17-18 Dec 2016: Six Inch weekend

The Six Inch weekend. Is it a holiday? Sort of, we did go away... Whatever it is, it certainly fits the name of this blog :-)

The Six Inch is a trail ultramarathon. From North Dandalup to Dwellingup, along the Munda Biddi bike bush trail. Forty-six kilometres of trail running. We stayed Saturday night in Dwellingup. I ran the Six Inch on Sunday.

Deb & I drove to Dwellingup on Saturday afternoon, to the Dwellingup Hotel. We stayed the night in a motel unit which is part of the hotel. A very nice unit, simple, clean, quite new (for a country motel).

We paid for the room as we checked-in... Last year we waited to pay as we left. We were only helping, not running, last year. Even so -- we left before dawn and before the hotel was open for payment of bills. We had to go back after lunch (after the event finished) to pay for the hotel. So this year we paid in advance.

This hotel provides a whole litre of milk! Actually enough for tea, coffee, breakfast and more tea and coffee! Brilliant! Anyway, we went out for coffee.

We went to the Blue Wren, just a short walk from the hotel. There are three places for coffee in Dwellingup -- Blue Wren, Millhouse, the IGA -- all within a short walk of the hotel.

Coffee and cake? I asked Deb. But we'll be having dessert after dinner, Deb said. Don't worry, I said, I'll eat most of it and burn it off tomorrow. So we had coffee and a shared chocolate honeycomb cheesecake. Delicious :-)

We walked back, around the block -- and discovered a garden/park which is maintained in memory of a past Dwellingup resident. Must go back in rose season, there are quite a few rose bushes. A very pleasant spot, I'm glad we found it.

Back to the hotel, a bit of a rest, then an early dinner.

I was tempted by the "curry of the day" but decided not to risk strange food on the day before a run. So I had steak. Deb had a wagyu burger. Both meals very nice. But nothing on the dessert menu appealed. We'll get a chocolate bar at the IGA, we decided.

The IGA was closed. And, speaking of closed: There's a small shop called, "with love from Bec". It's full of pretty knick-knacks. Gifts, perhaps. It's owned by the sister of the woman who cuts my hair. We'll drop in on the way back from the Blue Wren, we had decided. (Coffee was more important than saying hello to, probably, someone who runs a shop owned by the sister of the woman who cuts my hair.) And, after coffee -- that shop was closed. That's what happened last year, too !

Anyway, back to dessert: The IGA was closed. The Blue Wren was closed. So we bought a rather delicious chocolate cake at the Millhouse Cafe. Just one piece. We shared half for dessert. And have just eaten the other half -- Sunday afternoon, at home again.

So. Tea, coffee, cake in our room. A bit of TV. An early night...

To wake up at 2:30 am on Sunday. We weren't the only early risers. I felt sort of sorry for the person in the room next to us. He seemed to be the only person who was *not* wanting to wake on at 2:30 am on a Sunday morning.

Breakfast, packed a few things. I put vaseline on all the moving parts under the running shorts. And on the inside of my legs. And under the waistband, and on my nipples... I've learnt that it's better to be safe that sorry. Applied some sunscreen, though most of me just puts up with the sun.

We drove to North Dandalup Hall, for Six Inch registration at 3:30. Quick and easy, I'd picked up my race bib in town on Friday. Just had to check that I would be carrying the compulsory gear: strapping tape, crepe bandage, bandaids, mobile phone, a litre (at least) of water.

I had more than a litre of water, plus two iced coffees... I expected to be out on the course for up to eight hours. Or more. I didn't mention to the organisers that my mobile was switched off. No way its batteries would last for eight hours. (Thanks for the cheery "on the track" good wishes Andrew! I received it when I switched on the phone, back home :-)

Then Deb waited in the hall (where it was warm) while I did the standard waiting in a queue for the toilet. So many nervous stomachs before a trail run :-) And you don't want to have to go in the bush.

A woman's voice called, Nick, are you still in there? Yes, I replied... then realised it was not Deb's voice. But I'm not the Nick you want, I added. She (whoever she was) was back, five minutes later. Are you in there, Nick? This time several blokes in the queue replied, Not *your* Nick!

We drove to the start line. Just over a kilometre down the road. Some people were walking, some may have jogged. I was saving my strength.

I made sure I had everything ready to run. (I still forgot that I had meant to apply lip-sunscreen.) Deb drove back to Dwellingup. I waited for the 4:30 start.

Deb: Went back to the hotel. Went for a run (eight km plus a bit of walking) along the Bibbulmun Track on the other side of Dwellingup. Very nice, she said later, though there had been a fire and some parts of the Track were hard to follow. She was also worried about heading off with no-one knowing where she was, so she ran carefully.  I said (when Deb told me this) that I would have known where she had headed off to. Some time in the afternoon. When I had finished the Six Inch.

