00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 20: UTMB Preview, Meet Claire O’Brien-Smith, and Trofeo Kima Recap!
306 Plays1 month ago
Welcome to Episode 20 of Peak Pursuits, your ultimate podcast for everything trail running in Australia. This week’s episode is hosted by Sim Brick, Brodie Nankervis and guest Claire O’Brien-Smith! The team brings you a UTMB Preview for Aussies and overall, Brodie’s Recap of his day out at Kima, and this week's results from Aus and Aussies around the world!
Start - 37:00 :- Meet Claire + UTMB Preview
First up, meet Claire and hear about her start in trail running, her less than ideal day out at UTMB last year, and how her preparation has gone for another crack at the 176km loop this year! We then run through the top ranked Aussies in each distance and a preview of the STACKED fields in UTMB, CCC and OCC.
37:00 - 1:10:45 :- Trofeo Kima Recap
We then get a blow by blow rundown from Brodie about his race at Trofeo Kima, an absolute beast of a 50km race in Italy that didn’t quite go to plan but provided a lot of lessons. Sim and Brodie discuss the lessons learned that Brodie will take forward and then Sim rounds out this section with a very brief update on her training rebuild after her woes of the last couple weeks.
1:10:45 - 1:11:30:- Trail Fail
We’ve all done that thing where you say you’ll be back from a trail loop in an hour or two and end up out there for double the time planned right? We would love to hear submissions for the most wild stories of expected time vs actual time on a trail, hit us with your best!
1:11:30 - 1:19:45:- Weekend Race Results
In our race results segment, we cover this week’s trail races, including:
Capital to Coast: https://my.raceresult.com/304544/results
Sydney Ultra Marathons: https://my.raceresult.com/305075/
Wonderland Run Grampians: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=363283
Cirque Series: https://competitivetiming.com/cirque-series-grand-targhee-wy-results/
1:19:45 - End : What’s coming up
Lastly, we highlight the upcoming trail races around the country and what to look out for on the global scene.
Thanks for tuning in to Peak Pursuits! Connect with us on Instagram @peakpursuits.pod to share your thoughts, questions, and your own trail stories. Until next time, keep hitting the trails and chasing those peak pursuits!
Sim: @theflyingbrick_
Brodie: @brodie_nank
Claire: @claireobriensmith
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter
License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
Transcript
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Episode 20 of the Peak Pursuits Podcast. My name is Simone Brick, coming to you from Argentina, right near Chamonix. And I'm joined today by regular podcast host Brody, coming a very cooked body to us from Italy. How you doing, Brody? Yeah, I'm pretty tired, to be honest. But um yeah, I'm here. I'm here. I made it.
00:00:30
Speaker
You definitely made it. And ah a guest for today, because we've got UTMB coming up. So we had to get someone on that's going to be doing the big dance. And we have the pleasure of being joined by Claire O'Brien-Smith. How are you going, Claire? Good, thanks. Stoked to be on the pod. Been listening to them all. And yeah.
00:00:49
Speaker
It's awesome to be here in Sham and to chat to you about it all. Awesome. Well, this was a very last minute ring in because ah Vlad was meant to be on better in the typical style of ah big ex race expos. He said he had a few fires to put out after setting up all the Bix expo tents. So we're very grateful for Claire for coming on. um but We're going to run things a little differently just because we've got Claire on as our lovely guest and go through Claire's lead into UTMB and a bit of a UTMB preview at the beginning of the pod. And then we'll let get Claire go, keep her feeling going and have a lovely dinner while ah me and Brodie run through the race that was Brodie's race after that, because I have a feeling there's a story to tell there or two. hu But
00:01:36
Speaker
To get us started, Claire, how has overall talked through like just generally the last 12 weeks, how has the build been towards UTMB?
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's been pretty smooth. um Back in May, I had COVID, and then I spent a little bit of time recovering from that. Unfortunately, I had some long respiratory symptoms that um kind of held back my mileage a bit. But um through June and July, I just did the normal solid weeks of training. I was training in Perth, which is dead flat. Our biggest climb is about 200 meters. So and lots of hill repeats, lots of treadmill sessions before work, lots of gym.
00:02:15
Speaker
and just kind of my really steady normal training, which is good. and it' So about two months of that. And then I did things a bit differently to how I have the last two years and I came over a bit earlier to Europe to train in actual mountains. So I've had about a month here so far um training in Switzerland and France.
00:02:38
Speaker
um So it's been a bit more specificity. So I've been able to actually climb some mountains, get some long downhills in, keep up with the gym work, and not overly increase mileage, but definitely increase vert. and And that brings us to this week, the big UTMB week. So my race is on Friday. ah So most of the training's all done.
00:03:04
Speaker
and I would also say though that I have quite a ah solid base from training the last couple of years and I think that plays into it a lot, like having that break over May when I had COVID, it's fine. I've got um yeah lots of base Ks and base to build off. Yep. And to rewind a bit, to even back before that. So um talk us through ah your, just a very brief, your start into running when you got started on the trails, sorry. And
00:03:37
Speaker
obviously being from WA, and you've done UTMB before, not quite made it the whole loop, unfortunately. So a bit of a bit of a monkey on your back to get off this week, and it's going to happen. I know it. So talk us through the journey from getting started in running, finding yourself at your first UTMB, and now what it's been like to be lining up for your second.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah, i I've always been a runner since I was like primary school running around the farm in Western Australia. And then got to school and at a um state and national level was doing cross country athletics, but also all the other sports like volleyball, basketball, hockey, swimming, and anything rowing, anything I could fit in. And then um did that all through high school at that level. And then after school, got into a bit of track and half marathons, but didn't really love it. Found adventure racing, kept going with basketball and volleyball, but I was kind of a bit of a, um, like good at all sports, but not the master of any sports. And, um, it took a surfing injury in about 2016, 2017, and I sliced over my leg really badly, getting dumped. Um, my, the back of my fin sliced my leg open.
00:04:54
Speaker
And it made me and think about what I'd achieved from a sporting point of view and whether it was what I had wanted to, being a kid growing up, wanting to be in the Olympics and top level, a late athlete. And I realised that I didn't really have to, like, I wasn't old enough to not have a crack at trying to be an elite athlete.
00:05:16
Speaker
so um Yeah, then I thought, um let's do a 50K and see what that's like. So I signed up for Tarahwara Ultra. I think I was still in a moon boot and I did the 50K there. That was my first one, maybe 2017 or so. And then then got a coach, figured out how to train for Ultras. And I think I've been getting a bit smarter and um a bit more confident on the trails year by year.
00:05:43
Speaker
I love the order of things there. The ah the sign up for the first 50k in a boot and then get a coach and then learn how to do this stuff. Great order. I actually had a bad foot drop from the injury as well. I injured the nerve that lifts your foot up. So getting straight into trail running and through those forests in Rotorua was difficult but I'm a physio so I rehabbed myself and got back into it. And and then during ah just before COVID I got into CCC and it was postponed. I did CCC two years ago.
00:06:18
Speaker
um And we got through it quite well in about 16 hours, so solid but nothing special I'd say. But I learnt what mountain races were and loved them. They're a whole different challenge in themselves and it's just so different to what we have at home that I was intrigued and just wanted to get better at them. So kept going with trail running and Then got into UTMB after placing at COSY, 100 miler in my first miler. And last year didn't go to plan. So brief summary. Say the least. Yeah, brief summary. The first 11 hours are pretty good. 11 or 12 hours. and I thought I was going OK, feeling OK. We're up at altitude. It was through the night um because the race starts at 6 PM.
00:07:10
Speaker
And then just as I was starting to see the first light, I vomited up all my calories and then just kept vomiting for the next few hours. Couldn't keep anything down except for one pack of barbecue chips, which was probably the highlight of my day. So for the next 11, 12 hours through to champagne luck, I couldn't get any food in, which is terrible for ultra running and made it impossible for me to ah focus on what I was doing. Physically, I was okay. My legs were still carrying me up and down the mountains, but my mind was absolutely cooked. I was hallucinating quite a lot. I saw kids scooters hanging from trees.
00:07:54
Speaker
I saw a boy in the forest with bright blue eyes and he definitely wasn't there. I saw my dad um on the edge of a forest as well. Lots of visual hallucinations. and and I've got myself into quite an anxious state because I had some caffeine, but without anything in my tummy, and it just made me really anxious and concerned that I was going to die out on course. I had travel following the trail and I kind of went off course a couple of times and needed to find people to get me back on trail. And I eventually pulled out at Champelak, which is just under 130 Ks and just didn't feel like I was medically well enough to keep going.
00:08:36
Speaker
and Mainly, mentally, unfortunately. Physically, I was still still going quite well. and um It was really sad to hand in my bib and um not finish. I was pretty upset on the bus home. and on the On the bus, I decided that I was going to do everything to try and get back because I knew it was within my um capability to finish it.
