Kep 100km (103km)

Last Sunday I ran the Kep 100km in Perth. (It is actually and officially 103km.) Why? you may ask. Well ... there were lots of reasons.

Firstly, I have harboured a feeling of "unfinished business" about Kep since I DNF-ed there in 2012. My long term blog followers may recall that in 2012 the massive Baker's cyst inside my left knee ruptured at around the 52km mark and I suffered both extreme pain and numbness all down my left leg forcing me to pull out :(.

Secondly, after my 2012 DNF @ Kep I went on to have almost 2 years of injury time. Most notably was my long recovery from the ruptured Baker's cyst which was promptly followed by a fractured pelvis just 6 weeks after my return to running.

Thirdly, the above two reasons led me to adopt a very different training regime and in the last 6 months I really started to feel the medium/long term benefit of that.

Fourthly, I ran a decent Canberra Marathon in April this year using my unique training program and at long last I started to feel as if my running mojo was returning.

Fifthly and finally, my good running mate and Kep race director, Rob Donkersloot, has reserved a race director's invite for me into Kep for several years now, and I felt a real yearning to take that up and to reconnect with both Rob and all my other WA running mates in Perth.

So ........ there were lots of (good!) reasons to give the 2015 Kep 100km a shot.

The only negative or doubt about doing Kep this year was the fact that I was marathon fit but not ultra marathon fit - ie, my longest run was the Canberra Marathon. "Hmmmmmmm ....." I thought. On balance though, I also thought "better to be under trained and uninjured than over or ultra trained and more than likely injured". And so off I went...........

I could give you a blow by blow account of how the Kep 100km unfolded for me but I always find reading such reports tedious and so I'll keep it short. Basically, I felt GREAT for about the first 64km. I was comfy, painfree and cruising along. My nutrition plan was working the best it ever has and I was enjoying everything about the event.

Psychologically, I'd told myself before the event that if the wheels started to fall off I could still get the job done as long as I got through to the third check point at approx 61km. Whether that was in the back of my mind and it came to the fore or I just had a natural slump I'm not sure but I experienced a pretty rough patch between about 67km and 75km. I suddenly felt "over it" and nauseous. However, I knew I had a pacer coming in at 80km to help me navigate the tricky, technical last 20km of the track in the dark and knowing that seemed to get me through that patch.

At the 80km checkpoint I duly met up with my pacer and new friend, Amanda, and we shuffled/jogged the remaining 23km to the finish line. There were points along that last 20km when I know I could have gone faster but I only had two goals going into this event - (1) finish comfortably inside the cut-offs, and (2) come out of it uninjured. I was on track to achieve both of those things and couldn't see the point in pushing the envelope just to finish 15-20mins faster.

At the finish I felt wonderful. The finish line supporters and my special WA running friends were all so kind and congratulatory. I really felt like I had put my 2012 DNF demons to bed but also that I had achieved something really special.

I'm super chuffed to have achieved my goal and to have finished the 2015 Kep 100km. I'm even more chuffed that an unexpected side benefit has been that my running mojo seems to have been doubled in vigour. I'm already thinking about "what next" :).

Photo: On my way out of one of the Kep checkpoints.