Red Rock to Coffs - Waterworld Ultramarathon 2008 (45km)

Ow ow orggh ug.

OK, so I finished it. I've had a soak in the bath, an aspirin which did not help so I followed it with a beer, which is helping. Have doctored my one blister and am just sitting, which is, currrently, all I am capable of. I set off at 5:30am, the same time as the Kokoda Compass team. They seemed very 'teamy' so I ran ahead to let give them some space. I figured they'd soon catch up and we could chat.

Once out on my own I enjoyed the night sky and the pounding surf. The waves were quite exhilarating as they reared up in the moonlit sea and thudded and crashed onto the sandy shore. It was a lovely start to the race, I did not see another soul for about an hour. The sun eventually made an appearance and it was not long before I was slapping on the sunscreen. I did the first 15k's pretty quickly, running and walking but not pushing hard (I knew it was going to hurt later).

As I approached Arrawarra the runners who had set off at 6.30am began to catch up with me. I was rather excited to see a walker ahead of me who must have set off at 5am. So I ran for a while and overtook her, on passing I saw it was a sweet old lady and felt a bit guilty. Shortly afterwards I ran out of steam and started walking. Approaching Mullaway I got into a good walking rhythm and powered on for a long time.

I stopped at Woopi, for a banana and to rest my feet. The little old lady caught up with me with a devilish grin on her face. She stopped to chat for a while and that was it. We stuck together for the rest of the race. Sometimes I'd power ahead and sometimes she did. We did the last 20km together and it was great to have some company. Her name was Beryl and she was an amazingly fit 77yr old with lovely legs.

All in all it was great day, the weather was perfect and the company was wonderful. Near the end I was struggling to put one leg in front of the other. I'm not sure if that is because I only stopped for one break or if it was just pschological. I think it was actually because I am not fit enough.