00:09:01
Speaker
and it wasn't an impossible challenge but i just hadn't worked through all of the problems that are inevitably going to come up in an ultra and so i wanted another crack it at doing it so i'm back this year and i'm hoping to close the loop and finished 176Ks this year. Yeah, I can only imagine there are like the joy and relief when you're coming through Champelac and going, yeah, yeah. then This time last year I was in a much worse spot, hopefully. Exactly, exactly. So you went and you qualified again at UTK, yeah? At Kosciuszko? Yes, yep.
00:09:39
Speaker
So I ran that, I liked the course that I did it the year before. I liked the area and I really wanted to podium. So um yeah yeah at about 2am I think I moved into third spot and then knowing that there's a chance that I could go back to UTMB and have another crack, I just had to give it everything I had for the last few hours. so and Yeah, that's how I got back in this year because UTMB is obviously really hard to get into. Everybody wants to. um yeah The ballot system is, and I think it's less than 30% chance.
00:10:16
Speaker
of getting in maybe less than that. and Yeah, yeah, yeah, not easy. Not easy. Well, it's nice to hear that it's been smooth the last 12 weeks in the lead-in to this. And then ah the, the changes that you've made, do you think, because do you, what do you think the the stomach in? Was it the altitude? Was it the ups and downs, the time of day that you were running? Or like, do you have any ideas on that so that you can tackle it this time?
00:10:41
Speaker
and Yeah, I think I probably over-cubbed myself with my drink mix. i am I didn't nail that. I usually carry a bladder because I drink quite a lot of fluids. and So I made a few changes last minute that didn't really suit me. But I've done another really good miler since last year. and um um that that's going to kind of set the scene for this year. So for Cosi, I was really calm and relaxed and um I feel like I innately know what sort of pace I need to go to do 100 mile in the mountains as well. So um I just need to go to my own pace. and I think my lead-in's been probably pretty similar to last year, but it's almost like
00:11:24
Speaker
the problem solving and the experience and the but keeping calm and keeping cool and and going your own pace is almost more, not more important, but it's as big a part as the actual training, and physical training yeah in the lead up.
00:11:38
Speaker
um So I'm feeling a lot more confident too this year. um and And I'm sure nothing can be as bad as last year because I really hated the race for 12 hours. It was horrible. So and I'm sure it's going to be more enjoyable this year. It's a pretty low baseline. Yeah, for sure. We definitely have a low bar to go over. Definitely. and Yeah, it's going to be good. I would love, because as usual on the podcast, we we normally go through our our like last training week, and I'm always intrigued by people's final build up to 100 milers. So if you're able to remember, um because you might not have it right in front of you, what has the last, because it's Sunday today, what has the last seven days looked like? Obviously, race is next Friday, so we're five days out now.
00:12:28
Speaker
yeah But can you run us through your sort of Monday to Sunday this week? You can test my memory, Sim. Well, on Monday, actually, on Monday, um my partner, Loki, arrived in Europe and we were in Switzerland in Kramotana.
00:12:45
Speaker
um And I am. I mapped a route that I thought would take five hours and it didn't. and So we were stuck up in the clouds trying to get to Vielstrubelut and it was I think it was 2800 meters we were up at. And we run out of fuel and luckily the hut was open so we got some tucker and ran down the other side but my five-hour training run accidentally ended up being an eight-hour training run entirely my fault
00:13:17
Speaker
and so sorry love that my fault and And then there were maybe two other two-hour runs, another half-hour run. and There were meant to be some 15-minute tempos, and but the town we were staying in was really hilly. It's is up I put 15, 1600 or something. and So it was hard to get anywhere flat to even get some tempos done. So I ended up making that an easy run. And I think maybe a little mini home gym session. And then that's about it. So yeah, not too much. and Yeah, I've kind of felt like the training's done and i want to I want my legs to be as fresh as possible. And I want to feel
00:14:09
Speaker
like I'm raring to go. So I've probably and done sort of on the lower side of what my coach has planned. Shout out to Corey and sorry for that eight hour run. I was going to say, you've, ah you've pretty much banged your five hour run plus another three one hour runs in one run anyway. yeah but a That's a good, good little, good little taper. That's cool. And is that sort of what you would normally do? Like one last longer run, two weeks out and then not much in between then and the race, just to keep fresh?
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, just shorter an hour or less to keep fresh. But I can't really remember what I've done in the past for other milers. Yeah, just some shorter shake out runs. To be honest, and I follow my program. I don't question it.
00:14:56
Speaker
Very, very fair. And who was your coach, Corey? Corey Johnson. She's um she's in Perth. and So her husband, Shane Johnson, who and is one of my training partners, and he takes some group sessions that I go to as well. So I kind of feel like they both coach me. And if I do what they say, then I tend to do and reasonably well. So just follow whatever I'm told to do. Nice. Good. Always a good plan. Always a good plan. Well, it's It's cool to hear your lead-in and introduce you to all the listeners so that now people can follow along and hopefully see you make it not only past champagne luck, but all the way to finish and close the loop yeah as you are as you get your way around. Do you have any, obviously, we've as we said, we've got a low bar, but do you have any sort of um time splits, time goals for the loop or for along the way, or is it is it a process goal kind of thing?
00:15:50
Speaker
Definitely process go. I figured out an approximate time and based on last year because I think my pace was actually okay. but but I'm not going to be fussed about place or time during. and I just worked it out to figure out nutrition and when my crew should get there. But and yeah, I feel like I know what pace. I just need to do my Claire pace and whatever the outcome is, is the outcome. and I think if I can hold it all together, I'll do reasonably well. um And if things don't go well, then I will zombie my way through and finish the loop. However possible, and that will be okay.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. I think that's a great way to go about it because a race like this, like it's a to war of attrition in so many ways. It's just who can survive out there and for a lot of it, that's for sure. Brodie, you got any questions for Claire about the lead in or the race? No, it's just I was just thinking like um I can relate um to to what Claire's saying in terms of um feeling pretty awful for an extended period of time and meaning like when you come back next time,
00:16:58
Speaker
like it just like it can't get worse than that. So I think some of those experiences can be really actually super beneficial. um Like I remember I was like sick for a race once like I was actually physically sick and I still still tried to do it and I competed quite well. So now like I don't get that stressed about getting sick. So I think those those experiences of you being like, okay,
00:17:20
Speaker
um I had 12 hours of complete hell like when you go out there next Friday you'll be like okay well yeah I'm having a rough patch here but it's nowhere near as bad as the 12 hour patch I had last year so I don't know I reckon you'll do really well thanks Brady yeah I agree and I've vomited in races before like sometimes that's just what happens in ultras and yeah so when it did happen I was like that's okay I've done it before and I've gotten past it and that could happen this time. and So yeah, you you get experience from every ultra. And Cozy 100 Mylar, which is my most recent Mylar, just that feeling that I had of calm and collected and go my own pace, that worked out really well. So I want to keep that same vibe, if I can, for UTMB. Yeah, very, very... My recent experience around pacing would say the same, just go your own pace. down
00:18:11
Speaker
Sounds good. i've I haven't done many long races, but I'm i'm sure i'll I'll get into it in a bit. But that that is very um useful information. what One more question, Claire. Have you seen and the whole course this time? like Have you been back? I guess you've already done the course or most of the course before. like Have you tried to get onto all of the course? We see a lot of athletes over there preparing at UTMB for, say, three, four weeks sometimes. like Do you think it's useful to get out on course and see it all?
00:18:40
Speaker
Well, I had advice last year um from some of the elites that it's not required, but then the more I thought about it, they're French athletes and they're pretty used to training in the mountains. So I asked Madge at UTA and he said, yes, it's very helpful to get on course. So I trust him because he's nailed UTMB a couple of times. So, and yeah, he just said it's helpful to know what to expect and um also just to know extra water spots or um and kind of when when the aids are coming up. So I did get on course a bit more on the front half and the back half. There's still one short section, ah the pyramids, which is quite technical and high altitude. It's about 2,600. That's the only section I didn't get to only because
00:19:29
Speaker
I'd already run for six hours that day and I couldn't really make it more and then try and navigate a bus back from Komeya to Chamonix so and that's the only section I haven't been back to but um the rest I've run a couple of times so and yeah I'm a lot more comfortable with the course and even just knowing what the climbs feel like I think is going to make a big difference and managing expectation and Like, Cormeira is nearly halfway in distance but actually you need to arrive at that 80k mark really fresh to keep going because you've run through the night already. So you arrive in the morning and you need to be fresh to be able to run that whole next day and and lots of climbing and then into into the next night. so
00:20:16
Speaker
Um, yeah, I think it's worth, um, training on the course and I'm really glad I've come over here early and used up all of my work leave. Um, I think, I think it's been worth it. So hopefully the, the lap is complete and I can go back to work. Sounds fine. I've used my lead for sure. Things can look so different on paper and theoretically than, uh, when you get out there halfway up a climb and you realize just how long that sucker is. Yep. Um, so. Yeah, definitely can be good. And also, as you said, ah getting out on the courses of someone from Perth is pretty different to getting out on the course of someone from France. yeah um So it's very, very good. And I'm sure there's a there's been quite a few Aussies out there on course with you, which is where I'm now going to run through just a little bit. I'm going to keep you on just for a little bit, Claire, while we run through the Aussies that are going to be joining you out there on course.
