New Zealand 100k Ultramarathon Champs - Race Report

Make yourself a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, this is going to be LONG (a bit like race day as it happens)

My ultramarathon really started at 12.30pm on Friday as I left work early to get the car packed and take the three and a half hour drive down to Taupo. Packing the car was straight forward as I had most things already organised and besides, packing to go away for a race is something that I’m getting quite good at. I ended up leaving home at around 1.15pm …

… I then turned around and came back home to pick up the stuff that I had forgotten!!

I eventually got on the road by 2pm and headed straight into Auckland traffic. This proved to be pretty much the story for the whole drive down to Taupo. I had traffic in Auckland which took ages to get through, then I ran into some major road works about half an hour south of Auckland, the I came across some police cars that had blocked off the state highway and had to go through a detour along a narrow, winding country road along with hundreds of other cars!!! Suffice to say it took me a bit longer than three and a half hours!

In the end I got into Taupo at 7pm, thoroughly worn out by the drive. The plan had been to get into Taupo and have my tent set up by 6pm. I’d then go onto the course and stash some aid while it was still light (this race was going to be completely self supported, not plan “A” but sometimes you just have to go with the flow ..). After that I was planning on having enough time to register, attend the race briefing and get to bed early at around 8.30pm.

That plan went out the door thanks to the slow trip down. Instead I set up my tent, went straight to registration, stayed for the race briefing and then headed out, in the dark to find a place to stash my aid. I eventually got to bed at around 10pm.

My humble abode

At the registration I met another guy who was doing the 100k for the first time and we got talking. He’d done Ironman a few times and, like me was giving the 100k a go as a new challenge. The conversation went something like this:

(Ironman Guy) “so how many Ironmen have you raced?”
(Me) “Just one”
(Ironman Guy) “Oh really, I’ve raced three plus the usual other stuff, what was you time?”
(Me) “Arrr, just under 13 hours”
(Ironman Guy) “Oh yeah, I’m nudging 10 hours. What kind of training have you been doing?”
(Me) “Well actually my training has been a bit weak, but I’ve strung together some long runs and think I can go the distance”
(Ironman Guy) “I’ve been doing 50k runs in training, reckon I’m in for a good time … blah blah blah, its going to be a mental game blah blah blah”

I saw Ironman Guy a couple of times out on the course zooming along in his tri suit (yes, a one piece tri suit).

However the next time I was to actually have a chat with Ironman Guy was at the 75k mark. He was sitting on the side of the road with his head in his hands, looking pretty broken. He told me he had the trotts and had been unable to keep anything down for the last 4 hours (that one piece tri suit was looking like a very bad idea – note for future Ultramarathon runners, don’t wear a one piece tri suit!)

Anyways as I’ve mentioned above, I went to bed at around 10pm. I dozed a little but didn’t really sleep and was steering at the top of the tent when my alarm went off at 1.40am, time for breakfast!

“Breakfast” was a bowl of muesli, I wasn’t feeling very hungry so left it at that. After eating I got dressed and made my way across to the race start. I parked my car fairly close to the start / finish line (and right on the course) and set about preparing what was to be my major “aid station” (the boot of my car). My chillie bin was full of ice and drink, my food was ready, I had a change of clothes, shoes and socks laid out, and my blister kit all ready. I hung around for a bit and waited as long as comfortably possible before putting my shoes on (after using lots of baby powder on my feet).

There were 50 people starting the 100k solo, plus an additional 20 2 x 50k teams making this the largest ultramarathon ever held in New Zealand (gives an idea of how small this aspect of running is in New Zealand). Interestingly enough this was the first time that prize money had been offered, there was a prize pool of $12,000 paying three deep (male and female), just goes to show what a little bit of sponsorship money can do!

