| Bernadette Benson report |
 |
 |
 |
 The morning started about 5 AM with my alarm going off and my thinking, "Well, in 12 hours it'll all be over." (I'm still not much for mornings!)Julie picked me up at 6. We had a friend of hers as support all day which was utterly fantastic. The weather was fine, but as you all know, there were gusty easterlies all day and the race started on the beach ... meaning there was no where to go but into the wind! We made good time in the first five Challenges - (1) the beach run, (2) the run on bitumen up Bold Park's hill (2 times), (3) the run in Kings Park up the grass to the DNA tower, (4) three laps of Mount Street, and (5) the Bridges run. We were 1/2 hour ahead of schedule (although the schedule I created only allowed time to do 9 out of 10 challenges). The 'extra' time was making it look good for having time to do all 10 challenges. It was still only about 10 AM, so lots of day left for things to go either way. Then we hit the wind big-time, as we had to cycle out to Brigadoon on the first of the long rides. In those first 5 Challenges we had only done about 28 of the total 120 kms of riding. The next cycle leg was 30k. Pushing that 20 yr old MTB was something special! I put a Thomas the Tank sticker on it the night before, and got some private amusement at looking down at me pushing little Thomas along! We lost 15 minutes of our 30 minute 'extra' on that ride.  Knocked off the brutal 8 k bitumen hill (road) run there in decent time and headed south for a 35 k cycle to the next Challenges. We picked up a guy at that point who didn't know his way and wanted to tag along. On arrival at the next Challenge, he said thanks and goodbye, presuming, I guess, he wouldn't see us again. We caught him on the hills run there (rocky terrain with BIG hills). We were using poles for that - no one else had poles that we saw. On that run, the guy stayed with us and then asked to follow us to #9 on the bikes, as he didn't know his way again. This was the crucial moment in the race for us. I had calculated that the only way to possibly finish all 10 challenges was to leave #7/8's TA by 3:15 PM. It was 3:13 PM. The choice was to push hard to #9 or just skip it and go on to #10 to get there before race close at 5:30. I convinced Julie there was time and we could make an attempt on #9. The Dez guy started following us - but instead of our avg 20 kph pace on the bikes, we were keeping about 35kph (more tail wind now as we headed west, plus an adrenaline rush). We were riding more aggressively through traffic, too. Dez dropped back and we said we just couldn't stay back for him. He was getting leg cramps. Last I saw him I was blowing through a yellow light on 6 lanes of traffic.  Challenge #9 was at Canning Bridge/rowing club - 7k bitumen and Julie's foot was really hurting her on the runs (not healed up since the 30k Kalamunda run). And Painathlon is about 44 k of total running, with lots of it on bitumen. Cycle over to #10 had us reach the stairs (the last leg was 10 laps of the stairs). We started the stairs a bit late - 5:06 PM. I knew it would take me about 40 minutes to do them, and I pushed as best I could. You should have seen some of the hurting people on those stairs! There was lots of support out there - at the top people cheering others on...a few friends and wives walking the stairs with the competitor...one guy's calves were destroyed - he was walking like an upside down letter V! In the time he came down 1/2 of one, I went down and back up. I told him he might need to just let this one go or he was going to risk serious injury. According to my Garmin, Julie and I ran through the finish line at 5:46 PM, which is the exact time of sunset on Aug 9th. Jono billed the race as sunrise to sunset (6:58 AM to 5:46 PM) but had also said at one point that you had to be done at 5:30. So I'm not clear how things panned out that way - whether we get an official finish or not. Vicki told us we tied for 3rd female (she saw 2 girls come in ahead of us), but I don't know if that means we have gotten credit or not. And that's presuming the 2 girls ahead of us did all 10 challenges - it's common for people to skip some - one girl I talked to only did 6, another did 8. I think there were maybe 6 or 8 girls of 61 competitors.  I think the winning guy did 8 1/2 hours. I didn't get to stay to hear the final results because as we laid on the tables getting our free massages (oh my gosh that was fantastic! - I bet it was 20 minutes!), Julie had to rush off in her undies and go vomit! I guess her digestive system just shut down in that last push at the end.Julie was awesome and it was a great teamwork event for us supporting each other through it. This was harder than the 36 hr ARs I've done, as the pace necessary to sustain oneself for the 10 1/2 hours of this race is much faster than in the long ARs. This was harder than my 50k hills ultra I did last year, too - the pace push - but it helped to switch up between cycling and running - never just one thing - spared the legs a bit. A RB would be nice for this one! |