My Journey to the Bruny Island Ultra Marathon

At the outset of this blog I want to express my deeper gratitude to and appreciation for my wonderful and beautiful wife Val who has supported me throughout my running career. She has been a tower of strength and encouragement, even if she now refers to me as “Old Man”. And for the Bruny run she was a marvellous support crew to supply me with what I wanted at each 2 km stage. She brought tears to my eyes at one point when she yelled out “You’re my hero” as she drove on to the next changeover point. The main reason I am running is her brother Bruce (and his wife Sue) who have encouraged me so much along the way. I was inspired to get back running when Bruce ran a Six Foot Marathon in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Even though that is something I wanted to do when I read his account of the run I know that I will never be able to because my times would be too slow to qualify for an entry. Ben Brockman, exercise physiologist at PhysioTas, prepared a running plan for me so I would be prepared for my big day Megan, physiotherapist at PhysioTas, has been a great help in helping me recover from soreness. Then there has been the marvellous running community at Devonport as well as throughout Tasmania, and even some from the Mainland and overseas—just too many people to acknowledge individually. I have had emails, text messages, lots of hugs and words of encouragement. But a special mention to the five lovely ladies who formed part of the “We Run for Cupcakes” relay team who all came back after they had finished to run me up the steps to the Bruny Lighthouse. It was quite emotional that they would want to do that for me. What wonderful people they are.

The following is a progress account of the ups and downs I have had since Scottsdale:

Monday, 20^th August:

The Ultrain Rail Trail Run from Billycock Hill to Scottsdale left me feeling enthused to get stuck into preparing for the Bruny Island ultra marathon in December. So I took the plunge today and registered. The handicappers will certainly have fun with the recent times I gave them—half marathon in 1:58:57 and marathon in 6:01:21, but these are PB’s from my Garmin and not official times. I’m not going to have a lot of time to prepare for the hills of Bruny, especially when we are in Mt Magnet for 5 weeks and then Perth for another week in October-November, but I will try and get as many kms into my legs as I can in the next three months. I know it’s going to be tough. I’ve checked out the stats for the run and found that in places the gradient is a staggering 20%. To see how I pulled up after Scottsdale, I decided to run along the trails at Geilston Bay and managed 16.15 kms @ 7:33/k with an elevation gain of 351 metres and Strava gave me 3 PR’s along the way.

Sunday, 26^th August:

After a couple more 10k runs during the week at a reasonable pace following the Rail Trail Run, Val and I attended the inaugural Wynyard Foreshore parkrun, where I ran at 5:00/k. However, after the previous week I found myself fading over the last leg, especially on the sand. After church on Sunday we had a nibble lunch of cheese, avocado, strawberries and biscuits along with our cuppa. It was while I was eating that I decided I should have my long run today as Monday, my normal long run day, was heavily booked. I chose my course (my R4M+) which is around 13k, filled two water bottles with Staminade, grabbed some jelly babies and Hydralyte tablets and set off, telling Val that I was “going to run till I drop”. Setting off at a steady pace I was quite comfortable running, after a few slower kilometres, at around 6:20/k, which, though faster than I had planned, wasn’t pushing myself too much as I was envisaging doing a marathon distance. I wisely walked the steeper hills but towards the end of my second lap I could sense myself struggling a bit. I put it down to having a biggish week without any tapering in the lead up to such a long distance and so pulled the pin and didn’t go on. I wasn’t disappointed and don’t see it as a failure. At least I was still on track to run around 5 hours for a solo marathon distance. Thinking back over my supplies I realised that I had incorrectly prepared my Staminade in that I made it half strength. Maybe that helps to explain some unexpected cramping when I tried to get out of the bath.

Thursday, 30^th August:

For the last couple of solo runs I’ve been using the HRM app on my Garmin to gauge my pace. The other day I was running around 130 bpm, which had me around 6:20/k whereas today it was around 135 but I was running just under 6:00/k on the flat. I don’t understand that, but my heart rate was hovering on the warm up/easy pace and this is what I want to do to build endurance for Bruny. It’ll be interesting to see what Ben Brockman says when I see him next week about a running plan.