The start of an ultramarathon is a strange thing. In most races, there jostling at the front and when the starting gun goes everyone’s off like a shot! In this race however there was a countdown from ten “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …” and then everyone just kind of shuffled on off down the road …

We stayed fairly bunched up for the first 20k’s. I kept my pace in check with an average heart rate of bang on 150 bpm, which is about what I wanted. I also got on the shoulder of a guy who had recently won the New Zealand 12 hour championship, so I made sure that I didn’t get in front of him, figuring that my ideal pace would see me on the course for at least 12 hours (the sub 10 hour ultra dream had a reality check a couple of months ago …). Its weird running at night, especially as there was only a crescent moon during the run, so not a lot of light coming from there. It almost feels as if you’re running in a bubble which comprises of the couple of metres lit up by your head lamp. Looking ahead I could see the red lights from the other runners (we were all given red flashing lights to wear on the back of our shorts), but it was quite hard to get a sense of depth, so it seemed kind of surreal.

At 22.5k’s I came across my stash, which was thankfully still safely stashed. My biggest worry up to that point was that my stashed aid would be missing. I was a little concerned when I topped up my camel pack with only 750mL, as this meant that I was not drinking nearly enough (just over a litre drunk as I was also carry a small water bottle, I also picked up a new water bottle from my stash, I was using the camel pack to carry sports drink). From there it was a short little jog to the 25k turn around which I got to in a time of 2 hours 54 min, so far so good.

The 25k mark is right at the bottom of the biggest and longest climb on the course, the famous Hatapi Hill. My plan was always to walk every hill and what I really noticed going up this hill was that the chaps who were trying to run up it weren’t actually going much faster than me, but they were using a lot of energy!

About 30k into the race, looking tired, but thats because I've been running since 3am! - Yes that is a LONG road behind me!

At around 35k my stomach started to feel a little funky, so I stopped to, um, answer natures call … which made me feel a lot better. I’d also promised to call the kids at 7.30am and managed to keep that promise, although it was looking a little dicey for a bit as the cell phone coverage dropped out for about a 10k stretch. Talking to the family gave me a boost and I was able to truck on through the 42k (marathon distance) mark. My stomach was starting to feel funky again so I broke out my “dodgy bag of pills” which included some ginger caps. These were brilliant and settled things down really fast, I wish I had bought some more!

Things were still pretty low key at the start / finish line (which was also the 50k turn around point). The official there took my time (6 hours 3 minutes), said “well done” and “good luck” and I was off heading back out of town again. I was still just about on target at this point, however I thankfully stopped in at my “major aid station” (my car boot) to do some running repairs and try and eat some food.

My feet had started to develop some big blisters on the side of each heal. I had a hollow needle and some “compeed” to fix these so set to work. The trick with draining blisters is to make sure they don’t simply refill, that’s why pricking them is no good. The other thing to be careful of is to not tear the skin, as things are going to get really sore if the skin comes off – hence the hollow needle, it puts and nice round hole in the skin.

Now (and this is a little gross, so be warned), these two blisters on the heals were under a bit of pressure, and when I lanced them they shot their juice out in a fascinating but somewhat disturbing arch. The blisters were to big for the compeed, so I simply smeared them with lots of vas. I treated some blisters on my toes in the same way. It was then loads of baby powder, fresh socks and shoes, and my feet were set!

Next was some more sun block and vas (tip:- it helps to have a list to work to when you’re doing it all for yourself).

Eating was an altogether different problem. I’d forced down some gels on the way in, but my gut really didn’t like it, and the thought of eating anything made me feel quite ill. In the end I managed to down some pretzels, a bottle of Red Bull, a muesli bar and a banana. I also unloaded a bunch of stuff from my camel pack that I now knew I wouldn’t be able to eat. I topped up the camel pack with sports drink again (a bit more than last time, but still not enough), grabbed a bottle of water and headed off.

After about 1 k I realized that I’d left my sunhat behind. It was an overcast day and there was no way I was going to head back to get it trucked on and prayed that the sun wouldn’t come out to much!

I think that after the 50k mark is where the race really starts. This is where things that are a minor pain during a marathon, become big issues in an ultra. One such problem for me was the fact that in 8 hours I’d only pee’d twice, and the last pee did not have a good look to it (sorry if that’s a bit crude). By this time I was 60k’s into the race and just about ready to call it quits. I’d even started to ring a friend who lives in Taupo to ask them to come and pick me up. As the phone was ringing I had a moment of clarity and hung up. I looked up the road and saw a big hill and so resolved to have an extended walking break and concentrate on drinking as much as possible. Which is exactly what I did.

