For those of you who have never heard of the Up the Buff trail race (UTB), it is a notoriously tough trail race that runs along the NSW/QLD border track starting from Currumbin Valley. I’ve spoken to a number of people who rate this as one of the most challenging events, I’ve even heard whispers of some who say it may be tougher then Ultra Trail Australia (UTA). As I’ve yet to run UTA, I can’t comment on that but I can say that is was hot and tough! My race for those that just want a quick summary, my race went as follows: 0-4km – shit, crap, want to kill everything 4-13km – awesome 14-15km – ugh, blah, woah look at that hill going down. 16-19km – getting sore 20km – OMFG Strawberry Hill! 21km – ugh, blah 22-25km – still shit and crap, but counting down to the finish line has reduced desire to kill everything. Finish – get finishers mug and drink cider. For those that are looking for a little more detail, here you go. It will probably be long, sorry about that lol My last race before today was the long course at Hinze Dam, the 3rd round of the Gold Coast trail series. 18km and it was an absolute shocker, everything that could have gone wrong, did. Almost 35 degrees out there, bugger all wind and barely any shade, I ended up very dehydrated, incredibly sick and cramping like a mofo. All of this combined led to a very shitty race and left me very depressed and scared about UTB. Although I considered UTB to be basically just another training run, I was aiming for under 4.5hrs, as this is half the distance of Coastal High and I had in my mind that I wanted to do that in sub 9hrs later this year. Yesterday afternoon however, Mother Nature decided to fuck with me and send me my period just in time for the race. Seriously, is there any other species on this earth that bleeds once a month, every bloody month and believes this is normal?!? On days 1 and 2 of my monthly visitor, all I want to do is lie there fantasizing about performing an emergency hysterectomy to remove the pain source, whilst alternating between wanting to kill my husband and drown him in a flood of tears. Good times. What I DON’T want to do is any type of exercise. Kill me now. This morning I woke up at my usual stupid o’clock of 3.40am. Packed all my gear and triple checked I had everything (Salomon hydration pack, check. Tailwind nutrition, check. Bandages and strapping tape, check. Toilet paper, check. Body Glyde, check check check!). I had my usual breakfast of 2 fried eggs and half an avocado, and prepped my race nutrition of 2 fried eggs, chopped up and put in individual zip lock bags. For over 2 years now, I have followed a Paleo lifestyle, and am now unable to stomach gels or anything overly sweet as fuel. I guess I am what they call fat adapted, but whatever it’s called, fried or boiled eggs and Tailwind are my race stables. As we were celebrating one of my crew Liv’s 40th birthday today, I also needed to pack an esky, post race drinks and funky 70s style outfit. Next stop was to pick up the rest of our crew, take obligatory pre-race early morning photos and head to the beautiful Currumbin Eco Village. We set up our gazebo, picked up our race bibs, took more photos and frequent toilet stops (and pain killers to try and dull the horrendous period pain!) and then it was time to start. Starting down in the Eco Village meant that we had 4km of road running at the beginning before we got to the border track. I have been trying to transition to zero drop trail shoes for a few months now and have been struggling a lot with insane calf tightness and pain on up hills, and leg pain on road when wearing those shoes. So needless to say, the first 4km I hated. I tried to go super easy and light to minimise the impact to my legs, but that didn’t work out so well. Note to self – get new trail shoes! I got to the start of the border track, had a quick sip of water from the aid station and started on my way. The next 8km were by far my favourite. I guess you could say that this is my home trail, as I have run it many times with Gold Coast Trail Runners and enjoy it immensely. I was running at a great steady pace, and running lightly up a lot of the hills, which is a big improvement for me but something I still need to work on. I have 2 spinal conditions in my lower spine, which can be aggravated by uphill running (along with jumping and twisting, fun fun). I was enjoying waving and high fiving friends as I saw them pass me, and encouraging everyone else. One thing I have noticed about trail runners is that they are a friendly, encouraging bunch, a lot more then roadrunners. Practically every person I passed, including the front elite runners had a “good job” or a “well done” for each person they passed. Insert warm and fuzzy feelings here. I went past the section where the 16km runners turned off (lucky bastards!) and then headed up into the section that was basically a mini paddock. No coverage at all, lumpy bumpy grass underneath, a random earth moving digger along the track but some pretty cool views. I caught up to a friend at this point who seemed to be struggling a bit so I stayed with her. We got to the top of Strawberry Hill (the “easy” side), and looked down over the edge. You know that feeling when you’re on a rollercoaster at the top of the big climb and you’re just about to go hurtling down the other side? Yep, that’s how it felt standing at the top of that bloody hill. One wrong move and you would have become a human bowling ball with no hope of stopping till you crashed out at the bottom. I looked at my watch at this point and realised I was in for a really good chance at getting a sub 4hrs which I was over the moon by as it was way better then my original goal of under 4.5hrs. The next few kms were OK, still enjoying the course but my legs were getting a bit heavier, my knees were starting to ache on the downs and my back was starting to ache on the ups. We filled up our water at the last turn around aid station and then start the trek back. My friend was starting to hurt more (I believe the term she used was “bonked”, must remember to look this up lol) and so we backed off the pace and included more walking when needed. We got to the UP part of Strawberry Hill and OMFG. Lots of walking and stopping and stretching and cursing up that bastard. Why could they not get us to do this part of the course first dammit? Must remember to yell and Those Guys when I cross the finish line!! I checked my watch and we still had a chance of getting a sub 4hrs, but my friend was not in a good way, and although she told me to go ahead, friends are more important so we stayed together till the end. We got through the last aid station at 21km and started doing some run/walk instead for the last 4km of road (boo to roads in trail races!) Run to the next white pole; walk up this hill. Run down to the corner; walk to the last tree there. We finished our last walk as we rounded the corner to the finish line, and ran from that point to the end. One of the awesome things about being a “slower” runner is having so many people still there to cheer you on and take photos as you cross the line, and today was no exception! Got my cool finishers mug, got to sing Happy Birthday for Liv with all our friends, enjoyed some much deserved ciders and chilled out for a bit before packing up. In the end I didn’t even yell at Those Guys about the hill. Bit like childbirth I guess, you forget the pain as soon as it’s over lol My official time was 4:05:45 and I am so stoked with that. I am super proud to have finished today as it was definitely not a race for the faint hearted, and I feel like I have got redemption on the Hinze Dam disaster. Next trail stop is 35km at Numinbah to Pollys! Anyone keen to join me?? #realgirlrunner #rgr #upthebuff #trailrunning #thoseguysevents #salomon #tailwindnutrition
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RhiannonMy Race Reports Archives
May 2017
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REAL GIRL RUNNER | Race Reports |