Wednesday, 5^th September:

I’ve been doing hill work prior to Moodie Monday and RunClub when I can get there. During these “The Need for Hills” runs I have been setting unintentional Strava segment PR’s, even though I thought I was running reasonably slowly by the HRM. I’ve been following up these solo hill runs with much faster ones while running with the group, and even though that might be around 5:30/k I’ve been able to do them reasonably comfortably. When I saw Ben this morning he gave me some additional exercises, on top of the ones I have already been given, specific to my running needs and I’m looking forward to the plan he will email me to help me to prepare not just for Bruny but for a number of longer races I hope to be able to compete in and complete next year. I’m even beginning to think that I would like to have a crack at doing a marathon in each state and territory while we are away. That will, however, mean a lot of juggling of routes and places for our trip.

Saturday, 8^th September:

Val and I opted to travel to Riverside for the Windsor Precinct parkrun this morning as that is the last of the current parkruns in Tasmania that we haven’t completed. Now we can join the Statesmen/Stateswomen Club until another new event commences. I was still sore from the last few days when I went for a warm up jog but found that I was running sub 6:00/k pace. It just felt so easy and so comfortable. It shows that my endurance and speed has increased over the years but the danger for me will be that in my longer runs I might fall into trap of starting too fast. I will need to keep a good eye on both the HRM and my times. Anyway I had a reasonable run on a great course that we would be happy to return to even though I faded a bit towards the end. This meant that I couldn’t quite catch the fellow in front of me, even though I could see myself gaining on him, and the one behind me overtook me in the last few hundred metres. I hate being overtaken towards the end, preferring to pass others.

Tuesday, 11^th September:

What a day this became. Even though yesterday was my normal long run day we were travelling from Devonport to Hobart to dog sit for 11 days. I ended up choosing to run from Geilston Bay along the Clarence Foreshore Trail but turning off at the Tasman Bridge to run along the Intercity Cycleway. As I have already written this up (http://roadrunner7310.blogspot.com/2018/09/my-second-ever-marathon.html) I will just mention that this was a longer run and a successful attempt to run a solo marathon after having pulled the pin on a couple of previous attempts. This netted me a 36:43 PB. So not only was I pleased with that effort but I want to run over the bridge again and do another long run along the Cycleway. But how long will it take me to recover from today’s effort? And, more importantly, will I be properly prepared for Bruny?

Monday, 17^th September:

Last night I received my personalised running plan from Ben Brockman at Physiotas that will help better prepare me for Bruny. He had scheduled me for an hour long run today but I had set my heart on running in the Meehan Range along the MTB and fire trails. The course I had mapped out was around 11k, so I knew that that would take me more than the hour. Strava and Garmin both gave me an elevation gain of 406 metres but I actually ran just over 12k because of the wrong turning I took up a private road (I couldn’t see the sign when I went up (literally) the road, but could when I turned around at the top and returned to the bottom). What a fabulous run with a very steep beginning and typical MTB sections! It was nowhere near as picturesque as Derby but I found it more challenging and would thoroughly recommend all those interested in trail running to give it a try. Obviously, not too many people have run it the way I did for I have the ninth and tenth fastest times worldwide on Strava for a couple of segments people have created. I want to come back and do this again and again. I found it good preparation for Bruny’s hills.

Tuesday, 9^th October:

