Suggestions

I'll admit, I had grandiose plans for this blog when I started it, but writing about running each week is tough. Apparently there are only so many things you can talk/write about so I'm asking for your help. I'm out of ideas (for the moment), but next week I get a bit of a break in a way as I'll be writing up a race report on my upcoming half marathon. After that however; I'm out of ideas again, so please, if you have suggestions or ideas let me know.

The TRN

Running with other people

Taken at Blue Pools, near Briagolong, when running with some local running group members.

Today's post will be short and sweet, and will be on the benefits of being part of a running group and running with others. I've been part of a local running group for close to a year now and am only recently starting to see the benefits. At the beginning I was still in high school and everyone in the group were a lot older than I was, so I kind of just ignored that I was a part of it. Once I left high school though, I stopped going to running training with people that were teenagers due to work commitments and missed that social connection, so I turned to the running group. It's great as it's a Facebook based group which means that it's so easy to get in contact with other runners with the same trail running interests, and pretty much how I found a whole bunch of local trails. It also allows me to find out about a whole bunch of races that I previously wouldn't have known about, and to have training partners when I go for my long runs. It's been a real asset, and really allows me to tap into the strong running community that exists in Gippsland. If you're reading this and aren't a member of a group and have the opportunity to do so, then do it. You'll meet so many new people that you might not have met otherwise and the local knowledge and running advice you can receive is astounding.
The TRN

Mandatory Gear

Today’s blog post will be about equipment; more specifically ‘mandatory gear’. There are so many races that I’d love to enter, from ‘4Peaks’ to the trail running race as part of ‘Adventurefest’ in East Gippsland. Of course looking further into the future, the UTMB, Ultra Fiord in Patagonia, the Great North Walk etc. all require mandatory equipment. 

This usually includes a space blanket, having the capacity to carry a certain amount of water (between 1-2 litres of water), a waterproof jacket, first aid supplies (bandages etc.); the list goes on and on and varies depending on race. For a novice such as myself, it’s a bit daunting. I mean, how are you meant to carry all of this stuff? 

The Salomon Advanced Skin3 S-Lab 12 Hydro Set
(One of those fancy looking racing vests)

In a traditionally shaped backpack, or in one of those fancy looking racing vests? And what are they actually like to run in? All well and good to try on one in a shop when you’re standing still, but what does it feel like after two hours running in it non-stop? If it doesn't feel right, can I return it? And what about the rain jacket? How waterproof does it need to be? The marshals at the start line would all have different opinions. Would something that stays dry in light rain be good enough, or does it have to be super heavy duty? 

Apparently one of the best rain jackets on the market, it'd better be for a whopping $280 AUD

I want to run in races that require these things but to even begin would cost more money then I currently have, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin to look as everyone has different opinions…

Is anyone in a similar boat as I am or was in my position and figured it out? If so I’d love to hear from you by leaving a comment J

The TRN

Wings For Life Melbourne

I can't believe I'm doing two race reports in as many weeks, and boy-o-boy is my body feeling it. I'm so sore right now, curse you DOMS!
Unfortunately the run I did yesterday; the Wings for Life race, didn't quite go to plan. I'm not about to delve into what the race is, although it's certainly unique, here's a link if you're curious; http://www.wingsforlifeworldrun.com/au/en/about/about/ .

Pre Run

© Mark Dadswell/Red Bull Content Pool

For me the evening started at 6:30pm when I sat down to eat dinner with my friend Riley; who I was running with, and his family for Mothers Day in Melbourne. This was 2.5 hours before race start and not the most ideal time to be ordering dinner; however, I was hungry and ate anyway against better judgement. Unfortunately the food didn't come out until after 7 and I didn't finish eating until 7:30, 1.5 hours before race start. Then due to the distance between where we ate dinner and the starting line, we didn't actually arrive at the race start until 8:30, only half an hour before race start. Usually I need about an hour to warm up so I practically started the run cold, and with 3.5k runners I was towards the back of the pack so when the siren sounded it took me a bit over two minutes to get across the start line.

The Run

My goal for this race was to try and run a half marathon in 1hr 30min and then once I'd done that, slow down to a walk until the car over took me. That didn't happen. For the first 5km I was feeling pretty good surprisingly and was on track to get my goal, by the 6km point things took a turn for the worst. I got a stomach cramp which pretty much reduced me to a crawl, however it abated and was able to speed back up again. At the 8km point, as you can see by the pace graph, I 'died'. I was very, very close to throwing up and felt terrible. I was already starting to get a blister on my foot and starting to get muscle cramps, but I persevered and kept going. I think the worst bit was that I wasn't able to get into a rhythm, and when I did at about the 12km point it was already too late. Those last spikes towards the ends of the graph are at an aid station when I retied one of my shoes and at the 24km point where I stopped to walk.

The cars that eventually caught me.
© Jaimi Chisholm/Red Bull Content Pool

Officially I ran 24.79km in 2 hours 3 minutes and 23 seconds, meaning I placed 7477th out of a field of 130,752 runners, which isn't too bad.