00:21:10
Speaker
um I've got a list from the start list, and I'm going to run through just some of the, there's a lot, actually. It amazed me, and it was really cool to see how many Aussies, like how many pages you had to scroll through of the Aussie names that were going to be out there. so I've just taken the top few from um each distance, and are we're going to give them a shout out so that everyone can follow them along. So on the women's front in UTMB, joining Claire out there will be the one and only Lucy Bartholomew, who I'm sure is going to have another day of it out there again. Then Hannah McCray and Jasmine Vollmer.
00:21:48
Speaker
and Janet Smith along with our lovely Claire O'Brien Smith. We're the top five ranked Aussies that are going to be doing the full 171, I think it is, case. Bit over 100 miler. 176. Oh, really? Yep. Wow. That's like a bit longer than we expected. Other five bonus cases than what I thought. Bonus parkroom.
00:22:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's a painful bonus parkrun too at the end of that. Anyways. Oh, the most painful parkrun of your life. Cool. Well, cool. Good, good information to have. And on the men's side, we're going to have Matt Crean, Aaron Smith, Henry Laconan, Sam Williams and Benjamin Ghiahardi, the top 5 ranked men from the Aussies. In TDS, ah there's not as many Aussies in TDS. So the top ranked male is Morgan Pilly and the lovely Cecilia Matus is going to be out there for the women. In CCC, the top three ranked men, re Rhett Gibson, Michael Ormiston and Kieran Rook and the women Anna McKenna, Anna Pilinger and Olivia Halbert. So but that was for CCC, which is the 100K
00:23:00
Speaker
which I think is close to actually being 100K, or am I incorrect there too? Do we know? That was actually 100K, yep. And those three women are all my friends, and I'm sure all three of them do well.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah, they're going to smash it. It's going to be so many people to cheer on. um And OCC, we've got Blake Turner, Jydeen and Callum Marron, the top three ranked men. And on the women's side for the Aussies, we've got Kate Avery, who I'm claiming as an Aussie, um and Maddie Reynolds, Luke Clifton. And I'm going to give a shout out to Lauren Rook because I think it's cool that both Lauren and Kieran are both getting out there. um And she was right up there. so That's for the OCC being 56 or so K. So it's the 50K that also has a bonus park run and a bit. So, there you are. Do you know what distance Ronnie Sparks running? I guess he is also someone in Australia. Is he on? He's running CCC, but he will be under probably UK.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense because I did just set it for Aussies. So if I've missed any Aussies that we've adopted. I think he's a soon-to-be Australian, so we should give him a shout out.
00:24:18
Speaker
Definitely. Definitely. If I had ever actually looked and seen, I would have definitely shouted out Ronnie. So yeah, Ronnie and CCC as well. um And Claire, have you done much looking into sort of the favourites for the big dance for UTMB? Oh my goodness. It's like every pro you've ever heard of, especially the women' the women's field is insane. It's like a list. I know. It's honestly a list of every pro that I know.
00:24:45
Speaker
Yeah. i reaction And um quite quite a few who have stepped up in distance, like Ruth Croft, who I think it's she did Weston, didn't she? So she's done 100 miler, but you know, normally the shorter distance. um Helen Mirro-Folkner, who to the CCC last year, um plus all yeah plus all the regulars. So yeah, a whole bunch of new people who are starting to get into the 100 miler, they're realizing um how much fun and how much of a challenge they can be plus all the regulars so um stacked women's field i actually don't know about the men's to be honest i assume that's stacked as well but the women's is extremely impressive yeah here for the women's race i feel like there should be a lot of those shirts out there this weekend
00:25:33
Speaker
100%, for sure. And to run through just a few of the favourites, Katie Scheid has probably got to go in as a, as definitely a favourite for just how much of an beast she is on these trails. um She's won it before, and then, yeah, just is always up there or thereabouts. Blandine Lyrandell, she's, she's ranked very highly and she, she, where's, did she win? Oh, CCC?
00:26:00
Speaker
Yeah, he won CCC and in 2022. podiumed OCC last year. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think she's done... She's done World Camps. Hasn't she won one of the World Camps distances as well? She won the World Champ long trail. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, she's listed as right up there, obviously, with Ruth Kraft. Maryanne Hogan from Canada. She has come second when she did this UTMB the first time for the first time in 2022. And then Fu Xiaojiang, who she was one of the ones right up there at Western States.
00:26:35
Speaker
um She's going to be out there, but it's also her fifth UTMB. So I think the she'll ah she'll probably pull off the Western States UTMB double with style. ah Esther Chillag, I think is how you pronounce her name.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yep. She's another top-ranked, Mati Mayora, I think is how you pronounce her name, Emily Hawgood, Sabrina Stanley, like the list goes on, Ragnar De Bats, Martina Valmasoy. Honestly, you could, yeah I could keep scrolling and keep saying names, and that you would, like, if you're in into trail, you'd understand, you'd know all of them. um But on the men's side, you are so right, Claire. It is Justice Act, Jim Walmsley,
00:27:15
Speaker
Matthew Blanchard, who's come second, I think, in very fast time, Jermaine Granger, Tom Evans, Ludovic Pomeray. Jeez, who else is there? um Hans Namburger, he's done bloody well with a few of these. And then ah one of the debut people who I'm very keen to see is Tibbo Baronian from um a Solomon Runner stand standpoint, which will be bloody cool to see. And yeah, honestly, like it just gets even crazier ah to in some ways when you go to CCC and OCC. um So just to get through a few of the CCC, Adam Peterman um is ranked the highest with Peter Engdahl-Manuel Marias. But Brody, do you know what happened to him at KEMA? Yeah, I'm not sure. He pulled out part way through. So not sure if he's, yeah, I think he would have been going hard at KEMA. So maybe CCC is a nice backup option.
00:28:11
Speaker
um Yeah, he might run given he pulled out. Yeah, yeah, figuratively. Yeah, he didn't make it the whole way around. So be um interesting to see if he is there. Hayden Hawkes as well, Daniel Jones. And who else do I know here, Dakota Jones? Like, it's just hectic as usual. On the female front, Toni McCann, I am bloody excited to see how she does. She's won OCC last year, I'm going to say. yeah um And so this is her first 100K. She's stepping it up. So it'll be very cool to see how she goes. She's got going up against Heather Jackson.
00:28:45
Speaker
Jasmine Laufer, MK Sullivan from the US, Sylvia Nordska, who won Zagama, and the podcast listeners we'll ever heard from. Is she running? She did have a knee injury, but she might be back running. And then in OCC, this one is going to be interesting because Remy Bonet is running, and I'm not sure I've ever seen him across this distance. Have either of you? No, I think this would be one of the longer races I've seen him do. Yeah, I can't think of a 50K.
00:29:15
Speaker
from Remy? Yeah, not at all. And then Jonathan Albin, Francesco Poopi, Sylvain Cachard, Eli Hemming, Antonio martini Martinez-Perez, who's always up there, Robbie Simpson, ah who people may know from um absolutely blitzing Ciazzanal.
00:29:32
Speaker
Um, Jeshi runs small. So that's just as stacked on the men's front and on the women's front. Honestly, this is my run of the day, but that's just because I know the most athletes in this one, uh, Judith Vida, Clementine Drouffray, Danny Moreno, Meow Yow, Ali McLaughlin, Sarah Londo, Caitlin Fielder, Sunmaya Buddha, Oyana Cortazar. Like then that's just a few of them. Like you could keep going. And it's just so many people that these are a bunch of people that I thankfully get to race because a lot of them do Golden Trail and the likes and step it up every year for OCC.
00:30:09
Speaker
So yeah, which one are you most excited for just to sort of follow? ah Obviously UTMB is, but besides UTMB, who are you excited to follow Claire? Oh, i I'm keen to see what happens in the men's CCC race. and Yeah, Dan Jones is an incredible runner and he's been training with Hayden Hawkes.
00:30:29
Speaker
and who's a friend of mine, and they're both looking really fit. They've both been in the valley for a while. I actually don't know who would win out of the two of them. But then everyone and all of those fields are just stacked. I can't believe it.