Then Deb packed up and moved out of the hotel. No-one in sight to take the key, so she left it in the room. Just as well we had paid in advance.

She went for morning coffee at the Blue Wren but it was crowded with motorbike riders. So she went to Millhouse, where there were only the overflow bike riders. By 10:30 she was at the Six Inch finish -- the grassed area across the railway line from the hotel -- and watching finishers dribble in. The winners would have finished between 8:30 and nine.

Meanwhile: At 4:30 the sun was just rising. And we -- me and the other Six Inch runners -- were off !

Off, and up a long... long hill. There are two very nasty climbs on the Six Inch: just before the second Aid Station, and at the start -- where a lot of people (eg me) are not really warmed up. I was prepared. I walked up.

So I established my position in the pack. Nowhere near the front. But not quite at the back.

What can I say about the run itself? Nothing much... I just ran and ran... and walked, and jogged... and walked. It was a looooong run.

My training had been regular but short. I never ran more than 12km at a time, usually less. I had carried a backpack on some runs, to build leg strength; I think it worked. But I should have done at least some 30 or 40km training runs... But I hadn't. I was quite pleased to be able to cover the 46km at all :-)

The trail went 18km before it crossed Del Park Road, about five bitumen km from the start. A lot of scenic winding around hills and creeks. I was quite pleased with this section: I had a pack of people, perhaps twenty, in sight ahead of me. Plus another dozen or so that I occasionally saw behind me.

After crossing the bitumen, the crowd ahead had moved away, out of sight. From then on, it was a series of one or two people appearing from behind then disappearing ahead of me. There were perhaps six people who I saw (or whom I saw) several times. They would pass me, I would pass them, they would pass me...

I had a "race plan". The key points were the times I should arrive at each of the two aid stations, in order to finish before the cut-off time. Cut-off was at 12:30 (eight hours), my plan was to finish at twelve.

I was thirty minutes early at aid station one :-) (That's 22km.) Lost half of that by aid station two. And was walking from there to the finish...

Coming in to aid station one I drank my iced (but warm) coffee. At the station I grabbed and ate a banana. The coffee was good but I was not game to mix it with the flat coke at the station. Flat coke is good but I suspect it would not sit well on top of milky coffee. I may rethink the coffee, for future runs.

I drank the second coffee just before station two (34km from the start). That was a mistake... The second milky coffee sat very heavy in my stomach. When I ran, it felt bad. Perhaps it was the addition of an icy-pole that I had at station two?! More rethinking required.

Just before station two is a hill. A steep hill, perhaps 45 degrees. A couple of hundred metres of track. With washaways running down the track. You have to pick a path, one of the ridges between washaways. Then change ridges, when one disappears. Luckily, this year, the loose gravel on top of each ridge seems to have disappeared. Washed away? I managed to get up with not too much trouble. The backpack training, perhaps?

Turn around at the aid station -- and go down that hill again :-(  Again, though, not too bad. Just slow.

And from there on -- another 12km to the finish -- I occasionally jogged a hundred metres of so. And walked the rest. With more people overtaking...

It was a battle between legs, stomach and brain. Legs said, let's walk. Or stop. Stomach said, slow down, stop bouncing. Brain said, keep walking, fast. Unfortunately, brain had also calculated that I could finish before the cut-off. Even if I walked. So I did a lot of walking.

At the start of the run I had kept myself going with thoughts that macho man finishing the Six Inch would be sure to get the girl. By the end -- a bit more tired -- I kept myself going by thinking, It'll be nice to see Deb at the finish...

And so, I finished...

Just short of the finish, race marshalls pointed up the footpath and said, Up there, cross the road, there's just 200m to go. What?! I replied, 200m?! Too far... I'm going back again... The comment was well received, I won't fire my scriptwriter.

And I finished. In 7 hours 21 minutes. And a few seconds. Well before 12 noon ! Well, nine minutes before. I was -- and still am -- very pleased :-)  Not a PB though... In 2014 (only other time that I have finished) I panicked, and had to run a lot of the last 12km. But that's a separate story...

Deb was waiting at the finish :-)

We sat, I drank water. Deb bought herself a hot coffee, I drank it, Deb bought herself another coffee. We waited for the presentations then drove home.

I was not as shattered as I had been in 2014. I still let Deb do the driving.

I'll never walk again... Certainly never *run* again.

Well, not till our next training run. But our next "fun" run is not till January next year.

An enjoyable weekend :-)

====
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
====

"No plan survives contact with the enemy." … Helmuth von Moltke the Elder