Post Race

I don't think I'd do this race again in a hurry, a great concept but unfortunately what happened after I stopped running spoilt it a bit for me. So the idea in theory is that once you stop running you hop on a bus to take you back to the start line, and since you are running away from where you started you wouldn't have any jumpers or anything with you to put on afterwards to keep warm. What happened was I finished running at 11pm and wasn't able to get on a bus until midnight, a full of hour of waiting and shivering. I could understand if it was 15 minutes, but when you're feeling like shit (like I was) the last thing I wanted to do was wait around. I guess another criticism was the randomness of the water stations, they started at 7km and kind-of appeared every 5km, some were more than 5km away and others were less. I guess it's a mental thing but I like to tell myself, 'OK only ... until the next drink of water, you can do this' but I couldn't do that. 

One thing that the race does have going for it was the goody bag, it was unreal the amount of stuff you got for signing up, my favourites were the high-vis shirt and the head torch. The head torch is one of the best ones I've seen, ever. I'm signed up to do a night-time trail race towards the end of the year and now I don't have to go and buy a torch specifically for it, it's great!

The Take-Away

What I've learned is this;

• Make sure I don't eat anything large close to two hours before race start
• Make sure I do a proper warm-up

I did both of these things at Puffing Billy the week prior and ran great but I can chalk this up as a learning experience. And hey, apart from almost being sick, I had a fun time during the run and that's all you can ask for.

 The TRN

Race Report: Puffing Billy 2016

This blog post today is tinged with tragedy after finding out that my friend Caitlyn died riding her horse over the weekend. So before I go on with my report I'm going to write a quick tribute to her; as much as for me than anything, just try to try and make sense of this accident that no-one could've predicated happening.

We won the Aths Carnival!
Photo Credit: Lisa Baker Gippsland Grammar

Last year I was a sports captain of my high school house; Cranswick Dargo, and one of the roles of this position is putting people into events for our sports carnivals. For the swimming carnival we were really struggling to find people to do U21 female events. I went up to Caitlyn and asked her to help out by doing some of those events and of course she said yes, that was the type of person she was. The athletics carnival was up next and is known for the amount of people who pull out of the events that they are put in, I didn't hear her complain once, she showed up and did well in those events. She was also a great asset in helping us captains out by making sure that the people who were put in events showed up on time. For that I'll be eternally grateful. She was also in my English Language class and very good at it, super smart. I often went up to her to ask for help and she always gave it. For that I'll be eternally grateful. She also took biology, but was in a different class with a different teacher. As part of assessment, the teacher of the other class marked my class' tests for every second test we did. The other teacher, Josh was a much harsher marker than my teacher and had a different marking style. At the beginning of the year when I was still learning Josh's marking style and after finding out that Caitlyn was acing bio I went to her to ask for suggestions and help so I could do better. She gladly gave it. For that I'll be eternally grateful. I guess the picture I'm trying to paint here is one of a person who was kind and generous, well liked and dependable. The world is worse off without you.

Onto more lighter news, I beat the train! Puffing Billy's Great Train Race is when runners race against an iconic train in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges across a 13.5km distance.

Not a photo of me, thankfully I was long gone by the time the train reached the bridge
Photo Credit: Paul Jeffers

When I lined up at the start line on Sunday I was feeling tired, both mentally, physically and emotionally due to being at a music festival the day before which was a 2.5 hour drive from the race start in Belgrave, along with finding out the devastating news. Never-the-less I was ready to go as I could've given the circumstances, but never expecting to beat the train, it seemed way too fast, but I guess I forgot just how much easier it is to run on road then trail. The first time the course crossed the train's path was at the bridge pictured above and I had beaten the train at the point, by a long way. At this point was the first time when I started to believe I could actually beat it.

The picture above shows elevation in grey and my pace in blue. The biggest climb was between the 5 and 7.5km mark of about 100m, at the 6.8km there was a level crossing and I beat the train there, which is when I knew that I could beat the train overall. I'm happy that my pace didn't drop below 5.30 during any part of the climb and looking back at that picture I'm seeing at the lot of positives. One of my weaknesses is returning to a fast pace after climbing a hill and it looks like I was able to do just that during my race. I'm also liking the the huge spike in pace at about the 12.5km mark as it shows that my legs still have enough strength in them to fly down a hill, which is a promising sign for my upcoming trail races. One thing I would like to improve on though is my pace consistency, I know there were hills but next time I don't want my pace varying from a bit below 2.30 to almost 5.30 and I think the only way for that to be better is to be stronger so I can run up the hills faster. 

The first time I saw the train come up beside me was about the 12.5km mark, unfortunately for me that was when I pretty much ran out of steam (haha geddit as I was racing a steam train, no? never mind) but unknown to me at the time, the train took a slightly longer route to get to the train station. This meant that I beat the train by 42 seconds and was in the top 5% of the runners, which also meant that I was a very happy person. Now to set my sights on outrunning a car as I run in the Wings for Life race this upcoming Sunday.

The TRN