Another amazing weekend in the mountains, done and dusted!
Last year I decided to sign up for the 22k race at UTA, having done the 50K twice before. I really enjoyed the alternative 2017 course for the 50K, which was changed at the 11th hour due to weather concerns. This new, more runnable route took in most of the first half of the 100K course. I would have loved to have done this part again, but knew I wasn't ready to commit to the full hundo, so decided to have a go at the 22 and really try and run it strongly. Usually I would tell myself that I'm just 'here for a good time' and perhaps not push as hard as I could when things get tough. This time, I wanted to do better and not just waddle along like it was an everyday training run.
UTA weekend often coincides with a huge work event for me, so after running Narrabeen Allnighter in January and doing some sporadic, non-specific training in the month or so following, I just didn't have the mental space to sit down and get my own training plan in order. Looking for an easy no-brainer solution, I signed up to the Body Mechanic's UTA22 plan which enabled me to work on some consistency and also get into the habit of body maintenance, so that I could focus on my day job, knowing I was doing my best following a tried and true plan.
Although I wasn't able to get anywhere near all the sessions completed, I was feeling stronger on hills and getting used to a longish (12km+) mid-week hilly morning run on a regular basis. There was regular encouragement and support from the Body Mechanic Facebook group too which helped to keep me focussed. I did however feel quite undercooked compared to others in the group who appeared to be following the plan to the letter. I tried not to let this get to me though and remembered that I don't do well with a heavy training load, and continued to prioritize sleep and staying stress-free at work, over packing in heaps of training.
May soon rolled around and my work event came and went in a blur of craziness. I was already in taper mode and immediately after the work event, my body told me I needed to really rest and that I was overstressed from work. I returned from a relatively easy run on the weekend before race day, and all of a sudden collapsed into a sneezing and runny nose fest. I was suddently exhausted so I napped a few times that day and came good pretty quickly, but was reminded of how easy it is to get run down if you don't listen to your body.
Although the sneezing and sniffles subsided quickly, I felt pangs of the familiar taper flu all week and was concerned I might be getting a sinus infection. But, on race day, I knew I just needed to get out there and do my best.
The night before race day I headed up to Katoomba with Holly to check in - although this is something I could have done on the Friday morning of race day, I thought it would be less stress to get rego out of the way, enabling me to get the kids semi-organised for school before the ever-supportive Richie stepped in to get them off to school for the day. Holly and I had a good wander around the event expo and hopefully I can convince her to enter the kids race next year!
On race morning I again headed to Katoomba, opting for the less-stress option by pre-purchasing two parking passes covering me for the entire day, so I didn't have to muck about with the buses. I was signed up to volunteer after the race too, so although I had a vague 4 hours-ish goal in my head, I was that extra bit motivated to do well so that I could get back in time to have a shower and smash some lunch before my vollie shift, which wrapped up at 5.30 that evening.
I timed my travel well, allowing time for a couple of wee stops and no rush to get to the shuttle bus. In the bus line I ran into a whole bunch of RMAs including Nicole and her regular crew, so I hung with them while we waiting for the bus to take us to the start line at QVH. The atmosphere was amazing as always! I had a good chat on the bus to an older lady who hadn't seen the course before. She asked me what the hardest part was, but that's always a tough one to answer with this race!
For me, I find when you first hit the creek at the bottom of Kedumba, there's a small climb that flattens off... I call this the land of false hope, as you start to enjoy that relatively easy part until you hit the next monster hill that goes on FOREVER. I'd trained up and down Kedumba a lot but hadn't done the whole end to end stretch of the course since my seeding segment run prior to last year's 50. I remembered it being hard as f*&# so went in with a 'power hike, just keep moving' mindset, knowing there would be little to no running in the 2nd half of the race.
As expected... it was hard as f&%#. After bombing down Kedumba like a mad woman, stopping only to slide ungracefully on the gravel and land on my foot, knee, and arse (only a few km in mind you, just before the swine line gate), the day was warming up and it was starting to get harder - but still manageable.
I pulled out my old favorite trick of counting to 10 over and over again, and tried to run whatever was runnable. I dunked my buff in the creek and poured cups of water on my head at the aid station, grabbing a handful of watermelon and marvelling at the runners who were still in long sleeved shirts, and one guy in long baggy pants. I was so hot! Maybe the long-sleevers were from north Queensland? :)
Now we had hit the forest part, Furber was coming but those stairs didn't scare me. I have always found the Giant Stairs to be much harder, and tend to do these in training instead. I called out to someone struggling and swearing behind me "This is still better than being at work!"
