Training Log Archive: devil

Event: Kepler Challenge
 

Kepler Challenge, Te Anau NZ. After a day of acclimatising to being back in winter temperatures the race day dawned, well more pre-dawn as the 6am race meant a 4.30 wake up to eat a tin of rice pudding for a bit of pre-race fuel. At the race briefing we'd been warned that the weather was going to get worse as the day went on with high winds and rain, so the sweepers were going to be equipped with pitchforks to get everyone over the mountain quickly. The morning itself was relatively warm with the car thermometer reading 10 degrees, so I decided to start in just a t-shirt - although it was a base layer one so I could put a long sleeve thermal over the top if needed. I lined up at the 6hr post along with vanessa. The race commentator was already into his stride with stories of how windy it was going to be.
The start was a bit sudden as instead of waiting for the countdown from 10, the guest starter just blew the horn and we were off. There was a bit of a mad rush to get onto the single track, so I was probably 50 back from the front and just started working my way through the field until I got to two girls running side by side who were a bit tricky to get round, so I sat in behind for a while as the pace was around 4.30s which seemed reasonable. After a while the seemed to be slowing a bit so I went past, but then stopped to get a proper drink in at Brod bay and a pack of 10 went past again. At the back was a girl running in 5 fingers who was a bit hobbit-esque and the other two lead women. The big climb starts here, so I settled to a steady pace and picked my way through the field, I'd decided to save weight by not filling the bladder in my pack until the top and grant lent me an extra-light jacket, so the climbing didn't feel too bad. After about 10km we were out of the trees and then the wind started to hit, and I could feel myself getting a bit cold so decided to put on an extra thermal at the luxmore gear check. I was pretty efficient at the gear check, getting a fill of 500ml of water and getting through the gear check, thermal on and a gel out. Around here my stomach started feeling bad, so I didn't start on the gel until the gradient eased up a bit, then started just taking little sips of it along with a bit of water as I knew I'd soon be in trouble if I didn't keep the fuel up. The section across the top of the mountain is usually the most spectacular, but most of the time there was a very strong headwind so it was time for a lot of HTFU. I started drinking the leppin at every drinks from here to get a bit more sugar and then having a gel on the go in between. At hanging valley I had a bit of banana, which didn't sit very well either. Then it was onto the big descent - I felt like I was going much more slowly than last time and let a few people past including the hobbit and a bloke who said he was her boyfriend as he went past. The Iris burn hut was a welcome sight with the 'almost halfway' sign as you come into the drinks station. I was under 3 hours here, but wasn't sure whether this was good or not, and a walker I passed said I was in 17th place. Pretty soon after that I saw the hobbit's boyfriend walking up ahead so slowed down to check he was OK, and fell over myself on a root. The ground was soft so no harm done and I got going again with the hobbit's bf following behind for a bit.
I knew there was about 30km to go still and had a bit of self-assessment and decided that I was going ok, and just needed to trot along at a sustainable pace and I'd be well under 6 hours. I was a bit vague about distances as the garmin had showed 28km when I was at the halfway sign, but I didn't really know which to trust. I decided to take a split at the next drinks then try and keep the pace around the 5.30 mark, which felt comfortable. So at rocky point I got a big fill of water and had a few jelly beans while that was being done (very good drinks station service in this race), took off the thermal and headed off for the last 20 km or so.
These 20km are flatish, but every so often there'd be a little pinch over a spur, so it was a case of plugging away up those and then getting back to speed on the flat. One runner went past just after Rocky point, but most of the time I was by myself with just the occasional tramper to pass. Next hu was Motorau, I was still unsure about the distance, I thought it might have been 46km, but my garmin had 43, turns out it was 44 - really should have written the distances somewhere. I was still feeling good and keeping the pace the same, so just started thinking about a section at a time. Rainbow reach - 10km to go and still moving OK, was on just leppin and no gels by this stage and was getting a few cramps in my feet but not the calves. Then 5km to go, in the distance you can hear snatches of the race caller echoing up the valley fooling you into thinking you're just round the corner from the finish. Still going along OK, another runner passes and asks how the salomons are going. By this stage they were starting to feel a bit tight and I was convinced the whole bottom of my feet were one big blister, last drinks at 2.4 km, went straight through as still had water in my pack if I needed it. then finally the 1 km sign and then the track comes out of the forest and you're back onto the control gates. I thought I was going to sneak in un-noticed as the commentator was saying he was loosing his voice, but then I was being called in. Even more goodies were being handed out on the line than last time, a beer, fruit juice and milkshake along with a spot prize (they must have had loads as everyone seemed to be getting one). At the end I was a bit numb from physical and mental exhaustion and had to sit down for a while and get some fluid and salty chips in. I tried going in the lake but it felt like it was going to make me too cold so just got more clothes on to try and stay warm while my legs went into cramp overload.
Was very happy with this, the conditions on the high part of the course were pretty tough and it never felt quick, but was pleased that I didn't die in the last quarter of the run. I suspect this was the main difference to two years ago. My time would have been top 10 in most years, but 18th in the strong field this year was good. The winning time was Vajin Armstrong in 4h55 and the hobbit took out the womens race in 5h37.

