Race Report: 56km Two Bays Trail Run

The View from the top of Arthurs Seat

I feel like to start off this race report, I need to provide some context as to what exactly happened prior to this run. 1: I went on a week long camp (Lord Somers Big Camp, as a staffer) where I got an average of 5 hours sleep per night before the race. 2: My longest run prior to this was 30km through the Mitchell River National Park which took me 4.5 hours. 3: I came off an extended break throughout Christmas to try and recover from my foot injury. 4. none of my running friends or my family knew I was running the 56km, the only people that knew were Dan from Ultra168, some random people from the cruise over the Christmas holidays , and people at the camp.

For those friends and family who are reading this, the reasoning behind not telling you is this. I wasn’t confident that I had the self-motivation to go through with running it if enough people told me I was crazy for trying. I was and still am nowhere near fit enough to be attempting this distance, but I wanted to try for a couple reasons. To call myself an Ultra Runner while still in my teenage years and to have confidence when doing my first road marathon on the Gold Coast in July that I can make the distance. Which meant having a crack at one of the easiest trail ultra’s I know of, a stunning out and back course with (only) about 1500m of climbing (according to the website). So with that in mind my two goals for this race were this. The first and ultimate goal, finish it, no matter what. The second and perhaps more unrealistic goal, try and break 5 hours.

The kit I would be racing in, a Salomon shirt, hat and pack. Hoka Speed Instincts, Brooks shorts and starting out in 2XU calf socks

With that out of the way, my race! I turned up to the start line with a solid 8 hours the night before, so no-where near enough to erase the previous week’s sleep debt, and had 45 minutes to do a warm-up and get myself ready before the gun went off. What I thought was plenty of time quickly disappeared after waiting in line to use the toilet, you would’ve thought that by now I would know to go before I get to the start line, obviously not. That meant by the time I ran back to the car (and used that as my warm-up) to put on my pack and running shoes (I only had my Sanuks on at this point, they’re super comfy) and then ran back to the start line, everyone had already filled up the starting chute. And since I wasn’t wearing anything summer-y (Hawaiian shirt or boardshirts) apart from a Fiji bracelet I bought on the cruise a few weeks prior, I wasn’t able to force my way to the front. 

This meant the first few km’s of the race, while I was still fresh, were super slow. This, in hindsight, was probably a good thing as I didn’t really have a warm-up and meant that I didn’t start too quickly, which is usually a problem for me. But was frustrating at the time! However, this meant I got to enjoy the spectacular views across Bushrangers Bay and got talking to a few of the other runners, and generally just enjoying myself.

Bushrangers Bay

As mentioned above, I have no experience running this length so I set out with this basic plan. Start out running no faster than 5min/km, as this is usually an easy running pace for me, going faster later on if I feel good. Taking the uphills super easy, the flat stuff easy and pushing the downhills hard, as that’s usually my strong point. And having a Vfuel gel every 45 minutes and constantly sucking on sports drink throughout. Starting off with Trail Brew and switching over to Vfuel drink when that ran out (didn’t think to have a drop bag with more Trail Brew in it, thanks Troy for suggesting for me to do that next time!).

And for the first 18km’s all was going well. The scenery was stunning and had already encountered a wide variety of trail surfaces including some gravelly single track, open grassy sections and the killer soft sand section, where, to my surprise, Kellie Emmerson came flying past me, saying she got lost. She was really making up time for that mistake though, flying through that sandy section. I was still in a great mindset, ticking away the km’s and even still on time to break 5 hours. But within the next 2km’s my right sock started rubbing, and I could feel a blister coming on. However, I knew this might be a problem as the last time I wore these socks in a race, a blister formed (wearing different shoes and on road instead of trail). This meant I brought another pair of socks in my pack and quickly swapped my right sock across at the aid station just beyond the 20km point, which drew a few remarks from other runners as I had odd socks on. One calf length 2XU compression sock on my left foot, one ankle height Stiegen sock on my right. But even though it probably only took 2 minutes to swap it across, it felt like infinity as the people who I had been running with took off and saw people whom I passed at the start overtake me. I was a bit annoyed to say the least. But with the problem solved I was off and running again trying to make up time, which didn’t work all that well as the biggest hill of the race started about 1.5km after that aid station, Arthurs Seat. And while the climb up it wasn’t particularly difficult in comparison to some of the hills I’ve raced and trained up, it still took more out of me than it should have and took longer than I would’ve liked. And this is where my lack of long distance training started to show its face, I had breached the half marathon point, the focus of all my training this past year. But the views at the top were breathtaking and was a nice little accomplishment. 

