My Journey towards the 85kms along the South Aus coastline
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
At the start of 2019 I had a vision that in May 2020, I would run 85kms across the island of Bali.
I was in awe by two good mates of mine, Sean Bell and Josh Lynott, who had completed the run in 2019. Seeing the work and dedication that is thrown into an ultra was surreal.
Back track to 2017, I had a dirt bike accident and tore the meniscus in my right knee. I came back from that injury thinking I had recovered. If I’m being honest, I didn’t do that much rehab work; maybe the first 6 weeks I followed orders, but after that nothing, and I was back to old habits. I wasn’t running at this time either. I guess you could say my running journey hadn’t started yet?
Fast forward to October, 2018. I came across a video of a runner on Instagram and I was immediately inspired. At this point I didn’t do much with my time apart from work long days, come home, do nothing and that was me…? (Never, ever falling back into that mundane lifestyle) I thought, bugger it! Let’s go for a jog, 5km around the block, happy days, that felt brilliant?! Let’s go for 7km tomorrow, as you would, thinking nothing about it. Few days later, I’d go for 10km and be absolutely spent after, but still pretty simple right? 3-4 weeks go by, and I’m out on a 10km run; my knee goes, and that ‘clicking’ starts again, great... I Ignored it for a few days, but the pain became quite literally unbearable. And there we have it, after a closer look and an MRI scan; same knee, same surgery and you know the drill. This time lets recover properly.
I was 15 weeks post knee surgery… for the 2nd time. You could say I wasn’t unfit, but I definitely was not run fit. I did all the right things this time. Adding in plenty of strength work and following a strict plan. Don’t worry though I still had that 85km on my mind, it just wasn’t extremely high on the to-do list at this point.
It wasn’t until I was on a plane on my way to the Philippines, heading to a retreat called ‘The Siargao Session’ (stay tuned for my next blog to hear more about this). The host, now being a great mate of mine, Josh Lynott, ran the ultra-marathon back in 2018 and was prepping for it again in 2019. It’s crazy to think when you're surrounded by some of these inspiring and humbling humans, anything seems possible. I won’t go into details about the retreat yet, but in one of the workshops we were doing goal setting for the next 12 months, I wrote down the first thing that came to mind; “BALI HOPE ULTRA 2020 HAPPENS”. Keeping in mind it’s still early days, we still have over a year and I still have the Bali Hope Run/Swim to complete in December. You can read about that by clicking here.
January 2020 and we’re coming into the new year with the right intentions. I got a running coach onboard and wrote down a lot of goals for the year. One being no more beers until after the ultra; that would be just under 5 months of no drinking. Seems easy? you try being a tradie in the Australian summer when every bloke replaces water with a cold beer. Nonetheless I’m getting all the right gears into place. Now the only thing to do, is approach this next task with an open mind and with everything I have got. The training load took me by surprise, I guess I didn’t really know what to expect?
I was disciplined with the schedule and I fell into a good routine and flow with trainings.
Here’s what it looked like most days:
4:45am wake up, go into morning core work 3 days a week, shower, breakfast
6.15am off to work
4-5pm home from work, sometimes later depending on how busy we were, a quick bite to eat and 5 minutes to reset.
Shoes on and anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes of whatever my coach had booked in that day. I always envied the Uni-blokes that would put in a 10am run on a Monday morning!
I took away a lot from them big days, and I learnt a lot about the importance of being organised over those 23 weeks of training.
Early April, I was out enjoying coffee with a friend, talking about this new hot virus that had been going around the world, causing absolute havoc; COVID-19 they were calling it, and some speculation that the Bali Hope Ultra would be postponed due to it. That same morning I get a call from Tom, the founder of Bali Hope Ultra, running me through the possibility that it may need to be postponed. By that same afternoon - the news was out on the WhatsApp group chat. ‘Bali Hope 2020 has been cancelled until further notice’.
I know it wasn’t the priority at that point but I couldn’t help but think; All this work, prepping for an ultra that isn’t happening?
I was jogging with Joshy, just talking life, ideas, plans, etc. like we do. I said to him, ‘I still want to do something big, for myself and for the Bali Children Foundation’. Then an obvious light bulb moment happened, why not bring the ultra to South Australia? 85Kms along the coastline, an ever-changing scenery and a good story to be told.
I headed straight to my journal and started jotting down some notes; things I’d need to organise and most importantly, the route – where I’d start and finish. I organised a crew team, and I was lucky enough to have 3 incredible friends available for the whole day, that would be able to meet at designated checkpoints to help with nutrition top ups. Due to doing it on a Wednesday morning I knew this was going to be a 90% solo journey, and I was mentally ready for that. I’ve spent numerous hours out on the legs alone, so that wasn’t a factor I was worried about. I wasn’t out there to break records either and I certainly wasn’t there to completely ruin myself. I was there to do a job that I set out to do and hold myself accountable for my words… the same words I had written down on many occasions; ‘Bali Hope Ultra 2020 Happens’. Time wasn’t a factor, just focus on the task at hand, and have fun.
Run Day - 20th of May, 3am - alarm goes off.
It’s like I didn’t sleep; I was up faster than normal and got myself ready. I was starting that watch at 4:00am and not a minute later. Leaving my house and heading straight to the coast, a 20km journey before meeting at the first checkpoint of the day. Holding a real comfortable and controlled 6min pace. I had the privilege of being able to talk to a few of the Bali Hope team from around the globe on a zoom call. That was huge and definitely kicked my morning off in the right direction.
At the 33km mark I had two good friends, Nathan and Jackson, jump in for 90mins which helped me over the half-way mark; counting those little wins was a big strategy for the day. Quality chats with a couple of honest blokes, showing up and taking time out of there day to support me; that is what it’s about. Dazing in and out of what seemed real, a few phone calls from mates that couldn’t make it out made the kms flow nicely. At the end of the day, there just isn’t a quick way to put down 85kms.
At 50km my left hip started acting up, turning my somewhat smooth jog into an awkward hobble. It didn’t get much better from then onwards. I remembering being on a call with a mate of mine, Jakey, and he said, “55km in and only the hip is giving you drama? No doubt something was meant to blow out at that distance!”
The back half of the day and a lot of emotions came up. As most ultra-runners would say ‘you’re riding the ultra rollercoaster’. From the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows. When you’re in the lows; there’s only so much you can do but to just ride them out and try and dig deeper to get yourself through. It’s about respecting the task at hand.
The day continued to roll out a lot of surprises for me; from my body feeling unique things, to the last 18km and onwards where at each check point it was like the crew was growing every time I stopped, and every time I looked up a new friend arrived. A continuous throw of positive words and just general checking in on how things were going. It’s a special feeling, and one I’ll never forget, being surrounded by that sort of support.
The run could not have ended at a better spot. Hugging the coastline for the majority of the way, and we finished at a dead-end street next to the beach - after a few up and backs - the 85kms were done… The heaviest of legs, and a stomach that needed a pizza or three.
10 hours and 57 minutes, and an average pace of 7:09 min/km.
After a long, hot shower, a pizza and a banana smoothie – I logged into my Everyday Hero fund-raising page and over the duration of the day $2500 was raised. Feeding over 100 families in Bali for an entire month could not have been more worth it.
Now that’s how you get waves made. Want to make a difference? Set a goal and go big.
Thank you to everyone who supported me; from donations to messages. Love you all.