I was staying positive, moving swiftly (well sort of) and trying not to look at my watch; I just wanted to stay strong and in the moment and not try and do maths to estimate my finish time. All progress is good progress, so I just kept moving.
So many runners behind and ahead of me mustn't have been on the course before; many calling out asking where they were and 'was this Furber' (sorry guys, this is still the pre-Furber stair section) ☺️
I tend to always be surprised at how long the forest part takes, when mentally you feel 'nearly home'. Federal Pass always feels a bit longer than Dardanelles Pass which is my preferred training route. I was in a good pack now, keeping up with the handful of runners ahead of me on this single track section, and not feeling like I was holding up those behind me. Then - hooray! Stairs! That last little push...
I'm proud to say I stopped to catch my breath twice on Furber for maybe 10 seconds each time, and other than that I was moving consistently the whole time. Strava tells me at the end of the day there was 10 minutes between my elapsed and moving time so I suspect that would be the brief stop in the aid station to stuff my face with watermelon, and the bottlenecks on the stairs. I felt like I was moving for 99% of the time anyway!
We were back in spectator territory now and the cheers and distant noise of the race hub was a great motivator. Tourists, spectators, friends and families were on and around the top of the stairs, encouraging everyone to push on. I overtook a few people on the stairs, encouraging them as I went, and high fived a little kid just at the start of the boardwalk. I walked here, just for a moment to catch my breath so that I could run strongly through the most awesome of finish chutes.
Speaking of love, it was very special to receive this comment on Strava from my little guy, as well as a text message during the race from 'the dog' and a congrats from the hubs. These little words from my family mean so much.
We wrapped up our vollie shift after a few hours and I was finally able to hunt for some solid food; the almonds in my pocket and piece of fruitcake from the volunteer kit had got me through the afternoon ok but I needed something decent to replenish what I'd burnt. And lots of water! So, a pad thai and a mixed entree it was.
I finally headed to Blackheath to check in to my hotel for the night and had THE BEST Thai food; perhaps I was just starving but it tasted bloody good. I sat by the fire in the common room, reflecting on the day and awaiting the arrival of my lovely friend Nat who was sharing a room with me before tackling the 50 the next day. It was a lovely warm relaxing place we stayed in, and we went to sleep early, setting our alarms for 5.30 the next morning.
And so began the second part of my weekend - driving Nat to the start and seeing her off with dozens of other equally nervous and excited friends, all amazingly strong runners who were tackling the 50 or 100 km distance. Some for the first time; some that had toed this start line many times before. We both grabbed a coffee then and Nat was off in a flash, and I stationed myself on the road outside Scenic World to cheer and holler at my inspiring friends. I must have taken 100 photos, standing there freezing my ass off, before I realised the time and that I hadn't eaten yet and was pretty damn hungry. I discovered I still had almonds in my pocket so I scoffed what was left, my gloved hands not working properly because it was so cold, even though I'd tucked HotHands into my gloves as well!
So now, there was no time for breakfast and there wasn't a great deal on offer at Scenic World anyway. I decided to skip it and head straight for the rego tent, where I'd planned to tackle Furber stairs for the 2nd time in 24 hours, with the 951 stair challenge. To be honest, I'd briefly thought of pulling out when I heard there was no medal(!) but then lo and behold, medals appeared, and I decided that would have been a shitty reason to pull out anyway. Truth be told I was scared of the scenic railway. I hate that thing, and going down it was necessary to arrive at the start line, at the bottom of Furber. The below photo proves I am super brave, going on the scary train and looking up (not down!) the whole time. :)
At the bottom I met Summit Sisters Janet and Judy who had amazingly done every UTA race over the past few years, some multiple times, but they hadn't done the 951 so they were going to 'collect the whole set' today, together! How cool is that.
My legs weren't super tired from the previous day's efforts, but I wasn't exactly super fresh either, so I was just aiming to get up the stairs as a bit of fun. As someone who thinks she's working too hard when her HR is above 165, I was hardly going to sprint up even if I did have fresh legs. There was 20 or so of us ready to roll; some very serious looking young 'uns and a couple of people that may well have just been tourists caught up in the excitement of UTA... one bloke just wanted to beat his teenage daughter. A couple of the group were seriously going for a time; the rest of us were too busy having fun.
