ultramarathon

The Race

Preparation

  • Run, a lot
  • Buy all the gear you need – ensure mandatory kit
  • Bag pack – make sure it all fits
  • Eating bulk food leading in and during
  • Preparing listening materials
  • Walking Kelli through the plan – start hard, consistent throughout the night
  • Get to the start line EARLY

Start 9am Saturday 21 May 2022

  • Very happy with the starting first 30Ks. Blitzed it and got out in a solid leading pack.
  • Kelli said she saw me on the tracker in first place at one point, yay
  • The trail disappeared and terrain very tough
  • Literally one point saying ‘this can’t be the way, it’s too insane’. Turns out it was the way and my hesitation cost me ~20mins
  • Razorback ridge AMAZING

Aid Station 1: Standley Chasm around 630pm and dark

  • Currently in 3rd place
  • First time seeing Kelli ~8-9 hours in
  • Maybe in darker spirits knowing it was almost certain I was running all night.
  • The next 40 to the aid station weren’t as difficult as the previous 60 but I struggled to keep a running rhythm.
  • Cain (4th) caught up and boosted me through a Canyon. One of the legends last races as he gives back time to his family.
  • Once he left it was just myself… Bit daunting, so started LotR 1 audiobook. Scary witch kings, orcs, forest, barrow downs, willow.
  • Lost on the track then mr Speed Dealer (5th) overtook me. He was on speed big time. The aid station person put his condition down as ‘Hungry’

Aid Station 1: 103K and around 3am

  • Currently in 5th or 6th place
  • Kelli was asleep in the car
  • Final big aid station I did a shoe change and caught a 2nd wind then lost it. Then caught a final in the 10k end.
  • Views probably would’ve been amazing and that’s the real loss here. Esp. near the end on euro ridge where I could see nothing.
  • Kelli paced me the final 5 and almost took me down the wrong road lol
  • End at sunrise. Wasn’t completely dead.
  • Good time but feel I left a lot out there with the lost running
  • Results

Post Race

  • Snuck into a campground to shower – that was hard
  • Smashed a huge KFC feast
  • I slept in the car as Kelli drove us to Uluru for our flight back to Sydney the next day – what a legend she is!
  • Ankle / shin muscle or tendon issues plagued me for the next few weeks, next race is BTU110K in ~6 weeks post race!
WMM 2022 Final
Thank you Support Crew Dinner

Set Your Ultimate Goals

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:

  1. Priority
    1. UTMB – Ultra Trail Mont. Blanc
    2. UTMF – Ultra Trail Mount Fuji
    3. Western Mac Ellery 128K
  2. Priority (or Qualification Races)
    1. BTU 100
    2. Tamworth Trail Blazer 60K
  3. Priority (if it won’t impede my other events)
    1. UTA (50 or 100K)

Race Requirements / Entry Process

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.

  • ‘Unique’ to UTMB: Runners who have collected Running Stones by participating in the UTWT circuit. One Running Stone will provide one entry in the lottery. You can have up to 9 stones. They must also own a valid UTMB  Index for the distance of their choice (To enter the UTMB® lottery, runners must own a valid UTMB® Index in the 100K or 100M category).
  • More Standard: Runners who have acquired the requested qualifying points. UTMB: 10 points acquired between 01/01/2019 and 31/12/2021 (in 2 races maximum). 1 Entry for the lottery.
  • Charity: making a €2,000 donation to one of the charitable associations supported by the organization
  • Be an Elite (800+ ITRA score)

My UTMB Qualification

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 DateCategoryPurposeLocationNameStones / Points
2
9 April 20223rdOtherTamworth, NSWTamworth Trail Blazer0
3
14 May 20223rdStonesSydney, AustraliaUltra Trail Australia (50K)3
4
21 May 20221stGoalAlice Springs, NTWestern Mac Ellery (128K)5
5
9 July 20222ndPointsBrisbane, QldBTU 1005
6
27 October 20222ndStonesChang Mai, ThailandThailand by UTMB (54 / 110K)9
7
18 November 20222ndStonesCheng Du, ChinaPanda Trail by UTMB9
8
26 April 20231stGoalFuji, JapanUltra Trail Mount Fuji3
9
22 August 20231stGoalChamonix, FranceUTMB0

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.

Timing and Registration

Don’t miss registration dates!

  • UTMB registration: January 6 to 18: pre-registration for the lottery & registration for priority runners
  • UTMF Registration: January 7, 2022 – January 14, 2022 Lottery.
  • Western Mac Ellery Monster 128K: Online Registrations for personalised bib close: April 30th , 2022

Where you have a race that may impact performance of another, rethink and maybe cancel the lesser priority race.

Resources

I got into the more serious side of running in late January (28/01/2021) when I signed up for my first 50K ultramarathon. To say I did any real research or planning would be a huge overstatement. My longest run to that date was around 20K – I knew I had to start running much longer distances to

  1. Mentally prepare myself to KNOW that I could do 50K in a day
  2. Physically prepare myself to run my ultra best

My training plan was simple – run more and run long on the weekends. Here’s a simple time series of my training via Strava:

Good starting base
Hovering hours around 30-40hours per month. A lot of golf and walking included.
Ultra Training Commences
Heavy uplift in hours (especially into running) from January. Goals pushed higher once decided on 100K+ events in September (e.g UTMB, UTMF etc).

