ASICS Bridges 8th in 34:12

This was a big weekend - helped out all Saturday with loading the truck at the club, setup of the start/finish area, and filling all the water bins for delivery to the course on Sunday morning. I was a little worried Saturday because my legs felt really trashed when I got home. We also had to get to the start at 5:45 because Kim was the RD. Fortunately I felt OK in the warmup once I'd been going a little bit.


I warmed up early using advice from Simon Coates ; about 4.4km with some longish run-thru’s to hit that 10km intensity to get the body ready and then rest for the 20 minutes before the race. It really seemed to work. Usually I only start to warm up 20 minutes before, and much shorter. This gave me time to change into the flats, take a gel and relax a bit before the gun.

Felt really comfortable for the first couple of k’s running with the lead group. The wind really kicked up close the causeway, but that was just for a bit and then it was over and then a tailwind for the next 5 k or so. The lead group then picked it up, but I just kept my pace. Mr Stockwell overtook after about 4 km, but we were still doing 3:20’s, so he must have surged. I wasn’t going to just let him go, so picked up the effort to keep him in range ; I’ve raced him enough times to know that if I let him go it was all over.

Sure enough I started to reel him in and overtook again at about the 7.5k mark. I knew the bit from the narrows to the finish was going to be tough, and it was; my legs paid the price for Saturday’s setup when going up they just died. I knew Stephen was behind to really tried to suck it up, but could still only manage a 3:40 for that k. Martin Feichtinger was starting to struggle up ahead so I focussed on him, took a bit of shelter going through the last tunnel into the wall of wind and just went for it, managing to hang on for 8th place.

Splits 3:19 / 13:29 / 16:50 / 20:09 / 23:32 / 27:00 / 30:40 / 34:11

Ran with the Saucony Grid A4’s which were fantastic. Really stoked, last week’s relay leg really helped me tough this out mentally. Congrats to Biscuitman, on a huge PB, as well as PBs for Liam F, Mark L, David P, Jon P and BK ( big PB after 40 miler last week!)

4km PB, 5km PB (by 1 second) and 8k PB along the way.

Attached HR plot is one I’ll be proud of for a while. A triumph of mind over body! 

Mt Helena 40 Miler Relay

Although very secondary to the main event, the relay at the Mount Helena 40 miler is always fun. I managed to assemble a 'dream team' of pretty strong runners with the goal of breaking the 4 hour barrier for the 40 mile course. It was going to be a tough ask because conditions were not favourable for this fairly hilly course.

We were led off by Mark Lee who ran a cracking 50:33 for 13.9km and blistering 18.3km second leg run by Liam in 1:07:50.  I took the soggy sweatband baton (eeeuuuw!) and headed of down the hill. I knew coming back up was going to be tough so I tried to put a bit of time in the bank. It was really starting to warm up (high 20's in the shade)  by 9:30 on the dry dusty and exposed trail, and the easterly was starting to bear it’s teeth.  Hit the turnaround in 23:28 (3:27 pace) and then headed back up the hill. My quads started protesting quite early in the piece – it’s a real slog back up the hill into the wind and I really had to suck it up for the team, average HR 182 for the second half. Fortunately I had some solo runners to pick off to provide me with some distraction. Handed off to Scott at 49:16, who then ran a great final leg  in merciless conditions (low 30's) to stop the clock in what I believe is a course record…

A special mention has to be made of Chris O'Neill who won the solo run in a remarkable 4:36 odd, smashing the course record by over 10 minutes. Averaging 4:17 pace for that course in those conditions over 40 miles is an astonishing run. Geoff Reynolds also pulled one out of the bag to complete the course in under 5 hours, another remarkable effort. Eulalia van Blommestein was the first woman home. The conditions took it's toll on the field and there was some attrition, the greatest courage on the day shown by Jane Elton who had been battling a virus all week gutsed it out for over 7 hours to claim her finishers medal.