It was, obviously, quite a short race - 1.5km to be exact, 951 stairs and I did it in 17 and a bit minutes. Not too shabby - and it actually felt good to get the legs moving again. I was ok earlier that morning but knew I'd soon stiffen up so I enjoyed moving comfortably while I still could!
It was a very different finish line now, quiet and relaxed with just a few people hanging around. I soaked it in for a few minutes longer, hanging with some Sisters, but I really needed to go home to my family, so on the shuttle bus I hopped, back to my car on the outskirts of Katoomba.
It was good to be home and enjoy the rest of the weekend lazing about.... crafting and scoffing scones at my sister in law's the day after was a wonderful recovery activity!
The biggest thanks goes to my husband and kids for allowing me to be selfish and escape into running every once in a while. And thanks also to Tom and Alina for putting on the best damn race around, all the volunteers that selflessly donate their time to make runners feel loved and cared for, and my assortment of running groups - I had to #represent all of them at UTA with my Summit Sisters shirt, RMA top and Blue Mountains Marathon Clinic buff. All the wonderful people in these groups inspire me constantly!
And UTA weekend 2019 is already marked in the calendar....
Last year I decided to sign up for the 22k race at UTA, having done the 50K twice before. I really enjoyed the alternative 2017 course for the 50K, which was changed at the 11th hour due to weather concerns. This new, more runnable route took in most of the first half of the 100K course. I would have loved to have done this part again, but knew I wasn't ready to commit to the full hundo, so decided to have a go at the 22 and really try and run it strongly. Usually I would tell myself that I'm just 'here for a good time' and perhaps not push as hard as I could when things get tough. This time, I wanted to do better and not just waddle along like it was an everyday training run.
UTA weekend often coincides with a huge work event for me, so after running Narrabeen Allnighter in January and doing some sporadic, non-specific training in the month or so following, I just didn't have the mental space to sit down and get my own training plan in order. Looking for an easy no-brainer solution, I signed up to the Body Mechanic's UTA22 plan which enabled me to work on some consistency and also get into the habit of body maintenance, so that I could focus on my day job, knowing I was doing my best following a tried and true plan.
Although I wasn't able to get anywhere near all the sessions completed, I was feeling stronger on hills and getting used to a longish (12km+) mid-week hilly morning run on a regular basis. There was regular encouragement and support from the Body Mechanic Facebook group too which helped to keep me focussed. I did however feel quite undercooked compared to others in the group who appeared to be following the plan to the letter. I tried not to let this get to me though and remembered that I don't do well with a heavy training load, and continued to prioritize sleep and staying stress-free at work, over packing in heaps of training.
May soon rolled around and my work event came and went in a blur of craziness. I was already in taper mode and immediately after the work event, my body told me I needed to really rest and that I was overstressed from work. I returned from a relatively easy run on the weekend before race day, and all of a sudden collapsed into a sneezing and runny nose fest. I was suddently exhausted so I napped a few times that day and came good pretty quickly, but was reminded of how easy it is to get run down if you don't listen to your body.
Although the sneezing and sniffles subsided quickly, I felt pangs of the familiar taper flu all week and was concerned I might be getting a sinus infection. But, on race day, I knew I just needed to get out there and do my best.
The night before race day I headed up to Katoomba with Holly to check in - although this is something I could have done on the Friday morning of race day, I thought it would be less stress to get rego out of the way, enabling me to get the kids semi-organised for school before the ever-supportive Richie stepped in to get them off to school for the day. Holly and I had a good wander around the event expo and hopefully I can convince her to enter the kids race next year!
On race morning I again headed to Katoomba, opting for the less-stress option by pre-purchasing two parking passes covering me for the entire day, so I didn't have to muck about with the buses. I was signed up to volunteer after the race too, so although I had a vague 4 hours-ish goal in my head, I was that extra bit motivated to do well so that I could get back in time to have a shower and smash some lunch before my vollie shift, which wrapped up at 5.30 that evening.
I timed my travel well, allowing time for a couple of wee stops and no rush to get to the shuttle bus. In the bus line I ran into a whole bunch of RMAs including Nicole and her regular crew, so I hung with them while we waiting for the bus to take us to the start line at QVH. The atmosphere was amazing as always! I had a good chat on the bus to an older lady who hadn't seen the course before. She asked me what the hardest part was, but that's always a tough one to answer with this race!