Some time in mid 2021, I set myself a more far reaching goal – to compete and complete the holy grail of Ultra Marathons: Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) (171 km +10,040 m) in Chamonix, France. When I decided this sounded fun and right up my alley, I started to again feel similar to that time in January – inadequately prepared by such an overwhelming test of physicality. I wanted to get good and set myself up for my ultra-best with more of a plan than ‘I’ll just do longer runs’. I set out and decided to hire a running coach as a shortcut to learn what I needed, however that didn’t turn out as planned so here I am, learning and training myself to become an ultra endurance runner. I am no expert and only a few months into ultra endurance training and still learning, but from my learnings I want to cover these areas:

Planning & Learning

  1. Training Schedule (Weekly / Monthly Google Sheet) – I set up a training sheet which I update weekly or monthly. It will include ideas and locations for hills. It’s also good to tally up your training if you can be that dedicated.
  2. Race Planning: Find the races that really interest you. Ensure you know how to qualify for them. Train for the race as close as you can. E.g UTMB is 170K with 10K elevation. Break it down – how much do I expect to run, hike, uphill, downhill, etc. Try to base your training around this.
  3. Coach – consider getting a coach, running form assessment and understand how different training techniques can improve your body and mind.
  4. Podcasts – Good to listen to while running for all running topics. My favourite: Science of Ultra and also Mile27
  5. Friends

Physical Training

Types: variety is the spice of life. If you do anything too much it’s surely not good for you. Mixing up your runs (from what I understand) will improve overall versatility and ensure your muscles are prepared.

    1. Long Runs: Up to 40% of overall weekly time. Less than 5 hours unless you are training mentally or gut testing. Probably want to do a big one (8+ hours)  around 6-8 weeks out in case you get injured. This is a good mental boost and test gear, gut and mind.
    2. Speed (Intervals, progressive, Fartleks, etc): Usually 1-1.5 hour sessions. Want to be doing minimum 30 minutes of actual speed running when you go out. Remember to be specific, Usually don’t want to be doing 100m sprints when you are training for a 170K race. Longer efforts will be more effective: 
      • e.g 3min * 10 efforts or 8min * 4 efforts. Etc. My pace for this training will be 5-10km 
      • pace (3:00 fastest)
      • Fartleks can be fun when combining with Strava segments. You don’t need to do consistent times / repeats. Effort is the main factor. E.g Segment 1 ~6mins, Segment 2 ~12mins, Segment 3 ~5mins, Segment 4 ~5mins.
    3. Hills / Hiking: UTMB will have a lot of climbing (roughly 5.9% overall course (10K/170K)). Although not always possible, best to try to replicate near this in your weekly schedule. I.e 100K per week = 5.9K elevation. Similar to intervals, I want to get in ~20minutes of actual climb time as well as descent time. I.e 6 * 4mins, 3 * 7mins
    4. Comfortable Runs: These are the usual runs. Comfortable (talking) pace. These are to put some more mileage in the legs when fatigued or to impede further fatigue. These will usually be in between the harder (speed, hills, long) sessions. 
    5. Strength & Mobility: 
      • Personally, stretching after running works for me. I have a sauna so it’s my place. I’ve never been flexible and something I want to properly try. After (almost) every run.
      • Strength has become more important as I’ve done more running although I still need to put more emphasis on it. Hip flexors (slide 5 & 6). Also don’t want to have runners arms, so it can be good to fit in some upper body through F45 or the like. Core is also very important so put in some situps with focus on obliques. One F45 per week, each walk (usually every 1-2 days) do a few situps. 
    6.  Rest: something I’m not very good at but a quote I like to paraphrase – when you are training you are hurting / tiring out your muscles. When you are resting they are recovering and becoming stronger. Like a senzu bean.
Schedule Days
Simply allows me to plan my days around work, weather and other events
Schedule Areas
When planning some runs this helps me pick locations for hills or intervals depending on what I want to aim for

Nutrition & Gut Training

  1. Consider hiring a nutritionist or at least researching…
  2. Training and prep
    1. For runners, carbs are good. Low GI is best. Eat more wholemeal
    2. Eat 1-2hours prior to a run, test and see if you can bring this down
    3. Eat less sugar
    4. Get to an efficient weight
    5. Eat more fiber
    6. Try glycogen depleted runs 
  3. The Long runs
    1. You shouldn’t need food top ups for less than 2 hours
    2. Take food for anything longer than 2.5hours
    3. Good idea to nibble every hour instead of large amounts
    4. Test food and gels, gels also expensive, you can make your own and test your own foods

Other

  1. Mental – you won’t know if you don’t attempt something tough. Chafe is still the most scary thing for me… something I need to further test. If you can test something before the big day it’s best to try it and give yourself that confidence boost

Final Words

Everyone is capable of training themselves with the right commitment and learning. Like a diet, find something that works for you, if you can’t stick to your training plan, look at changing it up to make it fun – strava segment seeking and weekly planning can actually be fun. I have shared some of the things I have started reading, learning and planning to improve my running to achieve my goals. I’ll test and improve this as I go through the stages to see what works and does not work for me.

If you’re to take one thing from this, think to make yourself Training Schedule (Weekly / Monthly Google Sheet)