Unofficial Time: 14:29:08
Well hello there again, welcome to another of my Blackall 100 Ultra marathon race reports. 3rd Edition!!! Surely you, the reader, must be avoiding work or pretending to be doing something important on your phone/computer. Kudos to you!!
Last year I promised I would never do this race again, after all the post-run-walking-down-steps-sideways and black toes, but this ultra running thing is just so addictive……like when you do a really good bum scratch….you know you shouldn’t …..but you just have to smell your fingers. Just hard to resist! And you look around to make sure no one saw you? Yeh that’s EXACTLY how it feels entering this race for the third time.
Besides, you know when those black toes have almost grown back to normal, that its probably the sign you are looking for to enter another race.
An interesting side note that google’s searches for “bum cream” increased 0.003% after 2020’s race recap went live. link here:
I also still had the salty residue of tears crusted on my cheeks from the disappointment of the Clint Eastwood Last Man Standing race in August at Oxley Common where I fell way short of my lofty goals. I’m referring to the cheeks on my face, you sickos.
Here was a shot at redemption, victory, honour and glory…..or maybe just another souvenir shirt!
Clearly I need a new shirt as I seem to be wearing the same shirt for all these races!
If you didn’t see the video here it is, but fair warning: its quite long and you may want to stock up on kleenex first:
Friday Night
I was excited that Gretel and the kids were coming along again this year and we would all stay at the Mapleton campsite. Hopefully we could create some fun memories for the kids. The weekend started well as I went to register and collect the race pack and the family settled into their accommodation. The kids were in a hurry to find our dorm room so that they could start arguing over which bed they got. We all got the big Lasagne for dinner which was pretty yummy but pretty rich. It’s so good to have the food catered over the weekend for those staying at QCCC.
The welcome ceremony was great, short and informative. The first aid lady even got to do a speech…wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be advice for us or she was doing a short comedy bit. She loved it. It was like Jerry Seinfeld mixed with your school nurse.
I knew things were going to be good when I won a lucky door prize. So exciting. I quickly ran up to the stage through the crowds of losers….oops I mean people. Someone yelled “nice warm up” and then hilarious me pretended to pull a hammy on the way up to the stage. ha ha take that first aid lady. Now THAT is funny.
There was a big cardboard box full of prizes – mostly random North Face gear. In the dim light I grabbed a trucker hat which seemed to be the best thing amongst the branded North Face bum bags and brightly coloured North Face shoe gaiters. Pretty sure I saw a North Face G-String in there too. If you don’t know what a shoe gaiter is, you’re a disgrace to the whole trail running fraternity. If you’re visualizing a North Face G-String, you’re a disgrace to yourself.
Race Morning
Race morning dawned clear and sunny. Excellent. Up early for brekky and coffee and a morning wee. When I was weeing I could smell a distinct fragrance that caught my attention….what is that smell?? ….It’s LASAGNE! MY WEE STINKS OF LASAGNE!!! Hopefully that was a good sign that my body had taken in and fully absorbed those carby carbs. Later on Jasmine my daughter said she had the same phenomenon as well. That was a nice bonding moment between us.
I was better prepared this year perhaps than in recent years with all my stuff and checkpoint bags and personal nail clipping etc. I had purposely done most of my packing early in the week so the day before the race I wasn’t frantic getting all my crap together. This is a great hack to remember for future races. I got dressed and ready and was good to go with about 20mins before 6am. I even had time for a short warm up jog before the start.
WHO EVEN WARMS UP FOR A 100K RUN?
I do – that’s who. Just gotta get the body warmed up and stretched. Also you want to be all warmed up before carrying your hydration pack as it can weigh a couple of kilos with all the water and electrolytes and mandatory gear and newly purchased North Face G-String. I also definitely noticed more people carrying those hiking poles this year, not sure why that is, maybe there was a big clearance at Cash Convertors on the weekend.
Leg 1 QCCC to Kondalilla Falls to Baxter Falls and Back to QCCC (approx 22kms)
First leg went well, I was feeling pretty good and purposely started closer to the front of the pack rather than hanging further back. I felt this was important to get a good start, and I wanted to run a little more aggressively than previous years. Once you hit the narrow trails around the falls it’s hard to overtake people so that was on my mind. I found a good rhythm in a reasonable position and was running around 5-6 minutes per km through the rolling hills and was happy with my progress. I was a little nervous I had gone out too hard but just tried to stay relaxed. I actually opted to use my road shoes for this leg, given that there was mostly road with only a little trail. I figured I would then change into my trail shoes later on.