For me, I find when you first hit the creek at the bottom of Kedumba, there's a small climb that flattens off... I call this the land of false hope, as you start to enjoy that relatively easy part until you hit the next monster hill that goes on FOREVER. I'd trained up and down Kedumba a lot but hadn't done the whole end to end stretch of the course since my seeding segment run prior to last year's 50. I remembered it being hard as f*&# so went in with a 'power hike, just keep moving' mindset, knowing there would be little to no running in the 2nd half of the race.
As expected... it was hard as f&%#. After bombing down Kedumba like a mad woman, stopping only to slide ungracefully on the gravel and land on my foot, knee, and arse (only a few km in mind you, just before the swine line gate), the day was warming up and it was starting to get harder - but still manageable.
Now we had hit the forest part, Furber was coming but those stairs didn't scare me. I have always found the Giant Stairs to be much harder, and tend to do these in training instead. I called out to someone struggling and swearing behind me "This is still better than being at work!"
I was staying positive, moving swiftly (well sort of) and trying not to look at my watch; I just wanted to stay strong and in the moment and not try and do maths to estimate my finish time. All progress is good progress, so I just kept moving.
So many runners behind and ahead of me mustn't have been on the course before; many calling out asking where they were and 'was this Furber' (sorry guys, this is still the pre-Furber stair section) ☺️
I tend to always be surprised at how long the forest part takes, when mentally you feel 'nearly home'. Federal Pass always feels a bit longer than Dardanelles Pass which is my preferred training route. I was in a good pack now, keeping up with the handful of runners ahead of me on this single track section, and not feeling like I was holding up those behind me. Then - hooray! Stairs! That last little push...
I'm proud to say I stopped to catch my breath twice on Furber for maybe 10 seconds each time, and other than that I was moving consistently the whole time. Strava tells me at the end of the day there was 10 minutes between my elapsed and moving time so I suspect that would be the brief stop in the aid station to stuff my face with watermelon, and the bottlenecks on the stairs. I felt like I was moving for 99% of the time anyway!
We were back in spectator territory now and the cheers and distant noise of the race hub was a great motivator. Tourists, spectators, friends and families were on and around the top of the stairs, encouraging everyone to push on. I overtook a few people on the stairs, encouraging them as I went, and high fived a little kid just at the start of the boardwalk. I walked here, just for a moment to catch my breath so that I could run strongly through the most awesome of finish chutes.
After the calm green bush, the colour and movement and roar of the crowd was amazing and the ever-supportive Summit Sisters crew were the loudest of the lot! What a welcome, I was back in Katoomba running strongly under that finish arch, quicker than I expected, feeling strong and capable, not injured or feeling sick or reduced to a walk. I had expected to take 40 minutes longer than I did. However I think sometimes I unintentionally focus too much on the finish time, when quite a few other things were major wins too: I managed my nutrition well, having 2 shotz gels that I sipped on in the 2nd half of the race, along with handfuls of watermelon, half a pikelet and a few lollies. I was warm but not overheated and gross so I guess I dressed appropriately for the conditions, I was still smiling and I had arrived back with plenty of time to shower, get warm and get ready for my vollie shift. Winning all round!
Immediately after this epic high, I couldn't stop for long to drink it in.... I headed to my car to grab my volunteering essentials - trackies, ugg boots and puffer jacket. I was warm now but it was a really cool day and I knew my temperature would drop pretty rapidly now that I'd stopped moving. I headed to KCC to line up for the showers and the super caring volunteer there made me promise to go to the first aid room to get my knee seen to.
I was more concerned about taking my sock off and seeing the damage to my foot; somehow my foot must have folded under me when I fell and my bony alien feet had minimal protection from my shoe. I'd ripped a hole in my trail gaiters and my injinji's had dried on to the torn skin, so that was a bit gross having to pull my socks off. I showered and scratched as much gravel out of my knee as I could; oddly enough the cuts weren't hurting at all and normally I'm a total wuss with such things, so I guess the adrenaline played a part in that. The first aider said it would sting when she cleaned off my knee & foot with betadine but I couldn't feel a thing. I'd found some almonds in my warm clothes bag so was just sitting there stuffing my face while she cleaned me up; grateful to the lovely first aid lady, but also silently hurrying her along so I could grab something more substantial to eat before my shift started in 15 minutes.
However, I was also concerned about the lady sitting next to me; she had been on the phone to a friend saying how disappointed she was in her time and she looked quite distraught and perhaps in mild shock. She didn't realise she was shivering so I offered her a blanket and it seemed the first aider was keeping an eye on her too. I hope she was ok. I had to run off to the finish line to meet up with my new volunteering buddies (whose names I have forgotten already, oops). Ben B and his students were on the finish line too handing out medals to the back of the pack 22k runners.
