6inch#9finisha6.43goodfirst3hours

Started in the traditional manner charging towards Goldmine Hill before sunrise, with Tom getting into some low level flying hitchkick long jump action also, as Josh, Matty (from NSW), Phil, Nathan, Jon Pe, Kevin and others struggled to keep up. After 25 seconds (strava says its 3.05 per K pace) we hit the base of the main ascent (168m of VERT to the King of the Mountain summit at 1.4km steepness 12%), where mentally as usual I came crashing down to the reality that I needed to walk up this hill like all the other years, and  so on, but still very pleased with my 12min 25seconds time for King of Mountain which is a PR... Saw Barb, Andrew and Martyn about this time, and knew I was going well... a few Km later we reached Scarp Rd (100% gravel) and the beginnings of the entry to Whittakers... Was trying to take it easy as my Saucony Peregrines have done more than 1000km and the tread on them is extremely worn off, so I knew it was broken ankle time if I attacked the tricky descents too hard... but hit the old Whittakers Campsite at speed still, and reached the exit trail at 5km in 35min 57secs... Running with Megan, Simon and then Tim during this time, and from the photo Harmony not far behind.  Soon after Chris HP and some other blokes caught me, and we traded spots quite a bit all the way to Del Park Rd crossing at 18km, went through that in 2 hours 00min despite taking it easy on the descents... so at this stage under PB pace of 2 hours 06min... Feeling pretty fatigued, and Chris HP and a few others pulled away going up towards Scarp Rd again, and I tried to respond, but fatigue blunted my alertness and with the dodgy tread of my shoes, it only took one small rock to have me on my face in the sharp rocks and gravel at 19km, with one hand bleeding like a river and the other hand, a knee, and a thigh also spurting out a bit. My left hand was a deep gash and I did antispetic on both hands, slapped on some bandaids, and tried to pull myself together and reload... A lot of people passed me there, and I lost some time, and confidence... The 5.30 PB was gone for today, and now I was shooting for maybe around 5.50-6.10... Belle came past me here, but after passing a pine plantation we hit the wide easy gravel scarp rd again, and with aid station 1 looming up at 23km mark I tried to get going again... Aid station 1 at 23km in 2hrs 39min, was still an excellent first half split, and If I was one of those runners that finishes strongly a 5.15 might be on offer, but I knew I would fade... However running with Harmony, Rachel, Cassie,  Alex (with the headphones), and others I have trained with a few times was good, nice to catch up with training buddies during a race...  One of the original 2005 runners did a good job at the aid station of helping me get to the water for a top up of my pack and hit North Spur Rd crossing moving well... The hill climb from there seemed sooo much easier this year, and when Harmony started powering up the main nursery of trees hill parallel to the conveyer belt after an initial burst from Terry and Phil (training buddies from my C-team days in JFNP many years ago, and fellow Spartans), I felt the urge to go with her pace.  Found a good groove, and PRed that hill, and then attacked after the phone tower on the downhill back to Scarp Rd hitting 27km in about 3.15.... 20km to go as I crossed the incredible scenery looking down the neverending humming of the conveyer belt.... no worries a couple of hours and a 5.50 looking maybe possible... tried to ignore my doomy thoughts of a fade coming up and the pain of my quadriceps reacting to the attack going down from the phone tower with my 84kg overweight body... turn off onto the trail after a steep descent, and my quads were pretty sore... pusHhed through the pain barrier for a couple of K's and got to 30km by Garmin 15 in 3 hrs 32min still on target for a sub 6 hour effort, but then I had to walk... Harmony disappeared into the bush, and I had not much left,It was walking, and jogging time, and sub 6 hours was out the window... out of the question and any chance of a good time was done and dusted.
However there was still a little matter of nailing the 9th finish to deal with... weather not very hot this year so that wasn't a factor much, but still needed to go faster than walking pace (10-12min per K) to the end to stay under 7 hours, although barring a major setback sub 8 hours and a finish was in the bag. Quads were pretty sore, and I was getting passed by people like J, K, and K. Good trails ultra runners, but not people I expected to be under 6 hours although to the credit of J she kicked on strongly all the way to the end to go several minutes under 6 hours!!! I knew the Rutted Hill aka Elevator aka Hells Gate was not far ahead, and aid station 2 at the top of it... Found it pretty easy to get up this year compared to the last 2 years, although it is a long steep tricky one no matter who you are or how you were feeling.... At the top I made the mistake of indulging in sugar cubes and lots of car lollies at aid station 2 about 36km... (almost 37km on my Garmin).... 4 hours 41min on the watch... They tasted delicious and my body wanted to eat a bucket of them, but I knew as much as the carbs were nice tyo have, they are not easy to digest, and therefore not conducive to sustained running IMO. Anyhow I walked a lot and jogged a bit here and there, jogged with K for a bit, as people like Mandy surged past... Saw a lot of people I know through this section which was nice... and it wasn't congested for me, although I bet it was for some others in the race.... By the time I hit the Marrinup Maze with 5km to go I had dropped a few more spots, and all I cared about now was trying to stay under 7 hours and beat last years 7 hours 06min... The Gurkha bloke that was in the Goat race last month came past me, and it was surreal watching him running past me in his Camouflage pants and Gurkha shirt, felt like I was watching a war movie and seeing enemy forces surging through the bush ahead of me... Then Rob (ambulance man insider joke from city to surf many years back) came past me walking very fast in his 7th ? finish.... When I spotted Jo and A getting visual on me with about 2km to go I decided it was time to jog to the finish, and got there in 6 hours 43min, pretty disappointing time in the end, but long run for December done, and 3 hours of high intensity racing banked as well, and an amazing overall awesome day on the Munda Biddi ... #9 done...The 3am hitchhike from Dwellingup to North Dandalup after I missed the bus to the startline by about 3min had all been worth it, plus the big risk driving my very worn out car up there... Nice rewards with race t-shirt and a nice medal, seeing the new entrants to the red spike club, and so many other reasons to be thankful for a fantastic morning on the trails.... The 50min of sleep made it slightly easier for me to stay awake on the hours drive home, in my tired old car with the CD player that has gone on the blink, and the radio that no longer picks up a signal anywhere near Dwellingup... I might be very poor, tired and worn out, but I had fun at 6 inch 2015 Anno Domini... Thanks God, thanks all!!!!!!!! Hopefully 2016 might, just might get a bit easier than 2015 and 2014 have been... Looks like I failed on my 2015 goals...
GOAL 1; sub 6 hour Six foot... Actual 6.14 (so 15min short)....
GOAL 2;  sub 3 hour marathon, (4.00, 4.05 and 4.11 was all I was able to manage)...
GOAL 3;  and getting my weight down to 74kg..  (made it as far as 78kg)...
Even nowhere near my revised goal of sub 3.30 marathon, but I did land a 32min PB six foot in 6.14 (about 15min short of my goal), got my weight down 7kg to 78kg ran a course best in the city to surf marathon of 4.00 (13min faster than before and my 4th best marathon time), and also ran my 8th best marathon (in 28 finishes) and a few minutes faster than last year in the Melbourne Marathon, and showed signs in the GC and Melbourne Marathons of finally cracking the 3.30 barrier, although at GC it unravelled from 15km onwards and at Melbourne from 30km onwards... Much better effort at 6 inch this year, and achieved my goal of finishing the Bloated Goat 1600m VERT in 31km race.  Also covered the full 50km in the Truth and Consequences 50km although it took me 8 hours 49min after injuring my ankle 14km in...on a very tough course....