It was great seeing some familiar faces out early on course, I saw Alistair hanging out the side of his car on the way to the start and some North Lakes parkrun legends such as Judy, Janet, El and others (sorry if I forgot your names). Absolute champions, all of them. I had also seen Dave and others the previous night at check in.
At CP1 I’m pretty sure I yelled out something to them very hilarious like “I’m here for a long time, not a good time” ah ha ha ha classic times. I should get a shirt made up with that and sell it to trail runners.
Got back to QCCC in good time and was about 30mins ahead of last year’s time. So pleased with that and happy to see Gretel and the kids again. Changed into my trail shoes, and grabbed some more Tailwind and filled up the water.
Early hallucinations
The next leg was out on the road for a few kms and then into Mapleton Falls carpark, through Wompoo trail circuit and then towards Delicia Rd and then into the Great walk trails. As I was running through the beautiful leafy Wompoo circuit in the quiet and serene morning……I thought I could hear drums and pan flutes..but it was only 9am in the morning. There was…..nobody around. Was I hallucinating already? that was quite possible but surely it was too early in the race for that? Were the lasagne wee fumes sending me into a psychadelic trance?
Sure enough as I rounded a corner there were suddenly 2 people dressed as fairies playing these instruments. Amazing!! Or maybe they were fairies dressed as humans? I hope other people saw them or heard them or otherwise they may have just been a figment of my own imagination. I asked the flute lady if she does any Enya songs but she just stared at me blankly.
I headed through the trails for some more ks (getting hilly now) and then down past Ubagee walkers camp for the big descent into the valley. Last year I took it pretty slow on the descent but I felt better conditioned this time and ran strongly down the switchbacks. It was then 6 or 7 kms along the valley floor criss-crossing the river bed until we reached Checkpoint 3. I was surprised that there wasn’t more water in the creek given the recent rain.
Gretel and I had agreed earlier that she wouldn’t be at this next checkpoint, so I found a seat and got my drop bag and filled up my tailwind and grabbed an extra bottle of water to dump on my head for the next leg up the Bluff. I think I had a coke here too.
Nutrition plans
This year the nutrition/hydration plan was much more simple. Less junk food/drinks compared to last year…no iced coffee or fruit cake..no biccies etc. So disappointing. I did pack some emergency fruit cake just in case!! ha ha I bet you’ve never heard that expression before. Another shirt design idea!!
I relied for the whole race almost exclusively on Tailwind and a couple of cokes. I think I had a handful of potato chips and I had a zooper dooper at a later water stop. I feel this strict regime kept me going well and it was easy to work out how much I had taken. I wasn’t hungry at all the entire day. I did have a red bull late in the game as well. I basically had a soft flask of 300 calories of tailwind that I had each hour. I would drink it with plain water and I could adjust my water intake as required.
One of my best hacks this year was taking an extra little water bottle with me to pour water on my head. After I left CP3 it was going up the Gheerulla bluff in the late morning heat. I was so thankful for that cool water over my head over the next hour or 2. So nice. The bluff climb was long but fairly uneventful. I passed a number of 50k walkers who were doing it tough but I don’t feel like it was the carnage of last year. The heat was definitely less intense. I had seen parkrun mates Zoe + B, and Gayl earlier in the day so it was nice to run into Alina and Pinkie going up the big hill. That hurt. I should have probably run around them. They were both in the hurt locker but bravely soldiering on.
A brilliant decision
I arrived at the next water station and for some strange reason decided not to top up my water. Maybe I was distracted by the oxygen deprivation or the zooper doopers on offer? I also thought I’d go for a piece of watermelon and put on some extra sunscreen. I got out of there as quick as I could…there were people lazing around that place like it was free food sample day at Costco. Get in, get out, get going people!! Move it or lose it!
Further down the track I started to realise how long it was until next CP and how my water level was lower than I perhaps thought. This gave me something to stress about for the next hour and half as I kept calculating how long I had to go to find more water and I did try to drink conservatively. We eventually hit Gheerulla falls creek crossing and I was pretty much empty of water then…still had a few km’s to the water station including the big ascent back up to Ubagee.