The best laid plans of mice and men do go astray from time to time. But for me time for proper preparation is running out. Following my training plan, the first couple of weeks went well, but then I hit the wall. Having just finished my six months at the little church in Hobart I had two good days running before my body succumbed to the man flu and I couldn’t do much at all. By this time we were in Perth, WA for a couple of days (no running included) before we began the long drive north to Mt Magnet for the five weeks we were to help out at the little church there. We stopped at Moora overnight so we could compete in their parkrun. But the flu had taken its toll on my body. A few young kids took off like streaked lightening and led the way for a lap and a half of the grassy oval before hitting the gravel. I was close on their heels but, inadvertently cutting a corner, I surged to the lead with my head imagining that I would be able to finish first. After all, the previous week at Montrose Foreshore parkrun I ran 23:30 for my last outing in the 65-69 age category. As I slowly increased the distance between myself and those behind I felt good. But as I made the U-turn to return to the start for the second loop I began to feel myself slowing down. And the second placed runner was gaining. By the time I had made 2 km he passed me and I struggled to maintain my pace. Each kilometre became progressively slower. I achieved a time of 25:59, which still gave me the age grade record for the day and the 70-74 age category record by just over 2 minutes. But I missed that coveted first place. Oh, well. When we arrived in Mt Magnet that afternoon the heat was oppressive and it was only the second month of spring. At least we will be leaving here at the beginning of November so these Tasmanians won’t have to face the full brunt of summer. My first run was today, doing yesterday’s run that I postponed because I hadn’t fully recovered. At least I felt good enough to give it a bit of a go. I wasn’t able to get away as early as I had hoped, but 6.15 am was a reasonable start. At least the temperature was only 17^o rather than the 30^o when I would normally run. However, it felt hot for this Tasmanian who is more used to cooler climes. At least the win, a tailwind at that as I ran the outward leg, was cooling. But coming back was a different story as I battled the variable wind and negotiated the return incline that I had anticipated to be a fast decline. Oh, well! At least the temperatures here should help me if Bruny is a hot day, though the humidity here today was around 5%. Not sure that Bruny will be that low. So this is my running world for the next four weeks and I’ll make the most of these conditions, knowing that I will need much more in the way of fluids than I normally drink on long runs. Yesterday we saw a middle-aged man out jogging and today I saw a young female, so I’m not the only one around. But there were no Strava segments, so I decided to create some to measure myself by. I did one after yesterday’s walk and made it in such a way that no one would think of running in that manner, but today I found I was only fourth in the males for the Two Big Zeros (though 2 females have also run it), a massive 2:00 behind the fastest. I did feel hard done by when I checked their results (between 1-5 years ago) and found that they had done my segment in a different fashion but were still credited with having done it the way I designed it. Doesn’t matter, as it is more for me to see how I am improving.

Monday, 10^th October:

Today, being my specific hill day, I drove up the road to Warramboo Hill Lookout where I parked the car. Apart from the mullock heaps created by the mines, the area is reasonably flat. Oh, there are inclines but these aren’t as challenging as the hills that I need to train on. I was hoping to be able to run to the top where the communication towers are, but I couldn’t find the track up. So I contented myself with jogging downhill to the tourist road, doing a U-turn and then heading back up to the carpark. But there were two other “roads” (rough 4WD tracks in reality) so I took the left one, only to find that it headed downhill to meet the road I’d just run up. So it was back to the tourist road with another U-turn so I could return to the car. This time I took the right one until it ended in a small turn around loop that lead me back to the carpark. This was going to be my new Strava segment: Starting at the car and heading along the right track to the loop, back to the car, down the hill, do the U-turn and return to the car. By the time I had done that three times I had had enough for the morning, my lungs not being so good today. Anyway, I’d run 11k with an elevation of 240 metres. So I’ll get some weekly hills for the month we are here, even if they’re not as steep as I would like.

Monday, 15^th October:

I think I’ve come to the point of taking my Monday long run out along the Tourist Road that passes Warramboo Hill Lookout, the Mother and Child Grave and the Amphitheatre. After Warramboo Hill the road becomes gravel—mud after rain—and it is fairly deserted. Wednesdays will be Warramboo Hill; Thursday and Friday out along the Sandstone Road; and Saturday I can do some laps around the school oval or the Race Club.

