Ultra Post-Mortem

*LONG BORING POST ALERT*

This post is mainly for Tesso and Clarie - Tesso is doing her first 12 hour in a few weeks (Team J and CR legend that she is) and Clarie is supporting her - remember you said you wanted to hear about everything? - well you should be more careful with what you wish for because here it all is! It also may be of use to any others contemplating a dabble on the dark-side. And sorry Tesso and Clarie there are also lots of quite long narrative bits in here that I wanted purely for myself for posterity.

Mostly it is a squiz at a novices (mine) thoughts and approach to their first ultra. I've also included my experiences on the night and my recovery, but be advised - I am far, far, far, from being an ultra expert and this is just my humble story about one run - take or leave from it as you will.

Why 12 hours on a track?

Simple - it's a safe option - not too far to walk back to your car if you conk out :-) But probably like most others I really didn't see the appeal of it till I did it - but in fact there are many advantages to a track run and it was very enjoyable for runner and crew alike but more about that later.

The Decision

I decided a while back that 2006 would be the year of the ultra for me with my first scheduled race to be Six Foot in March but I had also decided that I wanted to do a long run in January and had mentally been nutting out some courses to do around 60k, though when I came across the Central Coast Classic on CR a few weeks before Christmas a plan started to hatch. It wasn't a very good plan, it was full of "what ifs" and "buts", but I sent my application in on my last day of work for 2005, the week before Christmas - hey if I blew $45 and had a DNS - no biggie.

The difficulty was making it fit with holidays and getting a lap scorer/crew - this was hard for me, I'm not good at asking for help. I finally did ask Mrs 2P and the Halfpenny and they said yes but I kind of got the vibe that they only agreed out of a sense of duty - one of the real joys I took away from the night was that it ended up a very positive experience for them too. Due to a whole range of other issues I really only commited to the race about 5 days before the event.

The Training - Physical & Mental

Not a whole lot of race specific physical training, but then I've never let that stop me doing stuff before. After a 3 month layoff I did 165k in October and 200k for both November and December. I had 2 x 30k (one extremely hilly) and 2 x 26k efforts at Quarry Rd (all 4 runs over 3 hours and carrying weight) under my belt + I had really toasted my legs at the Central Coast Half on the 4th of December.

Whilst I am a novice at ultra's I have done endurance stuff before in my kung fu gradings, bushwalking, caving and canyoning. Reading Phil Essams "I finally found my hero" the week before the race confirmed what I already knew - that success in endurance events is to a large degree due to your mental preparation, having the right equipment for the task at hand and looking after yourself right from the start.

For me the mental preparation isn't just about the positive "I can do it" stuff - it is about scenario planning eg I had a number of scenarios for what to do if I found I couldn't maintain a certain pace etc (I ended up needing these) another scenario involved cramps, another blisters, one for shoe failure and yet another for blown calves - I had a gazillion of em. I mentally rehearsed and visualised what I would do in each situation so that if it happened on the night I wouldn't view it so much as a disaster but as a scenario I knew how to deal with and flow smoothly into the correct drill.

I was also realistic about what I could achieve - no bones about it on an emotional level I wanted 100k - but I also knew that was very ambitious (2 months ago I couldn't run 10k at the pace I would need - including break time - to achieve 100k in 12 hours). Crunching the numbers on what I know to be my slowest trudge pace I reckoned my low end range was 80k, so I accepted this before the race as an acceptable result - less meant that I was injured and therfore it was out of my control - less for any other reason was just NOT an option! As it turned out - in all honesty, even if I had not had the tummy probs I had on the night I now know I wouldn't have made 100k - 96 or 97 - maybe? But I was stoked with 93 because it was the best I could do on the night and because I hadn't hinged my continued happiness on the ambitious 100k.

I don't see this approach as a cop out - rather it lets me set ambitious goals and that if everything goes perfectly are just achieveable. If things are less than perfect then I can accept the result and get on with my life with no need to throw my teddy out of the cot.

