GNW 100mile (107.9miles).....a long long race!

What a weekend and what a race! So much goes into an event like this and that's what make it such a big part of your life.

I guess it all starts on Friday. For me it was an easy 8k run. I've always found going for a bit of a run the day before a race helps and hey......if i can't run the day after doing a slow 8k then I'm not ready to tackle 175k!

We stayed up at my Mums place as she lives about 15min from the start line.
The Friday night was a get together of about 70 people for dinner. That was great catching up with some people i haven't seem in a while

Tried to get an early night but knowing i have to do this race in the morning made sleeping something that just wasn't going to happen. I think i got about 1hr sleep. 3am comes and its time to get up.
First thing i need is breakfast. Just a couple pieces of toast. I don't want to eat too much as the last thing i need to worry about out in the bush running is stomach cramps and needing to find a toilet.
Next was make sure I've got all my gear ready and packing all the food.

We got to the start just after 4:30am. After checking and weighing in i went back to the car to shut my eyes. The lack of sleep was also sinking in. 5:30am we all gather around and listen to Dave to hear the briefing before we all make our way to the start line all looking fresh and excited! How things look different at the end!

Now i decided just to run my own race and not worry about how fast everybody else will go at the start. I think i had about 12 runners in front of me for the first 6km of road then it was on the trail and i had another runner past me there. He had a green band on (green band for 100miles and orange band for 100km) I just watched him run those early hills thinking I'll catch him soon enough.
Getting to Freemans drive and crossing the road in about 1hr26min I'm thinking I've maybe gone too fast but I'm feeling good so i just stick with my pace. I catch up to the guy who past me just after crossing the road and also Shona (she was in the 100km) I'm watching still running the hills and asked if they have been on this course before. They both tell me they haven't so i told them they might just want to walk some of these hills.
After running with Shona for a while she decided to take off while i kept my steady pace. Next thing i know I'm in the rain forest slowly making my way through. The guy who was running all those early hills caught up to me here but 10 min later he dropped off.
After 3hrs26min I make it to the first checkpoint.
Denise was awesome. She had all the food out all ready for me. She tells me I'm in 8th place. A few min later I'm gone again.
About 20min later i catch up to Shona again but she soon dropped off. The rest of the way to checkpoint 2 I'm all on my own. I got through that section in about 2hrs20min. I get my weight checked here and I've lost just over 1kg. Still in 8th place i head off again.
It wasn't long and i pass another 100mile runner then a 100km runner. Next thing I'm starting those hills again. I'm quite surprised how good i feel going up them. Crossing watagans creek i pass Dave waugh then make my way up the next big hill. Got to the top of that still feeling good but was glad to be up there. Checkpoint 3 came soon after and I'm now in 6th place.
I found the climb out of the basin a bit tough but after running 85km i think that's normal!
The rest of this section us pretty easy going and before i know it I'm on the road section 10KM away from Yarramalong. It was here i pass another victim of running hard too early and i then plod along making my way to checkpoint 4 (103km) 3km to go I catch up to levi and we ran in there together.
I get my weight checked again but this time i put on 200grams. About 7min later I'm off again but notice water leaking from my pack. I turn back and luckly i had 2 water bladders so Denise changed that for me and I'm off again.

Not long into it and levi and his pacer catch up to me. I let them pass and walk run the bumble hill section. 15min later i catch up to them again. We run together for quite a while but they slowly dropped off and next thing i know I'm on my own again getting to Somserby for checkpoint 5. The climb to Somserby was tough but still felt great at the checkpoint. I change my shoes here and leave in 4th spot.
Next section wasn't too bad until about 1km from checkpoint 6. That's when i went through my first real bad patch. I get there and for the first time i have trouble eating and drinking. I tell Denise its getting tough. Levi came in about 4min after me

I leave the checkpoint still in 4th but knew Levi would catch me.
I manage to run until the suspension bridge then he caught me.
The rest of the race was the most challenging thing I've ever done.
I went through stages of bring able to shuffle to almost dry reaching. I could no longer stomach anymore food and had trouble keeping water down. Then the next thing i felt on top of the world like nothing could stop me.
Soon enough though i really started to chafe from having the pack on for so long that i couldn't run. My legs were coming good but was reduced to power walking. About 3km to and i found if i just shuffle without letting the pack bounce too much i could kinda run to the finish.
I got to the lookout just before Patonga had a look behind me and couldn't see a runner in sight. I knew now i was going to get 5th spot and I WAS GOING TO MAKE IT!
The last section leading to the beach was just sensational. Running on the beach to the finish line was just priceless. I reached the finish pole collapsed on my kness kissed that pole got that medal around my head and felt on top of the world!

I finished in 24hrs28min in 5th place

A true ultra experience!