The beach in Dromana looking up to the top of Arthurs Seat

 Going down was easy and nothing to write home about, and when I got down into the township of Dromana and the turn-around point I had just realised how much time I burned making my way up Arthurs Seat the first time. Ringing the bell at 02:37:28 made me realise that there was no-way I was going to achieve my secondary goal of breaking 5 hours (which I don’t think was ever going to happen), so I set my focus on the primary goal. Finish.

The bell (screenshot from the Two Bays Trail Run Site)

Re-filling my drink bottles and grabbing some more gels and ringing the bell I hardened my resolve to climb Arthurs Seat the second time, where I got passed and passed again. Usually I’m towards the front and this was bit demoralising, but for the most part I was ok with it. I’m doing something I’ve never done before, I don’t have to do well first try, so I kept on trucking and before I knew it (and with some tasty tunas helping (that’s music for all you non-triple j listening folks haha ;)) I had reached the top, and the second time around actually felt easier than the first time. And I had a new distance record! 32km’s and counting. But coming back down almost killed me. Every time I landed on my left leg after a stair I felt like my quad was going to cramp up on me, so I changed my gait, landing on my right leg instead, which fixed the problem. But I was still glad to see the end of the hill when I reached McLarens Dam and even gladder when a person handed out some ice and water to me at that point (and found out later that that person was Nige Stuart, so thanks!)

The going really got tough for me from the marathon mark onwards (which I ran in 4.28.31, got a lot of work to do if I want to break 3 hours this year). A headache had developed at the back of my head, probably from the constant pounding of my feet against the ground, and I felt soo tired. My legs didn’t want move anymore. Each step was hard. I wasn’t prepared for this. But lucky for me I was moving through my favourite part of the course, Greens Bush between the 42-48km markers. And boy was it beautiful, it made me forget my pain for the briefest of moments. 

A tunnel of trees

But it was over too soon and I was struggling to keep on running. I had to walk more and more, and felt like sitting down. The only thing that stopped me from sitting was a trail race that was on during Lord Somers Camp. It was relatively short and not very hilly but some of the participants had never done anything like it. They gave it their all, and I kept it at the back of my mind throughout the final stages of the race. If they can push their limits, then so can I. In the final 2kms I gave it everything. I ran it all, even the uphills. I even sprinted the final 50m to just beat another person across the line.

My official time was 06:15:08, with my second half of the race a full hour slower than the first half, taking me 03:37:40 to complete. And looking at the results page, I had to flip to page 3 to find my name, which hasn’t ever happened before for a trail race. And to finish in the bottom 50%, when I had maybe thought I could finish in the top 20 overall has left me with a weird feeling. I would usually reflect on whether I had done enough training or whether my nutrition was correct, but I obviously hadn’t trained enough and I hadn’t consulted my sports nutritionist about the race so that part of the race went down the sink too. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. But I don’t care. I’m now an Ultra Runner!
Thanks to the team at Big Long Run for putting on an amazing race :)

I'm going to assume that the GPS was inaccurate!

The TRN

Race Report: Aths Vic Trail State Champs

Wow, my last race report for the year, how the year has flown! Crazy to think I’ve raced 15 times throughout the past year, and I’m so glad this is the last one.

As I mentioned in my previous post (the need for speed), my preparation for this one probably wasn’t the best, and I had a few lingering doubts. I wasn’t running in my arch supports for the first time since seeing the physio, would my foot start hurting? What about my gut? Every time I’d raced in afternoon/evening I’d had some sort of problem, would it be fine for this race?

With these worries, along with the fact I didn’t know what the course was like; I went to the start line with a conservative race plan, don’t start out too fast and try to maintain a heart rate that wasn’t through the roof, and if I was still feeling good at the 10km point, push the last 2km’s hard.

Lining up at the start line with me were two top-notch trail runners that I’d come across at 4 Peaks, Ash Bennett and Mat Dore. So another thought briefly flickered across my mind, maybe try and keep up with them? As there were so few people actually running in this race (about 60) and I wanted to do well, I seeded myself at the front, which was a mistake as I forgot one important thing. This was an Athletics Victoria race, and I should’ve known from racing in previous AV x-country races that the starts are FAST! I got caught up in the excitement and ran my first km in 3.36, 25 seconds faster than planned. The second km was more what I was hoping for at 3.57 but the damage was done, my heart rate and breathing rate were sky high, and I struggled with the gradual climb over the next 4km’s. Such a high breathing rate also made my throat really dry, and I had to stop to grab a drink at the 5.1km point, which I’m mad about as it made me have a 5.05min km for my 6^th km, which is just too slow for a race of this distance.