5 k down the road, as I was walking up the hill happily sucking on my camel pack I came across my first ultramarathon causality. It was a lady who had been in front of me all day. She got to the top of the hill, wondered to a grass area on the side of the road and laid down. Her crew were following her pretty closely and quickly came over. They said that she was “having a rest” but it was obviously game over for her.

By this point the relay teams were starting to come through and so the crowds (made up of the teams and their supporters) were building up. One of the neat things that they do for this race is to give all the solo 100k runners a different colour race number with our names printed on it. This is so that everyone knows who the solo runners are on the course, the race organisers make sure that a big deal is made of the ultramarathron runners and they we got plenty of vocal support from the relay teams. This proved to be really cool, especially when the teams noticed that there was no crew following me along. The result being that I got loads of support, cold sponges and drinks given to me, and I got bumped to the top of the queue at the port-a-loo’s.

The last 30k’s of the race was a mix of really high “highs” and really low “lows” that came in quicker succession as time (and distance) worn on. I’m sure that if I had a crew I would have dropped out, the temptation to jump into a car and be finished would have been too much. A 100k ultramarathon is WAY harder than Ironman, I have a whole new level of respect for anyone who does 100 milers!

Its all starting to hurt

By the 80k mark I was most definitely not in a happy place! My feet hurt, my stomach wasn’t happy, my legs were sore and my armpits were getting chaff. On top of that I just was really tired. My eating plan had gone out the door and I was well into calorie deficit. Eventually I found myself lying down with my feet up on a fence just trying to take some of the pressure off my poor abused feet. Eventually I regained a sense of self and got back up and started to chug along again.

With 10k to go I was down to walking and was feeling pretty sorry for myself. Happily I ran (or rather walked) into a chap (Anthony) who was running the full relay by himself (155 k). He had some crew around him who were pacing him into the finish. They invited me to “jump on” and promised to get me to the finish. So the last 10 k went by with more running than walking, with the guys cracking lots of jokes and getting me and Anthony through to the finish.

In the end I finished the ultra without throwing up (or at least my stomach contents didn’t get any further than my mouth!), in a time of 14 hours 40 minutes and 39 seconds. I was the 34th finisher out of 50 starters, (although only 35 made it to the finish line – that’s right, close to 30% of the starters DNF’d). My heart rate monitor records calorie output as well and it clocked out at some point at 9,999 calories, so I had a big deficit to catch up.



Absolutely STUFFED

After my post race massage I hobbled down to my car and made my way back to the camp ground for a well earned hot shower. Dinner was a big fat greasy pizza (super supreme, yummy!) chased down with some sparkling grape juice followed closely by bed. I had the offer of a nice cold beer, but figured that would not be a very good idea as I was feeling kind of weird before tucking into my pizza.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT?

I’ve learnt that an Ultramarathon (or at least a 100k ultramarathon) is way way harder than Ironman. I really thought that it would be easier than it proved to be.

I’ve learnt that having crew can be a huge advantage. One of the things I struggled with was carrying an extra 3kg plus at the start of every 25k. The end result being that my shoulders and neck got quite tight (in addition to having a world of hurt happening from my waist down).

I’ve also learnt that having good pacers makes a huge difference, and could quite easily be the difference between finishing and DNF’ing.

Lastly I’ve learnt that I have a heap more endurance that I thought I had. I know this because I didn’t have enough drink, I didn’t have enough food, but somehow I managed to push on. Next time things get tough I’ll have to remind myself of just how tough I can actually be.



So what’s next? I’m not sure, what I do know is that I’m going to take the time to fully recover from this weekends “fun”. I’m not planning on anymore races this year, although I do plan to keep up some running. I’m also going to swim more, particularly as we move into winter. We’ll just have to wait and se what next year brings.

Can I do it?

Today was a special day … primarily because I wasn’t at work!! Yay!!!

Instead I was out running on a beautiful fine summer day while all the other good people of our fair city were grimly fighting their way through Auckland’s nightmarish traffic to spend a day tied to a desk doing whatever it is that people do to keep the world of capitalism turning.

