UTA Day 3: My UTA50 race

Well, that was much harder than I was expecting. There were more steps and stairs than I’d anticipated. Loads more. There were fewer flats. In fact, I don’t think there was a single section of more than 100m on that course that I’d call flat. On the upside, it was even more beautiful than I’d anticipated.

What a privilege to be able to run it. And in weather conditions that could not have been more perfect. After two days of incessant fog, Saturday dawned bright, clear and relatively warm - 9 to 17 degrees the forecast.

In retrospect I know this is a faintly ridiculous thing to say, given the reputation of this race, but I was caught by surprise by the number of stairs on this course. Apart from the first 7k and the section out of the Queen Victoria Hospital aid station, the entire course seemed to be one set of stairs after another.

I did some stair-specific training in the lead up to the race and the trails I run at home have some stairs, but there is no way I was prepared. And the morning after I was really paying for it. I had pains in places I’ve never had pains before!

My course preview proved less than accurate, once again demonstrating how hard it is to get a good handle on a course without running it yourself.

To begin with, I’d expected the start to be flat but it was anything but. To be fair, I did say “relatively flat”, but even that might be pushing it. Instead we went out to the turnaround point and back with every step either up or down hill.

Don’t get me wrong, it was runnable, but how much energy do you want to burn so early in the race? It’s easy to go out too hard and pay for it big time later.

There was one advantage though, at one point I ducked off the course to a lookout and was treated to a view of the Three Sisters. That was pretty cool.

The second big surprise for me came when the course ducked down off Cliff Drive and descended into the valley. This descent was via a vertiginous set of stairs which had to be taken with care. As a result, it was slow going - and I was queueing at the top for around 10 minutes.

Once we got to the bottom, what followed was about a million steps, but this time heading back uphill, until we got to the first aid station at Fairmont Resort. The atmosphere here was great, with lots of people cheering on the runners.

Unfortunately I came into this aid station with all my kit, and left without my video camera, which was a problem. I’m hoping it will be handed in by some Good Samaritan. Fingers crossed.

The section out of Fairmont wasn’t as difficult. Fewer stairs, but the terrain was washed out in places. I’m not sure I’d have liked to have been negotiating it at night, like many of the miler and UTA100 runners. But in the daylight it was straightforward enough.

However, I very nearly threw in the towel at the second aid station 29k into the race. I was cramping in calves and quads on both legs. I’d had two sachets of Crampfix, which gave me some temporary relief, but didn’t solve the problem.

The cramping trouble really started at about the 21k mark. I’d tripped and as I was falling, my left calf cramped. I went down hard on my left side, but it was the pain in the left calf that was killing me. Thankfully the guy running behind me stopped and stretched it out for me, then helped me up. But the next 8k into Queen Victoria Hospital was more of a hobble than a run.

By the time I got to the aid station I’d pretty much decided I was cooked. If the phone reception hadn’t been so crappy, I probably would have called a cab and gone back to the dorm to lick my wounds. But I couldn’t get a signal (texts yes, phone calls no).

So instead I paced around the aid station for 30 minutes prevaricating. It’s funny where your mind goes in those situations. There’s no way I was texting my wife for advice - I knew she’d tell me quitting was no failure (she’s right, as always, of course), and that discretion would be the better part of valour.

Instead I messaged the WhatsApp group for my run club, Fat Cannon, and the feedback I got from them was to “harden up”. In the end, I took the advice of two lovely volunteers who were dispensing electrolytes.

They walked me through what to expect for the 22k still to come. They told me to down a handful of salt sachets and to get some electrolytes into me. They also advised I take it easy on the downhill in order to save my legs because from the emergency aid station at 42k it was all uphill. It was good advice. So with just a little trepidation (okay, maybe a lot), I decided to push on.

I was able to make reasonable time on the downhill without expending too much energy. I pretty much breezed through the emergency aid station, which was a self-styled 1980s party, and started on the uphill.

While most of us back-of-the-pack 50k runners were power hiking up the hill, Beth McKenzie came past us, grinding her way to second place among the women in the 100k. That was pretty inspirational.

From there we entered a fairly densely forested part of the course and it started to get dark. I tacked onto the back of a group of four people - a couple and two women - and we commenced what felt like a forced march to the finish line.

I could probably have gone faster in this section, but it was dark and muddy so pretty precarious. And at this point I knew I was going to finish between 6pm and 7pm. That was important to me because I had a dinner date with my former work colleagues and friends, locals Craig and Carmen, that I was keen to keep.

For our gang of five there was plenty of chat to keep our minds off the relentless trudge through the mud - at least intermittently. And the conservative pace meant we hit the Furber Steps in pretty good shape. I hesitate to say we powered up the steps, but while others were having to pull off to the side to recover, we got up all 951 without so much as a pregnant pause.

And we still had enough in the tank to run the last 200m along the Scenic World boardwalk and through the finishers’ chute to cross the line as a pack. What an experience.

Heart trouble

I collected my finishers’ medal, then headed straight to the medical tent. Since just before the Queen Victoria Hospital aid station I’d had a pain on the left side of my chest. At first I thought it was a stitch, but it got progressively worse as the kilometres ticked by.

Given my recent heart tribulations, I thought there was a small - okay, very small -chance I was having a heart attack. I was cognisant of stories of people having low level chest pain for days that turned out to be heart attacks. I figured the chances were very low, but I have to admit I’m a bit paranoid at the moment.

I have to say, I was VERY impressed with the medical set-up at the finish line. Definitely a five-star rating from me. I told a volunteer my worries and he ushered me through to a first aider. I told her I’d just been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and was worried I might be having some heart issues and she passed me onto a doctor, admitting: “Atrial fibrillation… I don’t even know what that is.”

Dr Chris asked me a bunch of questions, then nurse Jess hooked me up to an ECG machine. A second doctor and nurse joined them, and they were able to confirm two things - yes, I am definitely in atrial fibrillation and no, I hadn’t had a heart attack. Probably something muscular Dr Chris said, keep an eye on it though and call emergency if it gets worse.

This is what I was expecting, but it was still hugely reassuring to have it confirmed. It wasn’t until later, when I got into bed and tried to lie on my left side, that I realised the pain was caused by the fall I’d had around the 21k mark. I must have bruised my ribs in that stack, but I was so concerned about my cramping calf, the pain in the ribs didn’t immediately register.

Needless to say today, every breath hurts. And don’t make me laugh. Rib injuries are the pits.

So all in all it was a great day out. I finished in about 10 hours 30 mins, which was a lot slower than I’d have liked, but given my chaotic lead-in I’m happy enough just to have collected the finishers’ medal.

And I must admit, when I crossed the line I thought “there’s no way I’ll be doing this again with all those godamn stairs”. But the morning after I was already musing with my wife Caron about how we might come next year, and spend a few days enjoying all the Blue Mountains has to offer.

Finally, a special shout out to all my Trailiens mates who competed so strongly across the board at UTA, especially Jim Villiers who finished the inaugural UTA Miler in 13th position overall in a time of 23 hours 8 minutes. A frankly astonishing performance.

And to my dorm mates Flo, Cheeming, Pete, Trent and Buya who were also inspirational in their own ways. More about all of that in future posts.

In the interests of transparency, I am competing at UTA on a complimentary ticket. I am paying all other expenses involved with the event - travel, accommodation and so on - out of my own pocket.