After years of wanting to do so, I've finally officially raced my first Ultra Marathon. It was a beautifully brutal introduction to this crazy side of running. This has been a long time coming for me, as I have always seen myself running and focusing on the longer distances in the long term, but have thankfully had my incredible coach teach me the value of building proper foundations first and not getting caught up in a 'longer is better' mindset.

I have run ultra marathon distances in training a fair few times throughout my few short years of running, but never worn a bib to do so (yes, weirdly enough I have fun running that distance for no reason other than I can). Then late last year I heard about The Archie, a new race added to the Oscars 100 weekend; which is an event I have wanted to be a part of ever since I heard about it. So I cautiously approached Coach Crosbie, and finally got the yes I had been waiting for. We decided this event was a good starter because it was in a supportive environment with people I love, it wasn't a massive event with major stakes or expectations, it was at a good time of year in my off season so could form part of my base building for the years racing schedule , and best of all it held a much deeper meaning in that it is a fundraiser for Autism.

As per what seems to be my usual at the moment, not much in the final approach went to plan, but thankfully it was also far from the complete disaster that was my Two Bays lead up. After having three weeks of January off because of an incident with a stick in my foot, I started running again post minor foot surgery only three weeks before race day. At this point I was second guessing running The Archie, I'm kind of sick of messily scrapping my way to start lines as I have my last three races. But with the help of coach and my treatment team, we decided that the race was doable and it was actually quite a good situation because it lowered my own expectations, and made it so the aim was even more so to just to enjoy the experience and be careful with how I approached it.

So fast forward to race day, and the most accurate way of describing how I was feeling is uncomfortable. All my running to date hadn't felt good or smooth, and I had a few workouts that were a massive knock to my confidence because of how hard and how slow they were. But that is part of the return, you have to get over the hump of fatigue, and the discomfort of getting your body used to moving again. I knew the process, and I knew the rough patch wouldn't last, but that didn't make lining up for a race I had dreamt of for years while still in that rough return patch any easier.

Still, I was there, and in the amazing environment that is the Hut2Hut weekend it was easy to focus on only the joy of the occasion. My morning started early, waking up at 2am after a nightmare of falling off the 4 Mile Spur everyone had told me about. Then it was my usual breakfast of 2 peanut butter and banana wraps plus a coffee two hours before the race. Then I got the exciting new experience of having to make sure all my mandatory gear and personal locator beacon wasd properly packed, plus trying to prevent problems from having wet feet due to all the river crossings. I opted to try lathering my feet in an oil based cream (I used paw paw) before putting my thin toe-compression socks on (Injinji), and wearing the Salomon SLab Sense 8 Soft Ground shoes, which drain really well.

The next thing to navigate was how to warm up for a 53-ish km race that started on a steep incline. I knew most wouldn't warm up, and that its possible to use the first few km to ease into things. But I also knew that at the moment it still takes me at least 1km to feel like I am running with any sort of ease, so didn't want to start the race feeling stiff and horrible. I opted for doing a short run up and back on a 300m flat stretch of trail, followed by my usual running drills and four x 100m strides to finish, 1.7km total. It felt surprisingly good, and despite no taper I was happy at how fresh my legs were finally feeling. The race day magic was working.

As soon as I got to the start line and was surrounded by people though, the nerves hit full force. My stomach was churning and lips felt dry, so I started worrying I hadn't drunk enough. I started carrying around my drink bottle and sipping away as I chatted nervously to friends, then ss I handed the bottle back to dad, I noticed I had drunk almost 3/4 of a 750ml bottle filled with electrolyte, all within 10 minutes of starting. I didn't think much of it at the time, but that was soon going to prove to be my first rookie mistake of the day.

The race started well, with the climb at the start sorting the field into a thin line. I wanted to get to the top of 4 mile (the slow ridge descent) as high up in the field as possible so I wouldn’t have too many people to navigate. I ended up getting to the top of the spur in 3rd, but it soon became apparent the terrain wasn’t as bad as the absolute monster my mind had built it up to be. It was slow and steep and slippery, but not too bad compared to what I thankfully had previous experience on last year in Patagonia. Some of the men were motoring down, and I let anyone that came up behind me pass. I was taking it super easy at this point, because it was so early and I just wanted to get off the ridge safely after all the nightmares I had about it.

