PRE RACE
Ok well I pretty much stopped running for 4 weeks prior to this event because of an achilles issue. My last proper run was relay for life where I clocked up 100km but also flared up my achilles so since then it's been cycling lots and swimming a fair bit.
The week prior before GNW I drove to Canberra and when I got there my achilles was blown up like a balloon then the next morning it went down I I drove home and again it was puffed up like a balloon. Monday I decide to send Dave Byrnes an email saying I'm pulling out but for some reason the email wouldn't go through so I thought I'll send it again tomorrow. The next day I thought "hell with it let's give it a shot and see how I go" So I email Dave and ask if it's too late to book the pre race dinner and the next thing I know I'm going ahead with it.
I decide I better try some kind of running before the big day so I get on the treadmill twice that week and ran 10km each time. No flare up of the achilles and I did see the physio the week earlier and he said it's ok to start up some running so what's 175km I think...thats some running so all of a sudden I'm excited like a little school kid eating straight milo out of the tin!
I now get all my drop bags ready and with my mum just living 10min up the road from the start I'm all set to go.
The Friday comes and I drive up there and get my drop bags ready then see it's a total fire ban for the Sat in the greater Hunter.....arrrgghhhhh!!! That should mean a cancelled race but Dave Byrnes being Dave Byrnes manages to get the all clear to go ahead :-)
At the pre race dinner I somehow get talked into cooking up potatoes for the first 2 checkpoints as they couldn't cook them up on the day because of the fire ban. I finish dinner go back to mum's and with her help we cook the potatoes.....forget the potatoes are boiling away then remember then get overcooked potatoes ready for the first 2 checkpoints. Sorry if they were a bit soggy!
Now the night of the race is hot so I decide to sleep in the lounge room on a lounge with the air conditioner going and with a total of 3hrs sleep I'm ready to rock'n'roll!
THE RACE
So I turn up to the start line thinking I might do ok. I set a goal just to go checkpoint to checkpoint and see how far I get.
After the fun of getting weighed, chatting to all the other runners who are also looking quite excited we listen to Dave go through the speech of welcome and good luck and explaining the rules and etiquette of the race.
6am Dave say's go and we are off to war but we don't know it's war just yet.
I get running really comfortable taking care not to stress my achilles and I'm running with Spud, Nikolay and a few others until a little bit past where the trail start. From then on it was feeling great to cp1. I'm out of there after about 5min and going good. A few Km's on and I'm trying to open a bottle of coke and while I'm doing that I trip on a stick or something and fall pretty bad but I get up and continue with a blood drawn arm. It was this stage I had my first real cramp. WTF! I never cramp I'm I've been taking salt tablets every hr. Anyway I come good and just slog the next 10 or so km to Congewai rd. I'm running with Dave Waugh for a bit then I loose him then I catch back up to him then I get away from him again and the next thing I see Damien Smith sitting down. We run together to the Congewai rd and I'm thinking I'd love it to rain right now. I'm still feeling ok and I've run 45km so thinking that's good. 5min later I feel a bit sick so I go to have a drink and .........NO WATER LEFT! Ohhhh dear. I get about another km then decide I need to walk and save myself for the hills ahead. I'm in about 6th place at this stage.
All of a sudden things got real bad real quick. The temp was now 38deg and I'm on a dirt road with no shade with the sun reflecting off the road on me and hitting me straight from above. I walked into cp2 (52km) absolutely stuffed dry reaching a few times. I get weighed and I've gone from 69.8kg to 65.2kg!
I sat there cooling off getting fluid in me and lying on the green stretcher for 1hr10min then head back out there.
All of a sudden I'm feeling great again thinking I'm going to do this. I pass a few runners and the next thing I'm heading up the communications tower surprisingly catching Nikolay and Antoniya the woman that ended up winning the female event. I get to the top back to running feeling pretty good plodding along passing all these runners sitting down trying to find shade from the sun. Other runners are helping them and from then on I was running on and off with Antoniya up the next big hill past Watagens Ck. We get to the unmanned water stop and I tip what was left in my water bottle all over my head to cool me down, refill my bottles and head off. Now somewhere here things went down hill really quick. I get plodding and a few km's later my quads have seized up and I can no longer run down hill. Not long later I cant hardly walk up hill. I start to think just get to cp3 (80km) and maybe I'll be able to rest again then come good. I soon find even walking really tough and see a log and decide to sit until I see another runner then get going again. I sit for about 10min then 3 runners came by. I then think I'll wait until the next lot come by and I'll run to the Basin CP3 with them. 15min and no other runners I get up and plod at about 20min-24min/km pace.
I manage to get into the Basin 1hr40min after I started to walk again and that's only 5km.
I then tell them I'm pulling out as I was worried if I continued I may not be well for C2K.
So after I thought about the event I was really happy I got to where I did. 49 people pilled out at CP2 and only 29% of the field finished the 100mile. That would have to be the biggest drop out rate of any race that I know of anywhere in the world.
I managed to walk into cp2 feeling like death then gain enough strength to continue another 30km
