Race Report: Lighthorse Ultra by Kevin Matthews
lighthorse ultra
27 april 2024
woodvale, wa
contributed by kevin matthews, aura member
The Lighthorse Ultra is a timed event giving runners a 1hr, 3hr, 6hr, 12hr or 24hr option. There’s even a 1hr dog race which is pretty unique. I first ran this event in 2019 when the 12hr was the longest option; this didn’t end well as I was in marathon mode and after just over three hours had enough and scuttled home. I had no concept of a timed event or even the 3am kick off time. Lesson learned.
I came back in 2020 for the first ever 24hr option and grabbed third place, I was hooked.
The 24hr option came onboard in 2020 and I’ve run every one. This year would be my fifth time and the goal was just over 200km to reach the 1,000km mark for the five years (previous years I had ran 192 (3rd), 187 (3rd), 207 (1st), 206 (2nd); albeit I lost 3 laps (around 7.5km in 2021 when I ran without my timing chip, rookie error!).
The only fly in my ointment was I had started the moving house process the previous Monday and Tuesday and continued for most of the week before the event, not ideal. To make matters worse I had a removal truck hired for the day after the event (post event I worked a 15hr day moving house, in hindsight not one of my best ideas).
I had nabbed a spot in the Mind Focused Running tent again; if you need help with your mental approach to running reach out to Rob Donkersloot, he will toughen you up, or make you enjoy the process rather than stressing out on unachievable goals. I worked with Rob a few years ago and have never looked back, he teaches what most coaches ignore, the mental approach to enjoying your running. This tent is full of like-minded runners enjoying plying their trade, albeit high as kites on No Doz.
Looking at my splits on Strava, I was going great guns for the first 47km but then started to fade with a 20min break. Personably I feel the week’s activities moving house had come back to haunt me and this was not unexpected (to be fair I didn’t set the house move date but it was a rookie error not to move it a week either way). There’s no sugar coating this, the event hurt and I had to dig deeper than previous years with my end goal reducing on the hour. First a win and over 207km; then a podium; then anything over a miler (162km) and finally top five.
This is the mind game you play, giving yourself easy outs, the trick is to not accept these options and keep heading towards your original goals or better, one loop at a time. Think Goggins 40/60 rule, when he reckons you have 60% more available to you when you are completely done. The mind keeps this to protect you. If you can tap into this extra energy you can achieve so much more. Alternatively the Tim Noakes ‘Governor‘ theory which is very similar, albeit Tim seems to have upset a few people lately. Tim’s book The Lore of Running is the bible of all things running albeit it you need to keep in mind it was written over 50 years ago now and some of his comments would be inflammatory now, in the nicest possible way.
Image by outback paparazzi
This event breaks you, there is no getting away from this but that is the point of ultra running. A good ultra allows you to find out things about yourself you can’t in normal life. At two or three in the morning when you’re about 100km in and totally fatigued the easy thing is to stop and sit down in your chair, put on a warm jacket and just stop. This event differs from a backyard ultra where you can sit down but are restricted by the need to be up and about at the start line on the hour. At Lighthorse you can just sit down and stop while still moving towards the finish line, the clock is always ticking.
There is a ‘way out’ where you can ‘go easy‘ on yourself, you need to avoid the chair, this is how Lighthouse differs from most ultras. The event village is a hive of activity in the day and a shining light in the evening, day or night the urge to sit down and relax is so tempting, must be strong, avoid the chair.
The village comes alive at night. Each year the gazebos are decorated more brightly than the previous year as crews learn from experience and update their facilities. It can make it hard running past barbeques and gas heaters as you scuttle off into the dark while everybody is having a great time in the ‘party village’! In the day they have shade and cool drinks as you scurry from shadow to shadow out on the course in the heat of the day doing your best to avoid the sauna that is the sun.
The course itself is a 2.6km loop and has a bit of everything – concrete, crushed limestones, a wooden footbridge and some nice pot holes to keep you on your feet, or off them, at various times through the loop. Every three hours we change direction which is actually a good thing albeit I have a favourite direction, anti-clockwise. Clockwise is harder as you have to run up the concrete path which seems to drag on whereas the opposite direction you get to stumble down it but have to run up the crushed concrete path outside the event village.
Previously I had enjoyed a 20min snooze at 47km while I was leading the event. I was beginning to feel the fatigue of the house move so decided to drop down a few gears and I managed to maintain a relative consistent pace until 109km when I had another 30min rest. I always split the race into 12hrs and aim for a 100km split, twice. This year I ran 105km for the first 12hrs which left me 95km for the second 12. I promised myself a rest post halfway and at 109km I delivered on that promise, would have been around 3am. It wasn’t enough and 15km later I was exhausted and rather than stumble on, I treated myself to a good 1hr in the chair. I’m not sure if I slept, I think I did but it was at an ideal time, probably between 5am and 6am. The best thing about starting again post-snooze was the sunrise was imminent and with the sunrise comes a mental boost that is always enough to see me to the 3pm finish.
This year we were treated to another beautiful sunrise and also the 3hr and 6hr runners at 6am (the 12hr runners joined us at 3am, they’d finish at the same time as the 24hr runners) so it became suddenly very busy on the loop with four formats running together.
After my power nap I was surprised to still be in third place with my good friend Chris Martin one lap down and young Jack Brown three or four behind him. I wasn’t confident I could hold off Chris but continued to move around the course avoiding the chair. At this point I was aiming for the miler distance as a minimum and then I’d try and hold third place.
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When I eventually reached the miler distance I checked the real time lap counter and was surprised I had moved to second place after Conor Quinn had left the course. This gave me the impetus I needed, I could smell as second place finish and the pressure of a podium finish suddenly became a lot less, given I had a place buffer, or so I thought.
A few laps later I again checked my position and noticed Chris and Jack were in hot pursuit. I had four hours to go and plenty of running ahead it would seem.
The last four hours were hard work but I found a second wind and managed to grind out the laps at a reasonable pace, with an hour to go I was four laps ahead of Chris and Jack and four laps behind Callum Mason, in first place, my job was done. All I needed to do now was keep lapping and try to get to 190km. I managed to get to 190.1km in the end, good enough for second place and my fifth 24hr podium, I was stoked.
So that was it for 2024, second place and a 190km final total. Not my best, not my worst, a very reasonable effort. This one really hurt though and even now, a few weeks after, I’m still not 100% sure I’ll enter again next year. This event just takes too much out of me and I’m not sure I can put myself in the pain cave again for so long and so bloody deep! It’s a race compared to a 200 miler or even a point to point 100 miler, which are more adventurous. To be noted I’ve said the same thing on the previous four occasions I’ve run this beast of an event and by Christmas forgotten how painful the event was and entered. You know what they say about old dogs and tricks, I’m not sure I can learn new ones…
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Image by outback paparazzi
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