Commonwealth 24 hour Champs

As the competition approached I was struggling with various little injuries. I was tempted to throw my hands in the air in despair but decided since time was short that I should cross-train. I was able to borrow a wind-trainer which helped me get in some valuable fitness work without taxing my legs too much. As time was short and cycling isn’t as good training for running as running I swapped 2x30min running for 6x 30min cycling. One obstacle was overcome by staying postitive and not giving up. Not long after this I caught a cold. I don’t really believe in running with a cold because it just makes it take longer to get better so I stopped. I hadn’t had the best training year with low energy levels so I’d pinned my hopes on a final 12 week training block. This included 4x 50K training runs. When I caught my cold I was due to run my 2^nd 50K. This wasn’t ever going to be a good idea. After I was better I was able to get my 2^nd and 3^rd 50k done before getting a relapse. I remember telling some friends that God must want all the glory from my race because I’ve done nothing.

I had two mantras in Wales : “NO Excuses” and this bible verse :

1 Peter 4:12 “Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering though something strange were happening to you.” In other words expect that it’s going to hurt and prepare for it. Don’t be shocked and have a pity party.

In the back of my mind Wales was 3x 24 hour ultras. The flight there, the race and the flight home. I’d booked the more expensive 6am Emirates flight because it made sense to me leaving around the time I’d normally be getting up and then going to bed when I normally would. The only difference would be a 7 hour longer day with the time zone change. The flight to Dubai was brilliant as we almost all had a whole row to ourselves so I had a couple of short naps to make up for getting up in the 3’s. 5 hours in Dubai tested my patience and pre-race positive attitude. Of most concern was the B&B where I was staying had no check-ins after 10pm which looked like being a real struggle. The plane was chockers too.

Finally after nearly 22 hours we landed in Heathrow. I had about 30 minutes to get to my accommodation and after customs and waiting for luggage I was already late. I bought my train ticket to the most expensive train trip in the world, 4.90pounds for 1.8K to Hayes and Harlington Station and then saw it taking off when I was no more than 5 meters from the door. Nevermind only half an hour til the next. Meanwhile I decided to try and ring to let them know that I would be late. Only problem being that I didn’t have their number or a phone. Heathrow seems to be fairly lacking in internet access but I located an information phone and asked them to look up the place for me. By this stage it was one of those days where there was no way they would be able to find it and of course they didn’t.

I finally got the next train and after 5 minutes was walking (in the rain- it was actually amusing by this time) to the B&B. When I finally arrived despite signs requesting not to ring, the bell had to be rung. After much apologizing I was let in to struggle through 2x 2 hour sleeps.

Next morning it was great to be in London with just the train to Wales before I could finally go for a run. I had a great brekky of cereal and juice and a walk around the local park before heading off an hour early to begin the 5 hour trip to Wales. When I finally arrived I was jumping out of my skin to go for a run and despite initially planning on heading out with the team for an evening jog I had to unleash myself on the local hill/mountain the Great Orme. It was an amazing run made even sweeter when the rain came in for the evening jog with Jo, Anth and Rick. Dinner in the hotel was very nice and it was great to meet the rest of the team and some of the Kiwis.

The next day was spent making piklets for the race, shopping and then resting up for the following day. We had a quick look at the course I was pleased to see that it looked less cambered than the online picture. Finally at our last pre-race supper the lack of sleep hit me and I headed upstairs for a bath and bed.

The midday race start initially seemed like it would only increase the number of hours that runners needed to be awake but it was great not having to stress about sleeping in or hurry around race morning. Finally our goody boxes were loaded and we were ferried off to the race course. Our moment of truth had arrived. We were introduced to the crowd, and then the countdown began. Unfortunately with 10 seconds to go an official informed me that my transponder was on the “wrong” way and as I moved to the side of the course to fix it the entire field were on their way with me at the very back. I must admit that one of the attractions about 24 hour running is not having to get off to a good start and this delay probably helped me not go out too hard with the leaders.

I tried to settle into an easy sub 6min/k pace and work towards my first goal of 65K in the first 6 hours. It wasn’t long before the leaders were lapping me fairly consistently and at this stage I had no idea where I was in the field or where I was likely to finish. Talking with other runners early on I met a 7.05 100K runner (I have no idea who this was) and was informed the guy in the long tights lapping us again had run 240K in 24 hours. I paid very little attention to the stats of how far I’d run how fast I was running or where I was in the field until the all important 6 hour update. I had run 62.5K. This was well short of what I would have liked and when I next heard an update of the top Welshmen on the PA I was shocked to hear that one with around 61K in 6 hours was 28^th. Not long after this I was chatting to one of the female runners about my daughter who usually expects a medal after each race I do and how I would have to explain that this was a Championship and not as easy to win medals.