00:30:45
Speaker
um yeah so i don't I don't know. um and There's also the high rate of attrition in all of them, just given the nature of them. so Who knows? Who knows who will actually get to the finish line first. and um Even though the start lists have all the pros, then you know some of them don't some of them are late pullouts and and a lot of them have bad days. so Yeah, I don't know. I wish I could watch all of the races as well as be in my own. You can rewatch. There's replays. I will rewatch, definitely. Yep. What about you, Brady? You do get to watch as much as you like. um Which ones are you following the closest and who? Yeah, look, I think um I'm really excited to see, and like on on the Aussie front, and I'm also obviously super excited to see Claire run UTMB, but also Matt Crean in the men, just to see
00:31:36
Speaker
see what he can do, um be good a good watch. I think in like the the overall races, look, they're also packed, but the OCC always interests me a lot. I guess it's because it's the closest to the distance that I i run myself, so I guess I understand it.
00:31:54
Speaker
little bit more Antonio Martinez Perez I know him quite well and he's been on the podium the last three years and he's just like such a tactician in terms of this race Claire was saying how it's a bit of an attrition race like last year I think he was in like 30th and then he was in like 21st and then he was in like 18th and then he like slowly just crept up places and ended up coming top three so I think that'll be I'll be watching him close to see what he can do but like watching Remy try and run the 50k distance against someone like experience like John Albin is gonna be really interesting because um yeah I don't know what will happen there so I guess probably probably that one but like all the race is gonna be so packed yeah it's always interesting because having never seen him over that distance and I believe the qualifier that both him and Sarah ran was about 35k so
00:32:47
Speaker
It's still a big difference then up to 56. So it's always, I feel like sometimes someone new to the distance that's as incredible as Remy can absolutely nail it or just not know their own limits over the distance. And you never quite know which ones can happen on the day, but yeah, it's going to be exciting to watch regardless. um So I think of those, these ones, OCC goes off first on Thursday.
00:33:15
Speaker
um I know you go off on Friday. Do you know when CCC goes off, Claire? Yeah, CCC is 9am Friday morning and then UTM is 6pm Friday night. Okay, cool. So it's OCC, then CCC and then... ah UTMB. So essentially from about Thursday morning, our time, which is Thursday evening or afternoon Aussie time, you've ah you've got your tracking sorted until Sunday. um So there'll be a lot, a lot going on. um This podcast is going to come up after our little Aussie catch up tomorrow morning as well ah to start UTMB week, which will be exciting. um And I believe we may be seeing you there, Claire, after seeing a friend off at PTL.
00:33:57
Speaker
Yeah, actually, can I give a shout out to Millie Young? She's a cogent girl from Western Australia, and who's living in Chamonix, and she's doing PTO, which is one of the races in the UTMB week, but just not in the World Series champs. So it's a 300 kilometer race.
00:34:17
Speaker
with 25,000 meters of elevation. And so for a lot of people, it takes like five to six days and and there's some sleep stations. It's a lot of your own navigation. and It's a lot more gnarly terrain. So you have to carry a helmet and and like ah a much bigger pack, a lot of your own provisions, emergency like b like emergency tents if you need to camp the night. It's ridiculous. So anyway, she's wow probably going to be out there for the next five days and that starts tomorrow morning. So Monday, Monday morning.
00:34:58
Speaker
i Is that the one they do in partners though? Yeah, so it's a pairs race because it's um it's pretty there's some pretty sketchy sections and there have actually been deaths in the past in this race. So they do it in pairs for safety and and yeah it's a lot of your own navigating. You need to have a climbing background to even enter it. So Millie has a climbing background. and yeah I think she's the only, obviously I know that's doing it, but there might be more.
00:35:26
Speaker
But that's the PTO. Yeah, I did have a look and couldn't see any or many, so it's cool to know. Yeah, and we're listing it with our brother. So it'd be good to see how the siblings go for five days navigating through the Alps together and climbing and scrambling and going off less than four hours sleep a night. I think you're allowed, yeah, under four hours at the sleep stations and there's only a couple of them.
00:35:52
Speaker
So, yeah. Wow. I thought UTMB was hard, but a million details. It's one way to test a sibling relationship. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Awesome. Awesome. Well, we might tie up our UTMB coverage for this week there and let you go eat your dinner, Claire, and let you relax because you've got a fair number of chill days coming up, hopefully, to get you to that start line fresh. But thanks again for coming on.
00:36:21
Speaker
No worries. Thanks for having me. That's good. I've heard everyone track Claire, give her all the love and, yeah, send her positive vibes as she makes her way around this loop for at least a better, ah well, not just a better experience than last year. A good experience overall, please, because I feel like just one bar above last year is still not going to be ideal. So yeah let's go for a really good one.
00:36:45
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, Tim. Thanks, Brady. Thanks, Claire. No worries. Good luck. Thank you. Oh, fun. Wow. Okay. that ah That ends our UTMB coverage for now. Obviously, we will be running through exactly what happened next week when we get on the pod, which will be a lot to talk about, and we'll see how we can get on to give us a rundown of a all the adventures that happened. But ah someone on the pod that I've still got with me that had a big adventure yesterday. Brodie, um how are we feeling about yesterday? Oh, look, I've had had a bit of time to process it now. So like a lot of, a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings, a lot of reflections. Probably need to process it over another few weeks, I think. um But yeah, no, like, look, overall, I'm like yesterday, I was pretty
00:37:35
Speaker
pretty knackered when I finished, um pretty upset, I guess was a feeling I was feeling, but also relieved to be at the finish line. So it was a bit of a strange um mixture of emotions. um But yeah, like ah looking back at it now, and sort of just like have memories of the race and it was just crazy. It was probably the one where to explain it and it was a pretty cool experience. So I'm happy to have closed my own little loop. It's not the UTMB loop, but it is a loop itself. So yeah, I'm happy to finish it. I'm not sure I'll ever go back. I don't know if I want to revisit it, but yeah, it was a day I'd tell you that.
00:38:20
Speaker
Cool. Well, to ah so this is for Trofeo Kima, the very famous and for being the most technical 50K you can possibly pretty much race um and that Brodie tackled yesterday and had a long day up, um I'm going to say. But hopefully going forward, one that taught you so much and is only going to put you in a better spot moving forward anyway. So I reckon you did bloody well to get around that loop. But do you want to take us back to the the last few days lead in how you were feeling and then run us through exactly what went down? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had a pretty like cruisy week going in. um I guess the annoying as it is, and ah I get sick of talking about it, but the theme of
00:39:06
Speaker
the last sort of eight months of my thing is like how is my Achilles going so I was just trying to make sure that it was in a really good position come the start of the race because I knew it would be a big day out for it um so I didn't do too much as much as I didn't want to aggressively taper I also wanted to go in um in a good physical position so I did a little taper session on the Tuesday that went pretty well just like three by five minutes at threshold uphill so um like the pace was pretty low but it was a good sort of heart rate workout and at a little bit of altitude not much but like at about would have been at about 2000 meters so that was in Innes Brook it was really cool from the the mid station well the mid station is pretty close to the top but from the mid station to the the top station
00:39:54
Speaker
um So I enjoyed that. That was that was fun. um And then pretty much from there, I just jogged into the race. I did a fair bit of, not a fair bit of jogging, but like a normal amount of jogging. I didn't sort of back it off too much. um But by the time Saturday came around, I was feeling pretty good. So my Achilles felt pretty good. Physically, I felt fairly rested. um So I guess in a physical sense, I felt like in a good spot. But I was like, as the weeks have got closer and closer to chemo, I was sort of like reaching a not like a crisis point, but I was getting more and more anxious about the race. um i I think this year, this had been like the
00:40:39
Speaker
or back at the start of the year, this was the race that I sort of set my sights on and was like, oh, it's part of the Sky Running World Series. Like I could get a good result there. um I could do this cool race, could do a 50K. I think like I could try to tick off too many things in one and my expectations of what I could do were probably way too high. um And I started to realize that probably as it came into the race. But I think all the sort of thoughts that have gone through my head in the previous six months had meant like in the week before like it was hard to fully shake it and I started to get a bit overwhelmed especially like uh when they released like who's racing I was like oh shit these guys are the real deal like I checked out the course a few weeks ago and went oh wow this is really hard um since world champs I've been trying to get more world champs in orienteering I've been trying to get more distance in but maybe doing like 70 to 90k weeks which like the guys I'm running against are ultra runners so
00:41:38
Speaker
Yeah, I was starting to feel a bit anxious. ah So I tried to sort of reset my expectations and just chill out a little bit, enjoy the journey, enjoy sort of getting that first race in. And I think by the time the race came around, I was actually in a good headspace. um thats good That being said, I've never run a 50K race, so I don't know how to do it. So I um I made several mistakes, um which then led to a tough day out. And I probably could have done a lot better than what I did. ah But I had the day that I had because of the choices I made. So I started like ah started out feeling, I feel fine. like I feel good. I feel comfortable in this pack. I was actually sitting like just off the back of the front guys. And I was like, I know I'm not going to stay with these guys the whole way. But like if I climb well and I end up at the top 10 minutes behind, then
00:42:36
Speaker
and So it's a two hour first climb essentially, 2000 meters, 14k, big climb. um I was like, if I'm 10 minutes behind at the top, ah then then I might be say 50 minutes to an hour 20 behind at the end. So like that's that's okay. like It doesn't matter if I'm up here. but ah So like 4k and I was still there and I was probably working a bit too hard. um I guess my experience is from racing 30k's where you can work that hard and you're running for three hours because um then you've got the downhill or you've got some flat and then the downhill or whatever it is like a lot of the races I've done have been you climb up and and a lot of races are you usually finish with a downhill including this race.
