwater-135/ ) and the Coast to Kosciuszko ( https://coasttokosci.com/ ) to name a few big events, while also finishing some massive ultra’s himself. His calming influence is the perfect partner to my ‘excitable‘ personality. He also makes a mean cup of tea, with three sugars of course, which is paramount to success when I run ultra marathons. After helping me to , surprising, victories in the 24hour Lighthorse Ultra and Kep V2 100km I was in good hands.
Shaun had come up with an unique idea where all runners are professionally photographed (by the Eventurers https://www.facebook.com/groups/2503403049690798/user/100064028886011 ) before the start of the event and then straight after finishing thus capturing them at their highest (pre-event) and lowest (post-event). A great idea and it certainly worked in my case. The pre-start below show me excited but also apprehensive about what is about to befall me , the post event just shows me absolutely goosed. If you have chance go to the facebook page and check out some of the shots, they are awesome. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2503403049690798 )
Right to the race. There was over 40 competitors for the 200 miler and we all lined up nervously for the starting photograph. Lots of laughter belied a nervous energy boiling just below the service. As this was the inaugural running of the event no one was 100% sure of what they were about to face, WA runners more so as all we had to train on were ‘hills’ at best, no mountains. The elevation was going to be a challenge as well as the temperature. Amongst the WA runners were five runners aiming for the triple crown, completing all three 200 milers in the same calendar year. Rob, Sarah, Raquel and Aimee would all complete the three peat while Nicola succumbed to the cold near the halfway point, coming from Broome this was always a risk. She’ll be back I’m sure and slay the beast that is the Unreasonable East and I look forward to watching her do it !
West Australian runners, Myself, Rob, Harmony, Sarah, Aimee, Nicola, Peta, Veronika and Raquel.
Right to the race. There were over forty runners in the 200 miler and nearly 100 in the 100 miler, massive numbers for the inaugural running of this event and I’m sure these numbers will more than double next year and beyond. The image below is the 200 milers all nervously smiling for the cameras, in most cases, or is that more of a grimace contemplating the journey ahead. ? It is a nervous time the start of any ultra event because you do what you can to take out all the various problems or issues that can derail you but you know if it’s not going to be your day the event will find a way to torpedo you. You get in the best physical and mental state you can and hope the hydration, nutrition, conditions and any other variables fall your way. No one is ever guaranteed a finish in an ultra, nobody.
Surround yourself with like minded people…..
Unlike other 200 milers when your crew is normally at every aid station in the Unreasonable I would only see Rob sporadically throughout the event. The first time I would see him on day one would be at Wentworth Falls, nearly 100km into the event. Drop bags were available at each aid station but I was confident I could get to Rob with the food and drink from the aid stations and a number of bars and Gu’s I would carry in my backpack. I would then see Rob again at Katoomba where he allowed me a 90 minute sleep break, he estimated I’d reach Katoomba around 5am with his Ultra pace prediction spreadsheet and it was bang on, actually it was bang on all event and myself and Sarah would often ask Rob what time we would be at certain aid stations and invariably he was right.
Before jumping ahead of myself at Katoomba there’s important pieces of the jigsaw that need explaining. I had decided to run with Veronika for the first day as she was normally quicker than me at the start of these events, Adam and I always start these races very relaxed and often find ourselves near the back of the pack on the morning of day two. For me the hardest part of any 200 miler is the first day and night, if you can get to the morning of day two you are in with a very good shout of finishing. This is then exponential for the next day or two as you near the finish, you just get into a routine of constant running and your mind and body react accordingly. Personally I finish on day four like a train as I believe the mind realises you are close to the end and releases more energy rather than trying to protect itself by convincing the body it is fatigued.
Aid Station locations.
Unreasonable East 200 miler Gaia map iteration #no idea really, but a big number !
With this plan in mind Veronika and I set off down the hill from Glenbrook , over the weir and into the first 14k loop clockwise before rejoining the trail to The Oaks. On the return we would run the loop in the opposite direction and this would have tested runners towards the back of the pack hitting this part of the trail in the dark. It all sounds easy at race briefing but add in over 100 hours of running, extreme fatigue and darkness and you have no idea what’s up or down , forget which way the bloody clock goes ? There’s a story there but I’ll save it for later in the piece.
Hamming it up for the photo about two kilometres in.
The photographers for the event , The Eventurers ( https://theeventurerstravelphotographers.com.au/ ) were/are amazing and they are responsible for the photos of me running , how good are they , very good. ! They even got me looking semi-reasonable off the ground in the image below, outstanding work. Please note this was probably 10k into the event and the last time I would ever be able to leap so high, trust me.
Early in the race I was still able to jump to a reasonable height.
Another image of Veronika and I as we move through to The Oaks aid station. Funnily enough we went past a naked hiker just after this photo, apparently it was naked hiking day , still wasn’t expecting to see naked hikers. Albeit I also encountered a naked hiker in the Delirious West 200 miler in February this year, albeit it was a lot warmer. That’s two in two events, maybe I cursed or blessed ? Veronika seem quite enameled and actually started a conversation with the young fella, I just kept on moving , head down.
Still on the first 14k loop, smiles all around, with Veronika.
Image below is two very happy runners at the first aid station, The Oaks. 24km into the race, gorging themselves on great pancakes and Anzac biscuits. The aid stations really stepped up to the mark and the selection and quality of the food was just gourmet like. These events are so special in that all the volunteers will do whatever it takes to help you achieve your goal. it really is a team effort and when you succeed they also bask in your glory and rightly so. Especially on 200 milers the shifts some of the volunteers do are biblical, sometimes they are out on the course longer than most of the competitors and this goes double for the race directors. These guys start weeks before the event and finish days afterwards, you need to be able to handle days and days with very little sleep and still be able to function, seriously hard core. ! Sometime I feel we runners have the easy part to play, all we do is stumble from one aid station to the next where we are treated like royalty and waited on hand and foot.
First aid station, The Oaks. Veronika and I indulging in great pancakes, gotta’ love ultra’s..
The only downside to starting at 11am is it gets dark very quickly, add in it was the winter solstice and you have more darkness than daylight, great timing Shaun ? This meant we hit the second aid station, Woodford, at dusk (46km into the race) and hurriedly put on our head torches before continuing into the night and making our way to Knotts Hill, 14km later at 60km. We would then do a 13km out and back loop getting back into Knotts Hill around the 86km mark before making our way to Wentworth Falls and the first sighting of our crew at 99km. As we left Woodford we were joined by Sarah Niven, a WA runner who was one of the five runners gunning for the triple crown. Sarah had spent some time in New South Wales before the event and ran with the Blue Mountain Runners so knew the course. This was great news as I had not ran the course and had little or no idea of where I was going without constantly checking the Gaia app on my iphone. I latched onto Sarah and ran with her until Friday morning with less than 30km to the finish when I left her as I was worried , in my sleep depraved state, I wouldn’t be able to finish.
Finding Sarah was gold, not only was she running the race of her life she was also so positive and this positivity rubbed of on all around her, mainly me ! We were perfectly suited pace wise and the conversations flowed in between me indulging in my audible app on my iphone listening to Matthew McConaughey talk about his life or Taylor Swift on my spotifiy. Sarah is a nurse who chooses her placements depending on their location and the running and biking offered in that location, she then explores the area in her van and generally lives the life most runners dream about, thus she has some great stories. The miles just disappeared unfortunately this wasn’t the only thing that disappeared. Veronika was struggling to keep up with Sarah and I on the out and back from Knotts Hill and as she came in as we were leaving. This would be the last we would see Veronika bar crossing later in the race, remember it’s an out and back It’s a pity Veronika couldn’t have hung on for longer but in these type or races you have to run at your pace and it’s difficult to continually run with the same person, in my defense I left her with another couple of runners under strict instructions to look after her. Veronika would finish late on Saturday evening after a massive effort as she was unsupported which is another level of mental toughness. Rob stated before the race that he thought this was just about impossible unsupported, she proved him wrong but she certainly suffered for the privledge. She is still battling third degree frost bite even now two weeks after the event, as I said so tough.
Coming into Knotts Hill, Tuesday evening.
Knotts Hill cooked some seriously good ham and cheese toasties, now I don’t think I have ever eaten a ham and cheese toastie, not being a big cheese fan but in an ultra, after nearly 12 hours of running, you eat what is on offer and I know a ham and cheese toastie is full of the calories and carbs that I needed. It was bloody gorgeous and we left requesting the same when we would return three or so hours later. This certainly helped us run the out and back quicker than we normally would have, remember an ultra is all about the food in the end, actually it’s all about the food in the beginning, middle and end ! Funnily enough the ham and cheese toastie tasted even better three hours or so later and we put this down to the cheese aging well in this period, or us just being more and more hungry. Probably a bit of both.
As this was an out and back we bumped into most of the field, initially the front runners and then the back of the pack, as we turned and returned to the aid station, and another round of ham and cheese toasties. Everybody looked great and we stopped for a few photos and many high fives with our fellow competitors. The first night there is a carnival atmosphere before the fatigue of further nights turns it into survival, primarily, albeit with quality tukka.
Knotts Hill with some old fashioned heating.
As the image below shows the temperature dropped in the evening and this was expected. As part of the compulsory gear you had to carry a thermal vest and pants, as well as a good quality waterproof jacket. In the image below I’m wearing my thermal top and a running top, as well as my reflective top (also compulsory gear), also my favourite beanie which unfortunately went missing. with my new gloves at Katoomba (my kids hated my beanie so they’re stoked it’s gone?, I reckon they bribed Rob to mislay it?) It was cold when you sat at aid stations but when you were moving this was enough, we really did have perfect conditions, no wind to speak off the whole time and sunshine all day bar a sprinkling of rain on day one that was a minor inconvenience at worst. The week after Unreasonable there was mass flooding in the Sydney area and the event would have been cancelled.
Knotts Hill on the way back, it’s an out and back leg.
After Knotts Hill Sarah and I put on a spurt and caught a few runners coming into Wentworth Falls. It was less than 13km to this aid station and after gaps of 24km, 22km, 14km and 26km , this was a small leg. The night was clear, still and perfect for running with a good surface , we gorged ourselves and made Wentworth in good time. The only downside was we passed the Falls at night and unfortunately we did the same coming back so it was the one of the only parts of the course I never saw in the light . The same can be said of the halfway point , Black Range and the three river crossings. We left Cox’s River at dusk and made Black Range in the early evening, a three hour sleep in the car, and we left Black Range in the early hours of Thursday morning , arriving at Cox’s River just before sunrise.
Seeing Rob at Wentworth Falls was just ace. We had a laugh with the volunteers and I got to sit down and eat some great tukka while updating Rob on the day so far and what lay ahead. We had just caught another of Rob’s runners John Mcateer who had hobbled into the aid station with a bad knee. I asked if he would like to join Sarah and I but he decided to rest up and treat the knee. John then ran to Katoomba and onto the Medlow Gap before pulling the pin, the knee was shot and when you are not even halfway you can’t just ‘walk it off’. To even get to Medlow Gap was a massive achievement and he left everything on the course, today was not his day, it was the right decision.
We rocked into Katoomba just before sunrise on Wednesday morning and was prepared for ninety minutes sleep in the 6 bed sleep station that would be there to greet us. I reckon I was top 10 at the time and hoped that there would be space for me at the sleep station, if there wasn’t I would have to continue Foggy Knob over 25km away, not ideal. As it was I needn’t had worried as the sleep station wasn’t set up and I say sleep station in the broadest sense of the word, it actually turned out to be a three room tent. Luckily for me Rob has influence, I told you he was good , and he knew someone staying at the caravan park so I was allowed to rest my weary head in a nice bed albeit I didn’t really sleep, go figure. Rob woke me ninety minutes later and the sun had risen but it was still freezing. As the image below shows we got ourselves rugged up and of we trotted heading towards Medlow Gap, obviously after the obligatory pancakes from the amazing volunteers included the Godmother of the Ultra Series Melanee Maisey.
My crew and I , probably early Wednesday morning at Katoomba. It was as cold as it looks…
Day two started in spectacular fashion as we moved down the Furbar steps and along to Scenic World and the cable car before continuing to the Golden Stairs to climb out of the valley before heading to narrow neck, and some abseiling before finishing at Medlow Gap. This 18km had just about everything, views to die for, stairs that try to kill you and it seemed like thousands of them, great trail running around narrow neck, some abseiling just before Medlow Gap, awesome climbs, fire trails and did I mention the views. A stunning leg which Sarah and I ran at the perfect time of day, early morning moving into lunch. I would have hated to run this in the dark and miss all the aforementioned ‘good things.’ I’ve attached four images below showing some of the scenery but the photos can never do the place justice.
The Three Sisters looking resplendent.
Heading towards the Golden Stairs.
The Golden Stairs, there is a lot of them !
It’s hard not to stop every 5 minutes to take more photos, the scenery really is stunning.
Wednesday morning was so good, the crisp morning combined with stunning scenery made the distance fly by. There were testing segments of course often involving a serious amount of stairs even going up or going down, or serious climbs but it is the Blue Mountains. We moved to narrow neck and our first date with the rock climbers who would help us traverse a rock ladder, well I say ladder in the broadest sense of the word more like random pieces of metal sticking out of a vertical rock wall. When you take on a Shaun Kaseler 200 miler it becomes more like a triathlon than a foot race. At the Delirious West 200 miler there is a river crossing in a kayak, here you abseil, so much fun. Again we hot this part of the course just before lunch on a crisp morning with no wind, other runners took on this beast in the dark with howling winds maybe not so much fun? Veronika actually found herself wandering about aimlessly on the way back and had to be ‘rescued‘ by the rock climbers albeit I’m never sure if this was actually part of her master plan.
Sarah and I loving life heading towards Medlow Gap from Katoomba, Wednesday morning.
This event had everything even abseiling.
After the abseiling there was some really cool single trail running as you came off narrow neck and descended into Medlow Gap where we were met with probably the best aid station on the course due to the main chef being a professional cook. He was so good he was gifted a free entry to the race next year which I think is a good thing albeit they will be missed as this aid station was just ace. Please note all aid stations were ace and the food was of such a high standard throughout but the breakfast wrap (on the way out) and French Toast (on the way back) here were next level and all cooked over an open fire. We were promised French Toast on the way back and this was kept us going in some dark times as we moved to Black Range that evening , knowing we’d be back at Medlow Gap the next day eating French Toast. As I have said many times a 200 miler is more about the food than running.
Scenery was inspiring, another view of the Three Sisters.
Foggy Knob aid station is just 7.5km from Medlow Gap which was a reasonable distance and also one of the rare sightings of my crew as Medlow Gap was a no crew aid station, surprise that. A 7.5km leg is a breeze after all the longer legs and before we knew it we were at Foggy Knob enjoying some quality time with Rob. The next aid station was also no crew so I would not see Rob till early evening at Black Range, the turning point. We were predicting a late arrival but Rob was confident we would be many hours earlier, as always he was right. I’m not sure how his magic excel spreadsheet works but everyone needs to get a copy, it knows us better than we know ourselves ! Because it was only 7.5km from Medlow Gap I must admit to not checking out the food offered at this aid station, actually both ways because I had filled my belly at the previous aid stations both times. Rookie error, next year will make more of an effort.
Conditions continued to be prefect, as they were the whole time and we headed off to Cox’s River and our date with the swinging bridge. There was a serious climb out of the aid station and then a long undulating road section before moving to Cox’s River on the UTA course and then heading up, and it was up, to Black Range where we would sleep for three hours. Highlight of this section was the burrito at Cox’s River just before sunset, outstanding. Funny typing this post I can remember the food at each aid station but the terrain and running seems to be harder to recall. I just remember a lot of uphill and stairs, so many stairs. As you can see from the graphic below the climb to the highest point is from Cox’s River to Black Range and boy it is a climb. Its a 19km leg and it it all uphill and serious elevation as well. I remember being at the bottom of one climb knowing it was over seven kilometers and working out in my head it would be ell over an hour and half of climbing to get to the top, and it was dark at this point. Luckily I had Taylor Swift on spotify to accompany me to the top and this helped albeit I had probably played her songs many times during the day, they still help time disappear, unfortunately not so much distance that’s down to me and my poles.
Photographs never show gradient, the image below looks like a nice gradient , trust me it wasn’t. The leg to Black Range was so steep and so long. Luckily it got dark and that helped, I think ? There was also three river crossings which were unavoidable so wet shoes and socks added to the fun. Highlights of this leg was seeing all the front runners coming back from Black Range ahead of us, flying down the hill as we stumbled up it. We arrived at Black Range in the early evening, as predicted by Rob, and had a quick hot chocolate before completing the 6k out and back loop and settling down in the car for a three hour sleep with Rob. I made sure I was fully rugged up in the car as it was freezing outside. Thermal top and leggings , running shirt, pajamas, jacket, beanie, I looked like the abominable snow man ! It certainly helped as I was warm enough and got some sleep, maybe a few hours, in between Rob’s snoring.
