Another year, another 6 Inch race - my 6th. Up until now my worst official finish was 4th, but i knew this was going to change this year - there was a pretty hot field
For what it's worth, my predictions were :
Brendan Davies
Gerry Hill
Scott Hawker
Tom Bakowski
James Roberts
Kevin Matthews as the top 6.
I then thought they's be a number of people battling me for the rest of the top ten - including Etienne Rodriguez (who I saw win last week's WAMC 5k in a canter as i timekept), Luke McLean (recently moved from SA and fast in a couple of runs with me), Brett Coombes, John Pendse, Nathan Fawkes, Lauren Shelley. I didn't quite get it right.
So it was hot - hottest since 09 with a 17 degree start at 0430 rising to nearly 30 at the time i finished. There was little wind, and along the course lots of microclimate variation - some lovely cool sections and a couple of exposed very hot ones.
Second, it was long - 47.5km by my garmin - almost 1.5k longer than before, enforced changes due to track closure.
My leadup was OK - a lack of long runs as is generally the case for me at this time of year, but 100km weeks for the last 2 months. I carbo-loaded too well.
On to the race - the change to using the hall to register was good, and things went off in the usual low key fashion. I intended taking it a little more slowly up the hill and thought I' d succeeded as i sat in 7th at the top (5k). I was 50-100m behind James and Etienne (with Scott/Gerry/Tom/Brendan in front). Etienne took a brief stop at 10k and I gradually caught james to run with him for a while.
i twisted my ankle on a gravel descent in this section and in the process seemed to hurt both my left hip flexor and hamstring - they didn't bother me much in the race but are pretty sore now.
Coming in to aid station 1 there were 5 of us at one point, with Etienne and i leaving first and running the next 10k together. I was having some fluid/nutrition issues mainly due to nausea. This was partly an issue of 'lack of fibre' (read constipation) from carboloading and partly due to me deciding to put Gastrolyte in my bottles, which was too salty for my tastes. i made things worse by overfreezing the drinks and my insulated camelback bottle never thawed during the 23-36k section.
I managed to stick with Etienne 23-36k as we see-sawed, me walking briefly every km trying to suck some fluid out of the ice in my bottle, then catching him, passing him and repeating the process.
We walk/jogged up the steep hill and came to aid station 2 together, with James and another guy just behind. We'd seen Scott out ahead, then Brendan, Tom, but no Gerry.
From this point on i really struggled, my km times moving out to 4;30s. I was overtaken by 4 people, most notably by ?Mike Ho who would have been 4 minutes behind me into aid 2 and passed me only about 2k after it - running incredibly at that point (I believe he finished 4th). Big Kev took me at the 43.5k mark, and I tried to stay with him but couldn't. I walk/jogged the last 4km which seemed to go on forever.
I crossed the line in 3:52, 9th position (I think). i really struggled at the end with nausea and wasn't really able to drink anything. I didn't hang around for the presentations as i lay in the back of the car as my long-suffering support team (Dad) drove me home. Really need to look at this side of things - 2 years in a row with these problems now.
I thought the event organisation was the best yet, given my history if i don't get lost then the course is well marked. now I've done the 6 i'm not sure if I'll keep going (or at least will take a break) - in the immortal words of Roger Murtagh - 'I'm getting too old for this shit'
For what it's worth, my predictions were :
Brendan Davies
Gerry Hill
Scott Hawker
Tom Bakowski
James Roberts
Kevin Matthews as the top 6.
I then thought they's be a number of people battling me for the rest of the top ten - including Etienne Rodriguez (who I saw win last week's WAMC 5k in a canter as i timekept), Luke McLean (recently moved from SA and fast in a couple of runs with me), Brett Coombes, John Pendse, Nathan Fawkes, Lauren Shelley. I didn't quite get it right.
So it was hot - hottest since 09 with a 17 degree start at 0430 rising to nearly 30 at the time i finished. There was little wind, and along the course lots of microclimate variation - some lovely cool sections and a couple of exposed very hot ones.