00:43:22
Speaker
Um, but I just forgot about that whole four hours in between. So I was, uh, yeah, I was working a bit hard. I had my heart rate strap on as well. And my plan previously going in and being like, okay, well I'm wearing this strap so that I can keep an eye on my heart rate and it doesn't go too high. Like I want to keep it in what I would call like low threshold zone. So not like hitting my top end of threshold.
00:43:46
Speaker
um and that's like 170 170 i was thinking that 170 170s and for a for a bit of the that climb i was like 180 which is not like still is still like sub threshold for me like i can go up to 180 like 184 but like i was obviously working too hard anyway yeah yeah but that There was a road section for like 7K. I started to, ah I felt like I was maybe working a bit hard, so I backed it off and then I felt good again, so I sort of kept moving. um Got to about 1000 meters of climb in, which is about, or just after, it may as well be 1100, the first sort of checkpoint where you pick up the helmet.
00:44:32
Speaker
Um, and I was feeling okay. Still, I was feeling pretty good. Um, Anders, who was on the podcast last week, he was like just in front of me and I knew he was like quite a good technical runner. It's quite a good downhill runner. So he probably wouldn't be right up the front, but he would like move through the field. And I thought, look, if I'm around him,
00:44:50
Speaker
that's actually pretty good. luck i think maybe like I was thinking I'm similar to him, but he's got so much more experience in Ultra. so And also run like 200k weeks to your life. Yeah, exactly exactly. And he's done that for like three years. So anyway, i'm sitting I'm sitting not far off the back of him going, okay, I'm in a good spot, still comfortable, the nutrition was going in, feeling okay. And then I hit like we we did that we went through like a little bit of a valley and then we climbed about 800 meters up to the pass and there was a refugio about halfway. And just before the refugio, it must have been about 2,300, 2,400, I started to feel dizzy and get a headache and I was like, oh shit, they ain't good. um So i yeah I hadn't really felt that. I've
00:45:36
Speaker
been right I've been running in the mountains. I checked out the course that high. I've been running in several other places where it's that high, and I never felt that. So I was a bit like worried. I was like, I think this is to do with the attitude, probably because I'm pushing pretty hard. So I just backed it off. And ah like at that point, before I stop before i sort of backed it off, I was probably sitting maybe 15th to 20th. But i just I just let people go past me. I was like, i don't need to i need to sort of this is a long day.
00:46:06
Speaker
um So I sort of rained it in a little bit, sort of took at my own pace from there to the top of the first pass, which was 2,800. And by the time we got to the top of the first pass, I was feeling okay, like the dizziness had sort of gone away by backing it off a little bit and sort of had minimised and I was feeling good. I'd still been able to get nutrition in.
00:46:28
Speaker
um and then we descended down off the first pass and it started to get super technical and I was like okay this is great like this is I'm in my rhythm I'm feeling okay I think at the top of the first pass I was like 38 or something like that but I was like 16 minutes behind I think the leaders so like I hadn't really lost much time at that stage and given climbing is probably not my best suit I was like that was sort of where I was hoping to do the climbing was about two hours to two hours ten and I did in two hours six so I was like okay I'm in a good spot now I just need to do what I'm good at this technical stuff the first descent of the pass
00:47:13
Speaker
I've hadn't seen and it was crazy. There was obviously a lot of fast people around me at that stage. There's dudes just running down like 50% not using the metal chain. Like I also realized I can't run on snow whereas everyone else knows how to run on snow. Like I'd take like five steps.
00:47:29
Speaker
fall onto my arse and just do like a massive butt slide for like 50 meters and there'd be guys like running down the snow I don't even know how they did it I don't know if it was my shoes or my technique I have no idea but like I never ran down the snow well in this race and it was like yeah it was shocking um but yeah that first part the first part I hadn't seen on the recce we'd skipped it and it was it was crazy and and the speed that the people were doing it were just crazy um I think at the top they were going even faster, so I'd hate to see what that looked like. um But yeah, ah so we sat on it was in the first between the first two passes. So this race has seven passes and you go around this like big loop. um and And once you pass that first one, which is 2,800 euro altitude, you don't drop below 2-2 until you finish, essentially, ah or until you do the final descent. And you have to climb over these
00:48:26
Speaker
Seven technical passes which are essentially like rock climbing up and down um and in between is like just rubble so it's like it's super hard going. I felt okay on the first between the first two um even climbing up to the highest point in the race which is two thousand nine hundred and fifty I felt okay.
00:48:46
Speaker
Um, and then coming down the other side, it literally just hit me. So this is about three hours in and I literally just was like, I need to stop. Like I just, I felt like I needed, like, you know, when you finish a race, how exhausted you feel.
00:49:00
Speaker
I felt it at that point. And it just hit me so quick. I was so um i was so like surprised. I was like, ah I've hit the wall from me like a nutrition point of view before, but I've never hit that like total exhaustion point of view. I guess because I haven't raced this long or for that hard, yeah for that long. So like three hours and I'm like, oh boy. um I thought, ah thought i like I tried to push through it for like half an hour and I was like, oh,
00:49:29
Speaker
This isn't going well. I'd sort of held my position from the first pass till then. And then I was just hemorrhaging time. This is like everyone going past me. The first women went past me and they literally just like, I felt like they sprinted past me. They were going super fast, but I was going so slow that they just like absolutely flew past me and I couldn't hang on to anyone that was going past. So I was just like in crisis mode trying to be like, okay, can I keep going? I kept going for half an hour.
00:49:59
Speaker
um got to the refugio, which was like, if they said, if you're gonna pull out, you have to pull out a refugio and go down the track, because those tracks are the best ones, and you need to tell someone and and whatnot. And I was like, as I'm coming like in the 10 minutes before the refugio, I'm like, should I pull out of this? Because I i felt so awful. um And I was like, I can't have like put six months towards, well I've obviously had other big goals, and that's probably part of the reason I didn't do that well here.
00:50:29
Speaker
But like I put a lot of time and effort into this race. Like I drag Laura to the race. Um, I'd spent time wrecking the race. I was like, I can't, it's such a disservice to not finish it if I can. Like I just have to back it off, do whatever speed I i have to do to finish the race. So yeah I was like, at that point I was like, I'm not stopping. And that was probably the last logical point to stop. Cause any point after that, you were like, it's going to be the same.
00:50:57
Speaker
to exit the race or continue the race because you still have to get off the mountain. I thought it might be that case, yeah. But that first one was a legitimately like would have cut like it would have you've done about 23k to then and you could have done a big descent and then like just walked it in and I was like I think that's where several other people pulled out. I think Manny Marillos, Louis Coughry, some French guy he also pulled out a few people um And i yeah, I was very close to doing it, but I thought, nah, I've got to keep going. So I just sat in. I think the third woman came past me just before the refugio. But I thought, nah, let's keep going. And then yeah the next section is like one of the hardest sections, like three passes and then another refugio. So I sort of just like took it one pass at a time and went, OK, I've got four passes to go, three passes to go, two passes to go.
00:51:57
Speaker
Yes. taking it easy, um trying to sort of get back into a position where I felt good, trying to take some nutrition in. Like I can't say I felt sick, but I also just was so exhausted that I didn't feel like getting nutrition in. I was trying to force myself. And then I i met this guy, he was like walking as well. And I caught him while he was walking and I was walking. So he was it was in worse shape than me. And I was talking to him and he's like, yeah, I've done this race before in 22 and I did really well. I think he'd done like under seven hours.
00:52:28
Speaker
Um, and he's like, the attitude just got me this time as a British guy. And he's like, the attitude just got me. I've got like mild chest pain and I just, I'm struggling. And I think just having that conversation with him was like, okay, like, yeah, I'm not having, I'm having a pretty bad day, but like there's so many, like it's not, obviously it's, it's my fault, but like, it made me feel a little bit more acceptance of it because I was like, it's happening to other people as well.