Its been horribly hot here lately, the temperature’s been nudging 30 degrees (Celsius), however with the humidity running at around 70% (apparently) the perceived temperature – whatever that means – has been closer to 41 degrees. So anyways I was hoping to get going as soon as possible to try and avoid the worst of the heat. In the end I was out the door by 8.30am (after getting the kids sorted for school and kindy).

The plan was to run 45k’s today if everything went well, but this was always going to depend at least partly on how hot it got. I was running laps of just under 14k’s so that I could stop at home to refuel at each lap (of course this would still mean only 2 “aid stations” for marathon, which on a hot day isn’t exactly ideal).

The purpose of today’s run was to (in this order):

- See if I still had the conditioning to potentially run an ultra (my training has been VERY minimal over Christmas / New Years).
- Test pacing
- Get some heart rate and calorie data
- Test some nutrition

In the end I ran 40k in just under 4 hours, unlike the ultra I didn’t take any walking breaks (my ultra plan is to run 25 minutes and walk 2 – 5 minutes, as well as walk EVERY hill, although there aren’t a lot of hills). It got too hot to push through for the last 5k. My pacing is still a little quick, although the walking will slow things down a bit. My average heart rate was 157 BPM (my heart rate picked up over the last 20k’s which I think is a reflection of the day getting hotter as much as anything, my aim is to get my pacing down so that my AHR is below 150 BPM.

I was going through approximately 1000 calories per 10k’s, so it doesn’t taken a genius to work out that over a 100k race I’m on track to use approximately 10,000 calories, the trick will be to work out how to get them in. One way or the other solid food is going to have to go in. I also tried out so new nutrition which seemed to work well (the flat Red Bull was sensational!). All of this raises another problem though …

I’m still lacking a support crew, things just aren’t working out on this front, as most people have used up their holiday’s and can’t make it, or have something else planned. Plan “B” (stashing supplies on the course) is less than ideal but I think workable (there are no aid stations!) – it may have to be!

Less than two weeks to go. The next few days I’ll be taking it easy to get in some good recovery, do a couple of swims etc. From then it will be a little bit of easy running then I’ll head on down to Taupo.

Wish me luck!

Remotvated!

Its been quite a while between posts for a bunch of reasons. These reasons all boil down to a lack of material.

Essentially towards the end of last year I was quickly turning into a stressed out wreck primarily due to work (grrrr, stupid work). As a result I was getting really tired and my health (and training) started to suffer, this was quickly followed by evaporation of motivation. I had a low level virus that hung around for weeks and put a bit of a crimp on my training. By the time Christmas had come and gone so had my motivation, and I was real hanging out for a long awaited holiday.

I’ve now had that holiday, going into it I had just about decided that the 100k ULTRADREAM was going to be postponed for a year at least. However a after a trip to the Blue Lake (home of the Rotorua Half Ironman) and a very relaxed and lazy two weeks, he motivation is now coming back and I’m off and running again.

The break has given me a chance to really re-charge my batteries, I know that sounds kind of cheesy, but that’s exactly how I feel. So the plannings back on for the 100k ultra (21st February). I have a couple of key workouts planned ad I’m pretty confident that I’ll make it to the starting line in shape for a 100k’s of running.

My only real problem now is really I the logistics. I’m not entirely sure if the family are going to be able to make it down to Taupo with me in which case I’m going to be struggling to put together a support crew. The big problem is that there are no aid stations for this race meaning having a crew really is essential. The race itself is a 50k out and back done twice (for a total of 100k), so while it will be possible to leave some aid in a car and maybe buy some alone the way it certainly isn’t the preference.

So I really need to find some poor sap who’s willing to get up in time for the race start at 3.15am (yes AM) – although to be fair I can probably cope through to about 6am – and who doesn’t mind driving up and down the road between Taupo and Hatape for 10 – 12 hours… Any takers???

Real Running

At last I managed to get out and do some real running. By real running I mean no roads no cars and definitely no traffic lights! I took a little field trip and ran what proved to be a fairly challenging coastal track just north of where I live. I've been meaning to get out and do this for a while, but like all good intentions I've just never quite got around to it. So this morning, on the pretense of checking it out for a possible "family adventure" this afternoon, I hit the trails.