Wednesday, 17^th October:

Today I made a big mistake, though it wasn’t costly in any way. Last night I made up my drinks to take with me this morning so I could have one at the end of my hill session and another at the end of my version of RunClub. However, I left them in the fridge and didn’t realise it until I was almost at the parking area of the lookout. I had planned to do four hill loops, but stopped at the end of three, which gave me 157 metres of elevation and my new course record slashed 2:37 off my previous best. Maybe next week I’ll manage an extra loop, but I might need to reconsider what pace I run it. It turns out that my average time was almost a minute faster per kilometre than when I did these hills last week. Maybe that explains the lack of desire to do another loop. Well, there was nothing to drink so I wandered the carpark for a bit before heading downhill as I started my version of RunClub. I wasn’t sure how I would go but I was soon able to settle into a reasonable pace. By now the wind was picking up, which meant that it didn’t feel so hot. By the time I was running back up Warramboo Hill to finish this run I was running into a 40 kph headwind up a 40 metre incline over 600 metres. I found that to be the hardest part of today’s run, especially now, at 8 am, as it was already 24^o.

Wednesday, 24^th October:

There have been a few days recently when I just haven’t felt like running at all. I’ve felt as flat as the proverbial tack. But I’ve gone out because I had to, otherwise I’d be nowhere near ready for Bruny—and that’s my immediate goal. I must admit, though, that once I start running (perhaps after the first kilometre) that I feel fine and enjoy the run. Next Wednesday the temperature is predicted to hit 39^o, so I will really need to have an early start. My hills today went really well. Not only did I manage the extra loop today but I also had my two fastest times over that 2.5k segment.

Monday, 29^th October:

Today’s temperature for Mt Magnet was predicted to reach 36^o so I had the alarm set for 5.00 am to make an early start. As it turned out I didn’t need the alarm for I was up before time and had the kettle on for our three mugs of tea. I was away a bit after 6.00 am and tried to settle into my easy pace. However, it didn’t go according to plan. Even though I was still feeling a bit sore I commenced at 6.49/k and, apart from three kilometre splits that was my slowest split for the morning. No matter how often I tried to slow down it just didn’t happen. A hiker died in the heat the other day so Val was justifiably concerned about my long run in today’s conditions. Thus I made the decision to run to the end of the bitumen near the mill because there would be traffic on that road and double back until I was halfway into my time and then turn around and repeat what I had already done. I sipped my water quite frequently and had jellies every couple of kilometres as well. I tried to run on the bitumen, though the traffic around today meant I was frequently on the gravel, meaning my feet slid on the ground with each step. I gagged a bit on one fly, which I think I ended up swallowing. With about an hour to run I started to forget about my pace and just ran. I was getting too fast for this type of run but just couldn’t be bothered trying to slow down. It was too much of a mental effort to keep focusing on that—so I just continued to run by how I felt and thinking how this pace was going to be bad, very bad for my upcoming 50k and Bruny. As my pace continued to increase the heat was building up—28^o by the time I completed the run—radiating from the bitumen but I preferred that to the slipperiness of the loose gravel or fine sand (where the water settles beside the road after it rains) which I avoided as much as possible, except for when a vehicle was heading towards me. Then the sun began to sting, even though the UV index was only 4 at that time of the morning. My head was spinning a bit. I began to imagine myself collapsing or just sitting down propped up by a sign until someone stopped to come to my aid. However, I kept my fluids up and went through 500 mls of Staminade as well as much of my straight water—all of which was now warm for the sun had been beating down upon my back. Even up the hill towards the home straight my pace was much faster than I wanted, even with a 24 kmh head wind. When the wind gusted it didn’t feel quite so hot, but when it calmed down it felt like the blast from a furnace. So I plodded on and made it home safely—with a new distance PB for the 2 hr 30 GADP, though this was unintended as I am just trying to get long, slow runs under my belt. The whole run felt like I had a stone in my right shoe, just like I had the other day. It wasn’t till I arrived home and examined the shoe that I found a small piece of rigid plastic had embedded itself in the sole of my shoe and been pushed up to stick into my foot. My next long run, 50k, is due next Monday but we will be travelling down the Perth so I have rescheduled it for the following Thursday doing 10 laps of Canning River parkrun.

