Training Log Archive: andyhill

Event: 2014 MetrO League #3 - Oatley
 

Lost time a quite a few controls especially 17 which seemed to be mapped in the wrong spot. Loads of others lost time there too.

Division 1 - Splits

Event: 2014 State League #6 - Rydal
 

Rydal Showground.

Ok run up to no.9 where I was leading according to the splits but hen made a bad route choice going round (should have learnt from Easter!) which cost me 7 minutes. Also lost a bit of time on no.4 but looks like the whole field did. It was supposed to be on some thicker vegetation in the middle of the bush but there were loads of other pieces of thick vegetation. At least I made no major nav errors today but overall O has been terrible this year.

Still fatigued and left achilles sore so had to keep stopping to stretch it out. Body is telling me its time for a rest but will try stretch it out to QBIII and Paddy Pallin.

Hard 1 - Splits

Event: 2014 State League #5 - Wallerawang
 

Mount Piper Hills West

Strange course, most controls were just off the tracks including a couple on the tracks. Didn't feel great, don't think I'm fully recovered from the marathon. Managed to stuff no.14 up by missing the gully it was in. Finished well behind Patrik Gunnarsson.

Mount Piper Hills - Splits

Early start getting up at 2am! Had to try about 5 taxis to take us to where the buses left. Taxis don’t like take foreigners in Beijing. We eventually arrived to the start at 6am but the start of the race was delayed an hour due to the late arrival of our buses.

The start was pretty steady, I took the lead immediately without going too fast and after 1km up to the wall only one Mexican runner stayed with me. We headed east along the undulating wall for about 6km to the turnaround point. The trail was pretty rough going, it was either up or down with no flat sections. Basically you had to run to each of the towers that would generally be based at the top of each hill. On one such staircase up to a tower called the stairway to heaven took a good 10 min to run up with stairs at 40cm each and at a 60o ascent. Anyway, it didn’t take long before I knew the other guy was out his comfort zone. I’d often get away but he’d latch back on but each time I’d get away the gap got larger. At the first turnaround point at approximately 8km I had a lead of about 50m and then another 400m to a constant stream of runners. Unfortunately, the marshall didn’t tell us to turn off the wall and the first 30 or so runners missed an out-and-back section on the way back. Anyway I headed back along the wall to the western most point and then back to the start/finish area for Lap 1 completion.

Lap 2 was supposed to be a similar route, however, the first 5 runners were made to do an extra section (maybe because of the first missed section). At the turnaround point at about 15km my lead had increased to about 500m and another 500m to the others. I was still feeling comfortable and knew I could extend the gap. Whilst finishing the 2nd lap I passed another old Mexican guy who didn’t do one of the out-and-back sections of the wall which was a good half hour. I tried to tell him but he didn’t listen so just passed him and completed the second lap.

Lap 3, 4 and 5 was a 5km loop running up to the wall then about 3km on the wall then back down the horsetrack. Knowing I now had a lead of over half an hour I didn’t push too hard, just kept running without stopping. Surprisingly, I will still running up most stairs when possible. By now the tourists were everywhere on the wall and at a few of the towers it was a squeeze to get through.

Lap 6 was just a 3km loop up to the wall and back down the same path. I was still feeling good at the 6hr mark and still managed to run up to the wall and then back down to the finish. Unfortunately though the older Mexican guy I had passed already claimed he had finished even though he missed a large out-and-back section and only did 2 of the 4 last loops so probably only ran 30km. The officials and TV cameras believed him and he did all the interviews and collected the prizes. It took a bit of convincing to tell the officials he didn’t win. For starters he finished from the wrong direction and he only collected 3 of the 6 marks required from the marshalls on the course, plus there were over 50 marshalls and 600 runners that could back this up. Many of which were very vocal to how this played out. Then the race director pulled me aside and said it was obvious that I had won but would I accept to be joint winner as he wanted to keep his pride for himself and the race and not have to tell the media they’d got it all wrong. I said No, why would I let a 65 yr old Mexican cheat be winner? He eventually accepted my decision and awarded me the race.

So a bit of an anti-climax finish but really happy with my running form. I was very surprised that I could keep going today. There was plenty of food and water on the course and it was pretty hot but never had any lows. Maybe that had something to do with the adrenalin from leading and running in such a spectacular area, but also had a good Summer of consistent long runs with Brooner, Mounty, Steve, Ondrej and others.

ANDREW HILL M AUSTRALIA 6:28:23 1
PRESTON KELLER M USA 7:08:38 2
TIEN FU-KANG M Taiwan 7:30:54 3
Jose Guadarrama* M MEXICO 7:32:54 4
NEIL PALMER M UK 7:35:15 5
DAVID STEWART M CHINA 7:35:19 6
WU HUNG-TA M Taiwan 7:41:53 7
JENNA MCGREVEY* F UK 7:44:10 8
Tang Tuan Huat M Singapore 7:44:57 9
Chee Choong KoH M MALAYSIA 7:54:17 10

C • Not far off the record 17

C • is this the mexican? 4