Live Your Own Life
Live Your Own Life
Those who know me might know that I’m a bit of a sucker for adventure and done just a little bit of cycle touring (wayyy back in 2018 – https://thetravellingbeancounter.wordpress.com). I had dreamed up this baby a little while after getting back from Japan – the idea of cycling from (new) hometown to (original) hometown. With a good mate’s wedding the weekend following, the stars finally aligned and I set off on the 2nd of December.
Sport | Date | Title | Time | Distance | Elevation |
Ride | Fri, 02/12/2022 | Day 1: Sydney to Warners Bay | 5:57:24 | 147.40 km | 1,381 m |
Ride | Sat, 03/12/2022 | Day 2: Newcastle to Scone | 6:49:35 | 168.59 km | 1,579 m |
Ride | Sun, 04/12/2022 | Day 3 – Scone to Tamworth | 6:08:54 | 142.22 km | 1,107 m |
About 2 years ago I signed up for almost every race in the continent. From a 2K Ocean Swim in Coolangatta to a 50K trail race in Warburton Victoria. Included in that was the Noosa Triathlon in 2021 which was actually out of normal tickets so I opted to run for a charity.
Noosa Tri now lays claim as the largest Olympic distance triathlon in the world and is consistently ranked in the global top-ten triathlons by athletes. The 5-day festival – which includes 11 events in all – hosts over 13,000 competitors supported by more than 30,000 spectators on race day.
It was an easy pick in terms of which charity to run for as my niece has heart problems as a kid and HeartKids support kids like her and do all kinds of good research in that area. I raised just shy of $2.5K and actually topped the individual fundraisers for the Charity, something I never expected and very proud of.
2 years later after 2021 was closed for interstate travellers due to COVID19, the time had come. I had never set my goal to get a podium as that would be so unrealistic. I just wanted to complete the event and give it a good crack. Before race I was expecting ~30mins in the swim, 1.5hours on the bike and ~40mins in the run.
Swim – 28 minutes
Bike – 1h 21 elapsed (1h 18m moving)
Run – ~40mins
Final Thoughts
Leading into BTU110 I had done a few long runs on the weekend and started feeling some pains in my knee in the exterior of my left knee but just like under the knee cap. It only started to feel these pains when I bent it and only after maybe 3 or 4 hours of running. I thought I was just imagining and kept pushing on.
09 July 2022 at 5:00am the race began and I was in the top 5 or 6 people. I just happened to be running a similar pace with a legend – Alexi. I was feeling great even with the steep and constant undulation until around the 40k mark or ~4-5hour mark the similar dull but consistent knee pain. I tried to run it out for another 10Ks until it started becoming unbearable – I had made it to one of the larger aid stations and rested for a few minutes and downed some noodles. Started running again and within 2ks it had come back. At the top of a hill I decided to let my position slide and try to shake it out for 20-30 minutes with squats and stretches. It killed me just to let people pass. Similar to before, the pain came straight back but faster and worse than ever. I knew at this point that I was pulling out.
The walk of shame back to the aid station was the worst part as so many people were so encouraging and checking in if I was okay. At last I made it back to base and got a lift down to the bus stop with a nice support crew.
At the end of the day, I was sure I made the right call to pull out. It only kills me now as I look at the results to see and congratulate Alexi on coming overall 3rd. I still had a lot of gas in the tank and weirdly was walking fine, just couldn’t run.
I steeled myself and knew I had something to learn from this experience. Sharks can only move forward, I need to channel my inner shark.
Without ranting too much about how long and drawn out the process was to see doctors / physios / radiologists / etc…. I decided I should get some specialist medical assessments.
The words ‘Chronic’ and ‘ACL’ scared me to see them here – however I know they’re most likely from previous injuries and I was running with them earlier. So ruling them out it’s surely ITB syndrome and Google diagnosis suggested.
A few of the materials that really helped me.
I rested for almost 4 weeks and maybe 5 cancelled physio appointments before deciding it was time to test it out. The stretching has really helped and no pain although I’ll admit I’ve probably overdone it with almost 60ks in the last 5 days.