The track itself is quite a popular day walk as it winds its way between a number of rather beautiful bays. Towards the start of the run my time got slowed down a bit as I had to navigate my way past a large group of oldies out for a days walk (bless them). Of course I caught up to them on a big steep hill which I'd normally happily walk, but not wanting to get heckled by the fit looking old folk I sucked it up and powered on up, while tying to look fresh and happy .... Of course as soon as I was out of site I slowed right down and started to suck in as much oxygen as humanly possible!! Coastal hills (I've found out are killers - the views are good though!!)



Although one lot of views which wasn't so good was running past a bay used by "naturalist". I have to say that the idea of a nudist beach seemed a lot more appealing when I was a innocent school boy, the reality was a beach full of old men and it was all somewhat disturbing! Yuuucck ... don't worry I didn't stop for photo's!

The track wasn't as "bushy" as I'd like. I was hoping for a nice run through some of our fine native forest, but sadly the track mostly ran along the edge of some farm land, so I'll have to get back to the map to find some decent forest trails. I'm really keen to get off the roads on run more trails as its a lot better for your joints and quite simply a lot more to my liking as I grew up spending days tramping through the mountains. Also I intend to do this ultra in 2010, so will have some good motivation to run off road more.

All up the there and back run took me just under 50 minutes, so I did it twice. In the process I had a fantastic and hard workout, and managed to pick up a couple of blisters which is unusual for me (I'll be aiming to buy some proper off road running shoes at a boxing day sale somewhere.

Here's some more photo's to finish with.

Long time no post! (Blog about nothing)

Yes I have been unusually slack doing the blogging thing, so now that I have a few spare minutes I thought I could take a small step in rectifying this sorry situation.

Life has been insanely busy for me lately, mostly due to that pesty thing called WORK, the bane of most modern endurance athletes (except for the few lucky souls who can actually make a living from their chosen sport, and of course those for whom money simply isn't a problem).

Yes work has been crazy busy resulting in my training schedule being tossed out and me being left feeling absolutely stuffed. That being said, two weeks ago was my biggest (running mileage ever) ... and this week was one of the smallest (I did a longish run of 20k's last Sunday and have managed one further run of 8k since then). So I'm really hoping that things will get back on track soon, the pace at work should slow down within the next couple of weeks as people switch off for Christmas and I'll be fully back into training mode.

So I don't really have a lot to blog about, hopefully I'll have something worth reading tomorrow as I'm planning to do my long run along a new coastal track that I've sussed out (on a map anyway) - I'll take my trusty phone and snap some pictures to brighten the post up as well.

Catch ya later!

Its Official!!

Today is a notable day. Today I received confirmation of my entry into the 100k race. As mentioned before its run in conjunction with the Great Lake Rely, so I was a little amused to see that I'm noted down as being the manager of a team of one!



This week also marks the start of some serious, more specific ultramarathon training. Over the coming weeks its my intention to use this blog to record my training and my thoughts around it. I've never taken on an ultra before so a lot of my idea's a just theory to me at the moment. Using this blog will help me track how things go.

This week is a bit of a transition week while I bed down my training schedule. From next week I'll be recording my intended training schedule and the thinking behind it, and then de-brief on the outcome at the end of the week. My idea is to repeat this week on week.

That's the idea anyway!

Auckland Marathon - Race Report

Its been a few days since the marathon now and sore / stiffness wise I’m feeling just about back to normal. The plan calls for a restart to some gentle running over the next couple of days. I’m actually really looking forward to this next phase in my training as I’ll be lowering the number of intensity / speed workouts and instead focusing on running at a gentler, more stainable pace in preparation for the 100k in February.

Don’t get me wrong, there will still be an element of speed work in my training. I believe that its important to keep some intensity workouts in a training plan in order to avoid injury, as these workouts, in the right quantity and right proportion, help to strengthen your body as well as introduce a variance in the biomechanical loading of your muscles and joints. The alternative is to plod along at roughly the same pace day in and day out – thereby exposing your body to the exact same stressors everyday. This is a recipe for burnout and injury.

Anyway I digress, its time for a RACE REPORT!!