At about 4km, while running down a smoother part, I started to feel sick and could hear the fluid in my stomach sloshing about. I tried to not drink for a little while and let it settle, but I was using Tailwind as my only source of energy so I knew I had to keep drinking whenever I could. I was running down and burping and feeling horrible in the stomach (plus sorry for the guys I was running around!), but thankfully my legs were feeling good and the terrain was what I love so it didn't bother me too much. I was surprised how well I kept my feet down four mile, with the only mishaps being giving my knee a really good whack jumping over a tree at 6km, and rolling my right ankle on rocks more times than I could count, which was painful but nothing horrible. 

By the bottom of the 9km descent I had passed all but 3 of the guys back and was running and chatting with Mick Keyte, who was great company. Time passed quickly, and we made it to the first river crossing and checkpoint together. From there it was nice runnable trail winding along the river and I was moving really well and feeling good. Nausea would come and go, but for the most part I had a real good 4km stretch. Then Mick and I hit the road section at 15km and as we started moving faster the sloshing in my stomach got really bad. Mick was lovely and stopped to ask if I was okay, which all in all I was, just needed to sort my stomach. I told Mick to go on and stopped to walk for a minute. I walked for exactly 60 seconds, and after a few good burps felt a whole lot better. From then until I saw mum at 18km, I was again running well and managed to catch up on the fluids/carbs I needed to get down. 

I was aiming to get to Mum at the checkpoint at about 18km in two hours, and reached her at 1:59:30. I didn’t stop at all, just grabbed two more prepared bottles of Tailwind off her and kept moving. I was feeling good, and loving the flowy trails. After that aid station is where we slowly wound our way up river, and crossed it 13 times in the next 10km. I stayed in a good rhythm, but on the second river crossing past mum I got my foot stuck between two rocks under water and twisted my left ankle. It hurt a lot initially, but after getting moving again it got to the numb/dull pain stage that didn’t stop me much.

It was getting hot in the valley now, but I was able to keep cool by drenching myself with river water at every crossing, and at one point I somehow ended up in a hole between a few rocks up to my waist in water. It was slow moving water and easy to navigate out of though, and I was thankful for the cool down. As I ran along this section my left calf which had been tight all week started threatening to cramp a little, so i slowly sipped on a lemon Crampfix shot as I ran along.

I got the next aid station at 27km still feeling good and my stomach problems completely a thing of the past. Then the real climbing started. There was some incredibly steep and slippery parts, separated by runnable and even slight downhill sections; all on a wide and rocky logging road. About 5km into the climb, I had just finished hiking up a long steep section, then set out to start running again. I was annoyed to find I had no power, like I was running with sticks for legs. Then over the next few hundred metres I developed a literal pain in the butt on both sides, with my high hammies developing quite a sharp pain as I was running uphill. At first, I freaked out a little. I had never felt such lack of power going uphill or such pain in my hamstrings in all my time running, even on longer and more technical runs than I was currently doing. I also knew it was where the tendons are and I have plenty of examples of runners whose high hamstring tendons have stopped them in their tracks for a long time.

I walked along the flat section of trail, and I must admit I was having a proper sook about the fact that downhill running hurt my ankle, uphill running hurt my hammies, and flat running hurt a bit of both. But then I realized I was pretty much stomping along the trail with my childish tantrum face on, and let out a bit of a chuckle at the stupidity of that. I was in an incredible place, doing something I want to be doing for the rest of my life, and at the end of the day was just out there to have fun. So I took stock again, decided nothing that was happening was worth ruining my day over, so i put a Revvies strip on my tongue for an immediate caffeine boost, and became Dory. For the next 5km of climbing, I hiked all the uphills, ran the flats and downhills best I could, and sang ‘just keep swimming, just keep swimming, what do we do we swim, swim, swim’ over and over and over out loud. It was hilariously stupid, but it worked, and I eventually got to the top.

About 2km from the Howqua Gap Hut aid station I was passed by a guy for the first time since 4 mile, which sucked; but I wasn’t going to push any harder than I was on bad hammies. Trudging my way into the aid station, I got to see dad for the first time all day and my good friend Karen Mickle who was there for Endurance Medical Services. That gave me a boost I really needed after having such a difficult and painful time on the climb.

