Poland World 24 Hour Champs- Katowice

Poland Race Report 2012

PLACING

HOURS

 

KM’S/HR

                                                HOURS

 

Six weeks out from the race I would have defintitely taken 228K, so I can’t complain. However I like to quote an old lady from “The 4 Minute Mile” though and say “That doesn’t stop me though does it.”

When I was bedridden and had my first ever 0K week due to injury I wondered if I would even make it to the startline and I’m very thankful I got to experience the week that was the  Katowice World Championships. I suppose though you don’t make it to this level if you are satisfied just to be there. The desire to be competitive and improve is still strong. When my back got better and I was able to do 3 50K long runs I knew that there would be no excuses for not making my goal of 240K.

AURA decided that we should get over 2 days earlier this year compared to the Commonwealth Champs and I wasn’t particularly happy to be away for the extra days but decided I’d do some touring and met up with fellow Aussie teammate Allison Lilley when our flights both took us through Guangzhou.

After about 40 hours travelling including 3 flights, a bus and a 3 hour train trip we arrived in Poland’s oldest city, Krakow. After 45 minutes walking around we decided to return to the place next to the train station which no longer seemed as expensive. Having both missed a day travelling we were super keen to get a run in and headed out into the smoggy streets. Afterwards we had a quick dinner and we were already in sync with the time zone cause by 10pm it was time for sleep.

We woke up the next morning having slept through the night and ready for a trip out to the Tatra Mountains. We met a friendly local on the train from Warsaw and she had given us directions for the best way to get there. Unfortunately we had forgotten the instructions but I remembered well enough to get us through.

Plan at the Tatras was to catch the cable car to the top ~2000m, have a run along the ridge and then walk back down past the hut. Unfortunately after waiting 40 minutes in line for the cable car we’d only progressed to about halfway to the front so we gave up and headed off on foot.

 I was very excited to see a sign warning about bears in the area. I don’t think bears when I think Poland. Anyway we didn’t run into any bears but it was a nice 1hr 40min hike from 1000-1986m. When we got to the top I headed off for a 30minute run which was amazing. During the ascent we hadn’t been able to see anything except fog but within minutes of starting to run the clouds lifted and it was stunning. There were heaps of people out walking but most moved out of the way as I headed for a distant peak. 30minutes goes very quickly in the mountains so I chose a small summit as my turnaround and scrambled to the top. The views were even better than New Zealand. Allison decided it was too risky to run the rocky ridge and after a quick tag of a 2012m peak (my first time above 2000m) we began the walk back to town.

The descent was the hardest part and I was wishing I’d taken the cable car for the next 3 days as I was quite sore. Fortunately that cleared in time for race day. The halfway “hut” was really a mountainside pub but after 2 months without a drink I wasn’t going to have one this close to the race.

Well I’ve written a lot and we haven’t started the actual race yet. I know for some running in circles (or even rectangles with rounded corners) for 24 hours is akin to watching paint dry, but it’s actually quite exciting. Anyway I better hurry things up a bit.

On the train to Katowice we met a fellow competitor in Vilnis (or Vinnie) from Latvia and had a great time chatting to him and a Polish guy in 1^st class where we’d accidently positioned ourselves. It was good to finally be where we had travelled half way around the world to race. We met some of our other teammates and I parked my bags in Ewan and my  room before heading down to dinner. After dinner Ewan had a spew and it was decided I should move out and I moved down the corridor to room with Justin.

In Katowice I went for another amazing run in the bush near our hotel and went shopping once for a few supplies. Apart from that I read, ate and popped into the pool each night for a quick dip. The day before the race we had the opening ceremony and pasta party. I’m not a big fan of ceremonies but it was good to see Yiannis and the Kiwis.

The pasta party was pretty poor for a vegetarian who doesn’t eat wheat (or fibre the day before a 24hour) so I had some cordial and a chat to the kiwis before heading back to the hotel for a dinner of cornflakes and soy milk. In hindsight I would’ve bailed with John, Rick and co and gone to the restaurant.

I woke up the day of the race feeling sore and tired. I actually woke up at 5am but thought it would better to try and rest up. After staying in bed for the extra hour I felt like I’d overslept and my neck was sore.

It was good to finally be able to get down to business. We took the bus provided out to the park where the race was taking place. It looked really nice and there was plenty of shade. Not that we needed it as it had been raining most of the morning. After setting up getting changed and checking out the porta loos before long we were on the startline.

I started near the front with Jon and Rick and the first K saw me relatively close to the lead. There was a bit of tape on the ground at the 1K mark so when I got to this in around 5minutes I consciously slowed it down. Yiannis Kouros had just gone past and I looked forward to catching up with him later but for now I wanted to stay as close as possible to 5:30/k.

The first couple of hours went like clockwork. Getting my 7 laps in and taking on plenty of food and drink. Each lap was 1554m so I was aiming to run 8-8.15 per lap to get me to half way with 130K on the board. During the 3^rd hour the Japanese went past running as smooth as silk. Mike Morton had flown by twice during the first hour and there is no way I would’ve considered running with him, he was on about 350K pace and I thought he was going to blow up. However when the Japanese came past about half as often it looked easy so I fell in and decided to run a few laps with them.

I probably ran about 4 or 5 laps with them before stopping for a scheduled food and walk break and apart from the last hundred or so metres it was very comfortable. By this time it had accelerated to sub 5min/k with each lap slightly faster than the last. This was all very well as I don’t like to get stuck into a slow rythym during 24 hour events and will often throw in a surge to run with someone faster or when a good song comes on my Ipod. However once I stopped I started to get some nausea and this threw me mentally. It was going to be very hard to get 130K in the first half.

