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Munda Biddi 100K

Well here is a race report if the weather allows me a longer lunch break.
PREPARATION
I knew that this 100K would be unlikely to be easier than my last at the the 12 hour race because of two reasons. First I boundary umpired a WAFL game Saturday afternoon which almost always leaves me sore, and with only 12 hours to recover I was in for a long Sunday. Secondly I had a function the night before and despite doing my best to get away early I couldn't sleep and ended up with 2.5 interrupted hours sleep.
SET OFF INTO THE NIGHT
Based on our 12 hour experience Nathan and I predicted a 13 hour finish. To cater for this we needed to set off by 5am to finish by dark. Despite almost taking everyone the wrong way 100m in Mark saved us and we set off together 6 headlamps dancing in the trees. We were all together until I needed a toilet stop 5K in. While Nathan waited for me the pack forged on to get a handy lead. Heading in to the first climb at 11K it was light enough to turn our headlamps off and time for something to eat. We'd spotted lights ahead but the decision to walk and eat enabled the other runners to get away again. It was 1.12 on the stopwatch and already we were out at about 11 hour pace not leaving much room for slowing down later on and still finishing in 12 hours, our early goal. The chocolate bar did some good but I was already looking forward to my coke at 50K as the initial adrenaline wore off. After a short steep descent we continued climbing until about 18K. It was near the top of the hill that we passed Steve and Sally obviously not enjoying gravity with their heavier packs. Not long after Craig came steaming past keen to cut his run back to 42K rather than get a lift back from the 50K mark. It was now just Mark in front but we were already taking walk breaks so not too sure we'd catch him. We knew Robi was meeting Mark at Pickering Brook so we hoped we might see him here. Fresh footprints suggested he was still going strong and when we emerged from the bush there he was enjoying every ultra runners favourite perk the refueling stop. His offer of Coke was very tempting but a bit early still with possibly 10 hours to go. We ran on together after a drink of water and headed uphill to the next piece of bush. 100K still seemed a long way off so we just focused on the next goal to get to Carinyah Hut.
RAIN
The weather above looked ominous and about 35K in it started raining. By the time we got to Carinyah we were soaked. Kate was waiting here to run back to Brookton Highway with us. Not keen on a long break as we'd just get cold, we waited for Mark and then the 4 of us left together. After another 5K in the rain we reached halfway in the sunshine for lunch and caffeine.
.......and the following from Nathan who I ran with until about 96K.
Well the race (was it really?) is over and I must say that I have learnt a lot about Ultras. Dave and myself did run together so I'll take up the commentary from the Carinya Campsite, which is approx. 42km. As Dave mentioned, the rain had come and we were basically soaked from head to tail by this time. We stopped for about 15 minutes and set off just before the 5hr mark. Mark had caught up by this stage, so the four of us continued down the trail headed for Brookton hwy at 50km. We kinda ran at our own pace and I reached the hwy first in 5:42, Dave was about 1 min back, then Kate and finally Mark who had completed his goal of 50km's - well done Mark.After downing half of a sausage roll and sauce, some coke and powerade, we filled up the hydration paks and hit the road again just before 6hrs. The next section was 24km to Gleneagle picnic area at 74km's. It started out ok but Dave started to suffer from some foot and calf troubles and regular breaks were added in. I was feeling brilliant until I started to experience some knee pain at about 60km. I didn't think much of it and decided to just 'Run it out.' It soon became clear however that this theory was going to prove woefully inadequate.Dave had slowed down a lot and I was keen to push on because apart from my knee I was feeling great. This was the point when you realize that this is not a race, it's a run and we where going to do it together, so rather than push on we stayed together and got each other through. The extra time this added to this section proved costly as I hit the wall at about 69km, completely running out of calories - my how an Ultra can change so quickly - now Dave was feeling ok and was dragging me through. All I could think about was the redbull waiting for me at gleneagle. 45 minutes later we arrived only to find out that Kate (My wife and support crew) had forgotten to buy the redbull - WHAT!! I couldn't believe it, I was shattered and we still had 30 odd km to go. I sat down for about 20 minutes contemplating the situation. This was a real low point in the race for me, I was drinking coke and had half a powerbar, but it didn't seem to make much difference. The rain started coming down again and I decided we had to go. I felt terrible, exhausted, but I knew my race was not going to finish there - no way in hell I was stopping.We ended up at Gleneagle for aboiut half an hour before setting off at a slow pace. For the next 4-5km wasn't much fun to run with, barely saying anything and just staring at the ground in front, I was in desperate need of a kick. Kate was going to get us a redbull and meet us at a road crossing a few kms later, so that was something to look forward to.We arrived at Wungong campsite and while Dave filled up his pak, I had a coffee gu, they are loaded with caffeine and this proved to be the kick I needed. It was a good thing I knew this section quite well because the re-routing of the course completely confused Dave who started running the wrong way. We were both really tired by this stage and in some pain as well. The redbull was great and we shared it to give us both some extra energy. It was getting late (about 11hrs now) and we started looking at about a 13:30 finishing time. This is when a major problem presented itself, we didn't have headlamps, they were in the support car and we had forgotten to pick them up and with the phone battery dead, there was no way of getting them. Things we desperate, there is no-way you can run the Munda Biddi at night with no headlamps so we decided we just had to push as hard as possible before it got dark. We knew that Balmoral picnic site was 12km to go so we focused on getting there. This was going well until we came to the 2km downhill leading into it. The hill wasn't steep but my knee was shot, I had to slow to basically a walk and almost run sideways down the hill to reduce the pain. Every step was greeted with a seering pain that shot both down to my foot and up to my hips - in short things where bad. Dave was feeling ok by this stage (understanding of course that ok is very much a relative term) and he had a toilet stop while I continued walking when he caught up we thought that there was about 30 minutes of light left so we just had to push on as fast as possible, so we did. The pace started slow and then gradually increased as we warmed up a bit - it hurt a lot but it was either this or risk being out there for another 2-3 hrs walking to the finish. We took 10 minutes turns in the lead and the sun disappeared and it became darker and darker. After running solidly for about 40-45minutes it became too dark to run and we walked.Just as we started, the support convey came rolling down the track in the cars to see where we were, great timing so we got our head lamps and were off to the finish. This sounds great but I had had it, the 40 minutes of hard running (again a relative term) had pushed me into the realm of completely shattered, so after another 15 minutes or so of running with Dave I told him I was done, couldn't run another step and walking wasn't too easy either. Dave ran the final 3km or so by himself while I slowly walked in. The batteries in my head lamp basically rendered it useless by this stage so rather that following the track all the way in I decided to follow the road which, looking at the map is about the same distance but it was a much safer option. I managed to run the final 1.5km to finish in 14.28:44 Dave ran strong to finish in 4.06 and his time for the final 3km was pretty impressive. I was completely exhausted and once I sat down in the car I was out. Whether I passed out or just fell asleep really quickley I don't know but my body knew what it was doing. The wash up from the race is that I actually feel better than any other race I've done, except of course for my knee. It was quite swollen when we got home and is still a little swollen now (3 days later) although it feels 100% better. I remain convinced that my training was adequate for this race but the knee injury and the additional time took its toll, but this is the world of Ultras. Training is one thing, but on race days things go wrong and you have to deal with it.Reflecting on the I find that there were so many challeges, so many emotions, victories, defeats and oh so much pain. This is Ultramarathoning - it's tough in every way imaginable, but it's my sport and I love it.Well done to all who ran on the day it was awesome. Nathan