Moving towards the half way point at Black Range on part of the UTA course.
This little sign in the floor means so much to 220 milers in this event. It means you have reached the highest point on the course and now every step you take is heading back to the finish, not away from it. Mentally it is a huge boost and I was invigorated as I moved past it and back the way I came. Little things like this are massive when it comes to finishing these type of events. Once I passed this point I was never not going to finish, I would be running more downhill than up on the way back and also on terrain I had already ran , so I was less worried about getting lost. I had a good sleep planned and was excited about running down from Black Range , compared to running up to Black Range. I also had a breakfast burrito at Cox’s River planned as well as French Toast at Medlow Gap for lunch, there I go again food, food, food. This is becoming more of a post for Master Chef than a running blog.
A small sign but a significant mental boost when you see it !
We left Black Ridge in the early hours of Thursday morning with a goal to reach Cox’s River just before sunrise and indulge in another burrito before pushing on the Foggy Knob and Medlow Gap. I have mentioned this many times but an ultra is more than a foot race it’s an eating and drinking competition, with running between aid stations. For a 200 miler the nutrition and hydration become more important as if you get the it wrong you stop, simple as that. Without fuel things tend to grind to a halt pretty quick. Luckily I have an iron stomach and can eat just about anything but I know so many ultra runners who have come undone due to nutrition or hydration issues, get your strategy sorted before you get to the start line, ultra running 101.
Cox’s river and a breakfast burrito.
After our breakfast burrito at Cox’s River we arrived at the swinging bridge just before sunrise as the image below shows. We were still on head torches but as soon as we crossed the bridge the sun woke and it turned into another beautiful day in the Blue Mountains.
Thursday morning , the swinging bridge over Cox’s River.
Thursday morning sunrise was spectacular and I have used that term so many times in this post but the race just kept on giving, day after day. The locals couldn’t believe how lucky we’d been with the weather and I wonder if we can be so lucky two years in a row, we’ll find out in 2023 I suppose. We were back on the UTA track heading back to Foggy Knob and a rare meeting with Rob. The run into Foggy Knob was hard and the quads and hammy’s were starting to complain. I need some time on the massage gun as well as some fisiocrem just to release the muscles for the day and night ahead. I agreed with Sarah to take some time at the aid station to work on my legs, while refueling of course, albeit we both knew we had French Toast less than 8km away at Medlow Gap to look forward to.
The sunrise just after we crossed Cox’s River on the swinging bridge.
Heading towards Foggy Knob early Thursday morning .
The massage gun and fisiocrem did the business and we were soon back on the trial heading the short distance to Medlow Gap and our favourite aid station, with French Toast on order for lunch. My legs were so much better and I’m not sure if it was the massaging and cream or just the anticipation of the food ahead if us.
Working the major leg muscle groups. Love my Stryke Recovery massage gun and fisiocrem.
Rob, Sarah and I at Foggy Knob, the second time. a rare sighting of my ever supportive support crew.
So here is the infamous French toast with bacon and bananas drowned in maple syrup, you really have to experience this albeit you may have to wait until 2024 as the creator of this masterpiece is running Unreasonable next year. As with all photos in this post they never do justice to the captured images, this French Toast will go with me to the grave ! After this there was a monster climb to narrow neck, some great single track trail running before abseiling up a large rock face. Luckily as I mentioned earlier I have an iron stomach and as soon as the meal is finished I can run, maybe I should have been a cyclist ?
Proper outback cooking, so special. French toast and bananas getting readied for my stomach.
Medlow Gap, the food was just so good. Bacon, egg wrap on the way out and French toast on the way back Thursday morning.
My Dad was a big fan of Physics and would often come up with the comment ‘It’s all physics Son’, this is also true when it comes to abseiling, what goes down must come back up, sort of like gravity I suppose. I’m not sure if going up was easier than coming down, I enjoyed both and each had their own challenges. This was definitely something I enjoyed and albeit I had the benefit of sunlight on both occasions and no cross winds, other people weren’t so lucky I hear.
What goes down must come back up !
A selfie after ascending the rock face of truth as I call it. We were both relieved and looking forward to the rest of the day ahead and enjoying the glorious surroundings, again. Thursday was such a great day as you are over halfway and your body and mind just get use to the all day running, it becomes the norm as such. I’ve said it many times and still believe a 200 miler gets easier not harder the further into the event you travel, culminating in a sudden burst of energy when the finishing line is in sight and by insight I mean in that day.
I was now so confident of finishing I put a post on the Facebook page asking for Glenbrook to get the Guinness ready as me and Sarah were as good as home, probably a tad premature, we were still well over 80km from the finish which equated to another day of running. Unfortunately unbeknown to me it is very difficult to get Guinness in Glenbrook and this is the one tradition I missed out on, my two pints of Guinness after finishing. At the after party Shaun did put on trays of Tequila so I did manage a few shots instead of my Guinness and a mojito. That will be it for me until probably next February after Delirious, I’m not a big drinker.
Heading back to Katoomba, Thursday afternoon.
After Medlow, and fueled on French Toast , we set a serious pace to reach Katoomba by late afternoon. Back down the Golden Stairs and then up Furbur steps , which seemed to have got a lot longer on the way up. Rob was waiting for me at Katoomba and we agreed a ninety minute power nap before powering on through the night to try and finish Friday. At Katoomba they had set up the sleeping station, well two room tent, and I settled down for some shut eye. Unfortunately no one told the family next door that this was a sleeping station and in a tent it felt like they were sitting on the edge of my bed. The temperature was dropping as daylight gave way to darkness yet again and I gave up on trying to sleep instead I stumbled off to the shower block where they had heaters which would allow me to do some massaging and also get changed in relative comfort. This would come back and bite me in a big way later in the early hours of Friday morning as sleep depravation was now becoming a problem. Usually I have a good three hours a night but so far I probably only had three hours total, for three days, this was unsustainable. Eventually I would have to pay the piper of course, to quote Boris Johnson ‘them’s the breaks’.
The Blue Mountains really turned it on for the event.
Did I mention stairs ? There is lots of them !
Looks just a s good on the way back as the way out.
So after my ‘sleep’ break (or attempted sleep break) at Katoomba we left for Wentworth falls, again in darkness as the sun has just disappeared on Thursday evening. Fifteen kilometres to the falls aid station and then seventeen kilometres to Woodford, the second last aid station. Rob met Sarah and I at Wentworth falls as that would be the last I saw him until early Friday morning at the last aid station, The Oaks. We also met up with Adam Darwin who we have been leap frogging for hundreds of kilometres. Adam left the aid station a few minutes before us but we caught him quickly as he was suffering with foot blisters the size of footballs. He was obviously in pain but was still moving forward with a pacer.
Remember I mentioned earlier I would have to eventually pay the piper for my lack of sleep during the event well between Wentworth falls and Woodford I paid , big time. The trail from Wentworth falls to Woodford is generally up hill and for the last few kilometres to the aid station very up hill. It was during the last few kilometres I lost my grasp of reality and the forest just turned into a hallucination, everywhere I looked things weren’t as they should be. I have hallucinated many times, mainly in backyard ultras, but nothing compared to what I was experiencing , the whole forest just came alive with all sorts of stuff. It was actually quite cool as I’ve always enjoyed the games the mind plays when it is totally sleep deprived and you are totally fatigued.
Luckily the aid station was only a few kilometres away and both Sarah and I needed sleep. There was two stretcher beds with blankets at Woodford and we both grabbed a bed with blankets and got some shut eye. We asked the volunteers to wake us in 30 minutes and as we awoke Adam turned up with his pacer. It was freezing cold of course and we settled into seats as Adam got his blisters looked at by the course paramedic, the volunteers provided some great toasties and tea but it was time to leave and move towards the last aid station which we would hope to arrive at just before sunrise.
This was now into early Friday morning and I was still sleep depraved. I would try and walk three or four steps with my eyes closed before opening them and then repeating the process. Unfortunately there was 22 kilometres between Woodford and The Oaks and we were both absolutely knackered. We were averaging 10 minute kilometres and doing the numbers we would not get to The Oaks before sunrise, things were starting to look grim. Eventually Sarah called it was time for a dirt nap, we were both dead on our feet.
Sarah had a pretty cool trail sleeping blanket so gave me her space blanket which I sued with mine and wrapped myself up like a burrito. These space blankets are surprisingly warm and I was pretty toasty in the dirt. Sarah set her alarm for 10 minutes and we both dosed. The alarm went off far too early and we both raised ourselves as the sun rose, it was pretty cool truth be told. Welcome to Friday morning with the image below greeting us.
Waking up from our dirt nap to see this amazing sunrise.
Once we awoke from our dirt nap I knew I needed to get to the next aid station quickly and get some Rob time before the push for the finish. I was worried that sleep depravation would get the better of me so close to the finish. My good friend Darlene Dale was pulled out of the Delirious a few years ago within 20 kilometres of the finish and I was desperate not to go through that. Thus I had to say my goodbyes to Sarah which pained me as she had been such good company but I just needed to step on and finish as quickly as possible.
I jettisoned all the extra clothing I had on to get me through the night , go down to shorts and a running shirt and hit the afterburners. This took Rob by surprise because as I arrived at The Oaks there was no sign of him and he admitted he had me arriving later than I did. IFinally beat his spreadsheet !) In his defence he was only a few minutes away and when he arrived I changed clothes and shoes for the last time and set off on the last leg for the finish line.
For the last loop I put on the Hokka Mach 5’s, a brand new white pair and they felt great. The Altra Olympus 4’s I had worn for the whole race are great shoes but better suited to single trail, they don’t have the cushioning that this race needs and when I come back next year it will be in a pair of Hokka Mach 5’s.
The last leg is a straight line initially and then a loop in the opposite direction to last time we ran the loop, four days ago. (anti-clockwise this time.) I knew we had to do this loop but wasn’t sure where the loop started , luckily while I was wondering which way to go a car pulled over and pointed me in the right direction. I was still feeling good but the loop seemed to go on for ever and to add to my woes my iphone decided to die and my cable didn’t seem to be working with my back batteries, joy ! I was blind albeit I knew where I was on the course and which way to go but was starting to second guess myself as I seemed to be running for such a long time. Again I was thankful this was early morning in sunshine, I couldn’t imagine going though this in the dark and second guessing yourself, I was certainly missing Sarah now. Eventually I hit the weir and knew all I had to do know was climb the hill to the finish, what could go wrong now.
Well it seems quite a lot. ! As I run the climb I came to a turn off and saw some pink bunting, did we take this off shoot from Glenbrook four days ago, I couldn’t remember. This was when I needed my iphone and Gaia, unfortunately my iphone was dead and I couldn’t work out how to text Rob on the Garmin tracker. I was totally done so decided just to sit down and wait for some direction from the general public. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long before Jac Cresp’s Husband and Son stopped and asked if I needed help. It seems the son recognised me after meeting me earlier in the race at the Katoomba showers. They pointed me in the right direction and I was off again on the final rise to the finish line.
As I was taking so long Shaun had sent a chaperone to point me to the finish and I was happy for the help, I made a big effort to look reasonable for the finish and put on a spurt, for the camera of course, I was done !
The money shot, finishing the Unreasonable East 2022, just over 73 hours.
Done and dusted, 73 hours and 8 minutes official time but it was so much more. The elevation made it incredibly hard but the company, incredible conditions and scenery made up for that. At the end I promised never to run it again but two weeks later I can’t wait for entries to open and that sums up 200 milers, they become addictive. Next time we can’t get conditions as good so it’ll be a challenge for sure but I’ll be better prepared albeit the Race Director has found another 4,000metres of elevation and is keen to add this to the 10,000metres we already climb, joy ! I’m smiling as I type these words remembering some of the experiences I shared on the trail. Bad experiences, there weren’t any as such, there was challenging times of course and times it was a struggle just moving forward but that’s the point, the race makes you look deep within yourself and allows you to ask yourself questions which are , in normal life, you can’t answer. This is the reason you run a 200 miler, to find out who you really are. ?
Tired but stoked to finish.
Two of the RD’s , Shaun and Steve at the finish. Absolute legends but you knew that.
Hugging Simone, something I love to do when ever I get the chance. She is the calming influence behind the chaos that is Shaun Kaesler.
As I mentioned earlier there would be an after shot straight after finishing and I love this image, trying to contemplate what has just happened and the relief to have finished. This image sums up what a 200 miler takes out of you, everything, there is nothing left to give and that’s how I roll. I love it.
Finish photo, looking goosed.
So what do you get for finishing a 200 miler in the Blue Mountains bar memories , well a half finished jigsaw of course with the promise of the missing pieces if you run another 200 miles in the Blue Mountains. How good is that ? You’d have to return surely, wouldn’t you?
Finishers jigsaw, notice the missing pieces.
Surrounded by legends, the Race Directors, Shaun, Nicola, Steve and Michelle. Thankyou guys.
The finishers left at the after party.
The first triple crown down under recipients, Rob, Aimee, Sarah and Raquel.
Rocking the Georges beanie at the after party.
Finally some products that helped me through the race and should be in your drop bags or backpack for all 200 milers… fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Fisiocrem is a must have in your 200 miler box of tricks.
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
Great hydration.
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
In October 2021 I ran the ‘Wet’ Delirious West 200 miler. The Bibbulmun track was waterlogged in places and we had a great time running from Northcliffe to Albany. In February 2022 the race was back to its traditional starting date and we set off from Northcliffe albeit this time on an out and back course due to a forest fire restricting access to Albany. We would be running to Tree Tops and then turning around and racing back to Northcliffe. I had a new crew consisting of Marky Mark Lommers and the Wangster, Jeffrey Wang. Adam was reunited with old faithful himself Dav, the invisible crew that no one knew was there but he just goes about his business, ruthless.
As you can see from the image below, leaving my house, we were in good spirits as myself and Adam set about chasing down our double plugger trophy. (The first time you complete Delirious you are given a single plugger (flip flop to us Poms), when you return and complete Delirious for a second time you get the second plugger mounted on a nice wooden plaque, hence the double plugger trophy. Probably the most expensive two dollar plugger you will ever buy! )
The boys ready to get Delirious. ‘Marky’ Mark, Jeffrey , Adam, Dav and me.
We left for Northcliffe on Monday giving ourselves a few days to acclimatize before the race start on Wednesday. I had a great airBnB booked for a few days and we explored the area while always keeping our reason for being there in the back of our minds. The highlight of the two days was climbing the Gloucester Tree near Pemberton. Of the five of us the two pilots were DNF and refused to go further than a few metres off the ground albeit Adam claimed he was half way where we was about three rungs up, so funny. I had climbed the tree in October when Barts insisted I give it a go and boy it was scary but with all things familiarity breeds contempt and this time it was a piece of cake . All the boys, in my crew, enjoyed the challenge.
Me and my Crew up a tree. Notice no pilots?
Driving around Pemberton and Nortcliffe there was Delirious crew and runners everywhere you looked, all nervously last minute carbo-loading or spending time huddled over Gaia examining the new course and planning sleep stops and race strategies. I’d ‘stickered’ up Dav’s Land Cruiser and he proudly cruised the area.
Dav’s car fully sickered and fully sick !
After check-in on Tuesday and before race briefing is the race that stops a town, the Bogan crew race. Marky Mark was determined to win it in his budgies and he didn’t let us down. The two previous years the winner was rewarded with free entry to Delirious the following year but this year Shaun decided it would be a draw with all competitors given an equal chance of winning. Unfortunately for Mark his name was not drawn out. He is still reigning Bogan champion and I hope to persuade him to defend his title next year. Truth be told he loves wearing his pink budgies.
The Bogan Crew winner, so proud.
Rod Donkersloot from Mind Focused Running had come down to support his three runners, myself, Michael and John. ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ). I have used Rob’s program and have been unstoppable since, no more DNF’s for me. Training the mind is overlooked by the majority of runners and Rob has designed a course that is tailored to getting the best out of the most important asset you have as a runner. He’s sort of a more relaxed version of David Goggins without the swearing. ( https://davidgoggins.com/ ) I would recommend getting in touch with Rob if you are seriously thinking of running a 200 miler in the near future, he’s a sort of insurance policy for a good finish.
Rob and the Mind Focused running crew.
Right to the start of the race. Due to border closures there was a small and intimate starting lineup of light minded friends who all knew each other. Like a long training run with mates really. This will be the last time we see such a small line up so we all were enjoying the moment as we knew it would never happen again. In 2023 I’m predicting at least 100 starters, maybe more, with a load of out of state runners. Although this is not a bad thing I will miss the small field of friends. Starters included Jon Pendse , out to defend the title he won in 2019, Michael Hooker, a pre-race favourite, Bianca and Sue , the first mother and daughter combination to attempt a 200 miler ever. My old mate Hoppy who pipped me to the post the previous year, Charles and Trevor Bosveld who would be as competitive as ever , with each other mainly ! Veronika looking to put the previous years DNF behind her and of course Adam going for his double plugger.