As always this is such a well-done race, the whole town gets behind it and does all the organisation, and the setting is fantastic

There's a short video that shows some of the run at:
www.3news.co.nz/Kepler-Mountain-Runs-25th-run/tabi...

C • PB! 9

Had a really good sleep - not getting woken up by a cat doing intervals in the hallway helps a lot - so had a quick race day breakfast and run practice. Just ran out along the first three km of the course. Even though it was tipping down yesterday the track was in perfect condition. There were a few others out there too, but not much sign of anyone setting up the start area yet. Time for coffee now.

A bit of a long day travelling which started with the plane in canberra taxiing round the airport then back to the terminal - took about an hour to fix, so I missed the connection in sydney and got moved onto the jetstar flight - so got here with a particularly bad case of economy legs. Then drove through lashing rain with the car thermometer reading 5 degrees at one point, luckily have got a massive 4wd as my hire car.
So when I arrived I thought I'd better do a loosening run along the lake. It was still freezing although at least the rain had stopped, had to break out the thermals, tights, running jacket and beanie. Halfway through the run the track went through a little wildlife park, so I got a dose of keas and kakapos. Legs felt a lot better afterwards, then managed to find a cafe still serving food at 9pm (just). Now I'm just waiting to hear someone say something with a really full-on kiwi accent.....

Warm up before summer series

Summer series at red Hill. The main aim was not to have a taper run and not pick up any stupid injuries by running into fences, falling down holes etc, I even remembered to buy some new ankle tape before the run. Mainly took the straight line choices, which was probably slower in a lot of cases and lost about 4 mins on 5 when I had a stopped at the right watercourse but didn't read the description/look at where the circle was and decided that as it was quite thick I probably hadn't gone far enough, so ran about the same distance again before going back to it. Luckily I'd forgot to start my watch so there's no gps trace for posterity. Steady the rest of the way, but slower than gramps.

Bit of a warm down run with craney and sheep, we were waiting for lizzie but she went off doing the control collecting that I should have volunteered to do.

C • sorry 4

Set off from work in the rain, but my reading of the weather radar was good and it had stopped by the time I got to dickson. Not surprisingly there weren't many people there.

As there were no frisbee people on the ovals we did big lap intervals, I just did the short of 2 big laps then 2 laps of hard on the long sides and easy on the shorts. Nice to do an easy set, but was pretty drenched in sweat by the end anyway.

Chatted to lizzie who'd just run the neighbour's dog up mt majura, then did a big lap warm down

Cockies long run with a good sized group, grantm, robw, grant, acejase, lizzie, eon, warders and ecmo. I'd brought a backpack as a bit of kepler practice, but wasn't out of place as robw and acejase were also in ultra training mode. Odd numbered day so it was majura first by the triple tri track and meeting grantm at the top. Then into the pines which were a dusty mess in the thinned area and over hackett hill to ainslie. Coming off the top of ainslie there was a bit of confusion with echo going down the triple tri track while lizzie and I went straight on and down the curly wurly track on the other side of the road. We got as far as the top of the track down into campbell park, but decided that would be a bit long so doubled back and headed down the tricky track. It was a lot quieter on this bit of the run though.... Then over to sfoglia for coffees where we were joined by a christmassy marymac.