It was nice to run into Alistair along here somewhere and say G’day. He was having a tough day as well, but was doing his best to keep moving. I thought about asking him for water but didn’t really want to admit that i’d made a stupid mistake. As I passed him I decided I’d do a big trip on one of the stairs. During that fall…in mid air.. my legs both briefly cramped!! I hit the ground awkwardly like a newborn giraffe. Fortunately only my pride was bruised. Alistair: that was my gift to you to help cheer you up and take your mind off your hurting body.
I tried to keep the panic feelings at bay and thought I’d fill up my small water bottle in the dirty creek water, just to pour on my head to keep myself cool. I passed a fellow who saw me do that and then I asked him how far to the water stop. I think he thought I was that desperate that I would drink the creek water….I reassured him it was just to keep my body cool until I could restock water.
Halfway up the ascent to the top I was overtaken by a guy with a British accent and a man bun…..I was out of water by now so I swallowed my pride and asked him for some water. He gave me about 300mls which was a life saver. Thank you Man Bun Guy. I will never silently mock your kind ever again.
Ultra Runners are weird
The assistance from man bun guy got me thinking about trail runners. Ultra runners are a great bunch. This sport brings out the awesome in people. They are all out there wanting others to succeed. They are friendly, honest, positive and gritty people. Ultra runners champion each other, they love it when you are doing well or going past them in a strong manner. They will encourage you all day, even if they are feeling miserable themselves. The volunteers at CPs will give you food, a smile, tie your shoelaces, massage your filthy legs, text your support person, and then kick you out onto the next leg. Huge shoutout and thanks to all the vollies for this amazing race. If you have no friends, go sign up for an Ultramarathon, because, for that whole day at least, you will have hundreds of best mates!
Finally I made it to the water station and refilled. Then just a couple of kms to CP4.
Checkpoint 4 was great. I changed into another pair of shoes, and restocked all the essential items. I had to get a volunteer to tie up my shoelaces as any kind of bending over would induce cramps in the legs. Thankyou mr shoelace guy. Thanks to Lyndall who took a photo of me and yelled out amongst the large crowd for Gretel to come over. Quick chat with the family, some coke, handful of potato chips and it was off again.
What am I doing here?
100ks is a ridiculous distance. RIDICULOUS!
You have good moments and bad moments. As the day progresses you have more bad moments than good. You are constantly managing your body, mind and emotions. You have to STEEL YOUR MIND to think only of what is now and coming up in the next leg. I was buoyed by the fact I was running well ahead of my schedule from last year so I was constantly working out how far ahead I could get. That was really encouraging. sometimes when my watch would beep and I’d see the distance still to go it was extremely depressing. You can’t let your mind waver and think of the mammoth distance in front of you.
When things got really hard i’d think about our friend Violet and her family. She is a young girl who had a rare cancer diagnosed as a 6 year old and recently graduated to Heaven. She is probably the bravest, spunkiest, kindest kid you’d ever meet. And I didn’t really know her that well. She went through so much pain, treatment, tests, scans, and medication it would blow your mind. And she and her family just kept moving forward and pushing on. If I got tired I could just stop and lay down on the trail until I felt better. Violet didn’t have such a luxury. Her inspiration kept me going when things got too hard and in my mind, I dedicated this run to her. Here’s a beautiful photo of her. Please pray for her family who miss her dearly.
Ultra marathons are a metaphor for life. They are long and hard with lots of ups and downs. You have to learn from the past but also live in the present moment and plan for the future. You have to sometimes forget what is behind you and press forward towards the goal. You have to somehow find a way to just keep moving forward. That’s all you have to do.
If you are going through tough times in life right now, please just hang in there. Just take it one day at a time, one step at a time, one breath at a time.
Checkpoint 5 Cooloolabin Dam
I hit the CP5 and was really happy that I was almost an hour ahead of last years time. That meant I had more sunlight to run around the dam which was great as its easier to see your footing, check for snakes, and most people generally run faster in the daylight hours. Although if you run an ultra quicker than last year you don’t get as good value for money…so there’s that.
Hamish handed me some coke slurpee and this is where I had a red bull. It was a nice moment that Elise decided to run with me for a few minutes out of the checkpoint so that’s a nice memory I have of the day. I also didn’t really feel like running after stopping for a few minutes so I’m thankful it helped gee me up. My ginormous thigh muscles (Snuffle and Uppagus) were really starting to complain to me now.