The start line…
The video below is a few kilometes into the race , well actually it’s not part of the race as its tradition to run the wrong way for a few kilometres as this is what happened on the first running of the event and now every year since the race takes the wrong turn as a nod to the original error. Shaun Kaesler, the RD, loves these traditions. The race itself doesn’t really start until you head back to the start line which use to be a four kilometre loop but because of the out and back nature of the course this year was probably more like ten kilometres ? Gotta’ love traditions ?
After returning to the start line and then moving towards the halfway point at Tree Tops myself and Adam were full of the joys of spring, it really was perfect conditions and we got our heads down and just enjoyed being on the trails, amongst friends. I always find the first day and night the hardest and particularly the fist 50k or so to Dog Road. Once I get to Dog Road I pick up my poles and its pretty good running all the way to Mandelay where we would have our first sleep. I always find waking from a good sleep, albeit two to three hours, and you are reenergised for the day ahead. You can then repeat the process and, voila, before you know it you’re at the finish line. Myself and Adam ran alone for most of the day and maintained a steady pace, we were passed by Sergio early in the day and he went on to win the event running a massive PB. Bar Sergio we maintained our position in the field , cocooned in the top 10 until we met Veronika late in the day just outside Mandelay. Helping Veronika into Mandelay probably cost us a few positions but you can’t go past a lady in distress albeit she recovered extremely well in Mandelay and left hours before us !
Adam on the hoof, a thing of natural beauty.
Next couple of videos is myself and Adam running towards , and entering, the first aid station. As always a few kilometres further than anticipated. Running between aid stations is how you break down a 200 miler, it really is an eating and drinking competition with running between aid stations an after thought. Rather than one 200 mile distance you break it down into twenty 20k or so distances and then leap frog from one to the next until you finish. This way the furthest you ever have to run is the 20k or so between an aid station, small manageable steps. Focus on the next aid station , get there, reset and go again. When you get really tired grab a few hours sleep and just continue until someone tells you to stop, usually at the finish line.
The first aid station, Chesapeake West , came and went pretty quick, no time even for a cup of tea. Had a few biscuits and some sandwiches from memory but it was a hurried affair which is ridiculous as we’re running a race that will take 3-4 days. Later in the event you tend to slow down but at the first aid station it is hard to relax and just take your time. As we were leaving another group of runners turned up and this just added to our anxiety, ridiculous I know but early on it feels like a race, later in the event it becomes an adventure as the field thins out and you are happy for company. Everybody was full of beans and the early aid stations have a carnival like atmosphere, the volunteers are eager to help any way they can and everybody is feeling great, good times had by all.
Aid station number 1, done and dusted.
The next two videos show Adam and I moving towards Dog Road where we would meet the crew for the first time, grab some food and them continue towards the first sleep stop at Mandelay. Conditions were still perfect with some good shade protecting us from the midday sun. It was great to meet the boys at Dog Road and we would then run through Pingerup and Brooke Inlet Road aid stations before reaching Mandelay in the early hours of Thursday morning for the first sleep stop. We would start our sleep around the top ten but due to crew error, no one set the alarm, we had a longer than planned sleep and woke to find we’d been relegated to just about last spot, albeit with a sleep stop up our sleeves. This wasn’t an issue as we would leap frog runners as they slept at Warpole later in the day of course. Albeit all our fans (?) would have been dismayed at our position in the field when they logged on to dot watch Thursday morning.
Both crews at Dog Road on the way out.
At Dog Road with both crews, boys sorted us out with some tukka and we grabbed our poles. Last year ,the wet year, the course was different to Brooke Inlet Road. It was a really good downhill section that seemed to go on forever, unfortunately this year it was back to the original course and was mainly uphill, go figure? Me and Adam basically complained all the way to Pingerup where we were met by the lovely Simone and her husband Heath who provided great pancakes, a Delirious tradition. As I said earlier I always find the first 50k the hardest, enjoyable but also testing. After Dog Road I find it becomes easier and Pingerup and Brooke Inlet Road tend to arrive quickly before a sleep at Mandelay.
Video below is 79k in after Pingerup, looks like I had bacon and eggs, not sure that’s true. I must have had pancakes?
Some scenery, the course is pretty special.
On a side note my good friend Jon Pendse, a previous champion, twisted an ankle in the first few kilometres. He managed to get to the first aid station in top three but then got lost and managed to arrive at the next aid station the wrong way. He was told to return to the first aid station and come back the right way. Unfortunately when he tried to do this his ankle blew up and his race was run. Thus when I arrived at the second aid station there was Jon , leg up in the air, beer in hand , smile on his face. It was a shame because Jon is a very accomplished ultra runner and although he’s been concentrating on marathons lately he would have been a good threat for at least a podium.
Jon, rolled his ankle before the aid station. As a past winner he was hoping for a quick finish, not this quick though !
A great photo of Mark, Dav and Jeff on some downtime, of which there is a lot apparently. My crew destroyed a slab of VB allegedly and then some, while always obeying the Western Australia drink driving thresholds. The one comment from Mark about the actual race was a telling one ‘I didn’t realise how much you ran‘. I’m not sure what he was expecting in a 200 mile race but to the untrained eye there is a lot of walking but when you see it close up there is also a sh*t load of running !
There is a lot of waiting around as crew, best keep busy !
The image below show Heath and Simone feeding me I assuming pancakes at the Pingerup aid station. I’m sure it was pancakes? Love these guys.
Love these guys and their pancakes.
After Pingerup the run to Brooke Inlet Road is one of my favourites, great running and beautiful scenery which you run through just before sunset so the light is spectacular. As you saw on the video earlier in this post although you really are alone at this part of the course albeit in my case I had Adam as company for the first day. The three times I have ran Delirious we have always had glorious conditions and this part of the course has never let me down, who doesn’t love a sunset in the middle of nowhere with a good mate.
First day into the sunset.. pre-Broke Road.
After Brooke Inlet Road night comes in quickly and the 20k run to Mandelay is always done in the dark. In the previous Delirious this was twenty kilometres of ankle deep water which was so much fun as it was unrunable. This year Adam and I put on the headphones and moved through the track knowing we had a sleep stop in Mandelay. All was going to plan until we came across Veronika about ten kilometes in to the stage having issues with her head torch. We stopped to help her and all was going well until a small insect decided to embed itself in Adam’s eye and started to bite him. This was extremely painful and Veronika offered her assistance, being a well respected Doctor apparently. With some vigour she swiped a tissue across Adam’s eye removing the insect but also nearly removing Adam’s eye. She did admit to maybe being a tad more aggressive than normal but location and conditions dictated this approach, apparently. I’m not sure Adam appreciated this aggressive style and I’ve not seen a man in so much pain for a long time, albeit I was slightly amused at the situation but Adam was not happy. The things you see on the trail.
Veronika was struggling and we walked her into Mandelay as well as keeping her vertical on the last few steps. We left her to retire to our sleep stations while she promised to get some rest. Her rest was a tad shorter than ours though. We woke to light outside our swags which was not a good sign, we had told our crew to wake us before sunrise so we could eat and get ready and leave just before the sunrise, light meant we had over slept. In fact we really had over slept, over three hours sleep and we left Mandelay as the back of the pack came through the aid station. No more top 10, we were probably only three or four of the back albeit we were very well rested. Veronika had stayed at Mandelay for a matter of minutes claiming she couldn’t sleep and we had now given her a few hours advantage.
Very rested at Mandelay.
Morning of day 2 , out of Mandelay Beach.
I did manage to get this image as we left Mandelay so it wasn’t that late in the morning, the crew did get us out just after sunrise and off we went to Mount Clare. This is a hard twenty plus distance which drains you, plenty of rises and eventually you have to get to the top of Mount Clare , which as the names suggests will involve a climb.
On the way to Mount Clare from Mandelay.
On the bright side there are some extremely great views from Mandelay to Mount Clare albeit its still bloody hard running. You skirt the coast for half the route before heading inland and starting the climb to Mount Clare. I left Adam at this point and made my way to Mount Clare alone. I was feeling good and decided that I would run my own race and if Adam caught up that would be good but there was no point either of us trying to change our pace to suit the other runner, on a 200 miler it just doesn’t work. I did bump into Adam as I left Mount Clare and then again as I left Warpole but after that I only saw him as I returned from Tree Tops and then at the finish. The previous year I had ran with Adam to the last day when he had to slow due to a fractured rib and we were hoping we could run together for the whole event this time. It is always better to run with company if you can but this year I would run alone from the point I left Adam bar one stage from Warpole where I was joined by Charles and his pacer Laura.
After I left Adam I ran to Mount Clare, quick pit stop and then through to Warpole, which is mainly downhill, coming of anything with a ‘Mount’ in the title you’d expect a downhill I suppose. I had a quick shower at Warpole and then started towards Tingle Tree before reaching the halfway point at Tree Tops. All of this running was in perfect conditions, warm but not hot and I was cooled at each aid station with plenty of ice and hydration, I was running well at this point and arrived at Tree Tops in the late afternoon just in time for a great steak, cup of tea and some mint slices, perfect evening meal. Over the last few aid stations I had made up a number of places and leaving Tree Tops was probably back in the top 10. Our sleep strategy was starting to make a difference and I decided to try and get back to Mount Clare for one more sleep.
I put on the after burners and passed a number of runners coming back from Tree Tops, as they moved towards Tree Tops. I had Sergio, Michael Hooker , Trevor and Charles Bosveld and Sharene ahead of me, not bad as I was probably nearly last coming out of Mandelay.
Mark cooking while updating social media. His steak at Tree Tops was beautiful.
Leaving Warpole heading towards Tingle Tree on the way out after a shower and some tukka.
Mucking about at Tingle Tree.
My three favourite things in life, Tea, biscuits and Jeffrey.
Heading up to the turn around at Tree Tops.
The video shows me leaving Tree Tops, 180km in, about 7pm Thursday night. Plan is to get to Mount Clare at 2am for a sleep.
A Green frog…
Day three, 225km in , just leaving Mount Clare heading towards Mandelay. 130km to the finish, can I do it in one day ? In the video I was not interested but as the day went on and with my crew pushing me I did make a run for a sub 70 hour finish and the infamous gold buckle.
Mandelay beach on the way back, brutal 21k from Mount Clare.
Mount Clare to Mandelay is brutal, there is no other word. I started this leg in great spirits after a good three hour sleep but ended up destroyed on Mandelay beach twenty one or so kilometres later. It just seemed to go on forever and you were always so close to the ocean before taking a right turn away from the beach and heading inland, on numerous occasions. Add in some humidity, elevation and trails that needed your 100% concentration and you have a monster of a leg. On the way out it wasn’t half as bad I’m sure but the video below show how destroyed I was coming into Mandelay. Watching the video I forgot about the March Flies eating me alive on the beach, so funny.
After a quick nap, the sun came out and so did the budgies. Leaving Mandelay on the way to Broke Road .
I’m glad to report that after arriving at Mandelay the sun came out , and unfortunately so did Mark’s ping budgies, and after a twenty minute nap under a towel I was ready for the final push to the finish line. Rob Donkersloot , he of Mind Focused Running, ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) was here as was my good mate Shannon Dale. Between the two of them , with my crew, they got me ready for the next stage of the race, a pleasant leg to Brooke Inlet Road and then Pingerup. By this time the sun has started to warm things up which is not a bad thing as I love the heat and have no issues with hotter temperatures. I skipped away from Mandelay ready to enjoy the next leg but I had underestimated the heat and the leg to Brooke Inlet Road soon became a struggle with little or no shade.
When I eventually bumped into Mark a kilometre out from the aid station I was well and truly frazzled. Rob had made his way to the aid station and again with the help of my crew I was rehydrated, fed and set on my way to Pingerup which is a no-crew aid station. I made sure I had enough hydration after my earlier error of judgment and this leg was about as good as I could have hoped. Quick plug for fisiocrem as my quads were suffering pre-Brooke Inlet aid station , probably due to hydration issues, so I smothered my legs with the product. Thirty minutes later and they’re feeling a lot better and luckily they also had some fisiocrem at Pingerup so my legs got another dose of this magical cream.
I was currently running 6th overall with Trevor and Sharene the nearest competitors albeit probably a hour or so ahead. Emma and her family fed and watered me and I was off on my way towards Dog Road which was a great running leg with a good bit of downhill and a great surface for picking up some time.
The boys misbehaving, again !
On the way back to Pingerup.
Heading back to Dog Road, some good running and hallucinations.
The part of the course was the only part I remember hallucinating and I put that down to a good sleep strategy. I was convinced I saw two runners ahead of me while I was answering a call of nature and made a big effort to run them down only to find when I reached the top of the ridge no one there. This happened twice more which showed I was sub-consciously thinking of catching Sharene ahead of me and I did eventually catch her at Dog Road, as I entered she was getting ready to leave with her pacer. It’s funny the games your mind plays when you are sleep deprived. I find things I have been thinking about will eventually end up as hallucinations later in the day. Personally I don’t mind hallucinations as they have never been anything that has derailed my race an, truth be told, they’re pretty cool. I’ve had some pretty good ones over the years normally on backyard ultras in the second night when you are totally sleep depraved of course.
Coming into Dog Road, quick change of clothes and onto the gold buckle chase through the night.
At Dog Road it was decision time. The plan was always to finish Saturday aiming for a PB and a midday finish. At Dog Road I had the opportunity to run through the night and finish around 3AM, a massive PB and a Gold Buckle run. (sub 70 hours) This would mean running the last 50km or so at a reasonable rate and also finishing to a crowd of maybe three or four maximum. Option two was a good three hours sleep at Chesapeake East or West and then finishing in the daylight , running the last leg in beautiful sunshine finishing in front of a large crowd, a PB but no gold buckle. It was always going to be option one of course. Pacers would have been nice at this point as the last 50km was running through difficult terrain with trees down over the path and also navigational challenges due to fatigue and the general nature of the course. Add in the stress of trying to make a certain time and it needed to be a seriously good finish.
Chesapeak East or West ?
Last night racing towards the finish and a sub 70 hour gold buckle run.
So its was on like Donkey Kong, my gold buckle fast finish. I passed Sharene between Dog Road and Chesapeake East and after a short stop moved on into the night towards the last aid station , Chesapeake West. I knew this would be a stressful last 50km but I made the decision to chase the buckle and it was time to pay the piper. While continually checking Gaia ( https://www.gaiagps.com/ ) I managed to stay on track and after clambering my way to the last aid station was met for the last time by my trusty crew and a great bunch of volunteers who fed me some seriously good eggs from memory. Trevor Bosveld was an hour ahead but according to the volunteers not travelling that well. I wasn’t bothered really but there was a small chance I’d catch him if I put a hurry on, this was all I needed. I loaded up the best of Taylor Swift on the after shokz headphones (you must have a pair of these head phones ( https://shokz.com/ ) ) and off I stumbled into the night for the last time.
To add to my anxiety I’d probably forgotten to fully charge my head torch in all the commotion and only had one spare lithium battery for my second head torch, it’s only 24km what could go wrong ? With this on my mind I started to increase the pace , more out of necessity now with every minute possibly being my last with a head torch. I wondered how far I could run using the iphone torch as my main source of illumination, probably not very fast or very far !
This was my second 200 miler , completed, and as with the first I was probably fresher at the end than the beginning. As I said earlier the first 50km are the hardest for me and the last 50km had now turned into a threshold run albeit at ultra threshold pace around 6-7min/k. Taking into account the running obstacles and the elevation this was moving trust me. I kept this suicide pace until I bumped into Trevor and his pacer about 5km from the finish. Now as I mentioned earlier Trevor was suffering and I had just clawed back an hour in around twenty kilometres. Give Trev his due he’s a stubborn bugger and was not going to give up fourth place without a fight. I passed him but he hung on tenuously until we both ended up on the main road lost. This was a funny situation , myself, Trev and his pacer, looked like three gunslingers, all looking at each other waiting to see who blinked first. In the end we all ran off together once we found the trail and I left the two of them. Now as I mentioned earlier my number one head torch had died about 10km in the leg which left me on my spare, after I left Trevor the torch decided to stop, not at the ideal moment truth be told. I was now in total darkness and I knew if Trev saw me he’d get a second wind and continue to chase me. I searched in my backpack for my spare lithium battery under the light of my iphone, found it, changed it and was off like a scolded cat. No sign of Trev so I settled into a quick but not suicidal pace to the finish which I knew was about three kilometres away.
The terrain was not perfect for a fast finish !