They say 'a marathon is life condensed into a day.' Well, these legendary 22 runners were giving me All The Feels coming over the finish line, collapsing with joy, exhaustion or relief; some in tears; some almost in shock; some who'd stuck it out with a mate the whole way and crossed the finish line hand in hand.
They say 'a marathon is life condensed into a day.' Well, these legendary 22 runners were giving me All The Feels coming over the finish line, collapsing with joy, exhaustion or relief; some in tears; some almost in shock; some who'd stuck it out with a mate the whole way and crossed the finish line hand in hand.
This was the absolute best place to be, I loved helping out. I was technically there to give out 951 medals for the Saturday afternoon session of the race, which was lots of fun but just no comparison to seeing those last few 22 runners cross the line. There was a bunch of Summit Sisters and RMAs amongst them; the SS and RMA love was so strong all weekend, across all races!
Speaking of love, it was very special to receive this comment on Strava from my little guy, as well as a text message during the race from 'the dog' and a congrats from the hubs. These little words from my family mean so much.
We wrapped up our vollie shift after a few hours and I was finally able to hunt for some solid food; the almonds in my pocket and piece of fruitcake from the volunteer kit had got me through the afternoon ok but I needed something decent to replenish what I'd burnt. And lots of water! So, a pad thai and a mixed entree it was.
I finally headed to Blackheath to check in to my hotel for the night and had THE BEST Thai food; perhaps I was just starving but it tasted bloody good. I sat by the fire in the common room, reflecting on the day and awaiting the arrival of my lovely friend Nat who was sharing a room with me before tackling the 50 the next day. It was a lovely warm relaxing place we stayed in, and we went to sleep early, setting our alarms for 5.30 the next morning.
And so began the second part of my weekend - driving Nat to the start and seeing her off with dozens of other equally nervous and excited friends, all amazingly strong runners who were tackling the 50 or 100 km distance. Some for the first time; some that had toed this start line many times before. We both grabbed a coffee then and Nat was off in a flash, and I stationed myself on the road outside Scenic World to cheer and holler at my inspiring friends. I must have taken 100 photos, standing there freezing my ass off, before I realised the time and that I hadn't eaten yet and was pretty damn hungry. I discovered I still had almonds in my pocket so I scoffed what was left, my gloved hands not working properly because it was so cold, even though I'd tucked HotHands into my gloves as well!
At the bottom I met Summit Sisters Janet and Judy who had amazingly done every UTA race over the past few years, some multiple times, but they hadn't done the 951 so they were going to 'collect the whole set' today, together! How cool is that.
My legs weren't super tired from the previous day's efforts, but I wasn't exactly super fresh either, so I was just aiming to get up the stairs as a bit of fun. As someone who thinks she's working too hard when her HR is above 165, I was hardly going to sprint up even if I did have fresh legs. There was 20 or so of us ready to roll; some very serious looking young 'uns and a couple of people that may well have just been tourists caught up in the excitement of UTA... one bloke just wanted to beat his teenage daughter. A couple of the group were seriously going for a time; the rest of us were too busy having fun.
It was, obviously, quite a short race - 1.5km to be exact, 951 stairs and I did it in 17 and a bit minutes. Not too shabby - and it actually felt good to get the legs moving again. I was ok earlier that morning but knew I'd soon stiffen up so I enjoyed moving comfortably while I still could!
It was a very different finish line now, quiet and relaxed with just a few people hanging around. I soaked it in for a few minutes longer, hanging with some Sisters, but I really needed to go home to my family, so on the shuttle bus I hopped, back to my car on the outskirts of Katoomba.
It was good to be home and enjoy the rest of the weekend lazing about.... crafting and scoffing scones at my sister in law's the day after was a wonderful recovery activity!
The biggest thanks goes to my husband and kids for allowing me to be selfish and escape into running every once in a while. And thanks also to Tom and Alina for putting on the best damn race around, all the volunteers that selflessly donate their time to make runners feel loved and cared for, and my assortment of running groups - I had to #represent all of them at UTA with my Summit Sisters shirt, RMA top and Blue Mountains Marathon Clinic buff. All the wonderful people in these groups inspire me constantly!
And UTA weekend 2019 is already marked in the calendar....
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