Thanks again to Gretel who dragged the family around all day and I didn’t even know until later she had been having car troubles and had to organize a car swap during all the support. Thanks matey!
It was lovely to run around the dam in the late afternoon twilight. You spend so much time “in your own head” and are so internalised in all your thoughts in these long races – so it helps to look at the nature, interesting trees, any wildlife and anything external. Anything to stop thinking about “yourself”.
Also I realised you should never ask an ultra runner how they are feeling. Because the answer is often less than good and most runners don’t want or need to be reminded of how they are suffering. So if you are crewing or supporting someone just lie to them and tell them they look good! That’s all we need. Give us food, tell us we look strong and then kick us out to get going.
The hilly roads around the back of the dam never seemed to end but finally we ventured back into the trails. I had the tunes pumping and was really glad I had taken the time to create a great playlist. I was using an old iphone for my tunes so you really don’t have the energy to pull it out and skip to the next song. So you don’t want any dud songs. I was really enjoying Switchfoot’s new album as well as The Cat Empire, and some other fast paced beats. Any slow or depressing songs are a definite no-go.
It was exciting to hit the water station and I knew then it wasn’t long to go. About 8kms to CP4 and then 7 or so km back to the finish. I could almost smell the end!! Or maybe that was the lasagne wee again.
Around this time I had some serious chafing issues downstairs so took some time to reapply some more bum cream. There’s actually a product out there called “Squirrel’s Nut Butter” which is relevant and genius marketing if you ask me!
It was dark now so the headlamp came on and the high vis vest was on as well. I was definitely enjoying the cooler weather and made good time to CP4. I was going well and didn’t need any supplies so I resisted the urge to rest for a bit and just kept on running through the checkpoint. 7k’s to finish! I knew I was gonna beat last year’s time by over an hour so that spurred me on. Nothing like an arbitrary goal to keep you pushing through pain and fatigue.
The last leg includes a few km through some technical trails and then back onto the open roads to QCCC. You have to be really careful to manage your excitement and not fall over or trip on the many roots etc. It was eerie running through the bush alone at night with all the strange sounds. Did you know that there’s a lot of spiders on the forest floor and their eyes light up in the beam of your headlight? Their creepy EYES LIGHT UP!!!! CREEPY MAN!!
I tried to send a text to let Gretel know I was coming but my stupid sweaty fingers on the stupid phone wouldn’t let me unlock the phone so I just hoped the online tracker was working for her. The reception is also pretty sketchy out there at best.
Finally it was onto the roads and couple of k’s to home. I was overtaken in the last km by some guy who was absolutely flying along. RUDE!!!
But I didn’t care, I had had a great run and very ecstatic to run 90mins faster than last year. Funnily I was more concerned that my Garmin watch would read a bit short at around 99.5kms. I seriously contemplated doing a u turn for 100m and then coming back. But then I saw my awesome family waiting for me in the dark and it didn’t matter anymore. Gave them all big hugs!! Jasmine yelled at me to keep going as I wasn’t finished yet!! ha ha true. Short finish video below:
I ran down to the finish line, discarded my high vis and crossed the finish!! I rang the famous Blackall Bell and even gave it a kiss! Screw COVID – I was so so glad to see that bell and end the race!!
Some of my parkrun mates were there too which was great to see their smiling faces! Was great to see Andrew who had pushed through for 50kms which was an amazing effort given his lead up. Thanks to Janet for filming my finish!!
I smashed down a non-alcoholic beer, not sure why I did that, I guess because it was free.
I then noticed the Garmin only was reading 99.6kms so it was off to do a few short laps of the hall back and forth until it hit the magic 100km! I’m sure there are people out there with the same personality disorder who understand this!!
I then sat down (oh so glorious to sit) with the family and we caught up about the day and they brought me food and warm clothes. I just want to thank them all for supporting me so well and being the best support crew! Love you guys.
Thanks for reading this tome, I hope you enjoyed it and are inspired to get out there and challenge yourself.
Until next time,
Andrew
At about 7pm we headed for the 5k Fun run IN THE ZOO! It was closed off to ‘normal’ people and all the runners were able to do a race inside through all the exhibits!! Ok not inside but past the exhibits! It was a pretty cool experience! Jasmine was able to run a short ‘fun run’ about 1.2 k’s and the kids both did 5k’s! Pretty crazy!!
Southwells 