RECAP - ETR

Well I promised a few words on my time attempting my first ultra marathon over the weekend so I thought it would serve me best to do a bit of a play by play from start to finish. But first, a bit of detail. The Elephant Trail Race is a 25km trail loop set in the Cairncross State Forest, just outside of Wauchope. It’s widely regarded as one of the more difficult races to compete in due to it’s massive elevation that increases depending on if you’re a kid doing the 5km, or a cyborg doing the 217km race.

I decided that the 50km, with a proposed 2400m of elevation would suit me as a solid step into the world of ultras and I’m glad I didn’t get too ambitious for my first time.

The race started off at 7:30am with a 71 person field. My initial goal was to cruise on the first lap, then see if I could push on the second depending on how I felt so I started conservatively, sitting in behind a man with nice calf tattoos. The early stages were exciting with everyone being bunched up so I wanted to get a gauge on how people would approach the hills and I soon found out that not many people knew what was ahead of them.

Luckily for me, I did.

Back in Early May, I went up to do a test lap of the course to see how I could make sure my preparation was going to match the challenge in front of me so the extra time I put into hills and learning how to run/walk them smoothly was a weapon I knew I had up my sleeve. This became evident as soon as we hit the first steep hill where I noticed the group I was running with had been a little too ambitious with their pacing so I passed a number of people and found myself all alone after about 5km.

Faster than the group behind, but I assumed quite a bit slower than the serious people in the race.

This is where I knew I could settle into my own rhythm and use the notes I made on the course to guide me through the steepest and most difficult part of the loop. The trail up Mount Cairncross is at a gradient that’s difficult to prepare anyone for. You can describe it as “ridiculously steep”, but the thing that makes it difficult is how long that gradient sustains itself for. So I made it to the top and things were going well.

10km in and food and hydration were on track.

Coming down the other side of the mountain is almost more of a challenge because it’s not only steep, it’s also highly technical, with a number of loose rocks and tree roots waiting to ruin your day. I had a scare when I came around one corner to see someone lying in the bushes looking as if they’d just fallen in the worst possible place but luckily I didn’t have to perform any first aid as it was just one of the 160km runners taking a nap.

He’d been running since 5:30pm the night before, he deserved it.

At the bottom of the mountain you run through a dry creek bed for about 1.5km. It’s a tricky place to run, but it was also my favourite. There’s something about skipping across the rocks that I found fairly easy and maybe this is a nod to the years I’ve spent doing this as a surfer but it also gave me an opportunity to pass a number of far more cautious people who weren’t looking to roll their ankle and ruin their race.

From there back to the start/finish point is to me the most difficult part of the course because there’s nothing remarkable about the sections, it seems to go for a long time and it also has it’s fair share of hills. I actually linked up with another runner who was going at a similar pace to me so we chatted and worked through the last 5km of the first loop which seemed to pass pretty quickly, it’s amazing how a conversation can take your mind off things and let you zone out for a while. I lost track enough that I forgot to message Noémie with enough time to prepare my supplies for the next lap.

Which wasn’t a worry because she was already far ahead of me and had everything ready to go as soon as I arrived.

Lap 1: 3:05:19

The time surprised me. I completed my test lap in about 3:45 so I was already far ahead of where I thought I would be. My plan going into the race was purely to stick to my nutrition and hydration strategy, but if there was any possibility of doing a sub 7 hour race, I’d put my head down and try to make it happen.

I now had time up my sleeve somehow…

The first half of my second lap was going great, fuelled by the success of my first lap, I was trailing a few others by a couple hundred metres but for the most part, ran solo which was nice.

Back up Mount Cairncross.

I knew if I was going to make up any time it would be on this hill a second time as everyone was beginning to fatigue. I tried to stay smooth and passed a couple of people who didn’t look like they were enjoying it too much. The large part of the hill is split into 3 segments, with small flatter parts and one downhill in-between.

And that small downhill is where things took a little bit of a turn.

Cramps! In both quads!

This isn’t a great sign but was the first real adversity I’d faced so far so I was interested to see how I would go with about 16km remaining. I slowed down to a walk, had some water, some salt tablets and wanted to take a moment to recover a bit. There were two more uphill segments remaining before the top of the mountain and strangely, the legs felt fine as I was going uphill, but when I tried to pick up the pace a little, especially on the flat, the cramps would return.

Reaching the top of the mountain I knew I had 4kms of downhill and flat which would be a big test of how difficult the rest of the course would be. I took it easy coming back down the technical part of the trail, my friend was no longer sleeping in the bushes, I hoped he had found the energy he was looking for in his sleep.

The river bed was a little slipperier at this time of day but I still managed to make pretty good time and it seemed that taking my time going downhill had helped my legs recover. There’s an aid station shortly after the river bed section where I stopped to top up my water and was told there’s 8km remaining. Which was good news until shortly after when the cramps returned. Less severe than before but a whole lot of tightness that was affecting my ability to move smoothly and quickly.

I knew at this stage it was about hanging on until the end.

I messaged Noémie about the cramps and she replied with a number of motivating messages, many of which made me smile and took away the pain for the last few kms. I was having nearly one salt chew every kilometer which would alleviate the cramps momentarily but this is definitely the most difficult part of the course.

So close to the end.

The trail community is pretty amazing! I love how encouraging everyone is despite what state you’re in. You know they’ve been in the same place before and it seems like the physical and mental pain barriers are a limit that everyone is trying to chase and experience which is a pretty unique thing to be a part of. I came across a few people in those last few kilometres who’s encouragement helped me massively.

Along with another one of Noémie’s messages “Be bigger than the situation”.

At last, I hit the final fire trail that takes you all the way back up the hill towards the finish line. There’s an incredible feeling you get when you know with certainty that you’re going to make it that gives you a little boost of energy and crossing the finish line left me feeling both proud and relieved.

There you go, I’d finished my first 50km Ultra!

This isn’t the most difficult challenge I’ve undertaken but it could definitely be my favourite so far. I put a big focus on preparation and learning in the lead up to this one and to see the way it paid off is something that I’m very happy about. I know I have the mindset to be able to push through a lot of barriers but there’s always some tangible things to improve upon and this race let me take the necessary steps forward in learning, while providing me new things to work on for next time.

Because there will always be a next time.

Elephant Trail Race 50km: 6:42:57 and 14th place overall