The Auckland Marathon, while not the biggest in the world, is certainly big for little old New Zealand. This year there was a record 12,000 people participating over what is actually a number of races run over the same course. The course starts in Devonport on the North Shore and is initially fairly undulating and it winds its way toward the harbour. The highlight of the course occur as you come onto the Auckland motorway and make your way up over the Auckland Harbour Bridge – this is the one time in the year that you get to run / walk over the bridge. The bridge is actually the biggest and longest hill on the course. Its just over 13k’s into the course and there’s a cut off time of 2 and a half hours to get to it. Surprisingly enough every year there are people you don’t make the cut off.

Billed as New Zealand’s premier road race you would think that the marathon would have an awful lot of people running it, but oddly enough you’d be wrong. There is a half marathon that runs at the same time as the full marathon and follows the same course over the bridge. There’s also a limit of 7,500 people allowed to cross the bridge due to safety reasons. So as I was lining up to start the marathon this year it was interesting to note that there were less than 1,500 people running the marathon, meaning that at least 6,000 people around me (plus a number of “bandits”) were doing things by half – and some of these wouldn’t make the cut off … right or wrong? I don’t know, but I know a lot of people who missed out on getting their entry in on time.

Marathon day started for me at 3:30am after getting absolutely zero sleep! The kids had a rough night, which translated into me having a rough night as well, so by the time 3:30am clicked over on the clock, I figured I might as well get things rolling and eat a proper breakfast. My pre-race breakfast usually consists of two pieces of toast with banana on them and a cup of coffee. Seeing as I was eating so early I felt confident enough to have a bit more this time round as whatever I eat would have three hours to settle before I started running.

At 4:45am I got into my car and headed off to the bus station to catch a charted bus into the start venue. I did this last year as well and its by far the best way to get to the start. There’s only one way in or out of Devonport if you’re going by road and getting stuck in a traffic jam at 5am in the morning, stressing about finding a park and getting to the start on time doesn’t appeal as a good way to start the day. Sitting I got to soak in the nervous energy and had a good chat with a couple of people who were about to run their first half marathon.

The start venue was typical. It was still dark, but not dark enough to hide the long queues to the toilets (especially the ladies loo’s – I’m so glad I’m a guy!). So one nervous pee of own and I was then free to mill around for a bit and kill some time before stripping down to my running kit for the day. It was pretty cold this morning, so I was in no rush. In fact the weather forecast had been really bad, but after checking it before leaving I was very pleased to see that things were suppose to steadily improve as the day went on – nevertheless it was cold and just a tad wet.

With 20 minutes to go I stripped down to my running gear and got some slightly disturbed looks from some obvious first timers as I reached into my bag, pulled out a handful of Vas and proceeded to stick it down my pants – I’m sure they’d understand in a couple of hours.

The race got off to a good start, and I set off at a comfortable pace. My goal was to run five minute k’s and basically see if I had enough conditioning to keep that up for the whole marathon. Not the most scientific approach, but still a pace I thought I could keep up and a pace that would see me make a significant dent in my previous best marathon time.

Unfortunately I ended up running the first 5k a little quick and averaged closer to 4:45 minutes per k. I kept on trying to slow down at each k, but didn’t have a whole lot of success. By 21k’s I had bought the pace down a little, but I suspect the damage was done.

I ended up going through the half marathon mark in 1 hour 44 minutes. And kept running a pretty good pace from there through to around 26k’s … at this point the pace started slowing.

The big question for me was always going to be whether or not I had the condition to maintain a steady pace. As mentioned in earlier posts my build up had not been as smooth as I would have liked, combined with the fact that I’d gone out a little quick I wasn’t all that surprised when I started to see the k splits slip.

At around the 28k mark I had a little hurry up as I was caught up by a chap who was trying to break a world record by skipping the marathon (the previous record was around 4 hours 30 minutes I think). Just imagine if I had to write in my blog that I got past by a guy with a skipping rope! Suffice to say I picked up the pace and put in a bit of a surge – I didn’t see him again.

There’s not much more to say really – I ran and ran, my pace slipped a little more, but by the end of the race I had done enough to smash my previous PB by 14 minutes and crossed the line in 3 hours 48 minutes and 48 seconds!

Its been a fairly successful running season for me with a new half marathon PB (1 hour 38) and a new marathon PB set this weekend.

Now all I have to do is nail this Ultramarathon thing and my season will have been perfect!