BREAKING THE AUSTRALIAN 6HR RECORD: A RETURN TO ULTRA RACING

Now back to racing. This extended break meant my fitness had completely fallen away. It was not a surprise, yet time was needed to rebuild without getting injured. Fast forward to the start line of the Coburg six hour race this year. I entered this event to see if I still had my endurance. Was it still there? Did I still have the ability that I had in my thirties to hold pace for 70km, 80km, 90km? I knew I had made a decent return to running with some positive results from the previous year. Personal bests in some cross-country races and breaking 2hrs 50minutes in the 2022 Melbourne Marathon indicated that pregnancy, running after twins, living off much less, interrupted sleep and getting older had not affected me in the short term. Despite this, I still questioned my endurance and resilience. I was back working, juggling childcare bugs, and trying to squeeze in the long runs. I made the decision to find out.

As the gun sounded to commence the six-hour track race, I felt nervous and scared. What lie ahead was unknown. I ran in the dark with the other competitors and one male friend Dominic, who I had been coaching for the same event. It was raining on and off and the track was relatively quiet despite the Australian 24-hour championship in progress. It had rained very heavy overnight, and these 24 runners had been exposed to extremely difficult conditions. I used this as my inspiration. If they can run in rain for so long, what’s a few hours? With one wet foot in front of the other I began my quest to run as far as I could in six hours. I had never run further than 10,000m on the track and had never ran a timed race before. An unusual concept. I was grateful that my coach Tim Crosbie was trackside supporting me. We had spent a lot of training together. The early cold mornings, Tim on the bike and me running of course. I felt fortunate to have such a great friend and coach. Tim’s instructions early were to find the pace and rhythm. At times he would advise me to slow down and don’t race (the other competitors) and then later in the race he advised me to speed up and surge along the front straight as my pace was drifting. For most of the race I felt some loss of control in terms of data. Although I knew what 4:30min/km pace felt like, I was used to relying on my watch to provide with me fairly accurate splits. This time I had to rely on the track timing system and Tim’s feedback.

With pacing support, came nutrition support. My partner Virginia was crewing for me. I also had amazing trackside support from friends from my running group (the Crosbie Crew) who came and watched throughout the morning. I had a nutrition plan that I mostly stuck to and didn’t need any toilet stops (always a runners fear in a race). Running laps of a track is not my preferred type of race, so the support was welcomed. To race well I knew I had to distract myself from thinking about running in circles. I listened to two podcasts and some music, but before long this started to annoy me. The fatigue had set in around the 50km mark. I felt somewhat irritable but knew I need to still stay focused on the pace. More fuel was needed, and I had a good tough talk to myself. It was only 30km to go. Yes, only 30km! That was still a long way. It became a mind game. I’m sure many of you have experienced this before. Your body is telling you to stop, you have a fight in your mind, with your head wanting to push on. The fight was real this time, I had experience it before. Reassuringly I reminded myself that I had trained my mental strength during several training sessions. Those dark, cold mornings where I’d had minimal sleep, tired legs and was required to run a long tempo run or 40+ kilometre long run reminded me. Yet the fear I had was I didn’t know how strong my mind had become after such a long break from racing.

Late in the race I focused on my goals. I wanted to achieve two goals; break the Australian record and run 80km or as close as possible. Aiming high has always been my philosophy in running. You never know what you can achieve until you try. With every lap of the track, I knew I was close to both goals. With only a few laps of the race to go I tried to accelerate, feeling my left quad about to cramp, I pulled back and focused on controlling the pace. One foot in front of the other. My legs were cooked. 

As the gun finally sounded, I was told I had broken the Australian record, running 79.916km. However, I was told by my crew to keep running as I would break the 50-mile record. The officials had marked the 50-mile distance on the track. It was another two laps. I was so fatigued that I didn’t argue. But I did question if I had more in me? Two laps later I finished at the 50-mile mark. Happy to finish was an understatement. I was elated to break the Australian six-hour record, despite not quite reaching 80km. I later found out that a record can’t be broken outside the specified race time, which was fine. That missing 84m of the 80km goal hurts at times and I laugh about it at other times, that is racing. You win some, you lose some.

On reflection days later, I was reassured to know that my endurance is still well and truly present. I ran this race off a much lower base of weekly mileage than my previous 100km races. It has taught me as a coach and as an athlete, that I don’t need to chase kilometres, but rather listen to what my body can cope with at the time. Balancing training and racing with family, work life and risk of injury is extremely important. I can’t finish without the answering the question of what’s next. A race that has been on the bucket list for as long as I can remember is the Comrades Ultra Marathon in South Africa. I’ve been told it’s the pinnacle of ultra running for many runners and I am very much looking forward to racing this one. My final thoughts are don’t let life get in the way of what you want to achieve. I am very fortunate to have such a supportive partner, coach, training partners, family, and friends. If you can find some great training partners, it makes all the difference.