I was trying to focus on the things I had going for me - My quads felt great so my downhill conditioning in training had worked, I had gotten fully back on top of my fluids and nutrition so my energy levels were high, and despite the fact it felt like all the muscles in my legs and back were slowly giving up one after another, I could keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Leaving the aid station and starting on the mountain bike trails though, it didn't take long for me to again get stuck in my own head and mildly pissed off at how incapable I felt, purely because of my legs rather than my effort level. After a couple of kilometres of being in my own little world of misery, my watch beeped saying I was off route. In my tired state and not thinking straight, I stopped and checked the offline Avenza map on my phone that I had been told was always accurate, and that showed me off the blue line too. I freaked out and started running back along the trail down the switchbacks I had just hiked up, only to come across a trail marker I hadn’t seen a few hundred metres back on the very trail I was on. With a new rush of frustration and adrenaline I turned back and climbed again, running the switchbacks this time trying to make up for my mistake. Looking back on my stats and map, I ended up back where I had first got lost a bit over 6 minutes after I stopped, which was annoying but I laughed at myself again and trucked on. Plus there was a bonus, the rush of adrenaline eased a bit of the hamstring pain, so it wasn't all bad.

Soon after getting 'lost', I was thankfully back on trails I knew. This meant I also knew I wasn’t far from the next aid station so started pushing just a little harder on flat terrain. Being able to finally envision the end was all I needed at that point. Running into the last aid station I got to see mum again, and a few other friends which lifted my spirits even further. From there it was 7.5km left, which included a trip up to the summit of Buller that felt like a brutally long and slow hike. I just wanted to get to the finish in one piece at this point. When reaching the summit I found the page of the book up there that matched my bib number and tore it out, proof we had got to the very top, then finally headed for the finish. 

It didn’t feel good, but I was able to run the rest of the way down and almost had energy to spare, just not much pain tolerance left for the day. I was getting a little teary as I realized it was coming to an end and I had finally done it. As people started to come into view and cheer though, the tears once again turned to a smile of relief, of joy, of satisfaction, and of pure gratitude. Getting a massive hug from the inspirational legend that is Andy, the founder of the Oscars100 Charity and father of Oscar and Archie, was an incredibly meaningful and moving end to what was a perfectly tough, beautiful, and exciting start to my Ultra Running endeavours.

Watch Stats (Suunto 9 Baro): 52.60km , 6:41:31, 2250 ish m +/-

It is hard to describe the depth of the community that is the Hut2Hut event weekend. The volunteers, medical crew and event staff that work through day and night to keep it all going, all coordinated by a core team that could never get enough credit for what they do for this event. It is a not for profit charity fundraiser, tagged as an Alpine Adventure for Autism with courses designed to mimic the daily discomfort kids living with Autism endure. If you have the means and would like to contribute to an event that makes a direct difference to the community, you can read about the charities it supports here , and donate here.

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Where to from here for me? I will be taking all the lessons I learned forward with me, but for now my mission is to keep rebuilding the base and consistency I lost at the start of the year. Thankfully I have since found out the hamstring pain I was experiencing was not my tendons at all, but referral pain from my back, which has always been a problem area for me. So it is carefully onwards and upwards in training, and then straight back to what I have been working hard on these past two years; searching for my potential in the classic distance Mountain Running world. It was a beautiful taster for Ultra running and makes me even more excited for the future, but I am not going to keep upping the distance yet. My next race will be back to where it all began, at the Warburton Trail Festival running the 22km Donna Double in three weeks time.

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Lastly for all the runners that read this, since I managed to come away with no blisters, chafe, or gear issues whatsoever; and despite my rookie mistake I was able to get my nutrition fully back on board and feel great energy wise - here are the things I used throughout the race to get me to the finish. I hope if you try them they work for you too!

Gear

• Shoes - Salomon SLab Sense 8 SG
• Socks - Injinji knee length compression socks
• Hydration Pack - Salomon Sense Ultra 8 Litre
• Blister prevention - Compeed blister bandaids on known blister areas plus lathering feet in paw paw ointment before putting socks on
• Shorts - Salomon Exo S/Lab Half Tights
• Shirt - Salomon XA Tee

Nutrition

• Total 3.5 Litres of Fluid (500ml per hour) of which 3 Litres was Tailwind (2 Scoops/200 Calories per 500ml). First 4 bottles non-caffeinated, last 2 bottles caffienated.
• 1 X Revvies Cola Lemon Energy Strip (33km in, 40mg caffeine hit)
• 1 x Crampfix Lemon Shot

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Still We Rise