Numero Duo: 6hrs.54min Conquering 6 foot 45km #II

Well I made it to the start line of the 2013 6 foot track 45km!
AND I finished
another one of 'em! with 6 minutes to spare sneaking under the 7 hour mark again, but came up 73 seconds short of the PB, despite giving my quads the biggest thrashing they have ever had in the last 2km and passing about 20 people.

 

I have a video it is just after or maybe just before Coxs crossing (the main river crossing) about  16km into it...But being 75MB I have had trouble getting it to upload...

1.-Very pleased with my first 15.5km to the river crossing in 1hr 45 (6 minutes quicker than in 2011), and almost achieved one of my pre-race goals of getting to the start of Nellies Glen steps first (was 2nd behind a bloke called Joseph who totally owned the start), but held off the other 198 runners pretty much all the way down the steps in the first quadriceps thrashing of the day, including a few runners who managed to go sub 5 hours for the race and beat me by more than 2 hours in the end... So wisely or unwisely, the first 15.5km was very much mission accomplished. Wanted to be under 7min per K, and was (10km in 65min), and wanted to be well under 2 hours and preferably under 1 hour 50 at the river, and was well under that.

2. -Satisfied that I did the next 10.5km with the 1000m climb about 30 minutes quicker than in 2011 and achieved my pre-race goal of getting to 26km in under 4 hours easily with a 3 hours 48min split.

 Ran some of the flatter sections, and tried to keep walking at a fast pace on the hills. Also saved 10min by no cleaning up my shoes after the river this time, which was a risk, but the higher river level probably helped.

3.-Really struggled through the first 12km of the last 19km, it was hard work just to keep walking I was that shattered at this point. Got going a bit near the end and my last 5-7km was actually fairly good, but I'd lost so much time on strugglestreet from 26km to about 38km, that the PB just eluded my tired last-ditch desperate "lunge" in the last 2-7km...

Was really shattered at the top of Pluvi, and despite doing a 90 seconds walk/ 5minutes jog/run strategy, was really struggling to get any momentum going on the Black Range in contrast to 2011 when I really started to get into a decent rhythm that year at this point. I knew I had about 3 hours and 10 minutes to get through the last 19km under 7 hours for the whole race, so I figured if I was around 9-10minutes per K or quicker I should make it, even if I had to walk a lot of the way to the finish. During this horrific 12km section some of the RFS blokes must have guessed from my body language how much I was hurting because two of them tried to get me to sit down and rest for a bit, but I resisted that, because I knew that would probably cause me to fall back to the sweepers...

 Got a nice downhill finally!!! about 35km into it, and with the watch reading 5 hours 18 minutes I thought I should be able to get the last 10km done in 90-100min but I knew the way I was feeling I needed to keep pushing hard if I wanted  the PB, in fact I needed to keep hard at it, if I wanted to stay ahead of the 7 hour sweepers... Of course not long after the downhill, was a monster uphill that sapped the life out of me again, and I can see why in the race video and photos they have pictures of people trying to literally crawl in piles of leaves up this very steep hill that hits you here... Took awhile to get past that hill and I got passed by a few better hill climbers here... After that was over I once again tried to get my body to first jog, and then try to run at something like sub 8 minutes per K...So that 12km from 26km to 38km took me about 130 minutes!!!
 So in the end I struggled through that last 10km in 96 minutes, and without the final desperate push to the finish I would have been over 100min and the sweepers would have got visual of me...

That last 7km just seemed to go on forever, and it included  getting around a snake on the trail which also saw me pass about 4 other runners who had stopped while another runner tried to move the snake with a stick (but I wasn't stopping to wait for that!), plus a very emotionally searching moment when I got to a marker telling me I had 5km to go when I thought I only had about 3km to go, so I went from thinking I was going to take 10 minutes ff the PB to oh no, I think I'm going to miss it...
Passed about 20 runners during the 400m drop in the last 2km, as I tried desperately to sneak under the 6.53, but when I saw the clock on 6.54 I knew I'd failed by about a minute.... Bittersweet!!! I think the clock in the photo below says 7:29 on this side of the archway because its 7 hours and 29 minutes since the wave 1 runners started at 7am, but I was in wave 5 (about 150-200 runners in each wave) which started at 7.35am...

