As the 12 hour was not my main focus this year I didn't do any specific training or any special taper period prior to the event. My goal race is the Glasshouse 100 miler so I had a super quick taper, which involved a weekend off from training, followed by a light week of running and I was as ready for the 12 hour. I didn't really have that much of a race plan other than aiming for around 55km at 6 hours, and then just holding on and hopefully getting to 100km.
The weather for the start of the race was perfect. There was barely any wind and the temperature was nice and cool. We were briefed by Ben, and in a similar fashion to last year, a seemingly uneventful call by the race director set us off on our way.
The first few hours passed by with relative ease, however I noticed that because the track was slightly damp from overnight rain, dirt was flicking up into my shoe and also inside my poorly fitting Injinji socks. I love Injini's for ultras but the pair I was wearing had passed their used by date. They were a bit loose around the ankles and hence were taking in grit. I was wearing my Asics 2150 GTs which haven't worked well for me at all compared to my usual Kayano road shoes. After about the 4 hour mark I had to stop and empty the grit out of my socks and change into my trusty Asics Gel Trabucos. I brought these along because I know I can run forever in them and not get any blisters.
As we approached the 6 hour mark it definitely started to get tough, and from a mental perspective it was really hard knowing that the 6 hour guys were going to be finishing soon. After having run for close to 6 hours the desire to want to stop running and sit down had well and truly kicked in. Anyway, I was bang on target and manged to clock up 55.53km for the 6 hours.
The next couple of laps were really tough. The 6 hour guys were resting their legs at the finish line and we still had 6 hours to go. Damn it looked so nice to be not running, but I had signed up for the 12 hours so I had to keep on moving. Over the next couple laps most of the 6 hour runners had left and it was nice to have to track to ourselves and be able to concentrate on the task at hand.
Hours 6 to 8 were horrible for me. I had a desire to sit down that was so intense I couldn't stop looking for places to sit down on the lap. I would see a park bench but it was too far off the track, I would see a post to sit on but it wasn't big enough for my butt, I was see a steel gate to the council depot but it looked too high. This went on for lap after lap but I managed to keep moving and only sit down for a few seconds on an electrical box right on the edge of the track.
I had been taking on gels and some potato chips later on, but I soon turned to what was on offer on the food table provided for the runners. I reckon I stood there for about 15 seconds trying to figure out what I wanted. Some coke went down and I reluctantly broke off a small piece of pizza which actually tasted fantastic. Down went the rest of the slice of pizza with another cup of coke to wash it down.
It was about now that I started to come good again. Don't get me wrong, things still hurt like hell but I was running a lot more consistently, but still not consistent enough to be able to see me getting to 100 km.
Over the day I mostly ran on my own, but one of the runners I spent a fair bit of time with was Kym. Kym was running a beautiful pace and had actually got two complete laps up on me since the 6 hour mark. He was on track for his first ever 100km run and was really on a mission. Nothing was holding him back at all. Over the next couple of hours I ran probably about 3 key laps with Kym that put me back on track for 100km.
Even when I got into the 90s, I still didn't believe that I could get to 100km. I even said to Kym that I simply didn't want it enough at that stage. However, I continued to make reasonable progress and with about 35 min to go the numbers seemed to be looking good. 100km was definitely possible. All of a sudden I became super focused, the pain completely disappeared and I was running fast. It really is impossible to describe this sensation to those who haven't experienced it. It is a truly bizarre sensation to go from being absolutely wrecked to being able to effortlessly run along. Thanks to Chillimans photo's below, it shows that I ran an 11:11 lap (2.2km), which would most definitely be my fastest lap of the whole day. And this was at the 98km mark...how does that happen?
Thanks to my now effortless pace, I could see that I would get to 100km, albeit with about 6 minutes to spare but I would make it. All of a sudden the whole day just seemed so much more worthwhile. I was so much more satisfied. I ran right up to the sound of the siren and managed to complete 101.093km in 12 hours making it my longest ever run.
There were some amazing achievements amongst the 12 hour runners. Mal clocked up a phenomenal 133.7km, which was truly amazing to watch, Ron knocked off another age group record with a run of 116.972km, Zac completed a PB of 109.110km and Kym surprised everyone including himself in totaling 101.2km. At one stage I asked him if he was going to have a crack at a 100km race sometime this year. He said he was thinking about it but didn't have any idea that 6 hours later he would achieve that goal today. I must thank Kym for the few key laps that he dragged me along on in the latter stages of the race, because without those few laps I wouldn't have got to 100km. Click on the image below for the splits.
I must mention the 6 hour guys too. Check out their awesome performances below!
6 hour:
Male:
Brett Worley 65.183km
Stan Trzepacz 63.5
Adrian Mills 62.943
Doug Reid 62.390
Colin Brooks 61.637
Graham Tottey 57.411
Cliff Pannell 54.800
Karl Riedl 54.268
Stuart Drayton 46.645
Female:
Emma Vaughan 52.878
Susan Worley 41.082
Congratulations to Ben for putting on a fantastic event and thank you to all of the support guys that helped out lap counting, course marking, preparing food and just generally providing moral support out on the track. It was an immensely satisfying day for me, and hopefully for all involved too. Sometimes I wonder why I run ultras, and I sure did ask that question many times this day, but the sense of achievement and high that you get from running something like this makes it all overwhelmingly worthwhile.
Glen
