Training Log: Mounty

Cracker of a day up at the North Face 100. Tough day out for Ramsy, who started in good spirits but never really found his mojo and pulled up after about 25k with an iffy gut and feeling dizzy. He turned around and walked back to Katoomba.

T'was a bit tricky to work out what was going on as Dari and I waited at CP3. First of all the timing gate didnt work at CP1 for the first 40 runners, and the then GPS tracker website was overloaded. After no sign of him on the result board from CP2 the GPS finally came to life and showed him...heading in the reverse direction. We jumped in the car and drove back, Dari using his phone to track Ramsy. We finally found him at the First Aid station near Katoomba, just as a medic tried unsuccessfully to take a blood prick from his finger....the needle wouldnt go thru the skin.

In the end he was real disappointed, feeling like he let the folks back home down, but slowly came good by the end of the day. The Kokoda guys really are great fun to spend time with. The best story was hearing that when he left home in Kokoda at 3am on Thursday morning he didn't actually know that he was heading to Australia to run 100k. He thought he had just been called down to Port Moresby for work. A side effect of this was that he hadnt told his wife where he was going, which resulted in a rather entertaining phone call a the international departure lounge the next day.

Close second on the story front was hearing how PNG is rugby league mad, in particular for State of Origin. At Efogi each year (halfway along the track) the village climbs the mountain with a TV, generator and aerial to catch the game. What an evening that must be.


Anyhooo....with Ramsy out of action we switched back to the front of the race to see most of the lads up front demolishing their PBs - robw included. Cracking show. I ran down the Kedumba hill hoping to fit in a rep b4 they came thru, but were all going so quick I ended up running past the top 6 guys as they ran up the climb the other way. They all looked pretty good.

Finished the day with a couple of beers back with the oxfam lads, a chat about the south pole with Cas and Jonesy (nutters), then up early and back to Sydney in time to catch Tom's rugby game on Sunday morning.

Midday commute off the back of an entertaining morning. I received an email from Gail in PNG that Ramsy's passport suddenly showed up last night at 7pm.

Ramsy is the guy who won the Kokoda run. Gail (the race organiser) had entered him in TNF but gave up hope on him making it a couple of weeks ago when his passport didn't come thru'. Much excitement over there when it arrived last night, the only problem is that getting an Aus visa is very difficult for tehm and usually takes 10 days. All sorts of shenanignas going on, chasing the Aus High Commission, letters from AROC etc....all while Ramsy was trying to get across PNG to fly to Brisbane. Apparently theyve been given a verbal its possible but still ongoing.

Putting all that aside, no logistics have been sorted at this end yet for him as they'd given up on coming. Time to step up after the hospitality they showed us. Looks like the time-pressured gear packing training from AR could come in handy tonight.

C • sounds like a great story i... 1

Lady Mac Chair-tervals. Its good to have a benchmark interval site that you've run for over 10 years, without having to resort to a track or pesky measurements on bitumen. Although it has probably put on a couple of seconds each way with tree plantings and growth over the years.

7 intervals on 4min (2:35,2:45,2:41,2:44,2:39,2:43,2:43 - the odd/return interval is 5 sec longer).

Glorious day. Shame about the whole going to work thing.

That tricky time of year when it is too brisk for just a jersey, too warm for the commuter jacket but arm-warmers/base-layer are too much of a hassle. Went with the over-warm option.

C • Paddy 2

Commutervals. Solid tempo on the ups, and a few flat drags. Quite tired by the end.

The biggest challenge with this session is timing the start of an interval. Ramping up just after someone has ridden past risks putting you at the twat end of a commuter-war.