I started to look for my crew as I neared the finish as we had agreed to run in together but all I saw were some of Trevor’s family who looked none too pleased to see me, funny that ? I crossed the line as expected with just Heath, Jeff and a very drunk Jon Pendse there to greet me. It was nearly three in the morning and in my crews defence I was over an hour earlier than anticipated and a drunk Jon was very annoying, in the nicest possible way. He had forced Jeff to take shelter in the car and Mark had made himself fall sleep to avoid drunk Jon.
My crew at the finish line.
In Jon’s defence , although very drunk , he did manage to take this photo of me finishing. A better effort than my sleeping crew. !
Done, just over 68 hours. 4th place.
After fighting off Jon I asked were my swag was as I was desperate for sleep. Both my crew looked at each other and admitted to not making up the swag expecting me much later. They scurried off into the night to finish the job and I hobbled to meet them holding Jon at bay. Once the swag was made up I fell into it and a deep sleep waking only when the sunlight pierced my swag and Sharene finished.
I manged to sneak into the Northcliffe hotel for the best shower ever and then waited around for Veronika and Adam to finish, please note they finished in that order albeit Adam was smiling while Veronika had broken down a few kilometres from the finish and it was not her greatest hour, that’s a 200 miler for you ! She had survived for so long with no sleep that at the last minute her mind and body let go , literally. She finished in second place so the sacrifice was so worth it, what a woman. Adam, just slept too much and enjoyed himself while being looked by Dav, a sort of business class run while Veronika was in the cheap seats ! There will be some serious racing next year between these two.
Adam’s finish.
So here is the photo I had dreamt about since DNF’ing my first attempt at Delirious in 2019. The double plugger trophy , surrounded by people I love for what they bring to the sport and a sub 70 hour finish, over the moon. That’s a thing with running, set yourself a goal, do the hard work and you will get your reward. That double plugger is a constant reminder of two years of so much laughter, tears, high and lows , great training runs in beautiful trails with like minded people and also the love you feel at these events with the volunteers and crew all joining you in your goal. It really is so special and that’s what keep me coming back to these events, the people involved. I cherish this photo.
Surrounded by legends as I pick up my double plugger.
My final image is the class of 2022 minus a few runners who left pre-presentations. We’ll never see such a small group of legends running Delirious and it’s so special that we all know each other and what we have all been through. I was honoured to be part of this small field and I know we all share a bond that you will only understand if you take on the beast that is the Delirious West 200 miler. So , are you up for it ? If so I’ll see you on the stating line in February 2023 because wild horses couldn’t keep me away.
Class of 2022
Finally some products that helped me through the race and should be in your drop bags or backpack for all 200 milers… fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Fisiocrem is a must have in your 200 miler box of tricks.
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
Great hydration.
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
With the Unreasonable East 200 miler ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ ) less than 10 days away its time to start to think about carbo loading albeit for an ultra you probably don’t need to with the amount of food available at aid stations but for all your short distance runners, less than a marathon, carboloading is important. I’ve written about carboloading a lot over the years as it’s one of my favourite subjects. Three days of eating 10g of carbs for every kilo of body weight, how good is that ? Runners normally love their food and for three days you can actually indulge albeit with a caveat of sticking to carbs as much as possible while avoiding too much fat and sugar of course.
I personally only really carboload for a marathon , anything shorter it’s just about a proper taper and watching your diet on the week of the race. With shorter races racing weight also becomes a challenge and you need to be mindful of obtaining the right balance between eating too much and putting on an extra kilo or two that you then need to run with or not eating enough , to drop weight, and then having no energy for the event. With experience you generally find out what works for you and each individual is different. In the days before carbon-plated running shoes, can you remember that far back?, we all use to seek out the lightest running shoes while putting on 1-2 kilos of extra weight carboloading poorly. Runners and logic, not generally bed fellows ?
Are we carboloading all wrong and do we really care ?
The Thursday before a marathon is when traditionally you start to gorge on carbohydrates to carbo-load for the big day on Sunday. I use the old tried and tested 10g of carbohydrates for every kilogram of weight. For me that is 700g of carbohydrates for three days. It is a challenge and one I reckon 75% of all runners fail to meet it. They’ll make an effort of course but either not hit the required amount of carbs or fail to hydrate properly. One thing I guarantee is you will feel ‘bloated’ and ‘heavy’ after a good carbo-load but this is mainly liquid and on the day the benefit out weighs weight issues.
Is there a better way than a 3 day food feast though ? As runners it normally goes against the grain by eating so much and exercising so little. (I’m assuming you are tapering by now ?) The guilty feeling as you eat a muffin for a third day on the trot (I must admit to never having this feeling but I’ve been told some runners do , funny that ?) and stagger around with 2-3 litres of water sloshing about in your belly.
I’ve read that you can ignore the carbo-loading if you take carbs on the day in the form of Gu’s or shotz, or this at least negates the whole process. I’m not convinced but even Matt Fitzgerald has been quoted buying into this theory. Matt wrote an interesting article below on different methods of carbo-loading but I’m not ready to give up my muffin feeding frenzy just yet, so Matt, in this case, I’m staying traditional.!
The practice of carbo-loading dates back to the late 1960s. The first carbo-loading protocol was developed by a Swedish physiologist named Gunvar Ahlborg after he discovered a positive relationship between the amount of glycogen (carbs stored in the muscles and liver) in the body and endurance performance. Scientists and runners had already known for some time that eating a high-carbohydrate diet in the days preceding a long race enhances performance, but no one knew exactly why until Ahlborg’s team zeroed in on the glycogen connection.
Subsequently, Ahlborg discovered that the muscles and liver are able to store above-normal amounts of glycogen when high levels of carbohydrate consumption are preceded by severe glycogen depletion. The most obvious way to deplete the muscles of glycogen is to eat extremely small amounts of carbohydrate. A second way is to engage in exhaustive exercise. The stress of severe glycogen depletion triggers an adaptive response by which the body reduces the amount of dietary carbohydrate that it converts to fat and stores, and increases the amount of carbohydrate that it stores in the liver and muscles as glycogen. Ahlborg referred to this phenomenon as glycogen supercompensation.
Armed with this knowledge, he was able to create a more sophisticated carbo-loading protocol than the primitive existing method, which was, more or less, eating a big bowl of spaghetti.
Ahlborg came up with a seven-day carbo-loading plan in which an exhaustive bout of exercise was followed by three or four days of extremely low carbohydrate intake (10 percent of total calories) and then three or four days of extremely high carbohydrate intake (90 percent of total calories). Trained athletes who used this protocol in an experiment were able to nearly double their glycogen stores and exhibited significantly greater endurance in exercise lasting longer than 90 minutes.
After these results were published, endurance athletes across the globe began to use Ahlborg’s carbo-loading plan prior to events anticipated to last 90 minutes or longer. While it worked admirably, it had its share of drawbacks. First of all, many athletes weren’t keen on performing an exhaustive workout just a week before a big race, as the plan required.
Second, maintaining a 10 percent carbohydrate diet for three or four days carried some nasty consequences including lethargy, cravings, irritability, lack of concentration, and increased susceptibility to illness. Many runners and other athletes found it just wasn’t worth it.
Fortunately, later research showed that you can increase glycogen storage significantly without first depleting it. A newer carbo-loading protocol based on this research calls for athletes to eat a normal diet of 55 to 60 percent carbohydrate until three days before racing, and then switch to a 70 percent carbohydrate diet for the final three days, plus race morning.
As for exercise, this tamer carbo-loading method suggests one last longer workout (but not an exhaustive workout) done a week from race day followed by increasingly shorter workouts throughout race week. It’s simple, it’s non-excruciating, and it works. Admittedly, some scientists and athletes still swear that the Ahlborg protocol is more effective, but if it is, the difference is slight and probably not worth the suffering and inherent risks.
Note that you should increase your carbohydrate intake not by increasing your total caloric intake, but rather by reducing fat and protein intake in an amount that equals or slightly exceeds the amount of carbohydrate you add. Combining less training with more total calories could result in last-minute weight gain that will only slow you down. Be aware, too, that for every gram of carbohydrate the body stores, it also stores 3 to 5 grams of water, which leads many athletes to feel bloated by the end of a three-day loading period. The water weight will be long gone by the time you finish your race, however.
A friendlier carbo-loading strategy was devised in 2002 by scientists at the University of Western Australia. It combines depletion and loading and condenses them into a one-day time frame. The creators of this innovative protocol recognized that a single, short workout performed at extremely high intensity creates a powerful demand for glycogen storage in both the slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers of the muscles.
The researchers hypothesized that following such a workout with heavy carbohydrate intake could result in a high level of glycogen supercompensation without a lot of fuss. In an experiment, the researchers asked athletes to perform a short-duration, high-intensity workout consisting of two and a half minutes at 130 percent of VO2max (about one-mile race pace) followed by a 30-second sprint. During the next 24 hours, the athletes consumed 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of lean muscle mass. This resulted in a 90 percent increase in muscle glycogen storage.
Runners have cause to be very pleased by these findings. Doing just a few minutes of high-intensity exercise the day before a competition will not sabotage tomorrow’s performance, yet it will suffice to stimulate the desirable carbohydrate “sponging” effect that was sought in the original Ahlborg protocol. This allows the athlete to maintain a normal diet right up until the day before competition and then load in the final 24 hours.
The Western Australia carbo-loading strategy works best if preceded by a proper taper — that is, by several days of reduced training whose purpose is to render your body rested, regenerated, and race-ready. In fact, several days of reduced training combined with your normal diet will substantially increase your glycogen storage level even before the final day’s workout and carbohydrate binge. When you exercise vigorously almost every day, your body never gets a chance to fully replenish its glycogen stores before the next workout reduces them again. Only after 48 hours of very light training or complete rest are your glycogen levels fully compensated. Then the Western Australia carbo-loading regimen can be used to achieve glycogen supercompensation.
An even newer carbo-loading protocol calls for athletes to eat a normal diet of 55 to 60 percent carbohydrate until three days before racing, and then switch to a 70 percent carbohydrate diet for the final three days, plus race morning. As for exercise, this friendliest carbo-loading method suggests one last longer workout (but not an exhaustive workout) done a week from race day followed by increasingly shorter workouts throughout race week.
Having said all of this, I would like to note finally that carbo-loading in general has been shown to enhance race performance only when athletes consume little or no carbohydrate during the race itself. If you do use a sports drink or sports gels to fuel your race effort — as you should — prior carbo-loading probably will have no effect. But it doesn’t hurt to do it anyway, as insurance.
Yelo muffin carbo-load frenzy, why wouldn’t you?
Carboloading, pass me a muffin and no one gets hurt.
There are times when being a runner can really be an excuse to eat great ‘tukka’ and carboloading is one of those times. Three days before your goal race, which should be a marathon distance or more (so don’t think this applies to 5k races, sorry !) , you try and eat 10g of carbohydrates for every 1kg of weight, i.e. me being 70kg , I need to eat 700g of carbohydrates for 3 days pre-marathon. It is actually quite hard to get this right unfortunately. A lot of runners just end up eating junk assuming all food is good food this close to the race or don’t hydrate enough. (You need to properly hydrated for the carboloading to work properly)
So what does a 700g day look like. Breakfast, weetbix and honey with orange juice. Brunch, 2 slices of toast with honey and another OJ. Lunch, pasta with chicken and some yoghurt. Maybe another round of toast pre-dinner of more pasta. Add in another OJ somewhere and a late night yoghurt or toasted muffin and you’re pretty close. Best thing is to google ‘carboloading’ and you’ll get the general idea. What did we do before ‘google’? Maybe I’ll google ‘what did we do before google’?
Also make sure you aim for high carbohydrate , low fat food; avoid the high fat food.
So carboloading, a good thing if done correctly and I’d say worth 4-5 minutes. C’mon, what other sport gives you such a return just by eating. Gotta love running……
This article written by AIS Sports Nutrition is worth a read on the subject.
‘Carbohydrate loading’ is probably one of the most misunderstood terms in sports nutrition. People commonly think anyone involved in sport needs to ‘carb up’ and the way to do this is to eat ‘flat out’ in the days leading up to an event. Read on to get the facts on carbohydrate loading.
What is carbohydrate loading?
Carbohydrate loading is a strategy involving changes to training and nutrition that can maximise muscle glycogen (carbohydrate) stores prior to endurance competition.
The technique was originally developed in the late 1960’s and typically involved a 3-4 day ‘depletion phase’ involving 3-4 days of hard training plus a low carbohydrate diet. This depletion phase was thought to be necessary to stimulate the enzyme glycogen synthase. This was then followed immediately by a 3-4 day ‘loading phase’ involving rest combined with a high carbohydrate diet. The combination of the two phases was shown to boost muscle carbohydrate stores beyond their usual resting levels.
Ongoing research has allowed the method to be refined so that modern day carbohydrate loading is now more manageable for athletes. The depletion phase was demonstrated to be no longer necessary, which is a bonus for athletes as this phase was very difficult. Australian marathon runner, Steve Moneghetti has described the depletion phase as making him feel like “death warmed up”. Today, 1-4 days of exercise taper while following a high carbohydrate diet (7-12g/kg body weight) is sufficient to elevate muscle glycogen levels.
Does carbohydrate loading improve performance?
Muscle glycogen levels are normally in the range of 100-120 mmol/kg ww (wet weight). Carbohydrate loading enables muscle glycogen levels to be increased to around 150-200 mmol/kg ww. This extra supply of carbohydrate has been demonstrated to improve endurance exercise by allowing athletes to exercise at their optimal pace for a longer time. It is estimated that carbohydrate loading can improve performance over a set distance by 2-3%.
Who should carbohydrate load?
Anyone exercising continuously at a moderate to high intensity for 90 minutes or longer is likely to benefit from carbohydrate loading. Typically, sports such as cycling, marathon running, longer distance triathlon, cross-country skiing and endurance swimming benefit from carbohydrate loading. Shorter-term exercise is unlikely to benefit as the body’s usual carbohydrate stores are adequate. Carbohydrate loading is generally not practical to achieve in team sports where games are played every 3-4 days. Although it might be argued that players in football and AFL have heavy demands on their muscle fuel stores, it may not be possible to achieve a full carbohydrate loading protocol within the weekly schedule of training and games.
What does a high carbohydrate diet look like?
The following diet is suitable for a 70kg athlete aiming to carbohydrate load:
Breakfast
3 cups of low-fibre breakfast cereal with 11/2 cups of reduced fat milk
1 medium banana
250ml orange juice
Snack
toasted muffin with honey
500ml sports drink Lunch
2 sandwiches (4 slices of bread) with filling as desired
200g tub of low-fat fruit yoghurt
375ml can of soft drink Snack
banana smoothie made with low-fat milk, banana and honey
cereal bar Dinner
1 cup of pasta sauce with 2 cups of cooked pasta
3 slices of garlic bread
2 glasses of cordial
Late Snack
toasted muffin and jam
500ml sports drink
This sample plan provides ~ 14,800 kJ, 630 g carbohydrate, 125 g protein and 60 g fat.
Are there any special considerations for females?
Most studies of glycogen storage have been conducted on male athletes. However, some studies suggest that females may be less responsive to carbohydrate loading, especially during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. This appears to be, at least partly, because they have difficulty consuming the larger amounts of carbohydrate required for a complete CHO load. Further research needs to be conducted specifically on females.
What are the common mistakes made when carbohydrate loading?
Research indicates that many athletes who attempt to carbohydrate load, fail to achieve their goal. Common mistakes include:
Carbohydrate loading requires an exercise taper. Athletes can find it difficult to back off training for 1-4 days before competition. Failing to rest will compromise carbohydrate loading.
Many athletes fail to eat enough carbohydrate. It seems athletes don’t have a good understanding of the amount of food required to carbohydrate load. Working with a sports dietitian or using a carbohydrate counter can be useful.
In order to consume the necessary amount of carbohydrate, it is necessary to cut back on fibre and make use of compact sources of carbohydrate such as sugar, cordial, soft drink, sports drink, jam, honey, jelly and tinned fruit. Athletes who include too many high fibre foods in their carbohydrate loading menu may suffer stomach upset or find the food too bulky to consume.
Carbohydrate loading will most likely cause body mass to increase by approximately 2kg. This extra weight is due to extra muscle glycogen and water. For some athletes, a fear of weight gain may prevent them from carbohydrate loading adequately.
Athletes commonly use carbohydrate loading as an excuse to eat everything and anything in sight. Consuming too many high fat foods will make it difficult to consume sufficient carbohydrate. It may also result in gain of body fat. It is important to stick to high-carbohydrate, low-fatfoods while carbohydrate loading.
These are not pancakes but carbohydrates disguised as pancakes.
With the Unreasonable East 200 miler race ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ ) less than two weeks away its time to talk about tapering, every runners nightmare. I have found with age comes wisdom and now I embrace the taper before a race and adjust according to the event. My good friend Dave Kennedy, 6 Inch Trail Ultra race director ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) doesn’t believe in tapering for ultras and over time I have certainly ran more before a longer event albeit distance over pace, just ticking the legs over I suppose. I wouldn’t launch into tempo or threshold runs the week before an event but am quite happy to run every day at a relaxed pace and noting more than 10k.
