The North Face 100km race was something I discovered while pre-paring for the Kokoda Trek, I had been buying my entire Kokoda Kit and found the North Face store in Melbourne, not really being an active person and knowing nothing about packs, jackets, thermals, light pants, shirts, hiking gear the guy who helped me out Russell in the Melbourne store was sensational, getting me into the most comfortable gear I could hope for, although I had already bought a lot of other stuff by the time I found out about the North Face I think I finished off the shopping exercise here.Russell started talking about the North Face 100, and had my mind ticking away to enter once I left the store.
About a week later I went on line to enter, sadly it was SOLD OUT! – so I put myself onto an unofficial waiting list in one of the forums, and a couple of days after returning from Kokoda I got that magic email..... My number had come up and now had an entry to the race.
Now with only 2.5 weeks until race day, my body was run down from kokoda – but I had an overwhelming confidence and optimism from my conquest over kokoda.
I averaged out my marathon time, added some extra time for toughness of the course and come up with a target time of 17 hrs
Now HOW WRONG WAS I, this course was and is the toughest thing I’ve ever attempted, set into he Rugged Blue Mountains national park – this is seriously tough! Did I say that twice? Three times? hmm maybe 100...........
In the lead up I decided to use most of the gear that I had around the house, but the requirements dawned and off I went buying flash lights, space blankets, a new race pack (yes, last minute decision on the Friday before the race) dropped into the North Face store Sydney, gloves, beanies, compass, jumpers, the list goes on.
During the Week my grandmother passed away, my mother was headed out on her Canadian and Alaskan adventure on the Saturday and the Funeral of my late grandmother on Friday, I resigned from my job with no certain future, and I also was in the last week of wrapping up with one of my favourite clients in North Sydney and I was turning 32 on the Sunday.
This was a jammed packed and very emotional week for a lot of reasons, The Friday appeared, no food supplies, my backpacks not finished being packed, and the new pack I bought had a defect, Crap!
Friday:
Early 5am start for North Sydney, Drop Past the North Face store to replace the bag, onto the funeral, lunch in celebration of my grandmother, back to my Mother’s house to pack up my gear, into the car with the gear that looks like I was headed out on a major expedition, I managed to get on the road, making good time, until I hit the accident up in the mountains – hours of sitting and waiting for it to clear, and panic kicks in only 2 hours left until registration closes, still haven’t got my food for the race and I am tired tired tired, lest than 12 hours till race start.
I ended up arriving at the race headquarters, the Fairmont resort blue mountains, quickly checked in had the bell man take my bags to the room and headed straight to Coles to shop for supplies, I had literally 10 mins to shop, I bought jelly beans, protein bars, water, Gatorade, jars of strawberry jam and white bread.........
This was not the supplies I needed later finding out; back to the race check in at the resort just making it to have my gear checked, and register...... woo hoo I finally made it........
Bumped into the guy who put this crazy thing into my head Russell from Melbourne, now this guy is a positive guy full of optimism and can do attitude....
Off to bed, the room service had stopped so no dinner! A call from Cheryl to tell me how nuts I was than into bed by 11pm (this was way too late)
6am ticks around up dress and down to the briefing (where I hear the organisers say how many people won’t make the end) I’m kind of pfttt that’s not going to be me.
And before we know it off on the run we are, this is exciting the hype, air of optimism and energy at the start line was contagious, here I am headed out like a marathon, till I figured out about the uneven surfaces with an almost ankle roll, Jeff slows down, the step descents and step ascents, the courage between the 500 odd competitors was amazing, looking at the way people encouraged each other, here I am keeping a solid pace km 1 – 15 was fine. 15-30 tougher km 30+ I am now having a coming to reality session with myself, and the start of re-assessing my goals.Checkpoint 1 – I was ok
Checkpoint 2 – I took a rest
I really started to struggle after checkpoint 2, this was when some rough mountains took every piece of mental energy to get through, I was next to one guy who decided to ditch his mate and press on, this was a war zone every man for himself and survival in the air.
People encouraging one and other to continue, it really embodied the Australian spirit of mateship.
I started to walk about half way through checkpoint 2, the saying came to mind “Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must just never give up!” coming into check point 3 the darkness was upon me and I needed to break open the flash light, and safety vest, making it in to check point 3 with no warn cloths, and a small flash light, my headlamp crapped itself.
I spent about 1 hour at checkpoint 3, this was tough but I still had energy, without a support crew I plopped myself down next to the pizza van and a margarita pizza was on its way, the owner seeing me in need of help he started encouraging me with words or positive reinforcement, look how far you have come already, than calling out to his staff to bring me bottles of Gatorade, this guy just started looking after me like I am a support crew, this gave me the energy to press on! Thanks Pizza GUY!
Fighting with my mind, finally heading out in search of check point 3, this is crazy stuff, still not having all my warm cloths, awaiting me at the next check point. The field was out and I was on my own for the next 15kms, I am not used to running in the dark let alone by myself and in the blue mountains with little glow ribbons stuck on trees to guide you.
The adrenaline kicked in and my mind wandered, now starting to think of how easy it would be to get lost out here, I ran, I walked, I ran, I crawled. My flash light started to break down, and this was the back up, I now had the added challenge of being ever so delicate with the flash light.
Along the way, a guy I bumped into giving me magnesium tablets from his little zip lock bag, I had no idea what I was getting but there was a trust between competitors.
I ran into another guy on this leg from Canberra, he was in need of water – so I am now sharing my camel pack of water with people.......
This leg was just not going to finish, now with temperatures well and truly at zero or below, I was struggling – I made it into check point ¾ at around 70km, now I slumped straight into a chair, around a heater and a -30degree sleeping bag chucked over me, I was struggling to raise my core body temperature, an hour and I get every piece of clothing I have and layer up, new socks, but I’m still cold, muscles aching the crew at this check point getting me Milo, lollies anything I wanted, encouraging again and again, 5 people dropped out......... am, I next, Up I got to go and started but my body was not moving – in the end my mind got me, and the final decider was me sitting at the bottom of the blue mountains space blanket wrapped around me and being helicopter out at first light..... I was not going to let this happen, but in hind sight it would have made for a much better story, I headed back to the pull out table and de-registered, the face book folks following the jou8rney were sensational, words of encouragement, and a couple of the girls from the North Face gave me a lift back to the hotel, I limped back to the hotel lobby, crawled to my room and couldn’t even get undressed by head hit the pillow at 11.59pm I than seen the clock tick over midnight and I was 32.
I was so disappointed but very happy to have myself in a warm room.
Waking up I went down past the finish line, and this was a gutting experience to see people crossing the finish line.
I suddenly realised I had taken away a very valuable lesson from this life, this day I set three new core values: 1 NEVER EVER GIVE UP, 2. ALWAYS TRY, 3. SOME TIMES YOU JUST NEED TO TRY ONE MORE TIME.
Getting back to Sydney, I was very ill and slept for 10 hours, went to the office Monday and was greeted with you look terrible, than all of a sudden I had people bringing me coffee Thank Naomi.
I am lining up again for this challenge in 2011, this time round I am getting a support team, I need Food People, Positive Motivational People, A massage guy, and anyone who wants to hold up a sign and cheer me on, and I will host one massive party are the finish!
If it is to be, it is up to me!
Cheers
Jeff