00:52:55
Speaker
um Yeah, yep. Misery loves company. Yeah, that was a real story, and I walked away from him, so it was good I was a bit worried because he said I had chest pain, and I was like, are you all right, mate? He's like, yeah, no, it's all right, okay. There's a lot of people out on the course and lots of safety people, and I said, just look after yourself. But I felt a little bit bad for sort of walking off on him, but he looked okay.
00:53:16
Speaker
um At the time that I saw him I think he just had a really rough had some really rough patches He probably came past me later on to be honest. I don't really see So I just I just kept going and and kept chugging along and then I was like oh we're looking at my watch and I was like oh I might still be able to go under eight hours if I just keep cruising along and then like five and a half six hours in my Achilles was like nope had enough and I was like okay great another another thing to deal with in this race um and this is like probably at an hour before I got to the descent and I was like well the descent's the only thing I can really do now because you don't need to use much energy I can like
00:53:55
Speaker
I felt physically like my legs didn't feel too wasted at that stage, but I was just, I just felt like I had no energy. I couldn't move. Um, so I was like, Oh, I can do the descent. Well, but then like my Achilles started hurting and I was like, Oh God, this is going to be awful. It turns out by the time I got to the descent, my legs were also wasted. So it didn't actually matter too much. Um, but man, it was mega survival. So then I did the descent. I did it like.
00:54:23
Speaker
I think I did it like 15 minutes slower than when I did it in the course recce. So I was really limping along. Um, and then there was like this road section. You've got to do like eight, so it must be six to eight K on the road, essentially, or it's like very flat and use a few trail bits in between road. Man, that was awful. I was just like, and it got hot as well. Cause we got back into the Valley. So it's like 26, 27 degrees.
00:54:50
Speaker
I couldn't really run properly because my achilles were like super tight and they had got like quite sore. So it's just sort of like limping along. um Really holding onto to five minute Ks with like a five percent decline. um And just like, I wish this is over. I wish this is over. I wish this is over. Anyway. im it's good it's a It was an ordeal. I remember running through the last town. So there's like two towns in the valley and I ran through the town and then you run another 3k. So there's like people cheering and and stuff. And it was like, it was really nice. Like it it made me feel good. And like, I was just feeling so, so many emotions at that stage that are like, I nearly cried while running through this town. It wasn't even the finish yet. It was like 3k from the finish.
00:55:37
Speaker
those people cheering me and I was like feeling super emotional. um It was real weird. It was, it was a lot happening. um But yeah, then I made it to the finish. I was very happy to finish. I met this New Zealand guy at the finish. um And he really cheered me out. It was a legend. His name's Weston, Weston Hall, Weston Hill. He's quite good, I think he came 13. So he he ran really well. um But I was having a chat to him and I was just like, I don't know, it's like, very similar to Sometimes there's these big like European races. a lot of people like Everyone's cheering a lot, but everyone speaks foreign language. A lot of it lot of Italians. There's there a lot of people, obviously, you don't know. So obviously, my partner, Laura, there was there at the finish, which was awesome. um But just like meeting this other guy who had experienced the same thing, having a chat to him, um he was such a legend. um Yeah, that really perked me back up again. But um yeah.
00:56:35
Speaker
I did eight hours 20. The guy who won, Finlay, is this British guy. Yeah, he's wild. So he did six hours and five minutes. He broke Killian's course record. um And the top three were separated by it was three minutes back to second and another three minutes back to third. And then it was 20 minutes back to fourth. Like the gaps were just like really big. um I think. Yeah.
00:57:03
Speaker
10th was 47 minutes behind. So like it just shows how good those top guys were at this really specific race. um I was 8 hours 20, so I was so a long way back. The first female was seven and a half hours, I think.
00:57:21
Speaker
732. Yeah. Yeah. giran hillary giardti So she's just off her, she's won it twice before. This is the third time she's won it. She was just off her course record. um So the women were running super good as well. So yeah, I think I ended up in 78th. Yeah. And yeah, not my best day. um I don't know. I'm still processing. um It was a journey. Yep.
00:57:50
Speaker
There's a lot of things to take out of it, I think. um I put in my Strava caption, a lesson in ah realistic goals, pacing and attitude, because I think there were the three three main things. um I think that realistic goals, things super important. I sort of expected a lot from myself when I'd been focusing on several things.
00:58:14
Speaker
Like even if I've been focusing purely on chemo for the entire year and I've been able to get my mileage up high enough, I still would have been like an hour back probably. Whereas my head was it my head was like, oh, I'm going to be an hour back without having like factoring all those other things that I literally was training for a 15 minute race.
00:58:37
Speaker
that was five weeks ago. So it's just, I think the expectations thing is super important. And like I, i as I was saying know last week on the podcast, like my confidence level is so high, which is good. I think it's really important. um But you have to you have to sort of have that at a right. Yeah, you have, well, it's mostly you just have to have at the right level, like, even I don't even mind if you don't back it up. But it's like, if you set your confidence too high, then you're only going to be disappointed. um I don't really mind too much about disappointing or like, people being like, Oh, he's not as good as he thinks he is. Like, that's up to them to decide. But I think it's more for me is like, having an expectation. expectation
00:59:18
Speaker
yeah Having an expectation that's too high is never serving yourself. um So yeah, that was a big learning. Pacing, obviously. the first That was pretty apparent that I didn't nail that, but I guess I've learned from my next race and and ah even learned from listening to Claire earlier that you have to feel fresh at 80k, which just seems crazy.
00:59:42
Speaker
And then, yeah, the attitude thing, like, I don't know. I don't want to put people off racing and racing in Europe or racing. But I think if you're going to do, for me, I'm like, if I'm ever going to do a race like that again and I want to do it like I'm serious, I'm not just going for the experience, which obviously this time I was ah was serious.
01:00:02
Speaker
um yeah you you have to do the You have to do the prep. I think you need to do an attitude block behind a race like this. or at least spend 10 days acclimatising fully at altitude because we spend...
01:00:17
Speaker
We spent even the best guys spent probably four and a half hours above 2000 meters. Well, more than that, probably five hours above 2000 meters. So yeah it's a long time and and obviously you're pushing yourself with that intensity as well. So um I think, yeah, for me, it was like if I'm going to I need if um I need to look at that when I look at the races I'm doing and if I'm doing a race that has attitude and I don't have the time to prep, then I need to take that into consideration, whether I should do it or not. And if I do do it, like, obviously factor that into how I think I'm going to go. Yeah, for sure. Like, I would, I would pay to bottle some of your confidence, man, because I think you're right, it's a really good thing. um But I do think that the, the expectations you put on yourself sometimes can just be what makes you have a miserable day, because
01:01:11
Speaker
Even like if you had a gone in going, well, I'm running half of what a lot of these guys are. And I was training for a 15 minute race five weeks ago and I'm going to aim for eight hours. You might've had a blast, but it's that whole like, and to be fair, like that, when you talk about that feeling at three hours, I'm like, yeah, most people that are in their first ultra and hit the three hour mark might have half an hour to an hour to go. And so you can suffer through it, but you had five.
01:01:41
Speaker
Yeah. And I probably didn't choose the easiest. I've gone from racing my longest race. I was talking to Anders at the start line. He's like, what's your longest race? And I was like, three hours 20. Yeah, I must admit when you said last week that it was going to be a good battle with Anders, that was when I was like, Brody, I freaking love you. But at the same time, this guy runs 200K weeks and he lives this stuff. yeah and I think it was a 30K race.
01:02:07
Speaker
If it was a 30K race, I might, he'd still probably beat me, but I'd be a lot closer to him. But I think this, this is just, yeah, like I fully underestimated how hard this is. And I think, yeah, I think it was cause I never was worried about finishing the distance. And even during the race, I wasn't really worried about getting to the finish line. I was just worried about how slowly I was doing it. Um, so.
01:02:33
Speaker
For me, it was more, yeah, that's a lot of, yes, a lot of experience to take away, which is, which is good. In the scheme of the planet and what us humans can achieve, you still did that loop bloody fast. Not many people can even make it around that loop in one day. So, yeah. Well, on that, this race has the craziest cutoffs of all time. So obviously, it's such a tough race.
01:02:56
Speaker
um But the first, the cutoffs are super hard. So the first cutoff is three hours 15 to the top of the first climb, which I did in 206. So like, and I was, that was when I was pushing. I don't know what the first women were there in, but probably like 10 minutes behind me. So they were only within it maybe by an hour, which is pretty crazy when you think this is like a general cutoff. Then after that, between the third and the second and third cutoffs,
01:03:25
Speaker
It was two hours. You have two hours. And I did that section in two hours and five minutes. So like if I was already behind, I would have been knocked out of the race. So it's it's to be crazy. and There was 400 people who ran. And at the first, only 270 people made it through the first cut off and only 200 people, 200 and like 10 made it through all the cut offs. Oh, wow.
