Sri Chinmoy Canberra Road 100km

Being a local event this seemed like a good one to do. There's no travel required, and not much of a logistical challenge especially given the looped format. If it goes really south, I just go home and it's no big deal (which in of itself is a mental line you need to be careful with if you make it too easy to quit!)

I'm not entirely sure a flat road 100km would normally be my thing, but one of the main drivers to run it is so that I have a qualifier for Coast to Kosci 2025, should I decide to apply to for an invitation to run it a third time. Not only that though, as there are also lots of friendly and familiar faces who will be running solo or relays, and/or supporting. It should also hopefully be good fun!

Preparation

Preparation was interesting - Recovery from C2K 2024 was key, and in hindsight I'm not entirely sure if I was fully recovered. Or rather, if I was recovered enough to jump back into training when I did.

I didn't sign up until the 6th of January, so about a month out from the race, and although I had been training it wasn't anything terribly specific. Once I'd decided to do the race I started to incorporate some more road running and flatter terrain to hopefully condition myself to the impact and the consistency. That included getting some good runs in around the lake here in Canberra.

Leading into the race I was a little bit worried that I wasn't giving the race the respect it deserves, as I wasn't too worried about doing the distance. I'm still unsure if this is arrogance or experience. The reason I wonder if it's experience is because I knew that on an average day I could cover the distance and getting through it wasn't going to be a problem (barring some kind of acute injury, serious GI issues, or the number of other things that can go wrong).

Race Day

The race starts in the evening at 5PM and goes into the night, the idea being that hopefully it can avoid the worst of the heat should it be a hot day (Spoiler: it was). The afternoon was forecast to be warm, at a bit over 30ºC. It also turned out to be reasonably humid, and both of these things would play a part in my eventual suffering.

The setup was pretty chill, and upon arrival we mostly just hung around the transition area and setup next to Matt and Amanda, and Brent who was crewing for Cassie Smith. As much as I definitely prefer adventurous runs, the party atmosphere of the start finish line was very cool.

We spent the time shooting the breeze for a while and then a few minutes before 5PM we all assembled around the start line, both relay and solo runners, and then started off. It's all really wide path, so there aren't any issues with congestion which is always nice.

As is tradition by now I went out way too fast. Like, seriously. I probably shouldn't have been doing sub-26 minute 5km laps to begin with at the start of a 100km. My fastest laps were the first three laps, all under 26 minutes.

Despite going way too fast the first few laps were really fun, and I kept telling myself I would slow down. It's easy to get caught up in pace and the fun of everything, even though I knew I was going too hard I still just didn't slow down, which was certainly a mistake that I would inevitably pay for. Because I was going way too fast, and working way too hard I don't think I quite managed my hydration appropriately and let myself get a bit dehydrated - Again, something else that isn't really ideal at the start of a 100km race.

The first hints of my eventual demise were at around 20km or 30km into the race when my legs started to feel really fatigued. This is definitely far too early to be feeling this way, when there's still another 70 or 80km to run (which is a long way, just to clarify). Despite this I still didn't really slow down too much, until after 30km where I 'eased off' to 27.5 minute laps...

Somewhere around lap 5 or 6 the sun went down. It was an excellent sunset looking out over the lake.

Honestly, what else would you rather do on a Saturday night?

From conversations amongst our crew, and for the few laps we ran together it seemed like Matt and I both had similar experiences - the consistency and hard surface was more difficult than we expected and we both went out too hot. I was really starting to feel like my legs and in particular my feet were really banged up which I think was probably because I wasn't used to the hard concrete surface.

A little bit further into the night I saw a friend and her puppy at the halfway point in the lap which was an excellent morale boost. There's something about giving the good pup a scratch that helps to raise spirits, and although it didn't help my trashed legs and aerobic system, it at least helped mentally a little bit.

Somewhat amusingly there was a wedding up at the function centre at Regatta Point (given it's Saturday and all). Good vibes, and I'm sure the people getting wedding photos taken in Commonwealth Park probably wondered what all these idiots running around and through the park were doing. We might have interrupted some photos, but at least it would be memorable for them!

Despite it being pretty obvious that I had started too hard and fast I mostly managed to hang on until about the 50km point, then from there the second half was survival and I certainly remember thinking to myself "well this is going to be a long 50km". It was a pretty decent decline from here, as my splits show. Everything after 55km was above 30 minutes until the last lap.

From this point it basically became a mental game of getting through each lap and making it back to the start/finish area. I was still consuming gel but just wasn't really eating anything in between laps despite Rachel's best efforts to shove food into my face, though I did drink quite a lot of water and coke (probably because I was dehydrated...). After the transition area I'd run the next kilometre or so and generally try to run all the way to the halfway aid station. I succeeded on most laps, except possibly my slowest, where I walked a section in the first kilometre. Most laps I'd generally walk the small rise up to the aid station until just past the aid station, and on some laps I'd walk a bit longer.

From the aid station I'd do my best to run all the way back with the exception of the small hill just before returning to the start/finish area.

If I'm completely honest the night laps became a bit of a blur and I was focussed on breaking down each lap section-by-section and surviving each lap.

Having said that, watching Estefanía Unzu Ripoll move around the course was incredible. Estefanía not only was the women's winner and second overall in 7:47:46, but she also set a new Spanish 100km record. I still don't know how she is able to keep that pace up for the entire 100km.

The relay runners with bigger teams come storming past lap after lap, but as the bigger teams are generally faster they slowly die down as the teams finish.

Eventually as we get deeper into the night it starts to become a bit eerie...

The folks out and about doing various Saturday night things (what normal people might consider Saturday night things anyway) start to taper off and disappear and the night becomes quieter. The wedding up at the function centre which has been a pretty hectic party for the night wraps up and then all becomes silent in that section of the course.

Then all that's left is me, the other 100km solo runners still plugging away, and a few of the relay teams who are doing longer stints.

As the laps started to dwindle down into the last quarter I was focussed on getting to milestones. Initially I was focussed on 80km, then 85km, then it's just one more lap to 90 and from there it's only two laps left. Basically the whole thing was an exercise in gaslighting myself until I get to the finish. As the splits tell, I was moving much slower and my laps were less consistent through the second half.

From the penultimate lap I knew I was going to try to send it on the last lap, and I was counting down each kilometre, passing each sign and knowing I had less than 10km. It's just 10km, you can always run another 10km right?

As I ran through the transition area for the last time I just grabbed a gel for the last lap, and then tried to run reasonably quickly and ensured I ran the entirety of the final lap, not stopping to walk at the aid station like I had been doing.

I was still counting down each kilometre, this time knowing that each one was less than 5km to go do the finish. Eventually I got through the aid station, past the lap 3km marker (so only 2km to go), then onto the gravel of the park signifying I was nearly at the end.

The final 'hill' (small rise, really) still hurt as much as ever and then I crossed the line to finish the Sri Chinmoy Road 100km in 9:46:41. This is my fastest 100km time and I'm very happy with a sub-10 hour finish. This would put me as the 7th overall finisher, or 5th male.

Matt finished not far behind, also coming in under 10 hours. As we sat in our chairs immediately afterwards I'm pretty sure we both agreed to never do that again and to stick to the trails...

From there it was a hobble back to the car, getting a couple hours sleep at home before coming back in for breakfast and the presentations.

A massive thank you to Rachel for once again crewing one of my races, which is without a doubt the more difficult job.

I'm not sure I'd do another one of those road races, but at least now I have a qualifier if I decide to apply for Coast to Kosci 2025...