Quite a few people know that the Adelaide 24 hour has moved to Queensland, and as a result there are no timed events to have a crack at in Adelaide. To try and somewhat fill the void, a keen runner, Ben, decided to see if anyone would be interested in a 6/ 12 hour run around the Uni Loop in North Adelaide. It turned out that there was not enough interest in the 12 hour, but 10 runners were keen to enter the 6 hour. I had often though about the 24 hour and thought that I may as well put my hand up.
Leading up to the event I really didn't know what to expect as I had never done a timed event before, and I wasn't sure if I would get bored running 2.2km loops for 6 hours. The 10 of us lined up at 6am in the dark and set off on what was for most of us something completely new.
I didn't really have a race plan other than to take it easy and make sure I had something to eat/ drink every 2nd lap. It didn't take long to see that time would actually pass by quite quickly. Soon the sun had risen and the Uni loop started to come alive with weekend exercise fanatics and dog walkers.
Everyone settled into their own pace, with Brett and Dave flying off into the distance. As the hour approached we got ready for a direction change. It may not sound that exciting but running in the opposite direction really did change the feel of the run. It also added quite a bit of interest as the faster runners passed us in the opposite direction and I passed those who were running slower than me.
As the day progressed the Uni Loop continued to provide changing scenery. And by that I mean that different people were now out exercising and different sporting teams were playing on the central sports fields; including The Adelaide United Soccer team. Other distractions included timing the turn around so that you didn't have to run in the anti-clockwise direction which had the "climb". Ok, those of you who run the uni loop may ask where the hill is but after 50km it feels like a hill!
During the run I didn't really have too many problems and I was continuously running calculations to see what distance I would achieve. As the final hour was upon us I was almost resigned to the fact I would not reach 60km and was just aiming for 58-59km.
Nearing the end of the run Cliff passed me and I told him "I was toast" and had nothing left. I was really starting to struggle to maintain a run until I happened to look at my GPS watch and figure out that I wasn't that far from hitting 60km. All of a sudden it was like someone had flicked a switch. I have never ever experienced such a dramatic change in the way I felt. I went from barely being able to run to not feeling any pain at all and running like an absolute maniac. I went screaming past Cliff and as I started my last lap I also went flying past Dave who just looked at me and started laughing, most likely wondering what drugs I had just taken.
About 20 seconds after I passed Dave the hooter sounded to signal the end of 6 hours and I went to the closest cone and took that reading to the lap counters. My GPS was telling me that I had covered 59.97km so I knew it was going to be close. Unfortunately, when the results came out I discovered that I had covered 59.8km...I was 200m shy of 60km!
Some people may think that I would be incredibly annoyed...well I was but I had such a fantastic time that I wasn't that bothered by missing out on 60km, besides it'll give me something to aim for next year.
To summarise this event I have to say that it was a big surprise to me. I did not expect that I could get so much enjoyment out of an event where you run around the same track for 6 hours. It was never boring and there was always something going on around the Uni Loop. To all those who may think it does sound too boring then I'd encourage you to give it a go and then make your mind up. I must give a big thank you to Ben for putting on such a great event and I hope that we can run it again next year.
Here are the results:
Brett 68.2km
David 64.1km
Glen 59.8km
Cliff 54.8km
Ben 56.8km
Graham 55.5km
Colin 55.0km
Kym 52.8km
Terry 50.6km
Sue 41.7km
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