The night train to Patonga...

Since signing up for the GNW100, I've now met up with and been on a few training runs with a few of the guys doing it. And so it was suggested that we do the last 75kms of the course overnight, in preparation for the overnight running that we would have to endure during this race. I must say I was quite excited by the prospect of doing this, and at the very least it would be an extremely good training run for me to do. However it was only 4 full rest days after the Melbourne marathon where I really did bust a bit of a gut. However I had pulled up well, so I thought bugger it, let's get onboard this night train and see how we go!

So leaving work on Friday night at 5pm, I headed up the coast with a guy called Andrew who's also doing the 175km, and we met up with 9 others, all doing the same race or at least the 100km. It was almost a mini-race in itself, so much so that we decided to make it a fatass race. This is a series of unorganised, pitch up and run races that people over here decide to put on. There's no entry fee, no prizes, no crew, just run - very much the purest's ultra-distance race so to speak.

So at 9pm we kicked off, and I must admit, I'd kind of lost my excitement for doing the run at this point. I think it dawned on me that for the next 9 hours at least we'd be running in the dark, and clambering up and down hills, whilst also trying to avoid the dreaded leaches. God damn I hate those things. I actually prefer to have a standoff with a snake than run through a hoard of leaches to be honest.

Anyway, I kept to myself somewhat in the first few hours as I wasn't feeling in a massively sociable mood, and just wanted to get the first few hours under my belt and done. I don't know why I suddenly felt like this, but hey ho, through the first few hours we got, and into the leach zone. Looking back it wasn't overly bad but there were a few patches where the floor was crawling a little, and despite keeping a good pace, these little buggers are very adept at sticking to your shoes. I used a bit of Bushman's and whilst they don't stop them getting onto your shoe, they do stop them going much further than your shoe and having a crack at your blood!

However running through the bush was quite enjoyable, and when you get down into the dungeon so to speak, it really is quite pretty. So across the streams we went, up the steep hills, past the leach zones, and within 4 and a half hours, we'd completed our first section, which was CP4 to CP5 in the race. It's 28.5kms long, and a nice section to run actually. 4 1/2 hours was also a very good time in the dark too, we were banking on around 5 hours, but I think the fresh legs at the start help us push through quite quickly.

CP5 is at a place called Somersby, and there we stopped for 30 mins, filled up the camelbaks (3 litres), and stocked up on a bit of food. For me it was rice pudding and a Mule bar, sent over from Likeys. They were OK, but I think I overdid it on the sweet stuff. Normally I'm a savoury person, and I just didn't have enough savoury food, something that would screw me over a bit towards the end.

The next section (CP5 to CP6), is a relatively short one, and quick one at that too. It's 18kms, and in daylight you can knock this one off in just under 2 hours. we again surprised ourselves and a lead group of myself, Darrel and Terry polished this one off in 2hrs 15mins. Again, quite quick, and we walked the last kilometre too! At this point I was feeling a little crap, not physically, but I just couldn't eat. I forced some nuts and a can of coke down me, but I knew it wasn't enough, and sure enough about an hour and a half into the next section I felt a bit crap.

Still, we were on the home straight with 25kms to go and the opportunity to be running whilst dawn broke. The last section is a bit of a bugger with quite a few uphills, but all very worth it as we reached the top of one of the hills as dawn broke, and were graced with magnificent views of the Hawksbury River region. A stunning sight to see first thing in the morning. I then managed to get some potato wedges down me for the final slog home, and race through the last 12kms or so we did, rocking up at Patonga, our finish at just past 9am in the morning. Twelve hours for that section is very respectable, especially during the night as well. However this will be nowhere near our times in the real thing as we'll have already done 100kms before that. 14 hours is much more realistic to expect on race day I think, taking into account fatigue etc...

However a great run, and very enjoyable. It was great to meet a few of the guys who'll also be running in the race too, and once again a good learning curve in terms of what my body can and can't cope with during the night - definitely much more savoury stuff for me during the race!