For the avoidance of doubt the above attitude only applies when the things I have little or no control over go less than perfectly - if I felt I had dogged it I would sulk in my cave and pout for weeks!

The Preparation - Taper & Carb Loading

Nothing scientific about the taper - my weekly mileage wasn't high enough to bother - I just did my last long run a little earlier than usual in the week on the Friday 1 week before the event and didn't do any running on the last 2 days before the race.

From experience I prefer to eat just normally the day before a race - I hate toeing the line feeling heavy or wanting to go number twos during a race. The fact that this race started at 7.30pm also was a consideration. So Thursday I ate like a pig, if it had a carb in it, I ate it - mostly brown rice and wholemeal spaghetti, but also some mountain bread, bananas and muesli bars - I also had a couple of eggs and some meat to top up the aminos.

Friday was similar, just not as piggish as Thursday and Saturday (race day) was normal meal sizes of brown rice with an egg and some ham for breaky - lunch was deliberately a bit later than usual (2.00pm) of some wholemeal spaghetti with a light sauce. I snacked on a muesli bar about 4.30pm.

30 mins before the race I took a caffeinated Power Bar and 10 mins prior a Gu - this is my normal long run procedure.

As for hydration - Thursday & Friday if I wasn't eating I was drinking water. On race day I just drank normally and concentrated on conserving sweat rather than take in too much fluid - as like with the food - except in this case it is because I hate wanting to do a wee not long after the start.

On the day of the race I probably spent too much time on my feet pottering around - I don't mind running through the night but I must say I'm not a fan of the 7.30pm start. I tried a nap in the arvo and dropped off for about 10 mins that's all.

The Preparation - The Gear

One of the advantages of a track race is you can take the worlds supply of gear - and in this case I did!

Garmin - not much use as on a 400m track as it measures way long - it gave me over 99k when I only did 93 but once I realised this was going to be the case it was still useful for monitoring relative increases/decreases in pace without doing complex maths with the race clock and I would use it again should I do another track race - the tip for new players being add a fudge factor to the 1k lap pace it is showing.
Spare running socks
Spare running shorts
Spare running singlet
Spare running T-shirt
Spare shoes
Long Skins
Beanie (in case I got cold if I needed an extended break - I didn't)
Waterproof jacket (as above - if raining - it did rain but I didn't need a long break)
Post race clothes
Soap & shampoo
10 litres of water (so I didn't need to queue for a shower afterwards)
Fuel belt & bottle (just in case I wanted it - for the record I didn't but I noticed some people did)
Fold up chairs
Fold up table
Sleeping bag
Tent (in case I had a disaster or any of the crew needed a nap - or if it pissed down and the food/gear needed protecting)
Sleeping mat
Towels (including one really big one for wrapping myself in if I needed an extended break - I didn't - but it was great at the end - Mrs 2p had the foresight to bring it to me when the gun went off - I love that woman)
Instant Ice (the kind that freezes when you squeeze and shake it)
2 x Elastoplast cans of cold spray (these were fantastic on the night - I will detail their use a little further on)
Elastoplast plastic skin spray (to cover any blisters or abrasions if I tripped/fell)
Sports tape
2 x conforming roller bandages (in case my calves blew)
Bandaids
Bodyglide
Amoline
Vaseline
Needle (for lancing blisters - I put the sharp end in a wine cork so it would be easy to find and wouldn't stab myself trying to find it in poor light conditions)
Torch
Insect repellent
Locktite type superglue (long story involving a flap I had with shoes coming apart once)
Scissors
Cutlery/cups/plates
Esky & ice

I didn't use everything I took but I would take it all again and for the record I wanted for nothing on the night.