Wednesday, 31^st October:

Today was my last day for Warramboo Hill so I decided on trying 5 loops this week. Unfortunately, on my third loop I inadvertently hit the stop button on my Garmin. Before I knew what had happened it had saved the run to that point—fortunately it was saved and not deleted. I decided as a farewell to Mt Magnet that I would try my hardest on the last loop, which resulted in a 60 second course record. So I was pleased with that effort. It meant, however, that I faded badly on my RunClub 20 Out/20 Back. It was 28^o when I finished the run and even at around 8.30 am I could feel the sun’s bite stinging my legs as I ran. I had left my fluids in the car for these 40 minutes and was regretting that decision as I could feel that heat beginning to affect me. Anyway I made it safely back to the car for the short trip back to the manse where we are staying.

Thursday, 1^st November:

It’s just one month to Bruny and today’s 16k run along Sandstone Road wasn’t what I had planned. I found it impossible to get my time down to the 7:00/k that I want, no matter how hard I tried. So I just gave up and ran, with my average for today’s run being 6:26/k. Grrr!

Saturday, 3^rd November:

The couple of times I was awake last night I questioned whether I would even bother to attempt to run the Two Big Zeros segment on Strava. After all, my hips and legs were still a bit sore from yesterday’s attempt. Yesterday I was pleased to take 31 seconds off my previous attempt at that segment which meant I had the third fastest time and had been hoping to get the crown. But that will have to go by the board—unless we happen to come back another time. Today’s run was my last at Mt Magnet and I went out along Lennonville Road. As I ran I noticed lots of wiggly lines crossing the road—wiggly lines that looked like snakes had been crossing it. I kept a look out in case any decided to cross the road but I didn’t see any at all, for which I was thankful. I still couldn’t get my timing right and each kilometre was under the 7:00/k that I want to commence with for my two long runs in the next four weeks. My next run is planned to be 50k and I will run that along the Jurien Bay foreshore when we are there for a couple of nights on our way south to Perth. Hopefully we get there early enough on Monday afternoon to check out where I will be running before I actually start.

Tuesday, 6^th November:

Well, I completed my first 50k run, smashing my marathon PB by 29:19 in the process of achieving a sub 5hr marathon time, which is something I have aimed at for a long time. A more detailed review of this run can be found at http://roadrunner7310.blogspot.com/2018/11/last-big-run-before-bruny.html

Sunday, 18^th November:

As I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow about a growth on the side of my face I decided to do tomorrow’s run today in case he has to cut it out. I planned to run some loops around Pig Island while Val walked. Unfortunately, as I was coming to the end of my fourth loop, having run the third loop quickly and setting a new segment PB in the process, I found Val on the ground, having just tripped over a stone. She was a bit of a mess so I decided to cut the run short and take her home so she could have a shower and rest up. Val insisted that I complete my run, so I headed out along the Bike Track. As I did so, I meditated upon the fact that some of my running friends had just smashed out impressive PB’s in the Point to Pinnacle—and some of these I have run with previously. But now I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. Then it struck me—I’m now 70, old enough to be the father of some of them, and so can’t improve to the extent that these friends can. Perhaps I need some new running buddies who are slower like I am.

Wednesday, 21^st November:

It’s just over a week before Bruny and I needed facial surgery for a cancerous tumour that had grown very quickly over the last few weeks. Thanks to a cancelled appointment I was able to get in this afternoon and have it removed. I talked to the doctor about Bruny and he said that I was free to run—and that I could start anytime I liked. However, I did walk with Val at RunClub tonight as the biggest problem was my eye. Having had to take such a large piece that was about halfway between the ear and the eye meant that the skin was stretched for the stitches and I couldn’t close it at all. The pain wasn’t too bad as I could endure it, but Val is going to have to remove the stitches after I run Bruny. So it will be back to training tomorrow to see how I am going with it.

