100km Tan Ultra Marathon - 9.47.30

WOW! What can I say about the 100km Tan Ultra Marathon? The short story is that the time and the kilometres all melded into one big day, and that I finished in 9.47.10 and was the first female across the line. Both that finish time and the first placing in my first ever 100km far exceeded what I expected and I walked (okay, hobbled!) away from the finish line a happy little ultra runner. The longer story is probably more suited to the long coffee chats and the wining and dining that runners are so good at but here is a bit of that longer story....

It was good to catch up with Two Fruits and Nick M at the start line. We chatted briefly as we pinned our race numbers on and listened to the race briefing. The start was then low key and relaxed, as you would expect it to be when you are stepping into the first of 100kms.

The first ~500m of the course was a short out and back which when added to the following 26 laps of the Tan = 100 neat kilometres. From the start/finish area, which was also the one and only place support crews were allowed to set up, it was about 1km to the bottom of the Anderson St hill. All I can say about the hill’s degree of difficulty is that it depends on how many times you are going to run up it or how many times you have already run up it! It’s essentially a long grind. I had an open mind about my approach to the Anderson St hill leading into the race. Most previous Tan Ultra runners advised walking up it, others said alternate laps of walking and then jogging up it, and others said run it til you have to walk it. I ended up making my own compromise. I ran it seven times and then decided that for the extra ~10secs I gained by running it I lost too much energy. So from lap 8 I picked up whatever I wanted to eat/drink from my support crew, held on to it until I got to the bottom of the hill, and then used the hill as my hydration/nutrition walk up. That approach worked well in lots of respects. It meant I had a predictable pattern and didn’t have to make decisions. It meant that my nutrition was better quality – i.e., more regular and better absorbed – than it would have been otherwise. And as the kilometres and time went on, it meant I had a short scheduled walking break (60-90secs?) to look forward to every lap.

I felt pretty good for the first 30km, much like I do in a regular marathon. I paced myself conservatively and made sure I consumed insurance policy gatorade even though I didn’t feel like it. At about 32km I thought I needed a wee stop but I was running easy and didn’t want to break the momentum so I just kept on running. As it turned out I not only ran the whole 100km without a loo break, but it took until 9.30pm that night before I needed to go again – i.e., 15 hours later. Hmmm ....

I hit my first bad patch at about 36km, again a la a regular marathon. I just backed the pace off for a few kilometres and all came good again.

Between 40km-50km were probably where I felt my best, and passing 50km and edging into the second half of the race was good psychologically. Towards 60km though I started to wilt. My energy had dropped and yet despite the smorgasbord of food and fluid options my support crew had for me I didn’t feel like any of them. Nothing tasted like I expected it to taste and I had very little saliva in my mouth which made anything other than liquid-like substances completely unappealing. So, for the rest of the race I pretty much stuck to gatorade and coke.

Around 70km Ewen came off my support station and ran a lap with me. For a few laps after that I had Ewen, Ruth and my brother, Alistair, take it in turns to run a lap or two with me. It was good to have the company and both my energy and spirits were lifted.

The last ~20km were a slog but I just focussed on knowing that what I had already run I didn’t have to run again. And although I was very tired and hurting, I didn’t have any further drops in mood or energy. I stayed at a constant but sustainable (low) level which I was confident I could tolerate to the end. The last 12km equated to 3 more laps and psychologically it was easier to count down a few laps than it was to count down 12km.

As I came towards the start/finish line for the last time I had several distinct thoughts/feelings:
(1) joy and relief at having started and finished my first 100km ultra marathon in a decent time;
(2) delight at being the first female; Yippppeeee!
(3) thankful to the people who organise such events, and who facilitate and support runners who want to challenge themselves in this way;
(4) overwhelming gratitude to my amazing support crew, Ruth and Ewen, whose care for me was impeccable. They were the best!

Two days post race and I’ve pulled up pretty well. I’m about the same amount of sore as I am post marathon + 10%.

Will I do another 100km ultra marathon? Hmmmm ..... maybe …. probably ..... but there are other runs to run first.

(See pics in post below)