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PB'S Six foot track - 4:09 March 08 3000m 9:50 - October 09 5000m 17:25 10k 36:03 - may 2009 1/2 marathon 79:56 marathon 2:54:56

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

C2K 2013!!!!!!!!!!

Ok let me try and put this race into words….hmmmmm...well I’m going to miss alot but here goes.

Now one thing this is not just a race, it’s an amazing journey into another world. I mean how on earth do you describe in words the feeling you get mentally and physically running/walking 240km from Eden on the Sth Coast of NSW to the highest point in Australia?

I could put this race in to sections such as PRE RACE, THE RACE and POST RACE because each has it's own story but for this I'm going to just talk about "THE RACE"

Amazingly I managed to sleep pretty well waking up about 3:30am to eat some breakfast and do some last minute sorting of my gear. By 4:50am we arrive at the start line and with a nervous wait I try to keep warm. A few photos done of Kevin, Charlie and myself on the start line and the next thing I know we are lined up and off and running!

The first few km's and it's no easy task. Straight on trails and some short sharp steep hills. I just got into a comfortable pace walking those steep hills along with everyone else that I could see.
The first 24km went pretty quick just getting into a nice rhythm I soon catch up to Sarah Richardson then pass her then a little while later she catches up to me and we run into the 24km mark together where we get to meet up with our crews for the first time. I stop here to do some shoe surgery and off I go again.
The next thing I really remember is making my way to the marathon point where I get a cheer from Carol Adams. I got there in 4hrs13min. After that it became a bit of a blur until I got to the first checkpoint at Rocky Hall (50km) I came in there in 5hrs9min (I think)
Feeling pretty good I made my way to Big Jack Mtn at 56.3km in 5hrs50min. It was here Kevin drove to the top while Charlie walked/ran the 7.2km steep hill with me. That 7.2km took 1hr3min to get to the top. I was now back on my own plodding along to checkpoint 2 at Cathcart (70km) 8hrs2min in and 13th place. From here I run with John Pearson and Rick Cooke until my right hip started to give me grief. I put up with it but as the km's went on it was just getting worse and worse. Very frustrating as the rest of my legs felt great. By the time I got to the next checkpoint at 106.7km I was pretty much walking. It was here I got charlie to stick his elbow in my hip and try and release it which helped for a little bit but soon became painful again. At 110km I put some KT tape on the hip and BINGO! I was all good again. Now back into running mode I was catching quite a few other runners and now feeling positive again. It was also around this stage these guys in a ute drove up next to me and said to hop in the back as they could give me a lift! hahaha....one then asked what do you get if you win and I said I'm not too sure but if you finish you get an Akubra. He then said his mate next to him makes Akubra's and he will just give me one!....laughing my head off they wished me well.

Now from 110km to 139km I'm flying along loving it when I decide to have some ice. The next thing I'm cold, then I'm shivering. I said to let me sit in the car with the heater on for a bit and I'll warm up then get back out there. The next thing I know I'm sitting down and I vomit, and vomit and vomit and vomit. I was in the car crook from 9:35pm to 10:58pm. That's a long time going nowhere and being sick. Kevin thought at on stage there I was going to be off to hospital but being a great support crew he stayed positive and poor Charlie had the job of cleaning out my vomit bowl. Finally I decide I've got to get moving and we walk the next 9km to Dalgety checkpoint (148.1km) I stayed here and had a 35min sleep and got my head back into it. I woke up feeling great again and was off into some sort of running.

At 162km Kevin and I started the Beloka climb. All I remember of this was it was STEEP! As we were getting closer to the top the sun was rising and that was just a magic sight!
We were now on our way to Jindabyne and we got there at 8amish or 26hrs30min into the race. I stopped here and had some soup before we started the 40km treck up and up and up to Perisher with a few steep down hills in there too. Being so tired on this climb with being so fatigued I was feeling like I was now drunk and I think Kevin was feeling similar effects we were now just talking shit, laughing at all sorts of things and just having a good time and asking Chalie what's the score in the cricket even though it didn't start for a few hours but hey we had no idea of the day let alone what time it was.  We decided a while ago not too worry about my time as It got blown out the window back when I was throwing up so we were making the best out of this situation.

Somewhere along this section about 5-8k from Perisher we are running down this steep hill and Kevin said his knee was a bit sore and I said my calf is a little sore. We stop to walk then the next thing I know I have this sharp stabbing pain in my left calf. Not long later I couldn't bend my knee so I was now walking the rest of the way to Perisher which took a long time.
We now had a 8-9km climb to Charlottes Pass to get to and we thought we will just relax, walk to the summit and just enjoy being out here as we had plenty of time up our sleeves. About 5km from Charlottes Pass we got a message from another crew that after 4:30pm they weren't allowing any other runners up to the summit because of bad weather. SHIT! it was 3:35pm and we were walking pretty slow now and we only had 55min to get up there which normally wouldn't be a problem but with a stuffed calf it kind of became a bit of a problem. OK all of a sudden I thought I haven't come all this way, gone through all this pain not to get to the summit so I blocked that calf pain out and we did a run/walk to Charlottes Pass getting there around 4:10pm with 20min to spare! We then went back into relax mode.
The next part of this adventure was something else! Kevin, Charlie and myself hiking to the summit congratulating, hugging, hi fiving all the other runners who were on there way back. We hiked through snow and ice stopping to use the highest toilet in Australia on the way and get to the summit in the most perfect weather you could ask for. We got some photo's taken then made our way back down the 9km to Charlottes pass to the finish. I saw Greg Brown and Keith Sullivan on our way back down and I just felt so happy they made it.
With 4km to go I got back into power walking mode just wanting to finish this thing now.

I crossed that line in 39hrs20min and 29th place out of 50