No PB despite doing the first 26km 30 minutes faster than last time, but another successful finish despite incredible obstacles including one of the most backpackerish trips I've done (things like walking the 7km from Sydney airport to Central station with my 8kg backpack, so as to avoid paying the $15 trainfare, "couchsurfing" at a runners place in Katoomba who I'd only briefly met online before to avoid paying for accomodation, getting a lift back to Sydney with runners to avoid an $8 train fare back there), which in the end added to the excitement and fun of the adventure to this amazing piece of world heritage listed Blue Mountains......so glad I made it... Met many really cool people on this trip, had a race that has given me heaps of ideas on how to improve, and which will inspire me in the coming months as I try to build a bridge over very troubled financial waters...

My 6 foot track 2013 experience; 

An awesome ADVENTURE!!! 

(pre-race, during race, and post-race.) 

Here is a modified version of the post I left on Coolrunning about my 2013 6 foot track 45km  success with some detailed time splits, and detailed descriptions of various parts of the race; 

The one liner; 

perfect start, hung in, ascended MM/Pluvi better!, wipeout!! on Black Range, late charge, just missed the PB...

Detailed notes, descriptors, 

a proper race report;

The first 15.5km;
Ran excellent for 15.5km, probably smashed it a bit too hard down Nellies Glen steps
 staying ahead  of all but 1 of the wave 5 runners.
Just wasn't game to chase Joseph on the slippery rocky downhill, too scary for ankle trips etc.
I was running pretty quickly but he was out of sight! Not used to that...
Would like to know what he was running for 100m splits...
Photo below shows a lady who kept the pressure on me all the way down the steps,
 before I decided to back off at the bottom of them. 
She ran 4.36!!! Which proves you can run a fast time from wave 5,








 and another bloke in one of my photos (well behind me on the steps of Nellies Glen) did a 4.50.
Tried to force myself to back off a bit after that,but it was tough as a few of us wave 5ers
 were picking off the stragglers from wave 4 by the bottom of the steps,
 and the urge was to try and pass as many as possible as quick as possible... 
I think I showed a bit of self-control/restraint/holding back, but maybe not enough...
Was also pleased to hit 10km in 65min, as my plan had been to be under 70min.


Coxes;

"Swimming" the river was awesome fun, and got the body core temperature down a bit.
Awesome to have a 1.2m high river the 3rd highest in race history since 1984
apart from the 2012 flashflooding whitewater when the race got cancelled 
due to the dangerous river...The comment  at the start line
 by one of the organisers; "any non-swimmers" suddenly made sense ;-)...
Part of my pre-race plan was to get the shoes and socks off and into a plastic bag but...
the number of creek crossings before and after Coxes 
probably would have made it pointless, so made a snap decison to just get on with it, and risk blisters.
Rather than waste 10min trying to clean out the the fine "riversand/gravel"
 from the shoes like last year. That paid off!
Tried out breaststroke in the 1.2m of water but a strong current 
pushed me hard into the safety rope. 




Switched to a more powerful freestyle stroke

  on an   angle so as to reduce the effect of 

the strong current, which worked well, similiar to how you swim out against a rip in the surf...





A couple of hours trying to find the top of Pluviometer;

Was very keen to hit mini-saddle and pluviometer mountain climbs 
from 15.5km to 26km harder than I did in 2011.
Achieved that goal with a 30min improvement on 2011, so the Perth Trail Series race #4
  and training runs at Lesmurdie, Bold Park probably helped.
 However after a nearly 4 hours, and 2 hours of that
 mostly very aggressive walking and some slow running I was at the top..
There was 19km to go, and I knew I was a good chance to get it done 
in under 7 hours, and a PB chance might still be on...However my legs were very tired by now...
One of many memorable moments in this section was seeing a kangaroo/wallaby
 I think it was go across the trail about 10m in front of me at fast pace 
and straight down the near vertical hill below, 
at fast speed, wish I could run downhill like that animal!


SPLITS corner;
Coxs crossing 15.5km 1hr 45min 18 in 511th place 
(1.51 in 2011)
Pluvi 26km 3hr 48min.20 in 679th place
(4.19 in 2011)
Pluvi to finish 3hrs 6min (2.43 in 2011)


-------------------------------------------------------

5km 27min?