After 6km was the biggest downhill of the race where it lasted almost the full km, wasn’t steep and should’ve been a blast to run down, but my legs felt heavy and I only managed a 3.57 km, which is well below my standards. From 7km to 11km was a mixture of gravel and leafy understory, and was flat and was my hardest section of the race. I was pushing myself to go faster, but my heart rate still hadn’t recovered from the beginning of the race and my legs still felt flat, and I felt like I was bleeding time. I hadn’t actually seen another person in front of me or behind me from the 6km point, but from the 10km marker I was constantly looking behind me, expecting to see another runner come flying past me, but luckily that didn’t happen. However, something strange happened with about a km to go. I felt great! My pace dropped, my heart didn’t feel like it was going to beat out of my chest and I had more bounce in my stride. Unfortunately the race was over at that point, and I found out from a passer-by as I burst out from the eucaluptus scented trees (from which we'd been running in for the past 3 km's) and out onto the dam wall that I was 10^th overall. This meant as I came across the finishing line 500m later in a time of 51.51 and 2^nd in my age group, the first time I’d finished on the podium at any state champs race!

I wasn’t feeling very tired at all as I came across the line, which sucked as I felt like crap only 10 minutes earlier. I’ve got to remember that I’m not Zach Miller and I cannot do well when I start fast, I’ve proven this to myself time and time again throughout the year but I still do it. I only wonder if my time could’ve been better if I didn’t start out so fast and maintained a faster average throughout the race, instead of slowing down considerably in the last 2/3 of it. Oh well.

Thanks to Aths Vic in conjunction with Trail Love for putting on a great race, my parents for taking me down and lets just say I’m glad I’ve done my last race of the year!

The TRN

The Need For Speed

Hill Reps

 This week’s thought is about speed. It has recently entered my mind due to the fact the second biggest race; for me, of the year is next weekend. The State Trail Champs. Which as far as I’m aware, is flat, lending itself to a speedy course. It’s also short, at only 12km’s in length. This means everyone will be pushing themselves from the word go as it’ll be over in the blink of an eye.

Unfortunately the turn-over from 4 Peaks until next weekend is too short for me to lose my mountain legs and gain speed, so the thing I’ve been trying to do over the past two or so weeks is to remind myself I can run fast.

Before I got into mountain and trail running, I was a middle distance track runner and short(ish) distance road runner. I hit my peak back when I was 16.5 (the racing season is in the summer and I was born in the winter) and broke 2.15 for the 800m, 4.50 for the 1500m and 19 min for the 5000m. And I broke 40 mins for the 10km about 6 months later on the road. None of these times are that fast, mind you. Never got me to Nationals, but they are a heck of a lot faster then I’ve run all this year. And to try and get me back into the mindset of being speedy I went back to my old track coach; Denis, who helped me run those times all those years ago.

For the past two weeks, Denis (and pro Adidas runner Craig, his son) from the The Tan Track Club have had me doing interval sessions, hill repeats and hill climbs, back-to-back workout days and tempo runs to try and drill into me a 4min/km pace, which is what I’ll need to run if I want to have any chance of standing on that podium this weekend.

So far I’ve been able to hit all the times they’ve set for me but quite frankly, I’m unsure whether or not I’ll be able to do it. My preparation time for this race could’ve been better. I could’ve planned my race calendar out better; to focus on this race I shouldn’t have done the Great Alpine Road Half Marathon a couple weeks ago. And with my niggling foot injury I haven’t been able to run as much as I had wanted to (for more details on the injury check out my race report here), but I think I can chalk both of those down to bad luck and limited experience.

So as I’m reading this once I’ve finished my Exercise and Sport Science degree and hopefully many ultras later, I’m hoping I’ll be able to answer these questions. How long did I actually need to prepare for this race properly? And how important is speed for mountain trail running, the form of running I want to be good at?

Until then, lets hope my body remembers what it’s like to be quick and hopefully I’ll be able to end up on the podium for my last race of the year!