Wednesday, 28^th November:

Well, after holding a missions meeting at our place we left home at about 2.30 pm, planning to make Oatlands for the evening. We stopped at Hill Street IGA in Longford for some supplies for the week and then made out way south. As the Midland Highway upgrade was still in progress it was a slow trip, so we decided to camp at Campbell Town instead, planning to have an early start to catch the Bruny Island ferry at Kettering at the earliest time possible. We had a walk around town, which I found very difficult. My legs were aching, leaving me to question how I will go on Saturday. If Val could outplace me up the little inclines around Campbell Town, what will I be like on the real hills at Bruny. Maybe I’ve caused all this by getting ahead of myself. Being competitive I’ve done a bit more than Ben had me down for so I could make greater progress for Run Down Under with the aim of going up the leader board. We’ll have another little walk tomorrow after we set up camp. Hopefully by then I will be feeling better.

Saturday, 1^st December:

We arrived on Bruny on Thursday afternoon and, having set up the caravan in the low cost self contained camping ground that is part of the Bruny Landscaping Supplies property, we drove to Dennes Point to inspect the route that we would have to navigate on Saturday. And that first hill is not going to be easy. We drove the whole of the course, detouring into Adventure Bay to get fuel, so we would know what to expect. While we couldn’t see the changeover spots where Val could park the car so I could be supplied with what I needed, we at least had a better idea of the lay of the land.

On Friday we turned up at the CWA Hall at 11.30 am to get my bib, but there was no one there. Thus we went for a drive down to the historic Quarantine Station and spent a wonderful time exploring part of the site. I would thoroughly recommend it as a place to visit. After a couple of hours there we returned to the CWA Hall to find it was now open. In we went, only to be asked if I was Steve. As the Old Man in the solo run I wasn’t missed. Picking up the bib and some advertising material we headed back to the van for lunch, before heading down to Alonnah for a coffee. Imagine our delight when, in finding a toilet, we saw the name of friends of ours on the garage over the road who had been part of the Montrose congregation when we were there. We had a wonderful time with them and are going back for dinner on Sunday. Back at the van we set our alarms for 2:00 am, so I could be up early enough for breakfast (4 Weet Bix, 1 white dinner roll with honey and 3 mugs of tea). I slept reasonably well, even though I went to bed when it was still light—but it certainly wasn’t enough sleep for someone who had been so tired for the last few days.