Second, it was long - 47.5km by my garmin - almost 1.5k longer than before, enforced changes due to track closure.
My leadup was OK - a lack of long runs as is generally the case for me at this time of year, but 100km weeks for the last 2 months. I carbo-loaded too well.
On to the race - the change to using the hall to register was good, and things went off in the usual low key fashion. I intended taking it a little more slowly up the hill and thought I' d succeeded as i sat in 7th at the top (5k). I was 50-100m behind James and Etienne (with Scott/Gerry/Tom/Brendan in front). Etienne took a brief stop at 10k and I gradually caught james to run with him for a while.
i twisted my ankle on a gravel descent in this section and in the process seemed to hurt both my left hip flexor and hamstring - they didn't bother me much in the race but are pretty sore now.
Coming in to aid station 1 there were 5 of us at one point, with Etienne and i leaving first and running the next 10k together. I was having some fluid/nutrition issues mainly due to nausea. This was partly an issue of 'lack of fibre' (read constipation) from carboloading and partly due to me deciding to put Gastrolyte in my bottles, which was too salty for my tastes. i made things worse by overfreezing the drinks and my insulated camelback bottle never thawed during the 23-36k section.
I managed to stick with Etienne 23-36k as we see-sawed, me walking briefly every km trying to suck some fluid out of the ice in my bottle, then catching him, passing him and repeating the process.
We walk/jogged up the steep hill and came to aid station 2 together, with James and another guy just behind. We'd seen Scott out ahead, then Brendan, Tom, but no Gerry.
From this point on i really struggled, my km times moving out to 4;30s. I was overtaken by 4 people, most notably by ?Mike Ho who would have been 4 minutes behind me into aid 2 and passed me only about 2k after it - running incredibly at that point (I believe he finished 4th). Big Kev took me at the 43.5k mark, and I tried to stay with him but couldn't. I walk/jogged the last 4km which seemed to go on forever.
I crossed the line in 3:52, 9th position (I think). i really struggled at the end with nausea and wasn't really able to drink anything. I didn't hang around for the presentations as i lay in the back of the car as my long-suffering support team (Dad) drove me home. Really need to look at this side of things - 2 years in a row with these problems now.
I thought the event organisation was the best yet, given my history if i don't get lost then the course is well marked. now I've done the 6 i'm not sure if I'll keep going (or at least will take a break) - in the immortal words of Roger Murtagh - 'I'm getting too old for this shit'
1 comment:
Congratulations!!!!!! You have joined the 6x 6inch club. A very worthy member too. Sorry to hear about the stomach issues striking again. My Dad was my "support crew/driver to start" many times too. Brutal weather. Interesting what you say about the "micro-climates" along the way. Really enjoyed reading your account of how the front group/chase pack developed in the first half of the race. Well done on being a major player in that again, you have become a very accomplished trail runner as well as a contender in the road marathons too. Its people like you who keep the pressure on the best of the best. Well done!!! Maybe consider exploring some more ultra trail races, some different ones. All the best in whichever way you go.
Scott Hawker Finished 104 03:20:28 1
Thomas Bakowski Finished 026 03:34:04 2
Brendan Davies Finished 007 03:36:07 3
Michael Ho Finished 111 03:42:08 4
Etienne Rodriguez Finished 195 03:45:57 5
Josh Garrett Finished 094 03:46:09 6
James Roberts Finished 192 03:46:37 7
Kevin Matthews Finished 005 03:48:49 8
Craig Berg Finished 006 03:52:51 9
Steve Fletcher Finished 086 03:53:04 10
Luke McLean Finished 156 03:55:04 11
Brett Coombes Finished 004 03:55:16 12
Lauren Shelley Finished 003 03:55:23 13
Brett Tucker Finished 223 03:58:34 14
Jamal Fozdar Finished 089 03:59:14 15
Jon Pendse Finished 178 04:05:21 16
Nathan Fawkes Finished 009 04:05:35 17
Peter Fisher Finished 085 04:07:04 18
Andrew Thompson Finished 218 04:10:48 19
Sam Hoffman Finished 114 04:18:35 20
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