10km 65min (6.33 per K)

15km 101min (5km split 36min)

20km 156min (5km split 55min about 500m ascent)
25km 221min (5km split 65min about 500m ascent)
35km 321min (10km split 100min)
some ascent but falling apart too much walking...
45km finish 414min (last 10km 93min) 
Several tough ascents and a 400m descent in the last 2km.


After Mini-saddle and Pluvi, trying to get the body to run again;


Really struggling in a "bad patch" of lots of 60-90sec walk breaks
 and attempting to jog for 5minutes.
Went for my last Gatorade, with about 10km to go,

and got going a bit again, although hit another tough hill 
which shattered me again, and with about 7km to go 
found some rhythm again on a flat section...

Hitting decent pace I reckon around 6-7min per K for awhile,
 and saw a snake on the track not long after crossing the bitumen road. 

Two runners I was about to pass saw snake first 
and were trying to scare it off the track, 
but snake wasn't in a hurry to move.
I let them get on with it, and just ran around it.

 Passed a few more people and could see 2 runners up ahead,
 so tried to keep the pace ticking over, 
thinking I was close to the finish, was expecting to see the 2km to go sign any moment, 
and thought the PB was there for the taking.
Was gutted/demoralised to see a 5km to go sign, 
but figured I must still be very close,so just tried to 
stay attacking and try and step things up a notch 
as much as I could... 

After what seemed like ages, that 3km was finally done,
 and with 2km to go and a steep downhill, I ignored the pain
 and just tried to hit that last 2km hard needing to 
get through it in about 10minutes.

I knew it was unlikely, but too close not to try hard... 


Passed about 20 people and they were all very courteous 
letting me get through, tried to warn them I was coming... 

Then you can hear the crowd noise below, 
and people yelling out to individual runners, 

and that amazing feeling of seeing the finishline 
and those blue timing mats and the archway looming up ahead... 

Almost as special as 2011...!

Aftermath and concluding  thoughts;


Really happy to get my 2nd 6 foot track 45km finish 
on the board, but a bit disappointed I blew up, 
and came up short on the PB... 

Although very encouraged by my first 26km 
it was obviously too fast a pace for me to sustain this time... 

My coxs crossing split of 1.45 had me in 511th place 
and on target for about a 5hr 50min race, 

so very pleased I was on target for the first 15.5km,

and even with my sub-standard hills training/too low mileage
 was still on target for about 6.29 and a healthy PB
 at the top of pluvi which is the hardest part of the race for me.

In 2011 I powered through the last 19km more than 
20min quicker than this year, so maybe its lack of mileage/long runs
that came back to haunt me in the last 19km,

 or perhaps its just I was too aggressive in the first 15km, 
or my hills work is inadequate, or all 3 reasons... 

If I come back to this race (fairly good chance I will), 

I want to be much better prepared, but I know 
I gave it a red-hot go with what I had on the day, Didn't die wondering...
Fantastic experience despite the bittersweet final result...

 Biggest quads smashing I've ever done 
and got some excruciating cramps on the bus 
on the way back to Katoomba.

Huge thanks!, and massive respect! to running friends 
who helped me out with accomodation 
and a lift back to Sydney,
and Thanks! God for all the miracles that had to happen 
for me to get to the startline.

Part of which was me overcoming my doubts 
as to whether I would be ready physically and logistically. 

Massive success from that perspective.


A tough brutal!!! day, but some glorious moments
 

in one of the most beautiful places in the world IMO...

The 53km run in January and the mileage challenges,

 both very significant I think in getting me to the finish 
in under 7 hours...

So I'm 73 seconds short of the PB, with a 6.54 
and very shattered physically in the quads.... 

Hammered the 400m descent in the last 2km in 
about 12min, passed about 20 runners there...

In 2014 maybe I'll be shooting for about 1.45 at Coxes again,
 and 3.30 on Pluvi, and hopefully about a 5.59 finish.

So I think I am maybe slowly learning whats required
 to be successful in this race. Hope to be back!!!

 Could be a bigger group of us from the wild west next year too, 
a few people are saying they are keen for 2014.

There was at least 6 or 7 finishers based in Western Australia, 
one guy in the top 30, 3 or 4 in the high 5hr zone
 and 2 of us including me in the 6.30-7hr zone...... 


Thanks Colin, and all, and fantastic to see lots of people 
from 2011, and lots of 2012 shirts out there too...

 Hopefully bring it on and game on for 2014!