Did 37km of VERTICAL Ascent this year, and 286 hours of training AND RACING  (Training and RACING are two different things IMO or should be otherwise you are not peaking for races which means you are training your races and not achieving a race peak performance so underperforming in races)...Covered 2363km (not that km is an important measure IMO, especially for a trail runner, although I am still a hybrid road runner who does short trail ultras).... So to my mind thats a pretty big year for me... Certainly more ascent than ever before, and 286 hours has to be up there in terms of being one of my biggest training and racing years ever.

 Disappointing that I didn't land a big breakthrough road marathon time, possibly because I mucked up the taper for Melbourne, or some other reasons. My continued overweightness and financial mess also big handicaps, and of course the injuries I am carrying don't help, although don't think the latter was a big factor.

I did keep stats, but have not really compiled them much during the year, so its difficult to tell without a lot of time and effort (which I don't easily have access to... am more time poor than ever before in this digital information age, thats the tyranny of the internet and social media infested world which has its good points too, but that is one of the big down sides of life these days...)... exactly how my year was and my leadup to MM was compared to previous years... if I get enough free time I might have a look at it, but in any case I think the key is the weight. If I drop the weight the rest will come together and I am experienced enough after decades of training and racing to modify and refine my programming, training and racing to peak and race well... not to say there isn't still lots to learn, but I have basically switched from a manual "exercise book" training diary in former years to be essentially digitally reliant in the last 3 years since 2013... I still have the manual backup but internet issues this year have made it difficult to maintain the manual backup, and I am so used to doing things I don't need to monitor things closely...

If I have spare money (you have to pay for everything nowadays, fading fast now are the days of coaching for free, although I still do that a bit for people who share training time with me, and who I see as having potential) I could seek coaching from someone like Roberto, Ray or Ray or Simon, or Sarah,  or Mile27 or Sweat or SQUADron or some other fantastic coach, but unless my financials improve, I 1, can't afford it, 2. don't need it, and 3. would just get annoyed by impossible demands... I suspect, or maybe I should try and find a little money for that as well...  But at 41years after more than 20 years of experience I should be able to work out what to do myself. What I do want is groups where I can find training buddies to do good sessions with, so for that I am certainly willing to put a few dollars towards and have done occasionally on and off in recent years at Bt Bu and Fr. Also Phat for free.

