The Next Block #10. - Bali Hope Ultra Edition

And just like that.. one month living and breathing the Bali air has come to a halt.

A trip first planned as a 6 day vacation with a mate of mine has turned into a 30 day life opening and changing experience.

I feel like I say that a lot - but I guess I'm inspired by all the life opportunities that arise in my life. Big or small. We can learn something everyday in life. From the people we meet to the location we are in. 

Taking the leap to what seems like ‘big steps’ do come easier but they still scare the shit out of me.  

Prior to writing this blog a friend I were having a conversation about how even I get anxious about making change in my life, even though it happens so often. From living locations to jobs, nothing has really lasted any longer than 4-6 months. 

She said “you thrive being throw in the deep end though, I feel like you are brave when it comes to taking a leap. From the outside you don’t come across anxious.” 

Bali feels like home and the past month has felt comfortable, exciting and challenging all at the same time. A good mix, especially pre ultra - no extra stress or time being taken up in my mind. I had 11 days in Bali before I raced across the island via foot. Enough time to unwind and enjoy the freedom of what jumping on a scooter and go anywhere you want. From cafe hoping to try and find the best smoothie bowl to morning surf checks. You respect the island and the island will deliver, always. 

Race week -

Bali Hope Ultra week.. I don’t even know where to start. People ask me before I come over on why the event is a week long. 

“is the 84km spread out over a few days?”

“pretty boring just waiting around till race night, wouldn’t you rather just do your own thing?” 

There are 101 reasons why there’s a handful of people that sign up year after year and come back to compete and to make a change. Plus 28 newbies jump in on the action as well because they’ve heard from friends or seen the week unfold online and can’t help but get involved, like myself.

You won’t find another ultra event where everyone finishes it.

You get to know each and every athlete on a personal level.

You have the privilege of putting yourself out there and fundraise for something that makes a difference to so many people.

And you get too ‘find yourself’ while you run 84kms across Bali in the middle of the night while you have feral dogs barking at you the whole time, in the mean time blowing up your calves and quads on the 1900m elevation in the first 21km and then smash your knees and toes up while you roll out the next 60kms. Sounds wonderful, I know. I'll be back for more.

Race night -

I was tossing and turning for days before. For a few reasons but the main one was questioning my ability to go out in the 930pm group. 

There’s 3 groups that make the event run smoother and so we all finish roughly around the same time the following morning. 530, 730 and 930pm group.

Doubt rolled around and I was about to drop back to the 730 group, which would have been fine. But I came here with a challenge of putting myself in the ground and seeing what I actually had in me. To know if I truly did love this ultra distance shit and that meant going out with a group of athletes that were also there to do the same thing. 

I remember sitting behind Hannah, who has a huge history of endurance events under her belt, and we just stopped running around the 5km mark and started hiking up the hill and she just says “oh well, buckle up.”

I thought to myself - geez this is going to hurt so much and I can’t wait. 

For some reason that has stuck with me ever since and now I replay it in other areas of my life. Like shits about to get uncomfortable? Oh well, buckle up. 

I passed Hannah at some stage up the hill - I think she stopped for some fuel, I was obviously stupid and didn't. I knew she was going to catch up at some point but in my head I was now playing a game on how long I could keep her away from me. Slowly her head torch disappeared behind me and I felt like I had some good time on her. The 3 other lads were off and up the hill and out of sight before the 10km mark. They had a war of their own going on. 

It was a fun challenge being in the last group. It was like we were going hunting. Slowly but surely you would pass the 530 and 730 runners. A quick hug and smile and back away you’d go. I don’t remember a lot from the half way mark onwards. My left quad was in all sorts from 55km mark and my right knee was extremely tight, I’ve torn my meniscus twice on that side so pain was expected at some stage.

Coming into the race I felt confident on my nutrition options and what I thought was going to work. Turns out racing in Balis weather is very different to running in Adelaide. Nothing was sitting right, gels tasted terrible and the feeling of throwing up was coming on when opened up my 2nd one. I had planned a peanut butter sandwich at the half way point but goodness me, that sucked. Had one bite of the dry bread and peanut butter and spat it out and through the rest to the dogs, kept them off my back for a little while. 

1 gel, bit of watermelon, water, hydra light and a can of coke at 39km had kept me moving forward until I remember the support cars had potatoes in them. I stopped at 53km and paused for the first time, said to one the crew that I can’t get any food in. I took a big bite of a potato and then continued walking and eating. That gave me some life and felt like all moving parts were running on all cylinders again! 

65km mark I slowly move to the run 1km walk 100m attack. I see Hannahs head torch starting the creep up on me and just like that I watch Hannah and Katie run on pass like they were just starting a Sunday morning jog. Chatting and listening to music like it was nothing they hadn’t done before. Them 2 girls are absolute weapons. I just clapped them on as their backlight disappeared ahead of me. 

Closing in on the finish line I started to worry and kept looking at my watch thinking do I have sub 10 hours in me..? With the final 14km ahead I started to do the maths - if I run XX and then walk XX that should give me an average km of XX. I was stressing, I was moving slower than I had planned. Yelling at myself in the middle of Canggu, while the locals are starting to set up their market stools. 

“fucken don’t you dare walk yet.”

“i want another 200m out of first you lazy fuck” 

“of course you would settle for 10 hours plus” 

All sorts was going on in my head by this stage. I was ready to go over 10 hours. But if I just ran a bit more each km I could make it happen. That I did, went to war with myself, shared a few tears and collapsed over the line with 9:54hrs. 6 minutes to spare. 

Proud of myself and the whole team. 

Running to many seems like a lonely sport but it takes an army to get events like these happening.

Thanks Tom for putting it all on the line and to all the crew that helped support us over the night.