6ft 2009

Hi Ho! This is just a verbatim repeat of the report on CoolRunning for my records (oh, plus a few photos).

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To be or not to be, that is the question;

Four months of good training, and it all came down to a gut bug. Should I start? Can I finish? What's the impact of an 'interrupted' carbo load? Dunno.

By Saturday morning I was feeling OK, and tiger angel's top-notch home-brew creamed rice went down a treat at 4:30am. Donned the skirt, applied liberal quantities of body glide and headed down to the buses.

Brick & yours truly hamming it up for the cameras.

The run/walk down Nellies was treacherous. I heard at least six people fall over, so I dread to think of how much damage was done across the whole field. I mostly got a clear run from there to the Coxes. 3 minutes up on last year at Megalong, 6:30 up by the river. Scared that I'd gone too fast, but I felt ok.

Stepping down Nellies Glen

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Sadly, the 'ok' was to become a thing of the past. The previous week's gastric contortions started to return, with gut cramping big time. Nothing for it but suffer in silence and get on with it.

I don't know why, but the Lemon Tree Yards is my favourite part of the race. I love that view across the paddock as you come over the crest of the hill. If my hazy recollection is right, it was along here that I ran with vStar for a while; our pink skirts attracting the odd comment. All in good fun.

Luckily, the gut ache wasn't as bad when walking, so I didn't lose much time on Mini Mini and Pluvi. Still 6 min up at Pluvi. My memory of Black Range from last year was running strongly and overtaking lots of people. Not so this year. The strong run became an ugly shuffle, and the passer became the passee. Terry and Maggot both introduced themselves as they flew past. It's only now, with hindsight that I realise that I was running essentially the same speed as last year (still 5:30 up at the deviation); it's just that I was running in a faster wave this year. That's a trap for young players that I'll have to remember. It would have been so easy to give up and back off...

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them.

By the time I got to deviation, I was longing to be able to vomit, but it wasn't going to happen. RunBare's girls were fantastic there, yelling and cheering everyone who went past. I wish I could have given them some recognition in return, but nothing intelligible would come out (Sorry girls! ). Things really started to go bad through here, and I must apologise profusely to any who were running down-wind. If there's an unexpected gap in the results, it's probably because I took out half the field behind me! Still, it's an ill wind that blows nobody good (so to speak), and 25 minutes of rumbles and explosions later I reached the road, now only 2:30 up, but feeling a whole lot more comfortable.

Starting to settle; a few km from the end

The run from here was where I lost it last year, and I was keen to have a red-hot crack this time. The cramp bears had been nibbling for ages, but they'd never really got their teeth in and it was just a matter of keep going and see if I could outrun them. I couldn't, but I got close. They finally got me just at the top of the paved section, bit down on my right calf and wouldn't let go. I remember hop/running down the path (being overtaken - that hurt more than the cramp) and yelling NO NO NO NO as people went past. The cheering was getting louder all the time, and the tsunami from the CR squad as I came around the corner was awesome. 6ft is not much of a spectator race, but you lot really make up for lost time at the end!

Last year, I cramped at the bottom of the stairs and hobbled across the line. This year, there was nothing going to stop me celebrating, so I ended up a weird part-hobbling, part-pumping, entirely exultant, totally emotional, laughing, blubbering mess, to be presented by my beautiful tiger angel with my medal and a 4:24 pb.

Getting a bit sideways in the finishing chute.

To Kevin and the rest of the crew, well done! Enjoy your retirement Kev (though I can't imagine you ever taking it easy).
To the wonderful folk in the Striders 6ft Training Group, thanks for making 4 hours on a Saturday morning seem so much fun, rain, hail or shine.
And to the rest of the pink skirters, we done good, eh?