The Preparation - The Food and The Lotions & Potions

Again, an advantage of a track race is that weight is not an issue - from experience I took stuff I knew worked for me. In a nutshell I wanted 7 categories of food:

1. Stuff that would give me the quickest fix for low spots - glucose

2. Other simple sugars - pretty much as for above

3. Complex carbs - this was no sprint race I needed energy sources that would last

4. Salt

5. Legal stimulants - caffeine & guarana

6. Vitamins and minerals - B complex (just because) and magnesium (to ward off cramps)

7. NSAID's

So I settled on:

8 x 600ml bottles of Gatorade
4 x 375ml cans of Coke
2 x cans of VIG
3 x tetrapaks of Up & Go (breaky stuff)
Mountain Bread (didn't use it)
Peanut butter (didn't use it)
Honey (didn't use it)
2 x bananas (didn't use them)
Salt & Vinegar Pringles
Pretzels
Jelly Beans
4 x small Goulburn Valley fruit salads
1 x can of creamed rice (didn't use it)
1 x can of spaghetti (didn't use it)
Horlicks and hot skim milk in a thermos (in case it rained and I got cold - didn't need it
Coffee (didn't use it)
10 x Gu
3 x Power Bars (didn't use it - except for the one pre-race)
No Doz tabs
Voltaren Rapids
Nurofen Gel
B complex vit tabs
Magnesium tabs
Guarana & Ginko tabs
CoQ10 tabs
Panadeine (only for use if injured)
Thought about L-Carnitine but didn't have any and too tight to buy any at Central Coast prices :-)

Obviously I didn't use everything I had - my theory was that I knew what the merits of each of these foods was and I would just take what I felt like at the time but - and it is a big but - ensuring I got a reasonable mix of the top 5 groups mentioned above within every 1 hour period. Another for the record - I didn't run out of anything or want for something I didn't have either! I also had no energy problems or cramps during the entire 12 hours - just muscles that fatigued naturally over time.

I will detail what worked for me and what I did on the night a little further on - but if I was ever asked to choose just 3 things from the above list it would be jelly beans, pretzels & Gu.

The Preparation - The Race Plan

This was all new territory for me but I figured I needed a plan - the promise I made myself was that I would stick to it religously for the first 2 hours - then if I wanted I could tinker with it I but whatever I then decided was inviolate for the rest of the race. The rationale being I couldn't and wouldn't trust myself to make good decisions when tired. The only caveats being I could at anytime choose to walk more or stop to address any emerging niggle/injury. As it turned out I stuck with my original plan and invoked caveat 1 :-)

My most ambitious goal was 100k - so that is 250 laps at 2m 52s average or 7m 12s per k av - of course this has to include all breaks.

Mathematically it was then easiest to break the race into quarters ie for even splits it would be 25k (62.5 laps) in 3 hours, 50k (125 laps) in 6 hours etc.

My strategy to achieve this was to run at between 6m30s and 6m45s per k pace or between 2m36s and 2m42s laps. This meant that I would be "banking" between 10 and 16 seconds per lap for rest breaks - doesn't sound much - but as an example by 20k I would have somewhere between 8 & 13 mins up my sleeve.

The other part of my strategy was to operate to a 2 hour cycle (right from the start). Every 20 mins I was to take a 1min walk break - I've practiced this a lot and can do it without dropping averall pace - just run a tiny bit quicker going into and out of the break - by walk break I mean a comfy "sort yourself out" kind of walk not the full power ubangi (it's a variation on the Galloway model). I must take a drink and a nibble was optional on every walk. Then on every odd hour I had to eat something more substantial eg pretzels - within every hour I must have something that contained elements of the top 5 foods above. The final part of the cycle was to stop every 2 hours for as long or short as I needed to sort myself out eg I could sit down, use ice out of the esky to cool my legs, lance blisters, use cold spray etc etc. The only mandatory thing on the 2 hour breaks was to re-apply the Bodyglide whether I felt I needed to or not.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PLAN IS IT STARTS WHEN THE GUN GOES OFF - NOT WHEN I START TO FEEL TIRED - THAT IS WAAAAAY TOO LATE!

