Skip to main content

Journey to 100: Surf Coast Century rookie ambassador!



Pretty excited to announce that not only have I registered for my first 100 km trail race (which also happens to be my first interstate race), I've also scored the wonderful honour of being the 2018 rookie ambassador for Rapid Ascent's Surf Coast Century!

Held in Anglesea during September, this race looks just amazing and has secretly been on my radar for a few years now. Even though I have one of Australia's best 100km ultras only an hour from my place, UTA100 is a bit much for my capabilities right now. So, I've stepped up to the SCC instead; a race that will be far from 'easy' but with less than half the elevation of UTA ('only' 1800m, rather than 4400), I hope it will be tough but not a miserable sufferfest!

So, as part of my rookie ambassador role, I'll be sharing a bit of my training and preparation leading up to the race. Here's the first journal entry, reproduced from the original post on the Surf Coast Century website.

***

Journal entry #1  //  156 days to go...

Hi, I’m Leonie and I’m super excited to be the rookie ambassador for 2018!

I found my love of running about five years ago, after growing up as that kid that would rather sit on the side of the oval and write lines than participate in any sports! A few years back I set my first goal of running the Sydney City to Surf, a 14km road race that at the time sounded insurmountably long. Since then, I’ve grown to love longer and longer distances, where I can settle into an almost meditative rhythm and escape from the demands of daily life for a few hours. The Surf Coast Century will be my first 100KM race after having done two 50KM races a few trail marathons and half marathons over the past few years. My first 50KM (Ultra Trail Australia 2016) took me over 11 hours(!!) and I learnt so much during that event – the main thing being that I was hooked – I knew then that ultras were my thing!

I'm a Blue Mountains local and we have a fantastic trail community here, as well as a magic world-heritage listed playground to train in. Although I think about running nearly 24/7, I also try not to take it too seriously… I often check in with myself to make sure I’m keeping some perspective in both training and racing.

One of my favourite sayings is ‘If you can’t make it fun, don’t do it’, so I’m always looking for the positives even on tough training days. It's all about the journey and this will be my most epic one yet!

I am a mum to Tyler (10) and Holly (8), wife to Richard, and I work full time as a marketing assistant, so half the challenge for me is just finding time to fit in my training! Let’s just say the 4am alarm is no longer a foreign concept to me.

As an average mid- to back-of-the-pack runner, the atmosphere and the journey of the race are more important to me than achieving a certain finish time. Staying within myself is always my race day mantra, meaning I'm often towards the back and sometimes alone for fairly long stretches.

One of the main reasons SCC appealed to me is that it is geared towards first timers, and from all accounts has amazing support on course. For someone who often trains and races solo, I really look forward to the energy of the volunteers and spectators to give me a boost, and I'm confident that there will be a whole heap of positive vibes at Anglesea come race day!

The course itself looks just beautiful; varied and challenging enough to keep things interesting but still achievable. One of the hardest bits for me at this point will be working out how and where to train on wet sand! Living in the mountains, we don't have a great deal of it around, other than a few short soft sandy trails. I hope to get creative with my training and find other ways to strengthen my sand running muscles.

It’s unlikely that I’ll have the opportunity to travel to Victoria to explore the course before race day, so the massive amount of detailed information on the website has put my somewhat control-freak mind at ease - with so much great information I hope I will feel confident and prepared when September rolls around.

I look forward to sharing the highs and lows and my challenges and achievements along the way!

***

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

I would love to hear from you! :) Leave some love in the comments

Popular posts from this blog

Adventure Time: Burgess Falls and Oakland Falls

Near Hazelbrook NSW Distance: 3.4km Duration: ~2 hours Today we explored Burgess Falls and Oakland Falls in Hazelbrook, a beautiful, cool, relatively easy waterfall loop that is accessed from a grassy vacant lot on Winbourne Rd in Hazelbrook (can be accessed from the other end too). Burgess Falls in particular caught our eye as Burgess is Ty's middle name, after his grandfather. These and the neighboring Oakland Falls didn't disappoint; with small sandy 'beaches' they were a top spot to take a break along the way. The track itself meandered up and down through damp lush forest, crossing Hazelbrook creek and bringing us first to the top of Horseshoe Falls, where we carefully peered down over the rock platform to where the falls pooled below. Judging by the number of happy off-leash doggos we encountered this is a dog friendly bush walk; it doesn't appear to lie within national park boundaries. Two giant black labs were frolicking in one of the falls when w...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adventure Time: Fortress Ridge Lookout and Dr Darks Cave

Near Blackheath, NSW Distance: 6.8km Duration: 2.5 hours Today we explored Fortress Lookout and the well-hidden Dr Dark's cave. Although the kids alternated between 'I hate life' and 'bush walking is awesome', they did great on this very steep and scrubby track! Heading along Mt Hay road we parked at a small parking area signposted as Fortress Ridge. Through a locked gate and up a steep rocky fire trail was Fortress Ridge Trail proper. At the end point of this track is a breathtaking vista, with the ground covered in scratchy low heath that slopes down gently -then all of a sudden you realise you're on the edge of a sheer drop, so don't let the kids run ahead on this bit! There are magnificent views down into the Grose valley and down to your left in the picture below you can see the (smallish) Medusa falls which I believe flow into Arethusa canyon. Backtracking from the lookout, keep your eyes peeled for the nondescript side trail to D...
Post a Comment
Read more

Race Report: Glenbrook Marathon 2017

It was a tough day at the office today at Glenbrook marathon but as always Running Wild put on a wonderful friendly event! Thank you to all my beautiful friends for your hugs and high fives and support along the course, before, during and after. The community vibe is what makes these events so special. It was a cold, cold start at Euroka clearing early in the morning, but I knew it would warm up pretty fast, so I used my itchy but practical wool arm sleeves to keep warm while I was milling around the start line with Nicole, Jaime and a bunch of other local girls and guys. I knew this course like the back of my hand considering its within spitting distance of my house, but that didn't stop it feeling like a long slow trudge at times. The initial climb up the goat track out of Euroka is always a killer but I purposely slowed right down here and kept my heart rate as manageable as possible. It was perfect weather, not as hot as last year, and the parts I had found hard la...
Post a Comment
Read more