Since I still find a lot of joy and meaning, and beauty in life worth exploring, like exploring the the beauty of amazing trails with mountain or hilly views... seeing some of the amazing animals the Creator Triune has blessed us with... If I stop racing altogether hiking on the trails or mountainbiking on them will persist if I can find a way to do either or both of those things since there is an insatiable unfathomable supply or amount of that to explore.

I remember reading in serious training for serious athletes book in 1996? that to be world class you need to do about 500 hours of training/racing per year... since I did 286 hours in 2015, I am still not far off, so if I can ramp things up to somewhere near the 500 hours mark in 2016 that might be part of the jigsaw puzzle that will help, especially if I am to get my weight under 70kg... My intention to go to a gym appears to have disappeared yet again for the second time in a couple of years, so maybe try again or maybe that environment is just not a worthwhile one for me... My goal of 7 hours a week in 2015 would have been 364 hours for the year and the new 12 hour goal works out at 624 hours a week... and 10 hours a week is 520 hours... so if I aim for 12 hours a week and come up short in some weeks I should end up somewhere near 500+, and if I can continue to manage my injuries (can't afford treatment, and doesn't seem to be anything seriously wrong at this stage for sure), then I should start to get into a position for a truly world class effort, maybe in the CCC or UTMB races although my finances for a start would have to improve a lot, and while I will continue to be on the lookout to do that, in the meantime I can at least try to maintain some sort of athletic progression... My marathon time has stagnated around the 3.55-4.10 sort of area for about 12 years now, although I sincerely think there have been many chances to go under 3.30, however I have never got into tru sub 3 hour condition as far as I am aware, and I still think the potential maybe there if my weight goes under 70kg... So I guess doing UTA 50km in 2016 is my way of having a little sneak peak at what is required to succeed on the Ultra Trail World Series, especially since a few of my training buddies while way ahead of me are either succeeding there or are close to doing so at least on the Australian and New Zealand legs of the series... Maybe Ultra Trail mountain running sky running is not for me, but I feel my road running days  are drawing to a close to some degree maybe... and its worth exploring for now especially since I am getting a little bored with SFT x4 and 6inch x9, although I certainly have not reached the top wave of either of those and am still in the slowest group... but my experience does help these days... ... so in 2016 hopefully around 10-12 hours a week (need to be flexible and not because its a LEAP ;-) year) will be a goal that helps me to progress towards sub 70kg... and world class performance.... given the history of the last 12 years my likelyhood of success is very low, but while I can still try I may as well give it a red hot shot...maybe... perhaps... well at least thats the new years resolution... shall see how long that lasts... but UTA gives me a focal point in the next 4 months or so, followed by Melbourne as per usual after that... not sure what else, but those two goal races are enough to give me a 2016 focus to work towards.... I hope...

Above is 11 of the 16 legends in the exclusive 6 inch red spike club. The people who have run 6 inch 6 times or more.
Bruce Hausted, me (Trailblazer), Martyn Flahive, Dave Kennedy, Phil Baker?, Simon "12 inch" Bonnick, Nathan Fawkes  Grantley "Slammer" Dunks, Paul Ankers, Rob Donkersloot, Grant "the machine" Wholey....
Missing from this photo include Kevin Matthews, Craig Berg, Rob Adams, Callum Law?,  and Brett Coombes.

In the week ahead its time to start my 2016 training....
Goals in 2016 will include (at this stage but subject to modification if need be);
1-enjoy a good race at Ultra Trail Australia 50km,
2- run a sub 3 hour marathon at GCM or MM.
3-drop weight to 69kg,
4-train and race 7 hours per week 364 hours annual10-12 hours per week (520-624 hours per year),,,
5- run 1km-2km of VERT per week (52km-104km of VERTICAL ascent for the year)...
6-explore some new trails races...or more likely new training trails as much as possible...
7.-possibly attempt an 80km or 100km or 12 hour or 24 hour race or sattempt a sub 5 hour 6 inch.

Will consider trying some new races, and plan to increase my trail running time even more, but retain some occasional road running racing, plus will consider the track races at the World Masters Games in Perth. Will aim for 12 hours training per week, hope to get fulltime work, and seek to be disciplined on eating again if things stabilise. Am really keen to make some big progress on my bills as I have done a little in recent months, since I got some casual work again from about June onwards, but every week is a struggle, and the last time I had annual leave was about 10 years ago.... ? Juggling increasing bills with mounting debts and unpredictable low income and 3 young children, is a tough mix, by the grace of God we have hung in somehow for another year...sincerely hope things get better, at least there is some significant potential for me to progress now I am working for one of the largest organisations in Australia... Hope it comes good, and the blessings from that continue to develop....If so I might be able to achieve something special in racing, but its getting hard to be motivated now... trying to provide a good future for my wife and kids is becoming more and more one of my main motivations now, and obviously serving the Creator Triune... am getting a little bored with racing, but its still fun, and beneficial so will persist for now... Will try not to push the retirement from running button just yet...