I knew there would come a time when I would have to walk more - I just hoped the plan would prolong my overall run time and that I had enough time in the "bank" to cover more walking later on.

Oh - one last bit - I had a can of VIG to take at the 3rd & 9th hour and a little vial of vitamins and drugs (B complex, No Doz, Guarana, Magnesium, CoQ10 and Voltarin Rapid) to take on the 6th hour - only little doses of each - I didn't want kidney failure!

The basic premise of this plan is that it broke the race down to 20min segments and had key milestones along the way. Psychologically this was good because the concept of 12 hours was a little daunting - yet I KNEW I could run for 20 minutes and then get a break - what could be easier? I'd just have to do 36 times - that's all :-)

The Preparation - At The Track

The format at Gosford is good - you can drive your car right into the centre of the track and set up a tent, table and chairs right on the edge of the track (in hindsight - I should have found this out prior).

Lap scoring was something we had to find out about - we were so naïve we didn't even know this meant logging the total elapsed time on each lap - go figure.

We arrived 1 full hour before race start to give plenty of time for setup. I just tried to do everything slowly and calmly - being anal (surprise, surprise) I had a checklist of everything I wanted to do.

Bodyglide, Amoline & Vaseline in that order (taking no chances) to inner thighs, nipples and inner arms.
30 mins out eat Power Bar
30 mins out take a multivitamin
Running singlet complete with number on
Double knot shoe laces
Garmin on
10 mins out take a Gu
9 mins out drink 200 mls of water
Relax till gun

The Race

Bang! We're off - it was a bit tough hanging back as the field raced away but there were enough walkers to make me feel ok about my slow start. I really didn't want that first break at 20 mins but I made myself take it and so it went for the first couple of hours.

For the first 2 hours 40 I called out the lap before my break was due what I'd want and Mrs 2P or the Halfpenny would get it - I didn't feel comfortable with this though as they had to walk from the scorers tent to our camp each time and sometimes they would miss-hear me or I would change my mind on what I wanted so in the end I just told them to put everything on the table and move it and the esky closer to the track. I wasn't grumpy - far from it, I was having a ball - it's just that being independent suited me better and I really didn't lose much time by doing it myself.

At first I lived on Gu, Gatorade and water with a few pretzels on the hour. On my first 2 hour stop I took an Up and Go which was fine. At 3 hours I re-discovered the value of the humble jellybean - that and a can VIG did amazing things to my pace and my disposition.

I went through 25k (first quarter) with 16 mins banked and it felt fantastic.

By 4 hours I was getting some groin pain in the adductors (same place I cramped at 6') so I gave my inner thighs a blast with the cold spray which worked fantastically - I had no further problems from them for the rest of the night. I also tried my 2nd Up & Go then but my tummy didn't want it so I put it down and had Gu, some pretzels and water.

I kept circulating a fraction slower but still nicely until just before the 5 hour mark (and our 2nd direction change) I felt discomfort in my tummy - I tried to ignore it but when I turned around the cone at 5 hours I knew I needed to RUN! I won't go into detail but it hurt and it went for a long time, stank and was accompanied by the most horrendous carcophony of sound. I thought I was only gone 7 or 8 mins but Mrs 2P who recorded it in the margin of the official lap score sheets (bless her) reckons it was longer - will find out when they post the sheets out.

I went through the 50k mark with 14 mins in the bank which meant in a relative sense I was going backwards. I wasn't too concerned though because a fair chunk of the deterioration was due to the toilet break and whilst I wasn't overly confident, I still thought 100k was achieveable.

At 6 hours I took my vitamin pack with some coke - but I reckon coke is over-rated in distance events (it's real value for me came in the 12th hour when I was over Gatorade and Gu - variety can be good). Even when flat, coke always makes me feel a little bloated.

At 7 hours I tried Pringles but found the pretzels suited me better and stuck with them for the rest of the night.

