GNW 100'S 2014 Race Report.
Heading to the airport and flying away is always a sole-um feeling "the calm before the storm".Knowing that before the sunrises the following morning you will be at the start line of Australia's toughest Trail race and that you wont stop moving till the next day after has well and truly set in.
Just to give you a run down of the race, The Great North Walk starts from Teralba on Lake Macquarie with The 100 Mile finishing at Patonga on spectacular Broken Bay. Although the route is primarily on foot tracks and fire-trails, it does include technical hard to navigate sections of trail also includes minor back roads. There is more than 6,200 metres (20,000ft) of ascent in the 100 Mile.
Friday night was a late night staying awake till 11pm in final preparation mode, trying to make mandatory gear smaller and somehow lighter in efforts to strip down weight that needed to be carried, before a restless few hours of sleep.
Saturday morning the 13th .
3:30 am the alarm goes off, to head down to the start line to be weighed in, Mandatory gear checked off and to shake out the nerves.Before heading over to the start line with 180 fellow nervous runners who will all soon be in the same pain game.
The race starts and everyone runs off at pace that you normally see in short races, hanging on to the second lead pack feeling comfortable as we tick through the first 20 km of hills with ease.
Off loading water supplies with knowing there was only 8.6km to first checkpoint was a step taken to race with bare minimum weight as 2.5 litres was what I took on at the start line.
Heading into the first checkpoint i was greeted by my support crew from "ICANIWILL" who took control refilling BCAA's stack and Throwing in new CLIF Shotz. before heading off into the bush on the hunt for checkpoint 2.
Shorty after leaving checkpoint 1 you hit a long down hill undulating fire trail in which my mind switched off for a split second and next second I was sliding over rocks on my shoulder and back, grazing the skin off my shoulder and cutting up my leg. Not a good start to the day but you just have to brush yourself off and keep moving.
Checkpoint 2 at Congewi School was looming ahead at the 52.5 km mark but to get there involved more quad burning hills and a 7 km open gravel road stretch that smashes the energy levels due to no protection from the sun. This road last year was the undoing, a 1/4 of the field last year pulling out at checkpoint 2. Feeling good at this stage pace was 4 minute 40's, a touch too fast considering i still had 120 km to go, but all i wanted was to get to the checkpoint.
Upon hitting the checkpoint all runners have gear checked, also weight is taken , at this stage i had lost only 2.7kgs, so was on track to keep going. After taking an ice bag to have around my neck to deal with the heat i stepped off back into the naked sun to start analyzing the next tough section in which we would all be hiking up to the summit and along the ridge line of the Watagan Mountains.
After running on open fire trail for 12km this turns into technical single trail , where once again i took a wrong turn having to back track to hit the right trail to start the decent down into the Basin. The basin is narrow soft underfoot single trail that leads down into the 3rd checkpoint , in which i was relieved to have finally reached as upon sitting down and my support crew refilling my supplies i started throwing up . having stomach issues and also fatigue setting in , i became ill from this point on wards, with regular emptying of the stomach to becoming apart of my race.
After stepping back out onto the trail to start the run back out of the basin towards the next goal which would be Checkpoint 4 (finish for the 100 km) in which darkness had set in , bumping into a fellow runner Simon, who I would run the next stage with along Yarramalong Valley.
Running along the dark windy narrow roads in the mist where the temperature had dropped. as we ran the long road we maintained sub 6 minute pace per Km, realising we could crack a sub 15 hour split for the first 100km we started picking the pace up to a 4 minute 30 pace to hit the checkpoint in 15 hrs and 30 seconds.
Exhausted after flogging ourselves to get there on a target, i spent a fair amount of time getting food into my stomach , as i was still crook in the guts and had only urinated once in the 15 hours of running. Normally this is a tell tale sign of the onset or symptoms of kidney issues that can lead to kidney failure. So it was important to get fluids and energy back into my body.
Leaving Checkpoint 4 with a pacer at my disposal Conan Visser, we lead off into the night, running up a slight incline on road to then jump the guard rail to slide down embankment to pick up the trail again leading away from civilization into thick, dark,wet forest.
This section runs for a total of 22 km but having the last stretch all uphill starting down in the valley and hitting the never ending hill that keeps going up and up slowly making this stretch an absolute mind torture game just to keep moving forward. Once breaking through the bush onto bitumen its all up hill again until you reach the checkpoint of number 5 at Somersby Public School. Where My crew Di Visser took control filling me up with just 1 liter to last the next easier leg.
This next leg would see Conan and Myself hunting down torch lights off into the distant valley to make up ground and to get back into the top 15 . This section was mainly single, tight, sandy trail dropping over into Mooney Mooney valley a couple times and back out again to a total distance of 17.8 km. then running along side the Mooney Mooney Creek for a couple of kilometers under the Pacific Highway.
During this run i was telling Conan about the Highway overpass, as we could hear it and i could see it, Conan kept on looking at me confused and dazed as to where this bridge was, Then he finally believed me to look above us , directly about us in the distance was the unbelievable sight of an overpass coming from the mist and disappearing into the sky as it seemed, taking your breath away.
Finally we had reached the small checkpoint 6. Where my weight was taken again and due to being covered in wet gear and muddy, drenched shoes i had put 1.5 kgs back on again.
Finally walking out of the checkpoint due to seizing up again it took 500 meters to be able to move faster than walking pace. Knowing that this final 26km would be the toughest stretch to come. Reasons why it hurt so much last year was you think you are almost there but you keep running away from the coast and you have massive, draining hill climbs that feels like you are on a step machine for the next 5 hours.
Finally we hit the sign that the coastline is becoming closer as the bush makes way for hot, open fire trail . As we zoned out and kept throwing step after step to keep moving we made another major mistake. This mistake would foresee Myself running solo and Conan Hitch hiking.
We took a poor navigation route that took us 3 km in the wrong direction down a steep hill to an 8ft high fence we could not get around . we checked navigation and realised we had taken the wrong turn.
Using the brain power we had remaining we decided to bush bash , this was shortly lived after all it was doing was cutting us up in the thick, spiky scrub. Realising it was impassable Conan decided to head for the road due to injuries and i headed back up the hill to play catch up games to make up the lost 2 hours of being lost.
The next ten kilometers i pushed myself physically and mentally to give it everything i had , backtracking to find route again and bringing the last stretch down to the sights of Patonga Wharf in full stride.
Locking sights on the beaches made me realize only 10 more minutes and i will be out of this pain game .
Running up the beach to the finish line enduring the last 29 hours, 180 km of this one of a kind race, bloodied, bruised, sun burnt, damaged didn't matter, all these emotions were replaced with success, even though by race standards i had a "shocker" . But at the end of the day i took personally away from this experience plenty to think about from nutrition, preparation, understanding of what the body can be pushed to. Only to try again next year!
Thankyou personally to my support crew consisting of "ICANIWILL foundations" DI Visser and founder Conan Visser who also Paced for me in the last sections from 110 km.