01:03:50
Speaker
That's, yeah, wow. So so looking at that, I was like, Oh, at least I finished. like I got there. In the scheme of life, your body did something pretty frickin' incredible. um And you're gonna, you're gonna be better off for it. You've now got the experience of having run for 8 hours plus, which is a new and interesting realm. um And obviously, people go a lot longer, as we've just spoken to Claire. But yeah, it's, a It's a big jump from where you've been and to handle it even as you did. Like, obviously, I was always hoping for the ah the blissfully ignorant, awesome day for you, yeah but um and hoping that it would pay off that way. But um yeah, I'm not surprised, I must say. Yeah, yeah and this is probably better for me. yeah And that is nothing on your ability long term. It's more on the lead-in you've had and what you're prepping for for five weeks ago and and knowing the terrain myself and the time on feet. Like,
01:04:45
Speaker
Whoa, damn, yeah it's painful. Yeah, no, I fully agree. I wish I'd sort of, yeah, it'd be good. It's it's super important learning, I think, for me, and and like I've obviously thought a lot already, but I think over the next two weeks, absorb it a bit more and sort of take a look at my next steps a little bit seriously and and decide how how I'm going to approach these things in future because If I want to have an amazing my best performance, then I need to think about it properly and not try and like you can't be an all rounder and run a 50K and a 15 minute race and expect that you're going to do your absolute best advice of them six weeks at apart. um So.
01:05:28
Speaker
You either get it. Yeah. And there's a lot to be said for building into it. Like some of the Golden Trail races I do or the shorter Sky Running races, like they build you up and they prepare you so well, but over a two, three, four hour race um with a lot more margin for, like you've, it's almost like when you're doing a two to three hour race, you orment you have more margin for error too, just because you can make a mistake, blow up 90 minutes in and you've got a slow 30 minutes, yeah I try more. 35 minutes, I try more. Not anything too crazy.
01:05:58
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Not five hours of pain. Anyway, that's probably enough of me. Sorry listeners for having to listen to my raw reflection, because that is the most words I've said about my race since 24 hours ago. So yeah, I hope everyone enjoyed that. It'll be good, mostly useful for me to listen back to, I think.
01:06:17
Speaker
Oh, look, I got a few laughs out of it. um I think everyone's been in a few of those lessons before, so hopefully people can take some of your lessons and learn them without having to put themselves there themselves in the first place. So, but yeah, well done. um On to the next, which will be exciting. And Yeah, I'm not going to go through my week in any detail on the back of all of this, but I will say that my shin is turning the corner and so much better because I have done a very big rebuild week, complete with a couple of sessions and a gym session. And I think I managed this week, which is a bit bigger than I expected with 144K with 5400 up and down um and 16 hours of running. So we're back um with a vengeance.
01:07:07
Speaker
probably doing the training you needed to do. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's what I'd like to be able to get to. How is the shin? Yeah, so it's at the stage where I can feel it. But even despite doing, I've had a bunch of three to four hour days in there today. Two of them actually have been five and a half hours door to door kind of thing. Like it's getting better every day while doing that.
01:07:31
Speaker
So it's, it's not unstable when I'm running. It's maybe a 1 out of 10 on the downhill kind of thing. um So I'm still like looking after it every evening. I'm still taking the anti-inflams, doing all the things, but.
01:07:47
Speaker
I feel pretty confident in it that it's going to come keep coming good considering I've been bashing it up. And like today was meant to be sort of a 24K three hour adventure and it turned into a 31K five hour adventure. So I'm doing ah um'm doing good. I think you, me, between you, me and Claire, we've all um overcooked the timing of some of our runs. This ah last little bit, that's the, ah I'm going to call that the trail fail of the week, expecting a certain time for a run to be done and still being out there two hours later. I like those most runs in Europe. It's just because you just don't realise what it's going to be like until you're actually out there. Oh, 100%. I did a climb today called La Jonchon, which I 100% recommend to everyone and anyone that ever goes to Chamonix. It was incredible. But looking at the climb, I was like, okay, the climb might take me like 90 minutes, an hour 45.
01:08:41
Speaker
which I wasn't that far off. It was only two hours 10 in the end. um But that's because I'd spoken to one of the Aussies Matt Dunn and he's like, oh yeah, it's just pretty steady the whole way up. And it's pretty similar the whole way up. I have no idea if he's been to the top or not, but I got to the top and there was like some rock climbing via Ferrata, like the last two Ks took me 45 minutes.
01:09:01
Speaker
So it was not smooth the whole way up. And um I was out there for a lot longer than I expected. But the views were way up. So I've got a lot of good views this week. And I was in STEM last year. I was like,
01:09:13
Speaker
I was doing the tool when I was there and I was like looking at that and I thought about doing an additional run to go up there. um Now you've done it. I'm glad I didn't because it looks like it would have been a lot bigger than what I thought. But um it looks epic. Oh, you would you would love it. And the other loop I did was also super technical, some sort of higher mountain passes because I've had an and like I've been trying to acclimatise to altitude. So like all my long runs have gotten up to 2600 or so and I'll sit and have a phone call back home or to my coach and sit there for half an hour and acclimatize. So um that's, that's been my mission for the week, but my legs are definitely tired and I still have one more big adventure planned, hopefully, that my body lets me do tomorrow for my birthday because I'm hoping to go out for another Today was meant to be the short adventure that didn't take too long so I can go out for 30Ks tomorrow on a big adventure. um So now we're just going to be backing up to 30K days. Maybe. If my body lets me. um So. What's the plan for tomorrow where you headed? I'm going to head to Montpouette. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I thought you might have that on the list. Yeah, there's a loop there where you go into Switzerland um and I'm going to go up the from the Switzerland way. I've been told that that's the way with like ladders and
01:10:26
Speaker
things up their climb, and then the descent from Montboet back down is actually much nicer running. So yeah, that's on the next plan before the week gets hectic. And obviously the ShakeOut run with the podcast tomorrow and Vlad finally getting to see Vlad, which um should be really fun. But yeah, I think we should be moving on. i'm gonna Yeah, I'm going to call our trail fail um the timing thing for the week, and I would love anyone listening.
01:10:53
Speaker
I want to hear people's worst, like, estimations of time versus actual time on a trail. because I reckon there'd be some pretty funny stories out there of people. Like, I've got some pretty bangers. There was once I went, was meant to go out for 2 hours and came home 6 and a half hours later. and It was meant to be an easy 2-hour run. So I am, I do this a lot. um And my family and Matt are very used to it. They never take for granted, they never take um what I say is what's going to actually happen. But I would love to hear other people's stories on that front, because we've all done it. um But to tie off this week because we've already been going for quite a long time. We're going to go through some of the results from Oz and some Aussies around the world. I'm going to take us first to a race called Capital to Coast. Now this one, Brady, I was looking up. It's hella interesting.
01:11:45
Speaker
It's eight stages over two days starting in Canberra and running to the south coast of New South Wales, I think. um So like, but the stages are not point to point. They're all like loops that you then drive to the next spot, do the next loop, drive to the next spot, do the next loop.
01:12:02
Speaker
and there's four stages like that over the day, and then you keep going the next day for another four stages. So yeah, looks crazy, but awesome. And all those stages seem to be like eight to 15K. But on the women's side, the winner overall, so this is just the overall times to cover the entire 100Ks over two days, was Lauren Evans in nine hours 29, second, Joe Nosegard in nine hours 40, and third, Sophie Britton in 10 hours 43.
01:12:30
Speaker
On the men's side, Matt Walters in 8 hours 15 was then followed by Jason Couples in 8 hours 26 and Steven Don in 9 hours 32. So that one just looks like a damn cool event for people that love running. um And I think reckon it would be hard because they have like a 6 a.m. start time, then in maybe a 9.15, then maybe a 12.15 and a 2.15. Like you have to get to each start line after you've run the loop. So. I reckon it'd be hard to get going again on the on the later stages.
01:13:01
Speaker
Oh, I reckon. Can you imagine getting in the car for like 15, 20 minutes and then going again when you've already got 90Ks in your legs for two days? Like, man, crazy, crazy. But do you want to take us to Sydney Ultra Marathon, Brody? Yep. So yeah, we had the Sydney Ultra Marathon.
01:13:18
Speaker
I tried to look at the course a little bit ah from Joe McGrath's. I think is ah is it a mixture of road and trail? Do you know Sim? That one? Both the looks of it. I think both Joe and Beth were in vapor flies. So they're in road juice. So maybe some like runnable trail and then some road sections as well. um So there was a 30K which had 860 meters of climb um in the win women's. We had Melissa, how should in 2 hours 36, Tia Buu in 3.01 and Kara Tirlich-Ku in 3 hours 21. In the men and looks like then it looks like Melissa won overall if she did 2 hours 36.