Around 8 hours I asked for a score update and found out I was in 20^th. The sun had set and it was time to dress for the night. I put on a long sleeve top underneath my Aussie singlet and some long skins hoping I could get through the race without another clothes change. I also changed out of my racing flats into my lightweight Cumulus trainers. I haven’t tried my flats for more than 12 hours and during that race my calves started playing up from 96K onwards so it was always my intention to change shoes when I changed pants. Instantly I felt heaps better. My feet felt like I was running on clouds and my shorts skins had been a little too tight so I was generally a much more comfortable runner.

The all important 12 hour update came and I had amassed 118K and was in 17^th. I wrote off 240K at this stage but was pleased that despite slowing down I had begun to move through the field. I was now doing some solid laps with the Scottish girls, Debbie and Sharon, in their first 24 hour race. I was still holding off on the Ipod saving it for as late as possible.

When I got my 14 hour update I spent half a lap processing the information and came to the conclusion that if I kept doing 9K/hour I was not going to be satisfied with 226K. It was time for some music and to get stuck in. By the next update I had moved into the top 10 and suddenly after 17hours I was only meters behind 2^nd.

I’m not really sure why the carnage was so bad. I know Jo Blake and Rick Cooke for the Aussies were having a spewing comp and Matt Bixley for the Kiwis had torn a calf and showed amazing spirit to still run 200K. Anth was running strongly after a very conservative start and Jon Pearson struggling manfully with hamstring tendonpathy realized we might need him for a team medal and had picked up the pace.

Going into the race I had guessed I was ranked about 10^th in the Commonwealth, which I was based on the 2010 World Rankings. Martin Fryer, Barry Loveday, Michael Lovric and one of the British runners hadn’t made it to the startline. Jo and Jon were having bad days which left Jon Pares who was well out in front of his home crowd and Chris Carver and Pat “Paddy” Robbins who I had recently passed. However Paddy wasn’t finished with and when the 19 hour update was given to me he had re-passed me and I was back to 3^rd. With nearly 50 runners spinning around the circuit it was very hard to keep track of where you stood until you were able to put a face and name to someone in close proximity. Pat was now a marked man and over the course of the next few laps I chased him down. Then there was the small matter of trying to get a lap for some comfort.

Over the course of the next hour I was able to get a lap and had a chat to Pat as I lapped him. He seemed unaware of our rivalry but for the next 2.5 hours the gap stayed locked at just over a lap. It would start at 1 lap plus 100m and then every lap he would take about 10 metres off me, then just as I would start to worry that at my next walk and eat break he would pass, he would disappear. We must have been on very similar schedules. Despite the fact that I would have been ecstatic with a bronze before the race started I refused to even find out where the 4^th runner was. In my mind once I started to go backwards I could easily miss a medal altogether.

With 2.5 hours to go I started to think that we were almost there. However then I realized that we still had 2.5 hours to go which is a fairly long run. So I comforted myself with the fact that I only had 5 more half hourly walk breaks to go. By now the PA was back on and I discovered 4^th was quite a long way behind. This was comforting but I still had no idea who the 7.05 100K runner was and remembered stories of Tim Cockrane running 30K in the last 2 hours of a 24 race.

The rain had held off all race but after some sprinkles I ditched the Ipod and despite now having 2 laps and a little bit on Pat once again he seemed to be running faster than me. I knew that if I needed a toilet stop which I had avoided for the whole race for the first time I would lose a lap and I didn’t really want to get involved in a sprint finish.

With about an hour left it looked as if the rain had cleared so I asked for my Ipod back and convinced myself that I didn’t need my last walk break with 15 minutes to go. Therefore I was going to run for 45 minutes straight for the first time. This seemed like a mountain to climb at this stage but I was still running hard for the WA record and I just couldn’t justify walking to myself with so little time remaining. As the finish approached I actually felt like I got into a better rythym. I took another lap off both Jon Pares and Lizzy Hawker and actually finished with close to 11K for the final hour. About the same as hour 1.

In my post race funk I heard that I had done 235.9 which was oh so close to another negative split but sometime later I discovered it was actually 236.9K so I ended up with a 118/118.9 split. My last 2 24 hour races I’ve gone in expecting to slow about 10K over the 2^nd half but actually ended up with about 1K more. Now I need to work on getting more done in the first half.

Meredith had also run a great 2^nd half and snared a bronze medal to add to the women’s team silver. Sharon at no stage seemed to be running in comfort even from the first hour so to get to almost 200K was a Herculean effort. Susannah put in another solid run for her country and was great company during whilst getting ready the day before.

Our men’s team unfortunately fell 499 meters short of the Kiwis to finish in 4^th outside the medals. Unfortunately too for Anth he was only meters short of the 220K milestone. Along with Anth and myself Jon Pearson helped pull back nearly 20K  on the Kiwis in the last 2 hours to get us so close.