Remember the number one rule of tapering, you can only do too much on the week before a race, never too little. So if you do nothing for the week you will not lose fitness. The only caveat is you probably need to adjust your diet and drop the calories at the start of the week before launching into a carboloading frenzy three days before the event. Another caveat, for ultras, the carboloading phase is probably not as necessary as there will most likely be a smorgasbord of tukka during the event, also weight isn’t as big an issue as say for a marathon runner. Ultra running really is the sport that keeps on giving.
From an old post of mine :-
For the 6 inch ultra marathon in December last year I experimented by not tapering nearly as much as I would for a marathon. On the week of the event I actually ran twice a day Monday through Thursday and only had 48 hours rest before the race. Admittedly all runs on race week were slow and easy but I still managed over 80km’s pre-race. On the day I felt great and ran a good race for a 7th place finish but more importantly I was 4th quickest over the second half of the race. I actually ran my first negative split for an ultra. The week before the ultra I had ran 140k so there really wasn’t a taper period to talk off. ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com )
Could this work for a marathon ? I don’t think so. The ultra is normally ran at a more subdued pace and although longer I feel not as testing as ‘racing’ a marathon. (Well ultras less than 100k, when you get above 100k I’m sure it becomes a tad more testing that a marathon. Once I run further than 100k I’ll confirm?) In an ultra the race pace normally decreases brings your overall cardio fitness in to play more than resting the legs a few weeks before. If you haven’t got the fitness a two week taper will not help, you’ll still be underdone. With a marathon, as the distance is less, you normally have the fitness required to finish the event, the tapering helps more by letting tired muscles recovery.
Also I feel running a good ultra is more dependent on the nutrition and hydration plan, get this right will benefit you so much more than a taper period. Again get this plan wrong and the taper will not save you. In an ultra any mistakes will be paid for, that is a certainty. In an ultra there is no where to hide.
Researching tapering and ultras on the web and there are stories advocating no tapering and setting PB’s while others advocate a 3 week steep taper and lean more towards relaxing rather than stressing about the event. All have their pro’s and con’s and as with all things running there’s no one shoe fits all. It really depends on the runner and also their experience and fitness. The more experienced runner with a good foundation of distance training under their belt will be more likely to be able to go into an event without tapering. They will not need the confidence boost that comes from a good taper as much as someone with less experience. Remember a good taper will also aid confidence and going into any race this is important, anything that helps put you in a positive mindset is welcome and needs to be embraced,
Of course if you have any niggling injuries an enforced taper may be called for. When this happens there is nothing you can do about it, just sit back and smell the roses concentrating on things you can influence like carboloading. Now carboloading, that is a whole new post and one I shall tackle next. Until then enjoy this article below by Ian Torrence which highlights ‘peaking’ rather than tapering as a benefit, pre-ultra. Ian is part of the Greg McMillan stable of writers so has a wealth of knowledge and experience to call upon. (Please note I do not advocate the Joe Kulak method of peaking described below but as you can see in the photo below my friend Jon is convinced it works… ?)
Jon practicing the Joe Kulak method of peaking !
The final weeks before an event are the toughest to get right. The common notion that all hard work must cease and inactivity must ensue is incorrect. It’s also foolhardy to continue amassing mileage and tough workouts as race day nears in hopes of improving fitness. Depending on your approach to this all-important time period, you may be left feeling lethargic or simply exhausted. A runner with the proper peak will feel rejuvenated and ready to go on race day.
Greg McMillan, my mentor, has devised a set of rules to live by as race day approaches. Greg explains, “By studying peak performance research – both physiological as well as psychological – as opposed to just the tapering research, I’ve been able to dial in how to truly peak on race day. It works for all athletes no matter where you find yourself in the pack come race day.” By placing Greg’s simple and effective system into context, let’s get you prepared for your next ultra.
1. Do not drop running volume drastically
Though there are some that prefer three weeks to peak, two weeks seems to be the most popular choice. During the first week of a peak, drop the length of each run by 10 to 20 minutes. The week before your event, drop volume by 20 to 30 minutes per run. I recommend that ultrarunners limit their last long run(s), done a week before the key event, to 90 easy minutes (regardless of the distance of the event). This is enough to give you that long run feeling, but short enough that muscle recovery and glycogen-storage continue. Light, non-impact cross training can be done in lieu of runs, but only if you are used to those forms of exercise.
2. Keep the routine
Run, eat, sleep, work, and socialize when you do normally. Your body and mind have achieved stasis over the past few months of training. Keep them both happy and the keel even. Now is not the time to experiment with new workouts, forms of exercise, foods, and social events. Use the extra time not spent running for sleeping and sticking to “safe” hobbies.
3. Keep the intensity and build confidence
Before the 2007 JFK 50 Mile, I had an exchange with fellow competitor Andy Mason. Nine days before the race, he completed a round of very quick mile repeats on the track; his last quality workout before the race. I knew he was fit and feeling confident. That year, Andy finished in the top ten.
Though most ultrarunners do not need to perform a tough round of mile repeats before their next race, they might consider doing some sort of confidence-building workout 10 days to two weeks out from their event. This workout, however, should be in tune with recent training. Running a 30-mile training run or time trialing up and down Hope Pass (like the author) a few days before a race is neither smart nor beneficial. A moderate length workout that you’re familiar with, that is aerobically challenging, allows for adequate recovery before race day, and demonstrates your fitness should be the order of the day. If you don’t routinely perform hard hill, stamina-building, fartlek, or fast finish workouts then this is not the time to start. Maintain your current training and follow the guidelines for reduction in mileage as mentioned above.
Now is also the time to reflect on all of the training you’ve done thus far. Remember that you’ve done the work necessary to get you to the finish line.
4. Stick to the original race plan and have fun
No one starts a race without a goal. Whether it be to keep your Grand Slam hopes alive, finish your first ultra, or win the event outright, don’t lose sight of why you’re out there. Be deliberate in your actions and calculate each move you make on the race course. Run your own race and enjoy the time you’re having on the trail or road. Greg McMillan sums this up perfectly, “Let’s face it. Most of us aren’t going for an Olympic gold medal here. We are simply enjoying the challenge of doing our best. There is no real pressure, so quit putting so much on yourself. We run for fun, and you should remember that. Have fun!”
PEAKING FOR MULTIPLE RACES
What if you’re gearing up for several important races that are separated by a few weeks or less? The Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, as well as others of that genre, and several race series like the NorCal and SoCal Ultra Grand Prix are perfect examples. In essence, you are recovering and peaking in unison between events. There are two ways to approach situations like this:
1. Reverse taper
This is like returning from injury. Gradually and slowly increase the length of your post-race easy runs and avoid fast and difficult workouts. You won’t reach your normal training level, but you’ll satisfy the need for a few runs before your next event.
2. The Joe Kulak Method
When I asked Joe Kulak what he did between each of his four 2003 Grand Slam record- setting 100-mile races, he quipped, “I sat on the couch and drank beer.” If beer is not your drink of choice, water works just as well. The reality is that you can’t gain fitness in the two or three weeks between long ultras. Recovery will be your best “workout” while preparing for your next event.
Another post of mine from the dim and distant past on tapering, I seem to write a lot about tapering funnily enough?
My legs still feel fatigued but they felt the same pre-Fremantle half two weeks ago and still managed a good PB so it’ll be another ‘trust in your training’ sprint from the start line and hopefully I’ll be able to maintain whatever pace I settle into until the end. Rottnest though is a different animal compared to Fremantle. Three nasty hills on a two lap course means six nasty hills, add in heat and possibly wind and the pressure of a PB is non-existence. This weekend is about a top 5 place (depending on who turns up of course?) and pushing myself into the ‘pain box’ for the last time on a race of distance pre-Masters Marathon November 6th. ( http://www.perth2016.com )
It will be the first time I’ve ran a half at Rottnest, actually the first time anyone has as it’s the inaugural event. I’ve ran the marathon ten times so it will be weird running at half pace on a course I have only ever ran at marathon pace. Judging the hills for pace will be a challenge but truth be told it’ll just be the normal ‘suicide pace’ until either something blows or the finish line.
Predicted time will be hard because so much will depend on the conditions on the day. You are exposed on sections of the course so a head wind would be a challenge. Heat wise we are expecting 25-28 degrees which will be the first time I have raced in anything above 20 for the year probably. Coming from the UK originally I’m not a fan of racing in the heat and this will certainly affect my time. (I do enjoy horizontal rain and extreme cold funnily enough, we call that summer in Cornwall!)
On the bright side I have a week to recover on the Island so will be treating it as a training camp with some speed work pre-Masters 5k the following Saturday. This will also be the first week of my marathon tapering so will do my best to only run once a day. This will be a challenge as I am now totally accustomed to double-up days, need to look at the bigger picture though. A good taper is so important as the legs and mind need to be fresh for the marathon. I have attached an article from Running Competitor which gives you some tips to taper like a pro. Hey, if we can’t run like a pro we can at least taper like one…
Mastering the final few weeks of training is trickier than it seems. Marathon training is hard—the long runs, hill repeats and the arduous track sessions take a tremendous toll on both the body and mind. When many marathoners review their training schedule they get giddy at the sight of the taper, which typically starts two to three weeks out from race day. The reduction in volume and intensity is a welcome one. But what many runners don’t realize, however, is that the taper can be just as (or even more) difficult as the rest of the training cycle.
Why is this? How does a taper help a marathoner in the first place and why do you need them?
First, the benefits: According to 2006 U.S. mountain running champion Nicole Hunt, who now coaches at Speedendurance.net, tapers “bolster muscle power, increase muscle glycogen, muscle repair, freshen the mind, fine-tune the neural network so that it’s working the most efficiently, and most importantly, eliminate the risk of overtraining where it could slow the athlete down the most.” Additionally, Hunt notes that a well-designed taper will increase a runner’s performance. “Studies have indicated that a taper can help runners improve [performance] by 6 to 20%,” she contends.
So what exactly is a “well-designed” taper?
The key is to find the optimal balance between three key training elements: duration, weekly mileage, and key workouts. A taper that doesn’t incorporate enough rest can leave a runner feeling burned out going into the race, while a taper overabundant with rest can be mentally taxing and result in a deterioration of fitness
How long you taper for usually depends on the distance of the race you’re targeting and what kind of mileage you’ve been logging from week to week in training. A typical taper for a marathon is two to three weeks, but some runners like American-record holder Deena Kastor only taper for 10 days beforehand.
Conversely, Hunt usually prescribes a three-week taper for her athletes. If you haven’t felt “fresh” at the starting line for recent races, look at the duration of your taper. Consider adding an extra week (or even a few days) of reduced volume and intensity to your schedule. On the other hand, if you’ve been prone to longer tapers and feel like you’re heading into your races too rested, shorten them up a bit.
Weekly Mileage
Regardless of their duration, a taper requires backing off your weekly mileage in order to rest the legs for race day. Mammoth Track Club coach Terrence Mahon, who guides elite marathoners Kastor, Josh Cox amongst others, has his top runners running 120-130 miles per week during their peak training periods. Surprisingly, however, he doesn’t cut down their overall volume too much during their taper, reducing it down for most to a relatively still high 90 miles in the final week before a key race. “We have found in the past that dropping mileage too much leads to a de-training effect,” Mahon says. “We don’t lower things universally in our tapers.” Mahon believes marathoners need to keep doing long runs throughout their tapering phase. “The farther you get away from big [mileage] numbers, the more confidence you lose,” he says. Mahon maintains that the best way to keep his runners close to the “big numbers” is to give them a longer single session, approximately 17 miles, during their taper period, and then follow up the next day with a short 6 easy miles. “It keeps their head close to the race distance,” he says.
Hunt is more systematic with how she handles weekly mileage during the taper phase. In general, Hunt assigns “about a 10% reduction in mileage the third week out, a 15% reduction the second week out and the week of the marathon about a 50%+ reduction.”
Key Workouts
Workouts, along with running mileage, are stressors on the body. As such, a sound tapering regimen reduces both the frequency of the workouts, along with their duration, in order to maximize rest and recovery leading up to the race day. During the taper phase Mahon has his runners completing the same type of workouts they’ve been doing all along in training–mile repeats for example–but gives them more time for recovery. He calls this element the “density” of training. “We try to put some extra space in our workouts during the taper,” he says. Specifically, Mahon may give runners more time to recover between repetitions in a workout, or he may give them fewer workouts to complete during the week.
As opposed to increasing recovery time both during and between workouts, Hunt has her athletes completing shorter, faster speed sessions during the taper. “For the final two weeks I gradually cut the mileage but maintain speed with strides and short intervals,” she says. “The focus is on recovery and goal pace for muscle memory and short bursts of speed.” Some examples of Hunt’s taper surges are 20 x 15 seconds or 10 x 30-45 seconds mostly at 3K to 5K effort.
Experiment, Learn & Trust
Taking these two differing philosophies into account, look at your next taper as an opportunity to vary it in some way. Aim for the right balance in your routine: adjust your mileage and fine-tune your workouts by either giving yourself more time to rest or maybe even picking up the pace. Find what works best for you.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is to trust in your training. As Tyler McCandless, U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, says: “the best advice on tapering is to believe in the process.”
Extreme tapering ?
Right one more post on tapering should just about cover it I reckon…
A day off running pre-race tomorrow, unlikely.
As I’m racing tomorrow there was no early morning run this morning. I am now wondering around lost. I have persuaded my Wife to get up early so we can drive to Yelo for a coffee and muffin breakfast (carbo loading for a 10k?) and after that I will return to my ‘lost’ state.
I’m a runner who loves to run and hates not running. Even now i’m making excuses for reasons why running today would be a good idea, not twice as that would be silly wouldn’t it? So my reasoning behind a run would be to loosen the legs (they aren’t tight), it’s not really a target race tomorrow (that is actually true, tomorrow is really a good hit-out pre-half next weekend) or get rid of some pre-race nerves (I ain’t nervous) . No luck there, let’s face it the reason I want to run is I love running, plain and simple.
Tapering for my next marathon will be a challenge. The last one I ran 100k the week before and called that tapering as I was averaging 130k a week. I’m normally ok on marathon week as even I understand the need to rest. I normally only run twice in the week before a marathon and actually enjoy the calm before the storm, but for a 10k tomorrow, hell I should be running now not typing.
So will probably sneak out for a ‘relaxing’ 10k sometime today, c’mon you’d be mad not too wouldn’t you…..
A quick article on tapering below by Pete Pfitzinger, M.S. suggests a 7-10 day taper for a 10k, I’m thinking 7-10 hours.
Most performance oriented runners will do pretty much what they’re told in training. Run 8 x 800 meters at the track? Sure. Do a 40-minute tempo run? No problem. It’s when we’re instructed to scale back, run less and conserve our energies, that we balk.
Training provides long-term fitness improvements but produces short-term fatigue. Leading up to an important race, the challenge is to find the optimal balance between maintaining the best possible racing fitness and resting to reduce the fatigue of training. This is referred to as a well-planned taper.
To achieve your best when it counts, you can only afford to do a full taper before a few key races each year. If you race often and were to taper thoroughly for each race, you would have little time left for hard training. So you learn to “train through” some races. But for the big ones, you will want to go all out to achieve your best.
A recent paper published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed more than 50 scientific studies on tapering to find out whether tapering betters performance, and how to go about it. The review showed that there is no question tapering works. Most studies found an improvement of about 3% when athletes reduced their training before competition. This translates to more than five minutes for a three-hour marathoner or more than a minute for those racing 10K in 40 minutes.
How Long Should You Taper?
Several of the studies concluded that the optimal length of taper is from seven days to three weeks, depending on the distance of the race and how hard you’ve trained. Too short a taper will leave you tired on race day, while tapering for too long will lead to a loss of fitness. How do you find the right balance? Consider than any one workout can give you far less than a 1% improvement in fitness, but a well-designed taper can provide a much larger improvement in race performance. Therefore, it is probably wiser to err on the side of tapering too much than not enough. The optimal number of days to taper for the most popular race distances are as follows: marathon, 19 to 22 days; 15K to 30K, 11 to 14 days; 5K to 10K, 7 to 10 days.
Of course the one benefit of tapering is you know carboloading is close…
One final word on tapering, it’s not all bad because towards the end of tapering comes my favourite part of running, carboloading. It’s time to pig out on bacon, excuse the pun , and pancakes swimming in maple syrup but I’ll save that for another post.
I was looking at my running spreadsheet yesterday and realised that in the last year, bar racing events, I had ran over 25km about four times. This year, so far, I have ran over 25km only once in training and that was a Herdy’s practice in early March. As the extract from my running spreadsheet shows I have also added in the odd rest day which is new to my training as it use to be run every day.
