This event has been a long time coming. The advantage with most people who know me is they understand that I am crazy. Therefore they may understand what made me do something as stupid as the GNW100 Miler. However, I have been talking to work colleagues today while hobbling around the office and they have asked the most obvious question - why would you even think about doing something like that? For so long now I have been surrounded by people who run faster, further or just crazier that the events I have entered don't even seem crazy anymore.
Then I got a message from a friend that reminded me in 2015 alone I have done Melbourne Ironman, TNF100k, CP Ultra 100k, had a baby (Bex did more of the work there) and now GNW100 Miler. That sounds like quite a big year. This just makes me remember a time about 5 and a half years ago when Bex and I were in New York on holiday and I was wearing a scarf in EVERY photo to hide the number of chins that I had. I reckon I weighed in at about 135kg (I stopped weighing myself after 130kg) and I couldn't have run for an ice cream or a pizza, let alone anything less food related.
What I think I am trying to say is that this race was not just a culmination of 6 or 12 months hard work, but it was actually a complete change to the life I had led back in London and it means that hopefully I can put to bed the idea that I am a fat guy who has started to run a bit and now I am one of a very small percentage of people in the world who will ever run over 100 miles. I'm not really sure what that means, but I do know that I must have a longer life expectancy now than I did all those years ago and that can't be a bad thing, right?
So the next thing was - why the GNW100 Miler? What is it? I learned the less hard way two years ago when I paced Adam for the last 71.4km in his first miler. Pacing was hard - the responsibility of looking after your runner - sleep deprived, hungry and sometimes incapable of moving forward in a straight line whilst also trying to get through some of the toughest running terrain I had ever been on. Then, I watched as Adam ran down Patonga Beach and made his way to kiss that post and see what it meant to him to finish such a gruelling event. Still, I wasn't interested.
Then 2014 - no thoughts of entering, concentrating on the Ironman training and "shorter" running events. But Adam and I took Evie up to CP6 and the finish line to get involved and support the NRGers running. Watching the end of that event made me realise that maybe this was something that I could aspire to... some day. Then I'm not really sure how, but along came 2015 and all these events were going to happen and me and Adam were doing them all - including the GNW100 Miler - Bex had signed off on my participation on the basis that I do it once, get it out of my system and hopefully move on!
The preparations began in earnest after TNF100 in May. We planned to go out on the course to train several times - all of my runs on the course would have to happen before 14 August as this was the due date of our first child. So June and July went by in a haze of hills, stairs and runs on the GNW course. I thought I knew that course really well - better than most who would be out there on the day, oh how wrong I was. Then August - Joshua Benjamin Hedges being born on Thursday 13th August and all thoughts of training (pretty much) went out of the window. Bex has been amazing, but there are only so many times when I could convince myself to go out for a run rather than stay at home and look at Joshua. The Greenwich Road hills became my best friend over the last few weeks - close to home but with enough elevation to feel like I was doing something worthwhile for training purposes.
The week before the race came quickly and Mel (my unbelievable pacer) was round for dinner and discussions on tactics - get me to the finish line, no matter what! The checkpoint bags were packed, the S-lab was full of all the mandatory gear and we were ready to get to Warners Bay on Friday. I said goodbye to Bex and Joshua and fingers crossed I wouldn't be seeing them until I hit Patonga Beach at some time on Sunday.
Friday night was relaxed - pizza and then an early night. Up at 3.55 on Saturday morning and then at the race start by just after 4.30 getting everything dropped off for relevant checkpoints and catching up with all the NRGers running in the race. Eventually, it reached 6am on Saturday 12th September and FINALLY we were off. That first 1km was the only time I would see Rocco or Geoff and one of the few times I would see anyone else.
Me and Adam had agreed - slow start and then slower finish. We had also agreed no waiting for the other one - it is a long race and you need to concentrate on yourself, not on how anyone else feels. As it went, we stuck together for the whole first checkpoint arriving in 4:06 (3 minute refuel) and then off on our way. The first section was relatively uneventful. Plenty of slow running, walking up hills and the bash through the rainforest was surrounded by enough people that none of us got lost! We also did the Heaton Gap climb which was not too bad - feeling good that early meant the climb was slow, but the recovery was quick.