The TRN

Race Report: The Great Alpine Road Half Marathon

The Great Alpine Road, leading up to 'the Cross', I swear it's steeper in person

It’s interesting looking back on this race, as it’s a bit of an oddity. Here I am finding out about this race and a whole bunch of different distance trail races that were on the day before, and I decided to do a road race? That’s weird Daniel; you’re not called the ‘Road Running Novice’. There was a reason behind the madness though, getting a PB and finally breaking the 1.30 mark, taking me from an alright runner, to a pretty good runner, and potentially telling me I can run a sub 3-hr marathon next year. With the Great Alpine Road Half-Marathon being the inaugural race this year, details on elevation were slim but what I did know at the time of entering was this. Starts at the top of Mt Hotham, runs ‘down’ to Blowhard Hut in about 5km’s, turns around and heads back up to Mt Hotham, then runs ‘down’ to Dinner Plain. That to me sounded like the perfect event, running downhill more than uphill, this will give me the best chance possible to crack that magic barrier. Not quite…😕

3 Sale and District Runners left Sale on Saturday afternoon for this race; Mel (enthusiastic support crew), Brad and myself (both running the half). The trip up to Dinner Plain was stunning, especially the part between Bruthen and Dinner Plain. The highlight was a lookout over to Mt Kosciusko, with the visibility being amazing; we could see the snow on its peak, which was pretty cool. (haha get it?)

The iPhone camera isn't as good as the human eye unfortunately, still, it hints at view from the lookout

After we got up to Hotel High Plains and unpacked, we all went for a shakeout run around the Montane Loop, and this short 2km loop already showed how beautiful the trails were around Dinner Plain. This made me a bit jealous of Lucy Bartholomew who got to play on these trails for the entire week leading up to the weekend. One thing we all noticed at the end of the run though was how we were more out of breath then we should have been. The effects of being 1600m high were starting to show.

Shakeout complete, we set off in the car for a reccy of the course to find out what we were in for. One thing we noticed immediately is that the bit between Hotham and Dinner Plain was undulating, not straight up. Running down from Hotham was going to be harder then first expected. Once we reached the start line at the Mt Hotham main car park and started to head ‘down’ to Blowhard Hut we noticed one thing immediately, we weren’t going down, we were heading up. In fact we had to climb almost 100m over the next 2km before we finally reached the highest point of the climb, ‘the Cross’. From there though it was practically all downhill to Blowhard Hut, with one of those km’s losing about 150m. Fun to run down, not so fun to run back up again. That was when Brad and I realised the enormity of the task ahead of us, and when I knew that getting a PB was well and truly out of reach.

Snow!!

A magazine with a view

On the way back from Blowhard Hut we stopped multiple times to grab some happy snaps and to just enjoy ourselves. Seeing the high country in Spring was something to behold, and we couldn’t resist the opportunity to take some Insta-worthy photos. Once back at Dinner Plain the stomachs were grumbling, and we went to find some food. Our first choice was the local brewery, ‘Blizzard Brewing Company’, only to find it had just closed upon our arrival. Dammit! We were told that the local pubs stocked it, so off we went, stomachs still rumbling for food and good beer. We made a pit stop at the place where we were staying for the beer, where I had Blizzard’s IPA, which was good, but not dinner as they were booked out. This meant there was only one place left that was open for dinner, where I ended up having a schnitzel and another one of Blizzard’s beers, this time the Amber Ale. Stomach’s filled with good beer and food it was off to bed early in preparation for the day ahead.

My second favourite type of beer, and a good version of it too!

The IPA, my current favourite type of beer and the only thing wrong with this one is that I couldn't drink more of it 😂 

One of the dogs at the hotel, enjoying the sunshine while we were enjoying our beers!

Going to bed early did me no favours though; I had one of the worst sleeps in my entire life! The room was hot and stuffy, and with the breeze going in the wrong direction opening the window didn’t help. I also had a case of extreme pre-race nerves. It was bizarre. I knew I wasn’t going to get a PB and I told myself to just enjoy the experience, but my heart rate was through the roof. I had no idea what was going on, and I had to use every relaxing technique I knew to try and get my HR under control, which didn’t really work. All this added up to me waking up on race day morning feeling a lot more tired than I usually am before any race. I still don't know what quite happened that night.

