So... this was an interesting run - I have upped the mileage to the 80.5km that they stated in the race manual! It started a 2am and this is surreal. There were 15 of us who started the race and it was silly - I went running off the start line and took the lead!!! I was WINNING (for all of 30 or 40 seconds).
So... the laps were 11.5km except for the last one which was only 10km. To make us reach the 50 miles, we had to run up to the mountain lookout and back to the start line. It got pretty steep and little did we know... the first 750m was the only time we would be walking for the next 10 hours - Adam and I actually managed to run everything from this point onwards. I never thought that would be possible for an 80km bush run!!!!!!
Anyway, after the first 1.5km I was no longer winning:-( In fact, Adam and I were in 14th and 15th place (although the woman in 13th was running with us for a little bit). We were happy, it was pitch black and we knew the pace we were aiming for and we settled into our rhythm. There was no need to rush - we had several more hours to go.
We met the photographer halfway round and had a good laugh with him, then we saw the lead runner about 1.5km into his second lap (3km in front of us). It was good to be able to see all the other runners ahead of us. We finished the first lap in around 1:30 (including the extra 1.5km) and felt pretty good. No need to pit stop this time as we had plenty of fluid and food.
Off we go on the second lap still with Meg (the woman in 13th) and so far we haven't managed to pick off anyone infront of us. We are still happy, and on the second lap we go the other way round the circuit - now this is interesting, but actually a really good idea. It means that whenever people are ahead of you, you will see them on the lap they are doing as they will be running towards you while you run the other way:-) So... towards the end of lap 2 we see the leader again. He is now approximately 5km ahead of us... we may struggle to close that gap.
Oh and by the way... there are shorter races which start later - awesome! As we are closing in on the end of our second lap we see the 5 lap runners starting (they started at 4am) and we say hello to them as they go the opposite way to us. The second lap was about 1:20 and we went off to go the right way round for lap 3. By this point Meg has left us behind and we think two people have dropped out... let's call it 12th and 13th then... moving up the field:-)
Lap 3, 4 and 5 pretty much repeat the same thing. We keep going in both directions and we keep seeing the 4am starters and the next lot are starting at 7.30am (3 laps), with the 2 laps at 9am and the 1 lap at 10am. Each of the laps is probably about 1:20 and this gives us a time of maybe 7 hours for the 5 laps. You can see our break at the end of lap 4 when we did at 11 minute km... a toilet break there I seem to remember.
By the end of lap 5, we were in the top 10! So... 5 people had dropped out - not our fault, but it was not quite the same as catching them and passing them:-( Adam and I were therefore in 9th and 10th position.
Lap 6 was hard - all the kms were 7 something, but we kept going and I think we made it back in about 1:24, so we hadn't slowed down much. Also, lap 6 saw us overtake two people - and this time we actually overtook them:-) puts us in a tie for 7th with a lap to go (I can't build the suspense - the others were way ahead of us!!!).
Lap 7 - wow this was hard. I was really feeling it, but knew we only had 10km to go and we managed it in about 1:18, so not great, but not bad after 8 and a half hours of running. We didn't catch anyone else, but managed to hold on to 7th place (we crossed the line together so definitely a tie). Official finish time of 9:42:43 for 80.5km. What a great race!
We had so many people who said thank you to us for being so happy and some of the volunteers offered to pay for our entry fee to the next Run Queensland race (but not the airfare from Sydney...) It was a really fun race and we were both so pleased to finish with that time and without walking at all (excluding the first 750m).
Hedgie18
Great work Joe (and Adam!). I have been waiting with baited breath for this entry to come through! Seriously inspiring stuff. Your ability to tough it out over the long distances is so impressive. I think you were designed for this kind of sport. Congratulations!
Cheg
Amazing, the long nutty stuff definitely suits you!
bigfatjoe
I hope it was a good read - It was a really fun race and me and Adam both enjoyed ourselves immensely:-) I will get round to the write up of yesterday's race soon hopefully...
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Great work Joe (and Adam!). I have been waiting with baited breath for this entry to come through! Seriously inspiring stuff. Your ability to tough it out over the long distances is so impressive. I think you were designed for this kind of sport. Congratulations!
Amazing, the long nutty stuff definitely suits you!
I hope it was a good read - It was a really fun race and me and Adam both enjoyed ourselves immensely:-) I will get round to the write up of yesterday's race soon hopefully...