01:14:05
Speaker
which is pretty crazy. And that's a solid time for 30k as well, yeah. A bit on you Melissa. Yeah, you'd come and see a woman win outright of a 30. Yeah. So in the men's, Sean Murphy was first in 2 hours 42, Louis Minette in 2 hours 44, and Duncan McKetchney in 2 hours 51. So some quick times, good on you Melissa. If you run 2 hours 36, they're super fast.
01:14:34
Speaker
in the 50k which had 1400 meters of climb. Beth McKenzie got the win in 4 hours 43. Monica Grayling second in 5 hours 29 and Kate Cush in 5 hours 39 so people might remember Beth from UTA 100 earlier in the year um and another person who was at UTA 100 earlier in the year I can't remember how he went there but he's ah local to the I think Central Coast so near Sydney ah Joe McGraw ran, ah got the win in the 50K in a pretty quick time of 4.11, followed by Oliver Roos in 4.20 and Blake Szymanski in 4.26. So that was the Sydney Ultra.
01:15:21
Speaker
Nice. Nice. Well, the last race we're going to take you guys through is um Wonderland Run in the Grampians, which I did notice now, just looking up their results, is now owned and run by the Adelaide Trail Runners. So that's cool. Something new. um So they have a 20K, a 36K and a 50K. I'll just take you through. The winners of the 20K was Michaela Sexton on the women's side.
01:15:49
Speaker
in 2 hours 11 and Harry Schroeder on the men's side in 1 hours 50. The winner of the 36 on the women's side was Aislinn Prendergast in 4 hours 12, which, if I'm looking at the results correctly, which I believe I am, she won by 53 minutes.
01:16:09
Speaker
which is a bloody good run. So well done, Aislinn. We've mentioned her name many times. Yeah, one of my teammates. Yeah, she's always there. So she's had a damn good run there. And the winner in the men's in three hours 42 was Jordan Murphy. And in the 50K, I've got all the results here, me and Noble.
01:16:31
Speaker
won the women's in five hours, 24. Victoria Cole was second in six hours, 11. And Emma Tanzer, third in seven, 27. And the men's, oh, Tom Dade. Thomas Dade got the win, Tom the Tank, um five hours and three. Andrew Heitman. second in five hours 17 and Chad freak third in five hours 22. So, oh, and actually it was only 30 seconds back to fourth again. So looks very close there for third and fourth in at wonderland. And that one being at the Grampians, it's always going to be technical, some very good trails out there. So ah the very good runs by all of them. And then we had a couple of people overseas, Brody, like you.
01:17:15
Speaker
Yeah, so Nathan Pearce, who we mentioned last week or a couple of weeks ago, he ran another one of the Circa Series races in the US. This one was called Grand Tuggy, which I didn't actually see where that was exactly which state. But I think it was up at altitude. I was looking at his GPS trace. It was around sort of up to, I think, just about 3,000 it peaked out at. So it was 11.4K with 675 meters.
01:17:45
Speaker
um Nate came 14th in 101.59 and I think he said he had a lesson in attitude as well. So I'm in the same boat as him this week. Yeah, it's a painful lesson to learn that one. It's never fun. Yeah, and someone who seems to be, who I don't know if there's attitude at the tatras where you were last year. Yes, there is, because it's right where I was. ah guess the Part of the course was the same as my course.
01:18:14
Speaker
Yeah, someone who handled it well um ah will claim him as Tasmanian, um but a Polish-born Piotr Babus. He won the Polish Skyrunning Champs, which is just crazy. So that's the the their national champs. um Long distance, it looks like. He was 70.5 kilometers, 5,100 meters of climb. um And he ran that in 9 hours and 46 minutes.
01:18:40
Speaker
so Good on you, Piotr. That's a crazy run. And I think he said in his trauma that it was a ping pong battle all day. He was first and then he was third and fourth and then second and then first. And then yeah and he only just took ah back first in the last um last big downhill. So um looks like he's had a great day out there.
01:19:01
Speaker
Yeah, so good to see. that When that pun popped up on Strava, I was like, whoa, that is an impressive run. back Such a good run. It looked like a brilliant course, and he's got to see the summit that I never got to see yeah um in the Thatcher Mountains. The weather looked a lot better.
01:19:19
Speaker
A lot better. Yeah, he ran essentially, ah i'll ah'll he ran a hell of a lot of trails before ending on the course I was meant to run. Yeah, OK. Because the finish line would have been the exact same as my finish line was meant to be. So I'm very glad your race went off, Piotr, because had it been one week, like one week earlier, it wouldn't have.
01:19:40
Speaker
um Ah, the joys of weather. Anyways, that is all the results we have for this week and that we have been able to see. As usual, please send us in anything you do see from Aussies around the world or events um ah ah in the country. But for what's coming up, ah there's not as many run races as I could see on the calendar for next weekend, but we do have a few as usual. That is Coastal High Fun Runs in Queensland, one called Trailblaze Fun Run in WA.
01:20:10
Speaker
the Cape Paleranda Trail Run, all the way up in Townsville, and then Flinders Island Running Festival in Tassie. Do you know that one, Brodie? No, I don't actually know that one. um So yeah, that'd be cool. I think Flinders Island has some nice like, I've never actually been there, but they have some like nice small like granite hills. So I wonder if it's around some of those trails. I know David Bailey, who's, I think he's from Flinders Island initially. So he's out there running sometimes. So it looks pretty cool.
01:20:39
Speaker
Yeah, nice. Nice. Well, that'll be cool to follow along. But of course, also next week is the big dance and well, all of this week um in Chamonix with like, honestly, running around here, it really does feel like you see everyone out on the trails. It's like every, almost every big name you can imagine um currently descendant upon Chamonix. So that'll get started in a couple of days. I have put out a last ditch effort to get a start at ETC.
01:21:08
Speaker
Um, and because obviously with my race being canceled, damn, I would love a race, but I don't like my chances when I'm asking 48 hours before the start time. Um, so you're a big deal.
01:21:21
Speaker
ha I fricking wish I am not, ah but I'm trying. I will try. Um, unfortunately you don't do transfer entries cause I know people that are pulling out, but yeah they don't allow transfers. So that sucks. And I'm not about to run, run to someone else's bib. That'd be a bit obvious. Yeah.
01:21:38
Speaker
so So anyways, so for me coming up, I'm actually, I don't stay in Germany for UTMB. I'll be watching other than OCC. I'm here to crew Kate and cheer her along, but then I'll be um over in front remote for a little bit of a training camp at altitude to do all that altitude acclimatization we've been speaking about before I head to the US for my next races. um So to me, it'll be, I actually do race next weekend though, actually. I found a tiny little race in Font Remo, 12K with 700 up and down. So say I meant it in that one. Yeah, we'll have a little baby races. I think last year they had 50 participants overall. so So it's not going to be your usual big one, but these ones are the fun ones. What do you got playing Brody? Recovery? Yeah, pretty much. i um
01:22:25
Speaker
I've sort of after the race decided that I need to really get on top of this Achilles. So I'm going to try having like an extended period off, like obviously always would have had some recovery days and maybe started jogging in three or four days. But I'm actually going planning to have like at least a week and maybe a little bit longer.
01:22:45
Speaker
off it completely and then really sort of ah gradually build and do some strength in the background and then gradually build back in. um yeah um've got i'm I'm racing at Sky Running in ah like 11 days for a VK. um ah Yeah, of course. Yeah, but I've done a lot of, I've done some hard uphills. I'm feeling like I'm actually quite prepared for that. So I think it's my best interest just to recover properly and and try and set my Achilles on the right on the right path. So yeah, that's my plan is actually really back it off. And um yeah, I think it'll be a good week to me out have often me have off next week off the podcast because I won't have much training to talk about.
01:23:30
Speaker
Ah, but we'll have so many races to go through. Yeah, they're true. I might be. I'll still try and come along. Yeah, yep. Well, it'll depend who we can get at what time zones. Exactly. and but this Getting this podcast out while we're all traveling is proving to be quite difficult. But we're managing. We're here, I will say actually, now that I think of it, this is probably going to be getting to people on Wednesday because tomorrow's my birthday and I'm not editing a podcast on my birthday. So this is going to be going out.
01:23:57
Speaker
um in Oz Wednesday time. So hopefully that is okay by everyone, but that's just in time to then get excited for the Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday following along of UTMB and cheering all the Aussies through. So yeah, I think that ties us up for this week. um Thank you everyone for listening. This has been episode 20 of the Peak Pursuits podcast, and you'll be hearing from us with a lot of news going down over the trails next week.
01:24:26
Speaker
All right, see you guys. Happy birthday, team. Have a good day. Thank you.