Runnability nearly disappeared entirely with just 22km done and a notional 452 to go. Throughout the course, there are decontamination stations set up to help stop the spread of invasive species. Walkers and runners are encourage to stop on long and wide metal plates and drag their feet through a 3-way brush that scrubs off pollens, seeds and weed particles. But there is also a 15-inch springloaded trapdoor in the middle of this metal plate that is designed to be stepped on, lowering the user’s foot about 6 inches into an antiseptic bath below, and enhancing the quarantine process. I didn’t know this.
Feeling just a little… blerch
So one minute I was running along happily, thanking Andy and Brett and all the volunteers for the awesome race day. The next, there was a loud ‘ker-chunk’ and I was on my face with a knee that felt bruised and three toes that felt broken. Looking back to see what had attacked me, all I could think was that the grating had flexed and that I must have caught my toes between one metal plating and the next. That process of accepting that even with three broken toes I was going to get this thing done was a total overreaction, but it was also a good moment to stick in the willpower bank. I’ll be drawing on it this weekend as the road 100km of the Ned Kelly Chase starts to hurt and probably for several hours across the duration of GNW. GNW doesn’t need bear traps to kill people, because GNW has Congewai.
Central Coast stalwart Gary Pickering kindly waited for me to regroup before running off to get himself a decent finish while I got distracted on the run and again dropped my self by headbutting a tree. Things were shaping up nicely.
That’s right. Thanks to its unique geology, this course actually flips you the bird. Nice.
Hitting the 55km checkpoint, it was a shock and shame to see that my mate Shane Hutton no longer had his pack on. He was pulling out with a bit of a wrecked leg. I felt bad as he and his partner Richelle had helped get me out to the start of the race the day before and here they were about to head home without the satisfaction of the finish. Still, he probably had his 200+km run from a month or two ago in his legs, and his next weekend would be a 24-hour mountain bike endure. So he’s not totally missing out. Jacinta and big Jim Eastham, mates from the Simpson Desert race, filled me in on how everyone else was going as I came into the checkpoint where Mal Gamble and other vollies treated us all like royalty, fetching ice, water, cola and drop bags. It had been great to see Lucy B earlier in the day but now she’d followed her neatly speedy dad Ash down the course and wouldn’t be seen again. Kerrie Bremner was popping up and being a superhelpful superstar throughout the day too, taking it easy after her epic 215km at the Auckland 24-hour just a couple of weeks before and supporting Chili Man out on course. Sorry Chili, but your chafe stick saved my man nipples 5-hours in at the marathon mark. I thought you’d want to know.
Between October 12 and November 10, I have set myself the challenge of running 3 100km races and a 174km trailrunning slaughterhouse on one of Australia’s toughest 100-mile courses. It’s a total of 474 race kilometres within 30 days and even with 200 kilometres already down, I don’t feel any closer to the halfway mark. Maybe after this Sunday’s Ned Kelly Chase in Wangaratta (northern Victoria), when only the…