The section to checkpoint 2 was also reasonably uneventful. I had a tumble coming down the single track to Congewai Road, but landed on soft ground and did a nice army roll to recover. On to Congewai Road and then 6.5km to checkpoint 2 in the midday sun. We saw Chantelle and then Tim and Doug coming out of the checkpoint all looking in good spirits. Ali T, Sarah C and Adam C were there to greet us and refill water, etc and help with the mandatory gear check. In and out inside 5 minutes and a 3:06 section had me and Adam leaving almost together with 7:20 on the race clock.
Then to the only part of the course I had not done - the climb to the Communications Tower. This was the climb that left a trail of destruction in 2013 and sounded hideous to me. The climb was ok. It was steep and tough, but mostly I was starting to feel cramps in my legs and so I was trying to manage the pain and not full on spasm! Adam left me at the top of the climb as I couldn't get going as quickly as him and that was pretty much the last time I saw him. The run to checkpoint 3 involved another really steep climb and this was hard too. It felt worse than the Communications Tower because it is not as talked about by other runners and also it comes only a few km after the first big climb. I was stopping frequently on my way up this climb before slowly getting going at the top.
The run was then relatively ok and I saw Robyn come past me - I was very upset to hear she had got lost for maybe 90 minutes and that had meant she ended up behind me. She recovered well from this for a second place finish in the end anyway! The run down to the basin was fine (slow but ok) and I saw Chantelle, Ann, Tim, Doug and Adam all leaving at various stages of this little section. Thanks again to Ali and the volunteers at checkpoint 3 - in and out in just over 10 minutes with Robyn in tow so she could vent about getting lost! We were out of the checkpoint with 12:50 on the clock.
Robyn and I went along for a couple of km and I reminded her that getting lost is a good learning experience and she will still do amazing and she can definitely make it to the finish - hopefully when she ran up those stairs ahead of me she had already pushed all thoughts of quitting aside. Those stairs were long. Also, two guys came up behind me and asked if we were near checkpoint 3 - I told them they had missed a turning and showed them on the map how to get back - I was feeling good about how much I was helping others at this point... I got to the top of the stairs/hill and did a quick right, left before completely missing the turn off to the single trail which would have taken me on my merry way to checkpoint 4.
Instead, I read the directions as left on a road and on I went - nobody around me to tell me I was wrong. It felt wrong after maybe 2km and then a car drove past and told me I was off course but if I carried on straight I would make it back to the track to checkpoint 4. Then I got 4.5km down the road (I thought it was really wrong now, but I was committed somwhow...) and a car drove towards me and said I was heading back on fire trail towards checkpoint 2. About the worst thing I could have heard. So I turned round and began to plod back the 4.5km to my wrong turn. I called Mel first and she basically told me to read the map, man up and get to checkpoint 4. I then called Bex... and had a good cry down the phone while worrying her more than she was already and then saying I didn't know whether to keep going or quit at checkpoint 4 or what to do. Bad times.
I saw another runner coming towards me and he said the turn was behind me by about 200m - at this point I was pretty frustrated and I said that I had been told to go back to the main intersection. He said he had run it four times and knew what he was doing. So I stopped, thought about it and turned round and followed him to the turn off. At least 90 minutes lost plus any momentum that I had from before this incident. Anyway, every step forward, like I said to Robyn it is a learning experience. Down the track, then 2.2km of technical bush - I stacked it, landed on my bum and then cramped. More bad times. Then I got out to the road to checkpoint 4. This road is 11.1km in length. I was walking so slowly and painfully, all the time thinking that I should have been 9km further down the road if I hadn't got lost... that kind of thinking is no use to anyone. Rob Mattingly caught me up - looked confused for a while and then helped me with a run/walk strategy all the way to checkpoint 4.
