What started out as a training run for Comrades became possibly the best race I’ve ever run!

Some may know about the debacle of last year’s Canberra 50km, where all but the top 3 runners went off course 5km into the race, running anywhere between 2km and 6km extra distance…  I happened to be the first of the runners who took the wrong turn in that race (so yes basically I led the whole field off course!) and as a result have been on the receiving end of much banter since then J

Needless to say, I was keen to make amends this year.  Building up to run the Comrades Marathon for my second year (this year is the “up” run), my plan was to follow a similar race schedule to last year, with Six Foot Track then Canberra 50km as training runs.  Unfortunately however, I missed out in the 6FT lottery, and suffering a bit of FOMO decided instead to enter the Mt Solitary Ultra.  This race was the week before Canberra, which meant that the 50km would be more of a training run on tired legs.

I checked out the first half of the Mt Solitary course with a friend a few weeks beforehand, which was a bit of an eye-opener – this was no Six Foot Track!  My idea of “trail running” is wide fire trails and free-flowing single track, the sort of stuff you can move along comfortably at 5 minute km’s.  Not scrambling up 40% gradients on hands & knees, brushing through overgrown bush and clambering down steep rock faces!  All good fun for a day out, but probably not the kind of race for training for a road ultra!

So I decided to skip Solitary and have a crack at Canberra 50km as a race, not just a training run.  This actually worked out well, as I’d had a couple of lower volume weeks leading up to it tapering for a 10,000m track race and RunWest.  I checked out the start list beforehand and noticed quite a few familiar names – last year’s top 3 (Vlad Shatrov, Brendan Davies and Barry Keem) were all giving it another crack, as well as Ash Watson (6:06 Comrades runner, from Ballarat), and good mates Andy Heyden from HuRTS and Michael Wakefield who I met at last year’s Canberra 50km and Comrades.  There was talk before the race of Ash Watson targeting the Australian 50km record (2:53) so I knew the pace was going to be quick at the front, and I was secretly hoping that the likes of Vlad, Brendan & Barry would try to go out at this pace, and possibly fade later on.  My goal was to just run a consistent pace and hope to pick off a couple of them in the 2^nd half, I thought that anything under 3:10 would be a good run.

As it turned out, Vlad had dropped down to the marathon so there was one less competitor in the race.  But as expected, from the gun Ash, Brendan & Barry immediately went to the front and established a significant gap early on.  I was running with Phillip Balnave (the guy who runs in sandals!!), and we were moving along at about 3:45’s which was a bit quicker than planned but still comfortable.  We got to the first turnaround at 8km and were able to see the gap to the lead runners.  Ash had already broken away from the other two, but Brendan & Barry were still 90 seconds in front of us!  I didn’t expect either of them would hold this fast early pace though, so I just tried to settle into a good rhythm and see what would happen.  At 10km Phil dropped back, so I was on my own but at 12km we joined up with the main marathon route, so I was then progressively moving past the 3:30 pace group, then the 3:15’s, etc.  It was nice having other people around and targets to catch for the rest of the race.  At 25km we reached the second turnaround point and I could see Barry not too far ahead!  I caught him a couple of km’s later, and along this undulating stretch through Yarralumla I also passed Chris Rudge and Dave Bell in the marathon (running on track for sub 2:50).  Seeing these guys gave me a boost and I had some good km’s in this section, running my quickest splits of the race.  As I looped round to cross over the Commonwealth Ave bridge at 32km, I could see Brendan only a few hundred metres ahead!  Over the next section along Parkes Way, I gradually made up ground to Brendan, as well as Steph Auston who was leading the women’s marathon and running at a similar pace.  I passed Brendan at 38km, then continued to push on although I was tightening up a fair bit in the hamstrings and glutes.  Seeing Simon Wolnizer and Ryan Fisher pacing the 85 min bus in the half along this stretch, along with Elle and Erika running well, spurred me on again and I tried to maintain my rhythm and push to the finish.  The last few km’s were a little slower although I knew I had done enough to hold onto 2^nd so enjoyed the final stretch!  Official time was 3:06:38 with a marathon split of 2:36:58 (only 41 sec slower than my Berlin PB) so I was stoked with that!  Overall it was a negative split of about a minute due to the quickest splits being between 20-40km.  I couldn’t believe that the race had panned out exactly as I had been hoping, it was one of those days when everything falls into place!  It was great to see Andy have a strong race as well, finishing in 5^th behind Barry.  I felt a bit out of place sharing the podium with Ash & Brendan, two of Australia’s best ultra marathon runners!  To be fair though, Brendan’s A-race is UTA100 and he was coming off back to back trail marathons the previous weekend (including Solitary!) – as you do…

Now to recover and onwards to Comrades J