Six Foot Track Race Report 2007-45ks

Had a long drive up from Sydney on Friday night taking 2hrs in the traffic. Stopped at the Edge and picked up my number and chatted to Evie, Tux, Plu, Sportsman, Will, Kev and Mohammad for awhile before heading for some dinner and the hotel. Didn't have a good nights sleep but do you ever before a big race. Let alone your first ultra ever and first marathon in 2 years.

Arrived at the start about 7:15 feeling good but a little nervous about the day of racing ahead. Chatted to the non racing Leftie, Nando and Vat at the start. Sportsman gave me a tip the previous night that it was a bit rough before the stairs.

Started next to Shell and then didn't see her for another 5hrs.I just took it easy to the stairs and joined the line down the stairs just behind 2p. It was great going slow down there as I eased into the race. Nice and cool and lots of laughter happening in wave 2. Kept motoring along the road to Megalong catching back up to 2p after an unscheduled pit stop. Ran straight through the creek and up across the farm land and back into the bush. You could here the crowd about 500m before I saw them.

Crossed Megalong Rd getting the Colin's photo op with the 8.066ks(Action) in 48mins. Right on schedule. Ran through the farm and ran up and over Pinnancle Hill and stopped at the top as I spyed a few red snakes at the drink station. Caught up to Tuttle here as well. After that it was into the bush down to the river, took a speccy dive going to the river ending up sliding head first on my back. A few nice scars later and I ploughed through the river. Why was the boulder in the middle? Hit the river at 1:30.29. On schedule. The river was so nice and a great squelching noise from the shoes as the water seeped out along the road.

Filled up with a bit of food and drink and emptied the shoes of gravel from the run to cox's and not sand from the river. Stopped up Mini mini a bit later but still couldn't find the piece that lead to a big blister later. Walked and ran up Mini mini whenever I could depending on the hill. Was being passed constantly by many kings/queens of the mountain. Ran down to Alum creek running through all the creeks, it was so refreshing splashing through here.Saw R2B at the aid station at Alum Creek. Commenced the walk trudge up Pluvi being passed by more runners. Included seeing Grandpa a couple of times between the Cox's and Pluvi as he was having trouble with a glute spasm I think. During the king of the mountain section I chatted to Digger,R2B and Mikey Boy as we swapped a few places.Pluvi was crested in 3:07. I told a few runners behind me that I knew where the top was as I could here the timing mat beeps. It was great to hear them all give thanks for the summit reached.
Yes I felt like a slug up the hills and I was 7mins over what I thought I wanted to do, but I didn't care anyway. I knew from talking to many previous six foot runners that the race begins at Pluvi.

The plan was to walk up that first hill after Pluvi and then run to the finish. Ran all of the Black Range to the campground passing so many slow or walking runners. Walked up the final cliff hill of the deviation and then stopped at the caves rd crossing for a final feed. Chatted to Don Juan here. Took a swig of some disgustingly warm coke here. Turns out it had been poured pretty early on. Yuck! Don Juan mentioned the crowd of runners coming behind me, I had a look behind and took off immediately sprinting across Caves Rd and into the bush.

Picked up a lot of runners heading towards Binda Cabins and Kiaora Hill, with plenty of them giving me looks of surprise as I ran past.
Finally caught Shell as we started going downhill. Tried to push her to run faster as I knew she wanted sub 5hrs. I was given the "it hurts" line but said don't we all and kept running. I think Shell fired up a bit from that and came after me. Had a slight quad cramp here which fixed itself within 10secs. With Shell checking on me from up the hill. Thanks Shell.
Heard the announcer and the roars of the crowd a long time before seeing them.Very rough that single track to the stairs before the arch. Very dangerous.
Nearly slid down the final stairs as I had the pedal down along the last bit above the caves and couldn't stop on the gravel in time. Lucky for that railing. High fived the crowd as I raced to the line.Finished in 5:02.05. Did Pluvi to the finish in 1:55. Very happy with that as the goal was 2hrs. Just missed the 5hr goal but couldn't care less. The caves house shower was excellent. Sorry I used all the hot water.