Anyways, the alarm went off 2 hours before the race was meant to begin, and I went through my usual race routine, which meant that by the time we jumped on bus to head up to the start line I was good to go. Except good ol’ traffic management was late, which was handy as public liability meant we couldn't run on the road until some cones and signs were set up. Just brilliant. Our 7am race start became 7.30am, and this meant that by the time we set off some of the marathoners had passed us (they did an out and back course from Dinner Plain, and were allowed to start at their normal start time due to a car driving behind them with their hazards on).

Knowing what I was in for I started out fairly conservatively, but still built a bit of a lead on the rest of runners by the ‘the Cross’ 2k’s in, and really let go on the other side clocking a 3.30 minute k for my 3^rd km, which was so much fun to run down! 

It was on this downhill that I caught the 2^nd and 3^rd placed marathoners and by the time I reached Blowhard Hut, I was feeling great. Even on the way back to the main Mt Hotham car park I was in good spirits, an amazing view out onto the Razorback and Mt Feathertop on my left and the km’s were slowly ticking away. I didn’t even have to walk up the hill at all, which I was stoked with considering it reached a gradient of 25% in some areas (according to Strava). 

By the time I reached the halfway point I couldn’t see my nearest competitor behind me and I felt as if the time and distance went by in the blink of an eye, which I think was due wholly to the scenery I was running through. And with the hardest part behind me I thought I was in for a chance of breaking 1.40, but how things can turn around so quickly. But first a bit of backstory.

1 week before this race I went for my longest run ever (4.5 hours) and my right side of my right foot started to hurt 2 hours in. I took a break from running to try and let it heal, by the Friday before the race, no pain and I thought I would be good to go for this half-marathon. Back to the race…

At 12km’s I felt a blister starting to form on the left side of my left foot, but as it was early stages I was able to run through it fairly easily. At 14km my right side of my right foot started to hurt again, and by this point the blister had well and truly formed and was seriously starting to hurt. Not to mention the fact that the sun was beating straight down onto all of us runners, with no shade whatsoever, raising the road temp to what I reckon could’ve easily been close to 30 degrees. These 3 factors had their toll on me and made it very hard for me to continue. The only things that kept me going were the constant sips on the Trail Brew, a pristine flow of water at the 15km point which I was able to have a long drink from and dip my hat into, and just seeing another human being in the form of the aid station guy at 16km, who gave me some more icy cold water. By this point I hadn’t stopped to walk, only to grab water, which I was pretty proud of. But then another thing happened, my gut troubles returned. After having a flawless ‘4 Peaks’ race I had optimistically hoped it might be gone for good, obviously not because at 17km’s it struck again. The 4 factors of the sun, my blister, my hurting right foot and my gut forced me to a short walk 3 times in the next 3km’s, which meant I was constantly looking over my shoulder to try and see 2^nd place, and not enjoying the moment of being in the mountains. It sucked, but I somehow managed to convince myself to run the entire last km and stumbled across the line with Mel cheering me on in my first ever overall win! I don’t think I’d ever been so happy to see a finish line in my entire life! As soon as I could walk again I took myself straight over to first aid and got my blister covered in Band-Aids, and unfortunately wasn’t directly at the finish line to congratulate Brad on finishing, but at least I was able to see him cross the line and I hope he was able to hear me yelling my support from across the lawn.

Elevation and pace profile of the Half Marathon race

I ended up running 1.49.25 which I’m not all that happy with, but I am super happy with finishing what I think is Australia’s toughest road Half-Marathon. Everyone who ran this race (and those crazies that ran the full) should be super proud of their efforts on just completing it. However; huge kudos to those select few who ran a trail race on the Saturday and then backed it up with running a road race on the Sunday. That is something that I certainly look up to, and something I will hopefully be doing in the next few years.

Thanks to Running Wild and Dinner Plain Management for an awesome event, it will be something that I’ll definitely have to run in again in the near future.

The TRN

P.S Saw the physio and have figured what’s going on with my foot. The trail I did my 4.5 hour run on was slightly off centred, probably allowing water to more easily flow off it. Anyway, my right arch is slightly higher then my left arch and when running on this trail I was rolling in on my right foot more than usual to help me stay balanced, this collapses the right arch causing pain in the right side of my right foot. When running on it for short periods of time it causes no pain, but when running on it for longer the niggle becomes more exemplified. My body must’ve over compensated with my left foot during the race. Causing the blister that I never would’ve thought I would get, with shoes I have never had issues with before. The solution? Arch support for when I go for those longer runs. 

blister covered in band-aids, probably better then a photo of my blister itself hahah