Blue cells indicate races.
In my defence if you see a 22km it probably indicates a trail run which would be a 2-3 hour run which is a time on feet long run , just not the associated distance. If you add those in I’m probably looking at around 13 long runs for the year, which is still less then the 21 I would expect (One a week) Add in the four weeks I raced , as they were all very long, and that figure becomes 17 and if you factor in some tapering all of a sudden I’m close to my one long run a week average.
What has set me up for success in the back end of 2021 and the beginning of this year was certainly a three month period at the beginning of 2021 preparing for Delirious West , which was unfortunately cancelled.
Hard training pre-Delirious.
As you can see big weekly totals and also a fair few double days. On the back of this training I ran a 47 lap Herdy’s backyard Ultra, which at the time was an Australian record (albeit as an assist) I then managed to keep up this training intensity for the rest of the year and eventually finish nine ultras. At the start of 2021 there was more longer runs , which were also on the trails so a double whammy. A long trail run takes longer and works more muscles as you are continually stepping depending on the terrain, add in some elevation and it becomes a real test of endurance. As with all things to improve you need to push yourself, recover and then go again but next time further or faster. This is why it is always good to have indicator training runs where each week you can see an improvement, either a quicker average pace or you go further.
A Mona Fartlek is perfect for this as the run itself is always 20 minutes but the distance should increase as you gain fitness and stamina. I wrote a great post on the Mona, if I say so myself….worth a read.
Mona Fartlek, one of my favourite sessions for some serious ‘pain box’ time.
Fartlek is a Swedish term to describe ‘speed play’, training method that blends continuous training with interval training. Fartlek runs are a very simple form of a long distance run. Fartlek training “is simply defined as periods of fast running intermixed with periods of slower running.”
Today was my Mona Fartlek day, a 20 minute workout that I adore. Though lesson to self, eating banana bread 2 hours before is not such a good idea ! I can normally get to around 5.6k for the session. Steve Monaghetti stills hits over 6km I hear and in his prime was nearer 8km. !! He is a running legend though.. enjoy the article on a true sporting great below.
I was lucky enough to meet Steve at a photo shoot for the Perth City to Surf in 2014 and again this year as he was Ambassador for the Perth marathon. Both times I was taken aback by his down to earth attitude and his willingness to embrace all our questions and comments.
This session is good as it is fairly short but you know it’s doing you good. Golden rule no2 , add pace after the distance phase. This bad boy workout is all about pace.
I met Steve Moneghetti , a running god, at a photo shoot before the City to Surf.
Steve Moneghetti is set to leave a lasting legacy that goes beyond his set of marathon medals. As a young man from Ballarat he and coach Chris Wardlaw devised a session that fitted in with his usual stomping ground of Lake Wendouree helped him become a four-time Olympian.
The Session:Mona Fartlek: (2x90sec, 4x60sec, 4x30sec, 4x15sec with a slower tempo recovery of the same time between each repetition. The session takes 20mins in total.
Distance Mona covered: The session was most often used on Tuesday night at Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree. The first time Mona did it as a 20-year-old he did not complete the Lap of the Lake (6km) in the 20minutes but in his prime he completed the Lake in 17.19 and then continued on to finish his 20min session. He still does it most Tuesdays and even at 52, covers 6km.
History
Mona devised the session with his coach Chris Wardlaw over the phone back in 1983 when he was just 20. He wanted a solid fartlek session, one that would help improve his speed as well as endurance and stimulate an ability to change pace mid-run, something that helped later on his career when tackling the Africans, who had a habit of surging mid-race.
The session became a Tuesday-night ritual for Mona and while it was set up for Lake Wendouree, he’d use it whether training at altitude at Falls Creek or overseas preparing for a championship marathon.
It is still widely used today with Ben Moreau and a host of Sydney athletes doing the session. A recent feature in the UK has led to a number of British runners adopting the session along with a number of runners in the US, although some are calling it the “Mono” session.
A good idea is to set your watch to beep every 30 seconds, so that you don’t have to look down at it all the time.
Mona says
“I was always a stickler for routine and I feel that this session, coupled with my usual Thursday night session of 8x400m with 200m float set me up and gave me continuity with my training.
The 15-second reps came at the end and really forced me to concentrate on accelerating hard when I was fatigued. One night when I was in top shape I covered nearly 7km with Troopy (Lee Troop).”
Tip for other distance runners
For many runners, the session will be too demanding initially and you will need to build into it.
Mona recommends just walking or jogging the recovery as you adjust to it.
Middle distance runners may wish to reduce the length of the session, halving everything (ie: 1x90sec, 2x60sec, 2x30sec, 2x15sec) to make it a 10minute session.
The long run is integral to running improvement but it needs to be slow and steady Sarah Russel, from Runners Connect, wrote this great article explaining the long run and more importantly how so many runners just get it wrong,
Are You Sabotaging Your Long Run by Running the Wrong Pace?
The underlying principle of any training program, regardless of your goal or ability, should be the development of a solid aerobic base.
It’s the fundamental structure followed by almost every elite runner, in particular that of Kenyan athletes who spend around 85% of their time running at an ‘easy’ or ‘recovery’ pace.
Mo Farah reportedly runs around 120 miles per week, of which 80% at an easy pace. No doubt he and Galen Rupp are having a good old chat as they run up and down the hills in Boulder. Not the picture of hard elite training that you might imagine? Well, we can all learn from their approach.
Yet this is what most recreational runners get wrong. Running ‘easy’ doesn’t feel right (or hard enough), so they intuitively run at a ‘moderate’ pace, kidding themselves they’re running easy. Struggling to hold a conversation, a heavy sweat, and red face post run is a giveaway that you did not run ‘easy’!
Running at an easy pace – and by that I mean well into the aerobic zone around 70% of your maximum heart rate – is actually quite hard to do.
You have to slow down A LOT and it feels like you’re going nowhere. But it’s important to stick with it.
In time (usually just a few weeks), your body will adapt, your pace will quicken (for the same effort level) and you’ll have developed a super efficient fat burning engine. So, stick with me here…this is the bedrock of your future training.
The long run can be a daunting part of training for a longer race, but if you follow the elite approach to easy running, you will be race ready in no time.
Why running easy works
When I work with my beginner runners, we just focus on gradually increasing the length of time they can run for, and build up consistency of training – it’s simple and it works.
This is not the time to think about speed and pace, it is best to just get used to comfortable running where your body can adapt, stay healthy, and develop an efficient running rhythm.
Too many training plans out there have you doing speed intervals, tempo runs, and hills when you are just not ready. Of course it’s important to include a little of this ‘high end’ work, but a solid aerobic base is the fundamental foundation on which you’ll build everything else.
Regular aerobic training will train your body to utilize oxygen, preserve glycogen stores by using fat for fuel, and generally become more efficient.
However, I estimate that at least 75% of runners – of all abilities – run too fast too often, and end up in the ‘mid zone’; training neither the aerobic or anaerobic systems correctly.
Many coaches, myself included, recommend an overall balance of hard/easy training (whilst avoiding the moderate zone), a method now becoming known as ‘polarized training’. The avoidance of ‘moderate’ training is the key, and runners focus on ‘easy’ paced running for the majority of time, with a sprinkling of really hard work (where you really can’t chat!) mixed in for approx 20% of the weekly mileage.
Not only do you train a more efficient fat burning body, but the benefits mean you recover faster, and can therefore put in some harder efforts, rather than being chronically fatigued from ‘mid zone’ running’
Recent research from Dr Stephen Seiler et al from the University of Agdar, Norway, backs up this methodology; finding that high volume, low intensity training stimulates greater training effects for recreational runners, in particular when using the 80/20 split of easy/hard training.
A conclusion backed up by the 2014 Salzburg study published in the Frontiers of Physiology, found that the concept of ‘polarized’ training demonstrated the greatest improvements.
After a 9 week training period, runners using the 80/20 easy/hard split had improved their ‘time to exhaustion’ by a whopping 17.4% and change in peak speed by 5.1%.
This group had completed 68% of their training in the low intensity zone, and 24% at high intensity, with only 6% in the ‘moderate’ zone.
So what does that mean for you? How do you put this into practice?
In a world of high intensity training fads, advice to slow down might seem counterintuitive, but it works The key to running further, and ultimately faster is to slow down, especially for your long runs. Easy to say, but harder to do. If you take only one thing away from this article, it’s this – faster is NOT always better.
When you first start out running, you’re likely to have one pace. As you get more experienced and your fitness improves, you will need to develop a wider range of paces. Your long run or easy pace may be 90 seconds – three minutes slower than your ‘top end’ pace.
US Marathon Champion Esther Erb likes to make sure she takes her easy running seriously, “I see hard recovery runs as an indicator of insecurity. When it comes to recovery, it takes more confidence to run slowly than it does to run fast”. Erb runs the majority of her easy runs between 8:00 and 9:00 per mile! Although that pace may seem fast, keep in mind that her race pace is around 5:45 per mile!
This is the key to building up your long run. Simply slow down – to a walk if you need to – spend more time on your feet and just extend the time/distance bit by bit.
How slow?
Using heart rate as a guide
But how slow is slow? If you want to be scientific about it, you can work out your heart rate training zones and try to keep your pulse at around 70% of your max. If you want to go down this route then use the following calculations:
1. Calculate your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR):
Women: 209 – (0.9 x age) = MHR
Men: 214 – (0.8 x age) = MHR
2. Calculate your Working Heart Rate (WHR) by subtracting your resting pulse (RHR)- measure as soon as you wake up in the morning (while still in bed) from your MRH.
MHR – RHR = WHR
3. Calculate 70% of WHR (0.7 x WHR) and add to your RHR. That should give you your 70% zone HR. This is where the bulk of your running, including your long run, should be. For the vast majority of people it will be around 130-140bpm.
You can also use our training zones calculator to assist you with this.
To work out your ‘top end’ zone, do the same but calculate 85%.
Using pace as your guide
If you don’t like heart rate (we don’t 🙂, then you can use pace as your guide.
Your optimal long run pace is between 55 and 75 percent of your 5k pace, with the average pace being about 65 percent.
From research, we also know that running faster than 75% of your 5k pace on your long run doesn’t provide a lot of additional physiological benefit. Therefore, pushing the pace beyond 75% of 5k pace only serves to make you more tired and hamper recovery.
In fact, the research indicates that it would be just as advantageous to run slower as it would be to run faster. 50-55 percent of 5k pace is pretty easy, but the research clearly demonstrates that it still provides near optimal physiological benefits.
Additional Notes about Easy Long Runs
If you do not use a heart rate monitor, run at a comfortable pace where you can chat easily, without gasping for breath. If you can hear yourself breathing, you’re going too fast. On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being super hard) you’ll be around a 5. It should feel really comfortable and the sort of pace you keep going at that pace for hours.
Forget about measuring your ‘pace’ and distance on your GPS watch at this stage. Focusing too much on your watch will only lead to you push on too fast, and undo all your good work.
Learn to run to ‘feel’ rather than keeping to a pace. Don’t forget, that ‘feel’ should be easy. Walk up hills, keep it steady and don’t put any pressure on yourself other than to go a little further.
Run with a friend (find one slower than you normally), have a nice chat, and check out the views. It might take a bit of time to get your head around it, but this is exactly the methodology that will take you to the next level.
Those long easy runs – through the countryside or on the trails, with your partner or running buddy – are to be treasured. Use the time to catch up with your spouse or kids, explore new routes and revel in the joy of going long. There’s nothing else like it.
Last week I managed to get to the hills twice and both times ran my favourite 22km trail , taking just over two hours and 30 minutes each time. These runs although not long in kilometres serve as my long run in the fact I’m on my feet for a good time and also they are testing for reasons mentioned earlier in this post, basically trail running is harder than the equivalent road version. To recover from the weekend I used fisciocrem and human Tecar after both runs. The products certainly helped as the next day I managed to avoid the onset DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness)
Fisiocrem is a must have in your 200 miler box of tricks.
One last shout out to the Human Tecar products ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) especially the recovery bandages. After the recent KepV2 105km race I used the bandages the next day and my recovery from the event was so much better, largely DOMS free and back into training the following week registering 75km for the week and only three days of no running. I have been able to add to that weekly total the subsequent week and intend to go further this week, a perfect recovery pre-Unreasonable East in less than three weeks. ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ )
Human Tecar recovery bandages and they smell good too.
The Transcend Ultra is the ultra that bites. Put on by local ultra running legend Shane Johnstone , the owner of Valetudo health( https://www.valetudohealth.com.au/coaching-services/ ) and winner of the Delirious West 200 miler 2021 ( https://www.deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) He also held the Fastest Known Time for the Bibbulum Track point to point until recently, and that’s a 1,000km track. There are many more accolades including placings at high profile European Ultras including the UTMB, he knows his stuff !
The Transcend Ultra is a 65km ultra that runs through the Avon valley on land that in mostly private, so inaccessible for the rest of the year. Thanks to Shane it is available only for the race and boy is it worth running it if you can. The terrain is brutal and in its inaugural year last year there was the added bonus of monsoon conditions before and during the event. Me and the lads went for a recon the week before on one of the legs and it was muddy as hell, we nearly lost Barts at a water crossing, albeit Barts does not like water or crossings so put them together and you have a highly amusing story !
The race is on the 26th June and there are team or solo options , depending how brave you feel. If you are unsure of completing the full distance the team option is a perfect starter before you take on the main course in 2023, because you will go back for second helpings.
Unfortunately I missed it last year as I was scheduled to run the Irrational South and this year it’s too close to the Unreasonable East ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ ) but I will be making a big effort to get to the start line for 2023. A word of warning though the terrain is unforgiving and there are some serious climbs scattered throughput the course. What I like about this event is its uniqueness in that there is the opportunity to be running in some seriously wet conditions , which in Western Australia is rare. This event will test you so I would recommend getting in some recon runs as close to the course as you can pre-event. If you need any more information check out the webpage or Facebook page detailed earlier in the post or pop down to Valetudo health in Floreat.
I assume it starts in the dark , not finishes in the dark.. albeit depending on how fast you run of course ?
A bunch of happy runners, ready for the challenge ahead.
I am lucky enough to live in Western Australia where thanks to Shaun Kaesler and his Ultra Series WA ( https://ultraserieswa.com.au/ ) there is a smorgasbord of ultra races. When I first came to Australia and Perth there was really just two options , the Bunbury 50k and the 40 Miler. Both of these events had small fields and everybodies, including my own, main focus was the marathon or shorter races. Over time some other great races came along including the iconic Kep 175/100k ( http://kepultra.com/ ) and the Australia Day Ultra ( https://australiadayultra.com/ ) but until Shaun and hos band of merry helpers burst onto the scene ultra running in WA was an afterthought.
This all changed when Shaun put together his Ultra Series and since then more and more races have been added to the calendar culminating in the big daddy of them all the Delirious West 200 Miler ( https://www.deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) Then the icing on the cake has been the Triple Crown Down Under , three 200 milers spread throughout Australia similar to the American version ( The Big foot 200, the Tahoe 200 and the Moab 240) . In Australia we would be offered the Delirious West , the Unreasonable East ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ ) and the Irrational South. ( https://irrationalsouth200miler.com.au/ ) These would need to completed in less than 14 weeks , starting with Delirious in February, Irrational in April and Unreasonable in June, no mean feat. I had planned to complete the inaugural triple crown after finishing Delirious in February but catching COVID two weeks out from Irrational put an end to that dream.
At the moment a 200 miler is a beast tamed by only a few runners and as such has serious kudos but as more and more runners take on this animal of an event it will start to become more mainstream and once the general public hears about it you, as a runner, will be judged . A marathon has long lost its appeal to the non-running public as a mark of achievement. These days runners are putting together 50 marathons in 50 days and that still get little acknowledgement. An ultra , while initially filling a void, has now lost its appeal as again more runners make the move to 50k/100k or even a 100 miles. Adding in cool names helps, like running any race with death in its title, but ultimately now you need to have a three digit total distance starting with at least a two.
I’ve completed the Delirious West twice now and both times had the time of my life. I have always maintained a 200 miler is an adventure, not a race, shared with great friends, i.e. crew. After Delirious 2021 Gary , being one of the double act of the batman (Gary ) and Robin (Alex) crew that supported me (see below), said he had as much fun as I did, which I took as a positive. We all just morphed into younger versions of ourselves free of the chains of adulthood, albeit only for a week. The memories you take from a 200 miler, both good and bad, will stay with you until death or Alzheimer’s , which ever comes first.
So can anybody complete a 200 miler ? I say yes, if you can run a marathon you can run a 200 miler. Of course you may be chasing cut off times but these are normally generous enough and I know last year, at Delirious , one runner just about walked the whole distance albeit with very little sleep, you can’t have it both ways. If you are prepared to keep moving forward and finish sleep depraved a 200 miler is do able. Of course it is certainly more pleasant if you train and run a bit or even better run a lot. Distance and elevation are the keys for 200 mile training, run as much as you can and add as much elevation as you can find. Any gym work on your major leg muscles will also help.