Unfortunately, my tummy went off twice more - I'm a little hazy on exactly when (I will know when I get my sheets back) and when I went through 70k in 8 hours 29 mins even my dulled cerebral processes could dredge from my memorised splits that I'd blown out to a smidge over the 7.12 per km average I needed - not by much - but enough to tell me the 100k was not on anymore. It was a case of "accept the situation 2P and move on". As Mrs 2P walked over to camp I just looked at her as I rubbed Nurofen Gel into my quads and said "well we can kiss 100k goodbye - looks like we're shootin for 90 something".

My tummy problems cleared up around 80k but by that stage fatigue (particularly in my quads - which only responded in part to cold spray and rubbing with chunks of ice & Nurofen Gel) meant I needed longer and more frequent walks and my running pace dropped right off - just after the 10 hour mark was my darkest time and I realise I made a mistake here - my pace was down to a trudge at times dipping to nearly 9 mins per k pace and with it my moral dipped too as I realised I was in danger of missing even 90k - it took me far too long to realise I needed to walk a few laps to recover enough to get running again at a reasonable pace.

My heart resisted walking but my brain insisted on it. I tried it - walking 3 straight laps and then got running again and was heartened to see that I was back to about a 6.30 pace. A few laps whizzed by and I had a new plan - whenever my pace dipped worse than 7 mins I would walk, recover and then run again.

It was here that Mrs 2P intuitively knew what to do - a whiz with maths in her head -she started coaching me on exactly what I needed to do time wise per lap to get to 90k and slowly but surely I grew more confident I was going to make it - in fact I made it and managed a further 3.2k but it had taken me three and a half hours to travel my final 23.2k!

One further point - I never bothered to change any of my clothes - I sweat buckets and realised that anything fresh would only last maybe a lap and it would be in the same shape as the stuff I was already squelching in.

The Recovery

To be honest I was worse after Six Foot - my quads are still very sore though and 2 full days later I still need to crab sideways down stairs. Yesterday my biceps, back and tummy were also sore but they are fine today.

After the race I went home and had an hour nap, but wanted to get back to regular sleep patterns so got up. I had another nap around 4pm for 2 hours.

I've had no cravings since which indicates my nutrition plan worked well. And I am blissfully injury free.

I don't think I'll be ready to run tomorrow but a light cycle appeals.

What Have I Learned?

Whilst I knew walking was good and had a scheduled walk break every 20 mins I learned that walking for longer than what I was allowing myself as I fatigued (I don't think I walked more than three quarters of a lap at any time up to the 10 hour 40 mark) would get my pace up and improve my overall performance.

I don't know if I learned anything about my tummy or not? It wasn't the types of food - all were tried and tested, maybe it was the amounts? Or maybe it was just my bodies way of reacting to stress - only further experience will tell.

I learned that I want more info from my crew on progress and need to brief them in future to this effect - I really liked it when Mrs 2P took the initiative towards the end to break goals down for me to bite size chunks complete with time requirements.

I learned I like the cold spray - tis good!

I learned I prefer to get my own food and drink - I'm not sure why - just finicky I guess.

I confirmed the value of the humble jellybean and the pretzel.

I confirmed that whilst I enjoy exchanging banter and encouragement I prefer to run alone.

I learned that track runs are fun - the constant contact with crew and other runners is nice. Being passed and passing people is both good and bad but at least you get to see folk a fair bit including the gun runners - something you don't get in point to point. And everyone finishes at the same time - And before anyone asks no it is not boring - in fact the crew who were not so secretly dreading the night both reported they had a very enjoyable night and have yapped on about it non-stop since. As a runner I didn't find it in the slightest monotonous.

I learned I could still run after 93k - so what's next? :-)

I think that's about it!

Oh no its not - PS Tesso if a slow fat bastard like me can do 93k then an athlete of your calibre will romp in a hundred :-)