The next 8 hours are very hazy. I think I spent much of the 4^th hour running with Ewan but when we split up with different feeding strategies I didn’t hear from him until about the 6 hour mark when I heard he was taking a nap. Around this time Sharon pulled out for good with a recurrence of hamstring issues and when Susannah collapsed “Team Australia” was decimated. Such is the resilience of ultrarunners though as shortly after Susannah and Ewan were back on their feet and competing again.

Before the race I had asked for updates on the Fremantle Dockers AFL final versus Geelong. Reading back through the updates on facebook I was reminded someone told me the Dockers were well up at ¾ quarter time but after the race I would have sworn no one had mentioned it. Also during this time I made a change into 2XU tights and put the Ipod on. I also changed into an old pair of Mizuno trainers I had borrowed off Rick. My ankle was beginning to play up in my racing flats and despite the Mizuno’s rubbing on my left foot the ankle felt better almost instantly. The rubbing finally lead to a sizable blister but hey “It was only a flesh wound .”

My forgettable few hours were broken around 11:15pm with stabbing pain behind my knee. This came and went a few times before bringing me to a halt. Walking wasn’t hurting so I decided if I walked hard the 2^nd half I could still get 200K. I walked the remainder of that lap and another 2 in about 12minutes each but the lack of running was making me tired. I have discovered in the past that running is a good stimulant but unable to run I went for the next best thing in a No-Doze tablet.

When I sat down in the aid tent just before halfway the plan was to have some caffeine and food and get back to walking. When I told team manager Rob Boyce about the knee he suggested taking some Neurofen to see if it fixed it. So shortly after I popped a No-Doze and 2 Neurofen I was out there again but no longer in first Aussie as John had just passed me. Within about 1 minute Allison came by still running strongly and I pushed off to give her some encouragement. Surprisingly the knee felt fine and after chatting with Allison for a little while it was obvious she was slowing me down so she sent me on my way.

The next10 hours were quite enjoyable as I searched out some English speaking companions to share the time with. I spent maybe an hour with Macca from New Zealand and a similar time with Sharon from Scotland before she too sent me on my way. I was still only trudging 9K/hour but everyone around me was slowing down. There was a scoreboard that updated the results when you ran over the timing mat. Unfortunately the mat was too close to the scoreboard so to get your own result you had to walk across and crane your neck to the top of the screen. I came up with a plan to get Sharon’s result by letting her get a few metres in front and then surging to catch her. Unfortunately her eyesight wasn’t up to making this a reciprocal arrangement but from the walking across method I was fairly sure she had one lap on me.

As the body starts to get tired you need more mental stimulation to keep you motivated. Each hour a timesheet would be printed out with the distance and place of each runner. These became great motivators as I sought to improve my place each hour. After 3 hours and a 12K+ hour running with the Japanese I had peaked at 47^th place. I had then been in freefall to 12 hours and 87^th place. This had all been a mystery to me until I asked for an update at 12 hours. The other game I was playing was splitting the race into time until my next painkiller/No Doze tablet. After Vitamin I at 12 hours I had Panadol at 14 hours, Neurofen at 16 hours and then Panadol at 18 hours. On all of the odd-numbered hours I was having a No Doze. Then heavily influenced by Scott Jurek’s “Eat and Run” I had been reading prior to the race I went all hippy turned the Ipod off and stopped taking pills. Fortunately the knee-pain never really returned.

The track was busy. A 1500m course with 250 runners is an average of 1 runner every 6 metres. Turning the Ipod off made me more aware of my surroundings. I was still running but lacking the motivation or companionship to really push the pace. I’m guessing 2/3^rd’s of the runners didn’t speak English but even those who did, some you’d fly by and rarely now they’d fly by you. Every time I saw Mike Morton he seemed to be going to the dunny. In a peculiarity of timing I must have seen him duck in 4 times during the race. All reports were that Rick was now flying. However I hadn’t seen him in hours.

When an ultra doesn’t go to plan you have to change your goals. After aimlessly trudging for most of the day I decided a “B” qualifier was an achievable goal and should allow me to enjoy the last hour as many runners already seemed to be doing. The plan was to get this in the bag and then enjoy the atmosphere  whilst knocking off a more sedate 6-7K an hour. However with 2 hours to go Paddy Robbins came by at a sustainable pace and I jumped on for a chat. Pat was really keen for some company as he closed in on his goal of 150miles so I now had a goal and we started to tick off 10K/hr fairly comfortably.

Things got a little more interesting with about 30min to go when Rick came past. We were now on the same lap. I considered I was pretty safe as he’d have to be going 3K/hour faster to catch me. Then with about 3 laps to go something went pop on the top of my foot. I asked Paddy what I should do. He said just keep running. I tried to change my gait to stop it hurting and was quite successful. Then we started to wind it up. We caught John or John caught us and Paddy started chatting with him and the pace eased off. With only about 8 minutes to go I keep the momentum going and took off on my own. I went through the aid station for the last time and the atmosphere was great, the Kiwis in particular were going off. With 4 minutes to go the only goal left was staying in front of Rick. I know the guy is fast so I kept up a pretty good clip.

Then the gun went off. I had run the last 2 laps with a big grin on my face. Not because of my achievement but because the ordeal was nearly over. When you think your race is going bad at 3 hours, 21 more is a lot of time. One of my goals when I could no longer hit the PB or 240K was not to be a one hit wonder. It motivated me last year as well. My first race was 179K, then 223K, then another sizable jump to 237K. This year’s 228K now gives me an average of 229K for my last 3 24 hour races. I think I’m actually quite good at this thing; but hopefully there is plenty more to come.

 Never try new shoes in a race kids. (or toughen up)