Preparation
Start 9am Saturday 21 May 2022
Aid Station 1: Standley Chasm around 630pm and dark
Aid Station 1: 103K and around 3am
Post Race
First international travel for ~3years. April 2019 we were in the north island of New Zealand.
We decided to book our trip the day after the most difficult race of my life (to date: 10/04/2022); The Tamworth Trail Blazer 60K with ~3,800m elevation gain. After pushing 165 heart beats per minute for 531 minutes pushing out ~5,700 calories and taking home both the course record, first place and days worth of pain to follow, maybe it was 2 parts stupid, 1 part strategic…
It was a great day and I was too high on adrenaline to feel it but I was chafing and cramping so much that the next few days on planes I thought would be a good time to recover. The worst part was the chafing… definitely going to fix that for my next ultras in May and July – it actually formed a scab on the flight over the Singapore.
This was actually the time when domestic airports were absolutely insanely understaffed and security lines went outside the terminals – mayhem. Luckily the international terminal wasn’t so bad (LINK). After flying strictly domestically the last 3 years you forget some of the procedures going international: taking out liquids (100ml max), passport photo not looking like you, 3hr check-in rules, etc. But you also forget the glamour of the lounges, luxury shops, duty free (~50% shops open).
Actually not that bad… and we were flying economy on Scoot. Worst part was the screaming babies but sitting down for hours on end, watching F1’s and Kimetsu no Yaiba S2, really not that bad. It probably helped that I was still exhausted from the run that I could actually sleep every few hours.
Total rest time: 24.5h
Tamworth to Sydney: 1hr
Sydney to Singapore: 7.5hrs
Singapore to Athens: 11hrs
Planning Map
Highlights from each area:
Athens
Meteora
Kefalonia
Rome
Naples
Santorini
By setting your race goals first you’ll be able to plan your calendar and races to achieve these. It’s usually best to set goals into Priority Tiers (A/B/C 1st /2nd/3rd).
For myself, my (current 01/01/2022) goals are:
There’s not much point in looking further into a race if you can’t even enter. Look at the official website and find out how to qualify.
My example is UTMB (170K) and from my research thus far it’s one of the most difficult races to qualify for (for the general public). So if I qualify for UTMB, I should be pretty safe for all other races (still worth checking each race though).
UTMB 2022 Entry Process lists multiple criteria just to enter the lottery.
So it’s pretty clear that I will not be able to qualify for UTMB 2022. I have 0 stones, I’m ~120 points short of being ‘Elite’ and I only have 1 qualification point.
I will airm to qualify for the 2023 event.
The most efficient way to gain entry is through Running Stones as you can have up to 9 entries. I will opt for gain as many Stones as possible but also aim for qualifying points (as this will ensure I qualify for other events such as UTMF).
I have organised my races as below:
1 | Race Date | Category | Purpose | Location | Name | Stones / Points |
2 | 9 April 2022 | 3rd | Other | Tamworth, NSW | Tamworth Trail Blazer | 0 |
3 | 14 May 2022 | 3rd | Stones | Sydney, Australia | Ultra Trail Australia (50K) | 3 |
4 | 21 May 2022 | 1st | Goal | Alice Springs, NT | Western Mac Ellery (128K) | 5 |
5 | 9 July 2022 | 2nd | Points | Brisbane, Qld | BTU 100 | 5 |
6 | 27 October 2022 | 2nd | Stones | Chang Mai, Thailand | Thailand by UTMB (54 / 110K) | 9 |
7 | 18 November 2022 | 2nd | Stones | Cheng Du, China | Panda Trail by UTMB | 9 |
8 | 26 April 2023 | 1st | Goal | Fuji, Japan | Ultra Trail Mount Fuji | 3 |
9 | 22 August 2023 | 1st | Goal | Chamonix, France | UTMB | 0 |
Finally, just because a race is not in the list now doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Just ensure it fits into your goals and plans.
Don’t miss registration dates!
Where you have a race that may impact performance of another, rethink and maybe cancel the lesser priority race.