Leaving the van at 3:45 am we drove north to Dennes Point, having to take the long way around for the safety of those runners and their support crew who were starting from 4:00 am onwards. I arrived at the registration desk just prior to 4:30 am and was immediately allowed to set off. As it was dark I had my head torch; and as it was cold I had my Runphoria jacket. I had decided to carry my Salomon vest with a few supplies in it in case I needed something in between the changeover points. It was a wise decision, as I was also able to carry my phone and thus take some photos. The first 2 kms was all up hill, and I had made the decision previously to walk the hills, and that was a wise decision because it meant I shouldn’t hit the wall. Power walking up them I was pretty close to the times I had extrapolated from one person’s run of the few years ago. Ahead of me, around the corner and at a higher altitude two runners were silhouetted against the sky. If only I had my camera, for it would have been a magical shot. But I was in the dark as to the times I was aiming to run after those first 2 kms because I had dropped my zip lock bag with the times in the car, and Val couldn’t find them until after I had done about 20 kms. In hindsight I think the misplacing of that timesheet was good as I ran the first half marathon distance about 30 minutes faster than I had planned. After 2 kms I handed Val my jacket as I was warming up and head torch as it was light enough by that stage for me to see. The sky was alive with colour catching the clouds. How beautiful that was especially as I was also able to look down on Storm Bay. As I continued to make my way along the gravel road to the main road cars where coming down—windows wound down with people, both known and unknown, shouting encouragement as they drove past. It was something I discovered the whole way to the lighthouse—people, most of them complete strangers and many who were not even part of the run, were yelling encouragement to me to keep on as they drove either north or south. It was a continuous refrain that was heart warming. And as runners overtook me in the latter stages most of them had encouraging words to say. Matthew offered me some of his watermelon; Dick Crotty jumped out of his car to give me a couple of barley sugars to suck (I wondered whether I should take them from a complete stranger in case they were laced with dope, but as I didn't run any faster I realised that there was no speed in them). My legs continued to get sorer and sorer—but the position of the soreness changed. My biggest worry was the pain shooting through my right knee every time I landed on that foot and the soreness behind the left knee. But there was nothing that could be done about that. As I passed through the first half marathon I was pleased with how I was running—yes, it was faster than I was aiming for and I was far ahead of my planned time but it felt comfortable. I began to work out possible finish times. If I could keep this up then I might even finish an hour ahead of schedule. And so I pressed on, every so often slowing down for a time to run or walk beside people I was overtaking. Even though it was a race there is such great camaraderie amongst most of the runners/walkers who just want to encourage others. As I continued on, other parts of my legs and feet were finding the going tough, but I endeavoured to maintain the best pace I could. Then I was drawing close to the marathon distance. I knew it would not be a person best, but I would settle for a second fastest marathon time, as I did not want to cause myself the problems I did when I did the 50 kms in WA. There I had pushed myself to get under 5:00:00 for the marathon distance, on a relatively flat course, and was immediately reduced to walking the rest of the way. Sense and sensibility was required today. And then it began to hit me. I was finding the going getting tougher. But I had been setting a cracking pace, far faster than was wise, but I told myself that it was too late to worry about that now so I kept pushing myself as best as I could for an Old Man! If only I could maintain the gap between what I had aimed for and what I was doing I wasn’t going to worry too much—at least not yet. It would be just too bad if the last few kms took their toll on my actual times. My shoulders began to droop; my back was beginning to ache from my drooping shoulders. And yet encouragement continued to come both from support crew waiting for their runners and from runners overtaking me. Comments like “You are awesome” or “You’re such an inspiration” continued to buoy me along. I often thought of all those who had sent me messages and texts in the days leading up to today as they told me that they knew I could do it. I felt that if I gave up at any stage then I would be such a disappointment to them—though I reality that would not be the case. It was just how I was beginning to think. At one stage Sally came by and we ran together for a while until the hills slowed me down. She lifted me spirits and I found myself running at around 6:10/k, so I knew that I still had in me for the final leg. Then it was Courtney with whom I ran for a while before I increased my pace. Such lovely ladies. All this time I was wondering where Ben Brockman and the Cupcake Ladies were. Just thinking of them spurred me on as I wanted to get as close to the end as possible before they sailed past. As the remaining kilometres passed under my feet I was slowing down, especially on the hills. I re-evaluated me finishing time, as, at this rate, I would now finish well outside of 8:30:00. It was increasingly difficult to power walk the hills, though I did try with limited success. The Cupcake Ladies caught me and they were just so wonderful. Words of encouragement abounded. As I drew nearer the end I somehow found an incredible boost in that I upped the pace quite dramatically and thought that maybe, just maybe, I could still come in under 8:30:00. It was such a joy to round the corner and see the Lighthouse atop the hill. Not far to go now. I strode along as fast as I could until that hill confronted me; until the steep path was in front of me. But there were the Cupcake Ladies who, having finished their relay, had come back to run that last little bit with me. Even as I write this tears are welling up in my eyes. Oh, how wonderful they were to think of me. Struggling up the path who should overtake me but Gabby Wilson, who took out third place in the women’s section. The Cupcake Ladies got me to the top and embraced me. I could hardly stand. I needed to lean against the Lighthouse so I didn’t fall over. I was able to sit down on a rock for a while before we headed off, rather gingerly at first, to the car and then to the Bruny Hotel for the formal presentations. This year there was a new award—the Dick Crotty Encouragement Award—which Dick was called on to present to the winner, which turned out to be me. Wow! Later, just before we were leaving, he came over to us for some photos and to encourage me. Getting up and down off the picnic blanket was hard, as was climbing the caravan steps but I would do it all over again—definitely not tomorrow as I will need a few days to recover.

At times, especially towards the end my mind was blank as I just put one foot in front of the other. I was running on auto pilot and there is much about today that has escaped me. But this is an account of what I remember. For those who have read this I hope that it has been helpful. Maybe, just maybe, it could encourage you to give Bruny a try as part of a relay team or even a solo effort.