Me and my crew, legends both of them. I can’t thank them enough. Delirious 2021.
Another big benefit of running a 200 miler is you get to eat , a lot ! The aid stations are normally full of a fabulous assortment of culinary delights, just about everything you heart would desire. Add in volunteers at your beck and call , as well as your crew, and you feel like a King , or Queen. It can make leaving these oasis of pleasures, to continue on your journey of pain, difficult but every step you take after leaving one is a step closer to the next one. That my friends is ultra running summed up right there, an eating and drinking competition with running between aid stations.
More benefits of a 200 miler are the comradery from volunteers and competitors alike. In a marathon everybody is very self centered on their time goals, with minimal thought for anybody else, it is a selfish distance. Time is critical and a second lost here and there is life changing. With 200 milers everybody wants you to finish as much as you do, it is a combined effort and they get as much satisfaction as you , well maybe not as much but close. You can lose hours and not be adversely affected , if you finish as far as Joe Public is concerned you are a winner. Actually if you finish a 200 miler as far as everybody is concerned you are a winner, even getting to the start line is a badge of honour.
Finally when was the last time someone said ‘They’ve invented cars for those types of distances, you do know that right?‘ or ‘I find it hard driving 200 miles’ , you get the idea, people are still very impressed when you say you’ve completed a 200 miler. A marathon is now about as exciting as someone cutting their grass over the weekend and taking their kids swimming, (to the untrained eye) it’s kind of weird that the general public as a whole has got lazier but expect us runners to go further and push ourselves harder to give away any kudos at the coffee shop on a Monday morning , while they dig in to their double chocolate donut, drinking their litre of creamy coffee with three sugars.
I have run a few races that I class as really long. These being single stage races, over 200 miles such as the Tor des Geants or the Spine. The main difference between these races and say a 100 miler, is that most people won’t need to sleep during a 100, whereas the opposite is true for the 200+ miler. Other than the sleep, it is simply more time on your feet and generally higher fatigue rates. Oh, and let’s not forget that isincredibly intimidating to stand on the start line of a 250–mile race. A 250–mile drive on a motorway is bad enough!
So, how do you get through such a huge race? How do you train? What are the main difficulties you will face?
Mental strength and Self-belief
This,for me is the biggest strength you need for the longer races. The longer the race, the more of a mental strength is needed to tackle it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dismissing the physical side of things, just trying to highlight the importance of a strong mental approach to these races.
How can this sort of strength be encouraged to grow? Well, you could work your way through races, getting slightly longer and/or harder over time. It works. The more you do, the more your comfort level grows. When you started running you may have been intimidated by a marathon, but now you are not as you have run a few 50 milers.
You could also do some challenges of your own, such as catching a train 50 miles away and running home or doing a two day run and bivvying overnight or running all through the night and anything else that your imagination can dream up. These sorts of personal challenges are great for confidence but are also incredibly fulfilling. They also teach you how you operate when heavily fatigued.
We are all different though. Some people can jump into a big challenge, whereas others prefer a longer, methodical build up. Experience is the key that will help everyone better understand the task ahead. For example, it wasn’t till my third very long race where I felt that I had really optimised my sleep pattern.
Physical strength
I won’t go into any specifics about exactly what you should be doing each day, more about what is actually needed to comfortably finish.
If you do, or have ever done some serious marathon training, then that would be adequate for a 100 miler, and if you are 100 mile fit, then you are 250 mile fit. It also is dependent on your mental outlook. Many people feel that you need to do mega mileage to prepare for a super long race, but I disagree. Yes, if you wanted to get a top 20 result, then some heavier mileage could well help, but heavy mileage is risky for injuries, and many of us just don’t have the time in our lives to be out for a few hours a day.
This is where a few big days, or even back to back days can really help build the self-belief that you and your body can actually pull it off. See if you can book a training camp (or holiday to your partner) so you can get some bigger days in. Just a long weekend somewhere is all that’s needed, but it can really help your mental and physical preparation.
Remember to train for what you are realistically going to be doing in the race. Running slowly, and plenty of walking! Practising a fast and efficient walk can help your overall speed a great deal, and many people will neglect this area in their preparation.
If it is a mountain race then practice walking uphill, and in equal measure, running downhill. Practice descending as smoothly as possible.The downhills are where a great deal of micro damage will occur in your muscles and if this can be minimised then it should be.
Finally, I would strongly advise poles, no matter how much you are against them. They can really be very useful, the more tired you get. Crossing rivers, stability in slippery conditions, uphill rhythm, and ideal if you get a minor injury that you can still run with but need the extra ‘legs’. You must practice with them before the event as poorly used poles can be fairly useless.
Have a plan
Do you plan to the nth degree for every race, or are you super chilled and not even look at the route before race day? I would suggest that whichever camp you fall in, to have some planning. Due to the length of these races and the confusing, drunken levels of fatigue that you may well experience, some simple rules can really help out and save time.
Some things to consider:
Clothing – Think about all the weather you could experience over the week (which can be the full range!) Is that super light waterproof jacket going to be any use if it snows and you are struggling to keep warm? Maybe have spare shoes in your drop bag? If it gets really cold which is massively heightened when really tired, do you have enough layers? Do you have protection from the sun (hat, arms and neck)?
Pace – Decide how you would like to pace it. You will be walking a lot, but when and how much? I walked almost all the uphills in the Tor, Onlyrunning the gentlest of slopes. You have to always consider the whole race. Try not to get caught out in racing others in the first 100 miles or even more!
Drop bags – If you get the opportunity to use one, then use it! it can be a lifesaver during a longer event. A few changes of clothes, A few pairs of shoes, some food treats, and any other little luxury that you couldn’t carry but may give a big boost.
Check point discipline – I like to have discipline with being as slick as possible at the check points, as it is so easy to sit, staring vacantly at the wall, in the warmth while the time just flies by. Before I arrive, I will mentally go through everything and work out the order to do it all in. Eating, drinking, picking up food supplies, changing clothes, filling up water bottles etc. It is all so simple, but so important too. It is so easy to forget one thing.
Route knowledge – it is an advantage to at least have a basic understanding of the course. Many runners will have been studying it for months and will know exactly what is around every corner. This all comes down to your personality. Do you like to know exactly what is happening or do you like things a little more casual. I fall a little more on the side of casual and would spend a minute studying the next section at each checkpoint before leaving. Knowing there is a climb that could take 3 hrs beforehand is much better than climbing for 3 hrs and not having a clue when the torture will end!
Knowledge database – There is a reason that when many hard races are born, they have a higher DNF rate than now, and that is because over time, the experience and knowledge that is gained over the years, trickles down to the new runners, and confidence grows, and the success rates grow.Many of us (all?) have a love hate relationship with the internet and in particular social media, but it does have its advantages. Joining the right groups and connecting with previous runners is one great way of picking up some valuable information. Also, just visit this site, and read others race reports which are a goldmine for nuggets of information that could help you finish, plus they can really get you very excited and motivated about the challenge ahead.
Sleep
Now this is where it can all go so badly wrong if you don’t get it right. Believe me, I know! If you hallucinate then you should have slept earlier!
My simple rule is to sleep if youfeel tired and not push on to the next checkpoint. You see, when you get into such a poor, tired state, there is nothing positive about it. You move a lot slower, you feel colder and most dangerously, your judgement is clouded at the best. It suddenly becomes very difficult to look after yourself, especially when you are in the mountains in hostile conditions. Keeping yourself warm, dry, fed and watered suddenly become huge tasks and simple decision making goes to pot. Basically, if you get just a little more sleep, you will move faster, and be able to look after yourself much better. Don’t wait till you are about to drop. Don’t get caught up running with others as we all have different sleep demands at different times. Some people just power nap for 20 mins, but this is not enough for me I have learnt. 1.5hrs or 2hrs a day works well for me. But remember that you need to experiment to find your own optimum amount.
Coaching
If the preparation is all a bit too overwhelming, then maybe consider coaching. A good coach with relevant experience, will be able to help you structure your training, choose equipment and will be able to answer all your questions that will make things seem more manageable. Drop me a line at neilbryant@hotmail.co.uk if you are interested.
Do it!
These are just my simple observations about what works and what doesn’t over the longer single stage ultras where sleep becomes essential. But you must remember that you need to get out there and try things out. I just want to take some of the fear away from these 200 plus mile events so that more of you try them. They are hard, mentally and physically, but the reward from finishing one of these monsters is huge. With the right mindset, and as long as the body still works, most people could finish one, so why not enter one? What could possibly go wrong!
Below is a post asking is the Ultra is the new marathon , has this has now changed to a 200 miler being the new ultra ?
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 ?
6 Inch Trail Ultra, only 4k’s more than a marathon but to the untrained eye a whole different animal, an Ultra !!
Finally a few items that you must have when you run a 200 miler. Fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) to get you through the event and human tecar ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) to help you recover quickly. Both of these products are my go-to items before, during and after the race. Please note both of these companies supply me with their products because I hassled them until they did, they are that good.
Finally a thankyou to the good people at Paire socks who reached out to me to try their product. ( https://www.paire.com.au/ ) New to the market I was more than happy to try the Paire product and I’m glad I did. Paire suppled me with three pairs, active ankle, quarter and calf and all were very comfortable.
From their website ‘A thoughtfully designed blend of Australian Merino wool and organic combed cotton. Smoother softer, moisture-wicking and odour absorbing (read : not stinky). A true fabric chameleon – warm in the cold and cold in the heat.’
What I like about this product, similar to Fisiocrem and Human Tecar is it just does what it says on the box. As a consumer that is all I ask, honesty. All three varients supplied by Paire are just good, simple really. The socks fit well, feel good and are obviously good quality, what more would you want ?
I could wax lyrical about Paire all day long but I think it’s best that I say they are a good sock and you won’t be disappointed. I have used all three pairs sent me extensively over the last few weeks and am about to go for a run with them after finishing this post, that about sums it up. If you need all the other interesting facts about the brand , and there are quite a few, pop along to their website, it’s worth a visit. ( https://www.paire.com.au/ )
Finally if the review wasn’t positive enough I have a 15% off discount code : XYZ . Use this and save on this great product.
Right enough of this, time to put on my Paire socks and do what I love doing, go for a run, albeit probably not a 200 miler this afternoon.
Good quality and comfortable, you can’t ask for more from a sock.
Paire socks, feels good or good feels, you decide.
Maybe the Piper has started warming up….and it’s time to pay him ?
As I have booked in the Melbourne Marathon this October I need to pull my finger out and get my average pace down to sub 3 hour finishing time acceptable levels. We were discussing this at Yelo this morning , over quality coffee and muffins, (No one tell Georges!) and it hit home how far away I am from a sub three hour marathon. I’ve only ran two marathons in the last five years and both of those , in 2019 , were in the high two hour fifty range, no much room for error. Since then I have ran 15 ultra marathons ranging from 47km right up to 350km (200 miles), not really marathon training, well fast marathon training.
The only saving grace is I have always kept reasonable weekly totals and overall I’m certainly running slow and steady. Have I done enough to add a smattering of pace to so sub 3 , not sure ? The timetable is tight as always. I have a 200 miler planned for the end of June, ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ ) then a backyard ultra early August ( https://birdysbackyardultra.com.au/ ) . After Birdy’s I’ll start to concentrate on Melbourne adding some pace and tempo, thresholds, fartlek type runs in the mix. The only fly in my sub 3 marathon ointment is a backyard ultra planned two weeks before the big day. Melbourne is first week in October and I have the inaugural ‘No time to Die’ frontyard ultra 16th September. ( https://nttdfrontyard.com.au/ ), am I being greedy, hell yeah but life is short. It would be nice to add number 30 to my sub 3 streak but I enjoy the ultra’s too much to miss any.
29 in a row… 30 sounds so much better !
Right here’s a couple of articles, one written by me, that may shed light on the train slow to race fast mentality.
I have posted on this a few times over the last 18 months but it is always worth a revisit. Slow and steady really does make you , long term, faster. It’s benefits are three fold, I believe you will enjoy your training more (with all that ‘smell the roses’ pace), it’s an injury prevention method of training (less impact associated with adding pace) and finally the benefits will spur on more success. Let’s face it running is all about achieving goals and the more goals we achieve the more addicted we all become to the runners high.
I have attached two articles on the subject below. The first one of mine from January 2017 which highlighted my experience with slowing down over a period of time and seeing the rewards when I raced. I was able to show ,with the help of Strava (in Strava we trust… http://www.strava.com ; feel free to follow me on Strava, there is a link at the bottom of the home page) how over time I has slowed on my ‘old faithful’ run but my racing times had got better. This was over a long period of time and over 200 runs so a pretty good baseline, very ‘scientific’ if I say so myself.
The second article is from Runners Connect and is advocating a similar approach, moderate workouts being the ideal way to train long term.
In 2013 I ran quick all the time, by quick I mean sub 4min/k average every time I put on my trainers. Be it a 10k, 21k or 30k, my goal was to finish with a sub 4min/k average. To compound this issue I also stopped running long runs after reading an article in Runners World magazine about a training program where you would run at your marathon pace all the time. The logic was if your marathon pace became your normal pace when you were tired during the marathon you would revert to your normal ‘training pace’, which of course would be your marathon pace. The training program also recommend not running too many long runs but more runs around the 20-25k distance.
This training program yielded some good results but I sacrificed my top end speed as I wasn’t running any tempo or threshold runs, just lots of sub 4min/k’s. Raf from the Running Centre (http://therunningcentre.com.au ) picked me up on this on Strava ( http://www.strava.com ) and recommended I try a 10k threshold at least once a week, just to break the monotony of running the same pace for every run. I was surprised when I tried to add pace as I struggled and my 10k times weren’t that quicker than my ‘normal’ pace. Something was amiss and I was found out at the Bunbury Marathon in 2014 when I blew up after leading the race for the first 10k. I admit there was also some mental problems as I was defending my marathon title after winning (my only marathon victory) in 2013. I had gone out at my 10k pace truth be told and at 15k my race was finished. I met Raf afterwards, in the hotel spa of all places, and he could sense my disappointment of finishing 4th in a time of 2hrs54mins, when I aiming for a sub 2hr40min finish truth be told.
For the rest of 2014 I struggled on (Bunbury was in April) and although I managed 2hrs 46mins at the Perth Marathon I never managed to reach the heights I had reached in 2013. Something needed to change and in January 2015 I was taken under Raf’s wings and given a program for the Perth marathon, my first training program at the ripe old age of 48. The first 3-4 months were harder than I expected as I really struggled with the top end pace work. The steady and long runs were do able but my top end pace just wasn’t there. Over time I did improve of course thanks to Raf’s coaching skills but all the good work was undone by a slight stress fracture just before the Perth marathon. (Picked up on the last steady run , a week out ! Always the way ?) I ran a 2hrs49mins, 9th place finish, but Raf had me in better condition than that but the injury played on my mind.
After Perth Raf gave me another training plan for the City to Surf marathon in August and I stuck to this one and ran a good time for a 4th place but more importantly a strong race and strong finish. My first good marathon for over a year. Although I enjoyed working with Raf I was time constrained by my family, work, life etc, the runners quandary. I decided for 2016 to take what Raf had taught me and adapt my training accordingly.
I think the most important thing Raf taught me was there is no such thing as ‘junk miles‘, every kilometre you run is doing you some good, at whatever pace. This to me was a ‘lightning bolt’ moment as I was so use to running every run as a tempo and finishing with nothing left in the tank. I just didn’t run slow, ever ! The first few runs I ran at a slow pace I was questioned on Stava by my running friends as to whether I was injured, such was the disbelieve that I could run anything bar sub 4min/k’s. I must admit the first few times it felt alien and I had to really work hard to run slow. Raf introduced me to the Maffetone training method ( https://philmaffetone.com , I have mentioned this a few times on the blog.) and I was off building my foundation for the success which was to come in 2016.
Fast forward to the Perth marathon of 2016 and I just about ran a negative split and was 2 minutes quicker than the previous year. After Perth I added the double days and the PB’s came tumbling down and my confidence returned in spades. I managed to drop my 5k, 10k, 16k,21k and 50k PB times and by quite a chunk each time. So how did I do it ? Basically I slowed down, ran more and raced more. It really was (is) that simple. Taking what Raf taught me, reading Matt Fitzgerald’s books and a sprinkling of Maffetone added to the mix and hey presto.
Every runner needs to read this.
Thanks to Strava (in Strava we trust) you can see how this slowing down is trending on my 10k go-to run of choice. (see below) Over time you can clearly see my running average pace for the 10k is slowing but in the same period I have ran probably 10 PB’s, so there is a correlation of slowing down to speeding up when you put a bib on your chest. Of course I have added distance and more time on my feet into the equation, combined with racing more but the slowing down is a factor.
