The race organisers for the West Macs Monster are ‘kind of adults’ that become childlike again when running or talking about trail running, especially in Central Australia. There are beautiful places to run around the world. In Central Australia when you run, especially on the Larapinta Trail, you never wish you were somewhere else, you feel lucky to be where you are, lucky enough to make you smile from deep within. The common ground the race organisers and volunteers for this event have is an excitement about sharing our ‘local trail’ with as many as it draws and want to come, and of course to experience it running, because that forces people to the edge and beyond what they ever thought possible.
For those doing the 231km Sonder Monster, just by starting you join a very small group of people who have gone beyond dreaming and saying ‘one day’, to taking action. Action that you know is going to slowly wear down your body until it’s numb with discomfort, and fray the edges of your conscious mind, not to mention expose you as the trail kilometre-by-kilometre strips you down to a body and a spirit and not much else.
Five people have gone end to end on the Larapinta Trail in its known history in less than the 66-hour cut off time for the 231km event, none of those have made it alone, though one tried. For all of these people, their relationship with the trail changed and the trail changed the way they saw themselves forever.
Local indigenous groups used to have a secret to travelling long distances in the desert. Warlpiri and Arrente friends have explained it me as ‘singing country’. By singing as they walked they brought the country that they were heading for closer to them, faster. They explain the experience as arriving at a place as if you’ve been asleep in a car and then woken up. You are a long way away and then all of a sudden you are there at the country you were singing. I don’t how it works, but I know in an ultra you have trained to callous your feet, legs and mind but also that you never cover the actual distance of the ultra in your training.
This means that for the real thing there comes a point where you’re forced to your limit and then get to choose whether to keep going or DNF, and to keep going you hold on to strands of thoughts, mantras, hope, a few more calories, anything. Many of us choose in advance to keep going no matter what – most of the time with a positive outcome. Sometimes our injuries or other factors take that decision out of our control and we are forced to surrender, be humbled and register next year to have another go.
I can’t explain why but I love training up long steep hills because I know at some point I’ll be forced to walk, forced to slow down, forced to be humbled and I love the arm wrestle of trying to push back the inevitable as long as I can. 231kms, even 65kms on the Larapinta Trail will do the same thing to most ultra runners, yet that’s what’s so attractive about it. It’s a landscape that’s ancient and unforgiving and it’s not about to change for you. Despite it being unforgiving it lures you forwards with a combination of beauty and mystery. While the sun saps your energy from above, the red earth grounds and connects you to ancient hidden resources, if you’re aware and conscious enough to receive something from the landscape. It’s easy to be lulled into the illusion that we might make our mark on the Trail as we run on it…. everyone soon discovers the trail is making a mark upon them….an invisible mark on our character and inner most being.
The event is expensive because it costs a bucket load to provide medical services and other support in such a remote and hazardous location (every year one or more people die in Central Australia having been caught unawares in what quickly becomes a very unforgiving environment). We hope this won’t stop you from coming to learn what the trail can teach you about yourself and other people by participating and finding out first hand if you’ve got what it takes to join the five ‘fast’ end to enders (we feel excited that ‘fast’ is about to be redefined by this year’s field already), not just in what they achieved, but to be able to relate to and share in what they’ve experienced and the gift they’ve had deposited into their lives after the pain.
When people ask you why, just invite them to experience it themselves…then they’ll know.
For more information on the West Macs Monster Trail Running Festival, or to enter one of the distances being held on May 24-26, click on the image below.