I have had a look at the results - I arrived here at 00:30 and my time for this leg was the slowest of anyone on the course. Not unexpected, but hard to take given how well I was going before then. I was in the checkpoint for 27 minutes - it didn't seem that long! Mel was great - she fed me a sausage sandwich and two mufins and then we headed on our way after she had sorted my mandatory gear check and filled water bottles, etc. This was a hard checkpoint - tired, feeling low after getting lost and uphill for a fair while after you leave the checkpoint. However, I now had Mel helping me along and she was so enthusiastic it would have been impossible for me to continue to feel down. We went down to Dead Horse Creek - this bit is slow and painful on the big stairs, but then out eventually onto fire trail and a decent little run until we had to climb back up towards Somersby. The climb seemed ok to me - slow but manageable and always moving forward. Then at the top the road went uphill forever! Then round a couple of corners and on the way to the school. Ali was there again to help and we were soon on our way again. Total race time of 24:56 when we left here.
The next section went well. It was hard because of being so tired, but it is the easiest section and we were through in under 3 hours, leaving only 25.1km between us and the finish line. The only things to note were that it was heating up again... we were into checkpoint 6 at about 10am and that was not a good time to head out onto the open plateaus between checkpoint 6 and the finish. Overall race time on leaving checkpoint 6 was 28:02.
This started slowly and got slower. The first couple of km is undercover on single track and then over a little bridge and straight up a lot of stairs. These stairs are the biggest on the whole of the GNW (I think... unless it is just how tired my legs were). The climbs aren't all that long, but they seem relentless and when you do get to the top it is on some exposed rock and it is very warm. Mel was great here - making sure I was eating and drinking and telling me all the distances so I knew we were ticking things off. It was great to count down the number of directions left - that seemed much easier than counting down the kms. Once we got to Dillon's Trail (about 10km to go) I forgot that we hadn't actually trained on any of this bit... the last time I had run it was with Adam in 2013. I had forgotten all the climbs and how far it was from the end! We got down to 5km to go (eventually) and saw Dave M in the background catching us. I somehow decided that I had some speed now (relative to the pace we were going) and so off we went. I am not sure how fast we went for that couple of km, but it felt very quick to me!
Then we got to the trig and over we went, down the stairs, down some more stairs, up a fire trail, further up the fire trail and I thought we must be getting close... but the water looked a long way down... Then we went along a walking track and down some steps, along some more, down some more and for anyone who has run this... you may agree that this carries on for a long time before finally getting down to the car park and across to Patonga Beach. Mel and I got on the beach and a gentle run to the finish post meant that after 33 hours and 42 minutes I had finally completed the GNW100 Miler. A total distance for me of approximately 184.3km... the longest run I have ever done (and hopefully will ever do).
This was an extremely tough challenge. I lost over 6kg throughout the race, I had no sleep and I looked a complete mess at the finish line. My feet are still in pain and I can barely walk down the stairs (two days later). I feel asleep on the bed at 7pm and woke up again at 6am on Monday morning. Was it worth it? YES. Nobody can ever take away from the enormity of this challenge and nobody in their right mind will ever try and equal it (unfortunately all of my friends are faster and equally mental).
I have to thank a lot of people - Bex and Joshua - amazing supporters at the finish line. They made it all worthwhile and at the worst points of the run it was those two who got me through. Mel - what an awesome pacer. Without Mel I may not have been able to leave checkpoint 4 either physically or mentally. She got me through a tough night and then persevered with me when I was going exceptionally slowly on Sunday morning and afternoon. Adam - for asking me to pace him two years ago. Without that, I wouldn't have even considered getting to the start line of this, my biggest challenge ever. Geoff - the time he took to share his wisdom with all of us. What a gentleman. Everyone else at NRG who ran this weekend. You are all awesome and without you the training would have been hard to take and it would not have been possible for me to enjoy the race - seeing so many friendly faces out there made everything better.
Will I be running this next year? Bex has made it clear I should never do it again... but I could improve on my time by just running the same race as this year without getting lost... what a dilemma...
All anyone who wants to consider this race needs to remember - give the race the respect it deserves - put in the training time, think about nutrition, get an amazing pacer and then when you get to that beach it will have all been worth it.
Now to consider goals for 2016 and beyond...