It really is a case of slowing down to speed up.
My last 200 runs on my go-to 10k of choice, old faithful.
Being abused by Gary Carlton. Rottnest Marathon 2016 I think.. ?
Why Running Harder Won’t Help You Get Faster
In the vocabulary of a runner, patience is a dirty word. Runners always want to run faster, run more miles, and crush their personal bests and they want it now. To be more accurate, they wanted it yesterday. I know I felt this way before I donned my coaching cap. I wasn’t satisfied with a workout unless I needed to be carried off the track and was forced to spend the rest of the day passed out on the couch. That was dedication. Surely, this is what it took to be the best runner I could be.
Unfortunately, this mindset couldn’t be more wrong.
Not only did this way of thinking impact my short-term goals, thanks to all-to-frequent injuries and bouts of overtraining, but as you’ll learn in this article, it likely affected my long-term progress as well.
As I’ve matured as a runner and changed my perspective on training as a coach, I’ve come to fully appreciate and value the art of patience. This shift in mindset wasn’t easy and it didn’t happen overnight. Hopefully, with the help of some hard, scientific data and a sprinkling of anecdotal evidence, this article can accelerate your maturation as a runner and help you achieve your goals.
Finish a workout feeling like you could have done more
This is a phrase you’ll hear from any running coach worth his or her salt. As elite coach Jay Johnson espouses to his athletes, “you should be able to say after every one of your workouts that you could have done one more repeat, one more segment or one more mile.”
Coach Jay doesn’t just pay this rule lip service. He’s known for cutting workouts short when an athlete looks like they’re over that edge. It’s one of the reasons his athletes continue to perform and improve consistently, year after year.
In this study, one group of athletes performed a series of workouts at near maximum intensity for twelve weeks. The researchers then had another group perform the same type of workouts (same repeat distance and same amount of rest) yet at a much more moderate intensity.
The results. The high intensity group improved rapidly, recording an increase in VO2 max 30 percent higher than the moderate group after three weeks.
Well, that doesn’t seem to support our theory that patience pays off, does it?
Luckily, the researchers went a step further and recorded changes to VO2 max for six, nine and twelve weeks under the same training methodology. This is where the results get truly interesting.
After nine weeks, the high intensity group’s improvements in VO2 max were only 10 percent greater than the moderate group. More importantly, after 9 weeks, the high intensity group stopped improving and after 12 weeks showed the same level of improvement to VO2 max as the moderate group.
Clearly, this research shows that while you’ll see rapid improvements from running workouts as hard as you can in the first few weeks, this improvement curve will level off and running at moderate intensity levels will produce equal, if not better, long-term results.
Of course, like all studies, this research has it’s flaws. Mainly, both groups performed the same workouts for twelve weeks, which means the same stimulus was being applied with each session. However, I’d also point out that when training for 5k or marathon for 12 weeks, the workouts won’t vary much. Sure, the workouts will look different, 12 x 400 meters at 3k pace versus 6 x 800 meters at 5k pace, but you’re still training the same energy system.
Regardless, the data supports what good coaches have known for years.
Consistent, moderate workouts will trump a few weeks of hard, gut-busting workouts every time.
But I want to improve faster
Of course, looking at that data, most runners would still choose the high intensity approach. If the end result after 12 weeks is the same, why not make the fitness gains faster the first three to six week?
Not covered in this particular research study was the impact of injuries and overtraining on potential improvement curve and long-term progress.
It’s not surprising, and it’s been supported by numerous research studies and anecdotal examples, that increased intensity is correlated with higher injury risk. Meaning, the harder (faster) you train, the more likely it is you’ll get injured.
The problem I encounter with many runners who try to workout too hard is the injury cycle, which inhibits long-term progress because for every two steps forward, you take one step back.
Using a similar graph to the one provided in the research study, let’s examine the long-term consequences of always pushing your workouts as hard as you can versus running moderate and always feeling like you could have done more.
While the actual improvement data in the image is fictional, it is based off the data from the actual study representing improvement curve. The difference is that I’ve extended the training period to ten months and factored in injuries and potential overtraining. This graph accurately represents my experience with trying to run every workout as hard as I could and the vast data I’ve collected working as a coach for the past eight years.
As you can see, the high intensity runner speeds out of the gait and is far ahead of the moderate intensity runner after a few weeks. However, it doesn’t take long before the high intensity runner suffers his or her first injury and is setback a week or two. No worries, with just a few weeks of high intensity training, they are back ahead of the slow plodding moderate intensity runner. However, this cycle continues to repeat itself until the high intensity runners is far behind the consentient, steady performer.
More importantly, after 42 weeks, the high intensity runner is at a point that they can no longer make up the difference in fitness simply by training hard for a few weeks.
They will continue to struggle to reach their potential until they finally learn to run their workouts at a moderate level and train to their current level of fitness.
Don’t be the high intensity runner. Learn from the mistakes of countless runners before you, the research and scientific data, and the wisdom of coaches who know their stuff.
The KepV2 is a new addition to the WA racing calendar with its inaugural event last year. The original Kep was created by Rob Donkersloot ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) and was a point to point from Northam to Mundaring. ( https://kepultra.com/ ), the website is still up , as of 2022. It was basically the only real ultra in WA for many years and has entered into folklore since it was forced to fold due to unachievable Council constraints, mainly on the number of road crossings and insurance costs. Shaun Kaesler ( https://ultraserieswa.com.au/ ) has created an event that holds true to the original but is an out and back, thus limiting the number of crossings and making the event feasible.
I entered last year with a long run with a medal mentality as it is only three weeks out from the Lighthorse Ultra ( https://lighthorseultra.com.au/ ) , this was no different this year so again I went into the event with the same mentality, enjoy the race but don’t push it, bigger fish to fry later in the year. Added to the mix was a nasty head cold that had been hanging around the week before and I was more worried about just finishing.
So on a cold and wet Saturday morning we all lined up at the start and quietly shuffled off , more council stipulations, to alleviate any noise complaints, you see what I mean about keeping this event going !
This would have been on the way back as I have my poles, also notice my nice new Hoka Mach 4’s.
This race can be broken down into four stages. Stage one is a 15km downhill section before stage two , a 37km uphill slog to the half way and then the opposite coming back. As you can image the race really starts when you hit the bottom of the final 15km section, uphill, all the way to the finish after running 90km to get there. Challenging is a nice way to describe this last part of the race, or bonkers, but I’ll get there later in the post.
My game plan was the same as last years, I had my poles ready for me at the halfway aid station and would use them to propel me to the finish while limiting damage on my tired legs. I had no aspirations about finishing position just finishing strongly, or as strong as possible. With this game plan in mind after the start I settled in around 6th male and just enjoyed the serenity of a beautiful morning on the trails with like minded people. I have said many times I race often because this is what I enjoy the most, bib on my chest and just being around people with the same views on life, the universe and everything, at least when it comes to running.
The first 15km to the Bellevue aid station is nearly all down hill and deceptively so in some places. I knew this would be a different story on the way back with 90km’s in the legs and over eight hours running, I made a mental note to prepare myself for this and as already mentioned break the race into the four sections I have already described. This is good for any race, any distance. Rather than race the whole thing I always break it down to manageable chunks. In this case four different sections but for longer races just use the distance between aid stations, this may break down to twenty or so smaller goals for a 200 miler.
Early on in the race as I have my Gore-tex jacket on, no poles and smiling.
After Bellevue its a uphill slog to the halfway point passing through John Forrest (23K) , Mount Helana (35K) and Chidlow (41K) aid stations before reaching the turn around at Wooroloo (52k) . Because it’s an out and back there was more than enough aid stations and you always felt you were either just leaving one , or just arriving at the next. This made a big difference to what you needed to carry and also the conditions helped being cool meaning you didn’t need to be constantly worried about hydration, which is the norm in Western Australia.
As I mentioned earlier in the piece I settled down into 6th place and put on Taylor Swift’s greatest hits on the shokz headphones ( https://shokz.com/ ) to serenade me to halfway. On a side note if you are a runner who listens to music , pod casts etc you must by a pair of Shokz headphones, so good ! I think we have three in the house at the moment, I may even get a pair for the dogs.
As I have already mentioned I was not interested in racing this event, three weeks prior I had won the 24 Lighthorse ultra with a distance of over 200km and was in no state to put it all on the line again so soon. Pre-event I was also battling a head cold and I even had thoughts of pulling out earlier in the week. This was not an A race and was certainly expendable for the greater good if needed. Luckily I held my nerve and rocked up at the start.
Still running up to the aid station at half way as no poles and still smiling.
Racing wise I started to feel the urge when I saw my good friend Charles , he of Delirious West 200 miler third place getter, struggling coming into Chidlow aid station. He certainly didn’t look great and he would eventually finish well over 12 hours which is pretty special given he looked finished at 40k. Mentally strong he decided to change his strategy from racing for a poduim to just finishing, a hard thing to do mid race. Massive kudos to him, sometimes it’s not the runner first past the post who is the real winner. In an ultra there are certainly more deserving winners that the three who get recognised as podium places.
After leaving Chidlow I then spied my drive buddy to the event, Simon Bennet. Simon has a great pedigree and has placed top 10 at the Margaret River Ultra twice, which is pretty special. ( https://margaretriver.rapidascent.com.au/ ) He is returning from injury and we ran to the halfway together. At the halfway point Trevor had just left before me and Tony Smith was way ahead of all of us, cruising to another victory to go with his great time last year. I entered the aid station 5th but with a quick turn around left in third place, with Simon hot on my heels. It’s funny how all the talk of a ‘long run with a medal‘ goes out the window when you suddenly find yourself on the podium. All of a sudden it became a ‘ you ain’t getting any younger and these opportunities may not present them again‘ type run, basically it was ‘on like Donkey Kong‘.
After I picked up my poles I really started to motor, first to drop Simon and second Trevor was probably only a few minutes ahead of me. Jumping to podium contention had reignited my competitive spirit and with Rob Donkersloot at each aid station I had the perfect tactician to aid my cause. It’s so funny how a race can change so quickly and the goals are reassessed and changed. Charles was initially gunning for a podium , now all he wanted was a finishers medal while I was the polar opposite.
I managed to catch Trevor coming into Helena aid station and after giving him some advice on how to run the rest of the race I left him there and really put my foot down. Rob had informed me the lead runner had been disqualified so I entered Helena aid station third and left in the lead, the pressure was on now big time. I started doing the maths in my head, 35km to hold on for the win. This is when course knowledge comes into play, I was faced with 20km of decent running virtually all down hill or flat before the climb to the finish. I had done it before and knew what to expect so I did enough to maintain my lead but also put some distance between me and the chasing pack giving me a buffer for the last climb. I actually felt pretty good surprisingly enough and maintained a good pace all the way back to Bellevue aid station, the last before the finish.
At Bellevue I put the shokz headphones back in, dialed in Taylor Swift again and off I went , the final uphill slog to the finish. It wasn’t pretty and I was certainly suffering but I managed to keep moving forward only really walking, for a hundred or so metres at a time, for the last four to five kilometres when I knew I was going to win, well first male anyway.
Crossing the line in first place, will it be the last time ? It felt great to place first male as it was so unexpected but also the race panned out so well with all the cards falling into place. Can I do it again, no way. Circumstances on the day just gave me the win, lead runners getting disqualified and fellow competitors being either under done or just not feeling it, everything conspired for me to get to the line first. Of course you got to be in it to win it and I have a base fitness now that if these opportunities present themselves I can take advantage but I’m still in shock truth be told.
With RD Simone, a nicer person you will never meet.
Right a few images of the presentations , the trophy and the main reason we Ultra runners do what we do, the great food. The image above is of Simone , one of the race directors, and myself. These events take so much time to organise, setup , run and clear away and they need a legion of volunteers who have to be managed. The race directors on these events put in massive hours before the event and on the day will be there for nearly the full 24 hours, actually probably longer. Simone works for the Ultra Series so spends her whole life organsing these type of events behind the scenes and then steps up for the race director role on a few of them. You need a passion to pull these events off and the Ultra Series staff and volunteers have this in spades. Where ever you are in the world I urge you to get involved with a running club or organisation and just experience the comradery of these type of events, they will change your life and allow you to surround yourself with wonderful like minded people.
Veronica, myself, Sophie and Tom , what was left of the podium runners..
Once Veronica came in we were able to have the presentation with the remaining runners from the 100km event. Trevor, who ran a great race for third, had to leave as did Margie who was first finisher, both female and overall. She ran an outstanding race after also running, and winning , the 12 hour Lighthorse Ultra a few weeks prior. Margie trains harder than just about anybody I know and is starting to see some rewards for her hard work. Working with Tony Smith ( https://www.tsrunclub.com/ ) she is starting to really believe she can move to the next level with her running, I’m predicting big things for Margie. Sophie and Tom ran great races for second and again both have time on their side and will be improving on these times moving forward. Tom is also working with Tony Smith so we’ll be seeing more of him in the future.
I was stoked to see my good friend Veronica make the podium after her stella run at the Delirious West 200 miler in February where she finished second. Like myself she had caught COVID a few weeks prior to the event and has bounced back quickly. We are both heading over East in a few weeks for the Unreasonable East 200 miler in the Blue Mountains. ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ ) That is going to be a challenge.
The best trophy’s are the ones made with love.
The trophy is so cool and I know home made by volunteers which makes it extra special. Will this be my last one ? Who knows , if I was a betting man I’d say yes but with ultra running there are so many variables you never know when a Stephen Bradbury moment is coming and the old bugger with a beard wins. As I said earlier in the post this was a training run with a medal which turned into a win at all cost run, that’s ultra running. I will look back at this trophy in years to come and it will always bring a smile to my face, remembering the day and the race and the memories. Another reason I keep all my medals because each one is a reminder of the great memories that each race encapsulates, little time capsules to remind you of the good times with people you care about.
Perhaps the best bangers and mash in Australia.
The best thing about the Kep event, bar the running, is the Mundaring Hotel which serves the best Bangers and Mash in Australia, probably the world. It is so, so good and the image above does not do it justice. If you live in Perth you need to spend more time at this hotel ( https://www.mundaringhotel.com.au/ ) . The event starts and finishes at this venue and it is so good to spend time with runners and volunteers alike after the race, such a cool place to chill out.
Finally a few words about some great products I use that help me finish these events and also get ready for the next one. Fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is an amazing product I use during events when my leg muscles start to scream for help. Fisiocrem gives the muscles the energy boost they need , naturally. It really does make a difference. I used this product at the half way stage and also just before the last 15km slog to the finish. It weighs next to nothing so no problem carrying the small tube in my backpack during the event. It has also saved me on the Delirious West 200 miler earlier in the year and again at Hardy’s Frontyard Ultra and the 24 hour Lighthorse Ultra.
fisciocrem is the product that works. Helps tired muscles just keep on trucking.
For recovery I use the HumanTecar products, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) the spray and the recovery bandages. Both of these are incredible products, again like Fisiocrem totally natural. The recovery bandages are so good and they make such a difference virtually instantly, get yourself a good trail running magazine, a good cup of tea, a few biscuits of choice and put the bandages on and sit back and let the healing begin. I would recommend the bandages after big events or really long training runs, the spray is useful after any run or when you are just feeling the need for some help to recovery quicker. More of a day to day tool to help avoid the dreaded injury woes that plague most runners.
Finally to my good friends at the Running Centre ( https://therunningcentre.com.au/ ) who provided me with my go to shoe a the moment , and the last two years, the Hoka Mach 4. This shoe is prefect for day to day running providing enough support to ward off injuries but also light enough to allow you to run all your different pace based training runs. There are new versions in the pipeline apparently and as soon as things settle down with the worldwide logistic issues we may be able to get into a pair. As well as being great running shoes they also keep remarkably clean. I wore mine out of the box on the weekend and they still look brand new after running 105km’s on trail, albeit crushed limestone. It is testament to their quality that I can feel confident wearing a pair out of the box on a 10 hour race, with no fear of injury.
A great show for everyday running and even the odd 100km trail race.
So that’s the KepV2 2022, one of the races of my life coming so soon after another one of the races of my life, this is becoming a thing. I hope I can continue my good form into the Unreasonable East 200 miler in late June as I will need to be ready for this bad boy of an ultra. ( https://unreasonableeast200miler.com.au/ ) This event, in its inaugural year, looks so epic but also a tad daunting, massive elevation with probably freezing conditions, both test you. I am more excited than worried but I also understand I need to be at the top of my game to finish, forget racing but then again you never know what happens when the bib is stuck on my chest….
After nine weeks, the high intensity group’s improvements in VO2 max were only 10 percent greater than the moderate group. More importantly, after 9 weeks, the high intensity group stopped improving and after 12 weeks showed the same level of improvement to VO2 max as the moderate group.