Thanks to Kevin Tiller and all the Striders for helping and organising the race. Sensational effort from start to finish. Also all the SES and RFS people who spent all day helping us. The encouragement on the course and at the finish was fantastic. The cheersquad at the start/megalong and finish was awesome. Thank you.

I found the key to running a good race was not being King/queen of the mountain or the gun to Cox's. It is how fresh do you feel when you get to Pluvi. Can you run to the finish?
My point being I was the 380th runner in the KOM split but I finished 202nd overall. Checked a few more numbers and worked out time wise that from my using my Pluvio split against my finish time I passed 127 runners who were quicker than me to Pluvio. I didn't physically pass them as some were on different wave starts and all that. But that is just from checking the spreadsheet. Very happy with how I held the back half of the race together. Felt strong and was a great feeling.
I'll be back next year, but the same again as it will be a training run for Boston Marathon 2008(when I qualify).

Thanks for everyones' comments on this blog although a long running but post lacking blog it has been fun to post about some parts of my training for the race. I might use this again for every year from now on. Did I just commit? See you when I have some secret training for 2008. Cheers everyone.

Race Day Looms

Well tomorrow is it D-Day. Hard to believe I've had this blog running since late 2005. I didn't really use it until late last year.

You start to wonder why you invest this much time in a race that only happens once a year?
It is effectively an ultra whilst being called a marathon by name. But the hardness of the terrain leads you to question why you want to put in so much more training than a road marathon.

For example to get in it was do a sub 4hr marathon, which you then get told if you run ok means you might spend 6hrs doing this race.
When I trained for Canberra 2 years I did a dozen runs of 30ks and over peaking at 38ks, but in time only just on 3hrs.

For Six Foot I have had 3 runs of 40+ klms amongst others with another day doing a double making 42ks.
I've also had four runs on the track doing training. Spending 3:00, 4:24, 4:45 and 5:15 in time on my feet. You question your sanity in doing those runs alone. Ok one wasn't, but you get the picture. Uphill and downhill reps to condition the legs to withhold the pain of the hills.

Have I done enough training. Certainly in my mind I believe I have. I can't see that I have missed anything that would cause failure out in the bush. Failure to me is having my body reject the punishment I could inflict on it during the race. Nothing to do with anyone else's races.

My goal is to get through enjoying my race, pushing as hard or as slow as I feel like it in sections of the course. I'm not on the 'go hard or go home' bandwagon. I no doubt will be passed from the start to Pluvi by many 'legends' who have not done the training going out too hard. No offence intended. Just from previous reports it happens.
I don't plan to be cramping along Black Range or anywhere else.

And the goal is 5hrs in case anyone had forgotten. But that is open to discussion as the feel of the race develops. The first beer at the finish won't even touch the sides. Sorry for the ramble.

Picked up the number from the Edge Cinema tonight seeing Mohammad, Sportsman, Evie, Tux and Plu in the process. Plus Coaster and Royworlds later on. There were about 200 numbers left for race morning to pickup.

Catch you all Saturday night if I can type. Cheers everyone.

Rest Day

It's time for a rest day.

Discovered one of the highest Carbohydrate foods in Coles. Ginger Nut biscuits. 81g per 100g. Sounds pretty high to me. I actually already had a pack. Scoffing plenty at the moment, plus some Jam Mini Rolls as they were high as well.

Downhill Reps 4x400m

In the middle of doing a run around Centennial Park I did a few downhill reps just to remind the quads that they have work to do this Saturday.

1:12, 1:11, 1:13, 1:15. All done with double the recovery back up the hill.

I found these couple of classic Six Foot photo's involving crossing the Cox's River. They are from the 2005 Race. One is a CR but it is too far away to tell who. The second one needs a snorkel so is not Mister G.