There were many!!! DNFs (Did Not Finish), as you would expect on a challenging course like this one.
Tough crosswinds towards the end and some significant hills throughout the course.
Beautiful views of the bays, seacliffs, salt lakes frothing, one of the lighthouses on the island and so on.
Army cadets manning the drink stations, the dollar girls with songs like;
"īts the end of the world as we know it, but I feel fine" ,
and "Harry" playing the bagpipes throughout were some of the sights and sounds that made this marathon a very unique, demanding!/challenging, memorable,rewarding and FUN! experience!!!
Got swooped by a seagull of all things *LOL* :-) alongside one of the salt lakes towards the end,
but didn't see any of the infamous dugites out there.
Knifing through tough crosswinds on my last lap, with large salt lakes on either side
reminded me of a scene from one of my favourite movies Twister.
Jon in a bunch of runners during the first 2-5km....and about 40km later at the finish.
Bunch photo source; WAMC website....
More race photos coming in future weeks HERE....
they will be from Fuse Photography....
Quokka and Island photosHERE
Team K failed on the team goal of sub 11hrs 45, as M was forced to abort the Marathon after 23km with a cut foot, and also I think our times were affected
by the demanding course conditions, and less than optimal preparation/training for it.
I only decided to do this Marathon 3 weeks beforehand and relied on my ongoing daily cycling, plus one 30km training run, and a few reps sessions to get me through.
My 4.32, plus D's 3.09 and N's 46 in the 10k = 8hr 27 ??? However D's top ten effort, and N's run were very good, while I was happy just to finish the thing....
Some of my splits from the race;
1k;4.38... 2k; 9.24.... 3k; 14.07..... 4k 19.27..... 5km 24.25..... 10km 50.15
Half Marathon(21.1km); 1HR 59min.00 .............30km; 3 hrs 5 min 5 seconds
Marathon Assault BLOG.....Racing 2001-2005 pages...WA Marathon Club
VENI! VIDI! VICI!
Race Comments;
My target pace was to start on about 4.45-5min per km, which I did for the first 10km,
it was good running with Dr Dan and one of the Comrades legends from about 7k-10k.
The hills were taking too much out of me though, and with my limited fitness and training,
I decided to throw in the towel on the 5min per km pace about 12km into it and settle back to hopefully about 5.30-6min per km.
In hindsight maybe I should have tried to stay with those two longer,
but I might have hit the wall a lot harder near the end if I didnt slow up then.
Not many km markers made it very difficult to work out my pace for the next 10-20km, plus I lost time and rhythm trying to improve the blister problem with my sock....
Stopped for about 5-10minutes about 1hr30 into the race to try and rearrange my sock, clean out stuff from my sock/shoe that was causing me pain around my big toe. Seemed to help although I ended up with several big blisters around that area on that foot by the end of the race. New thorlo socks the problem?
The heat was not a major factor,(although I got severely sunburnt/windburnt) and the hills and crosswinds on the last 20km were really taking a lot out of me... My limited running in the weeks before, was making its presence felt too in the second half of the race. The race had become a war of attrition for me, to just survive to the end.
Enjoyed the sights and sounds a lot, very! interesting course to run, with some beautiful views and a lot of encouragement when you got back into the settlement at the end of each lap, but lots of solitude at other times. Used some of the front runners lapping me to crank up the pace a few times, including when D came through...The army cadets were doing an excellent job on the drink stations, probably one of the best organised and operated drink stations I have seen in a long time, and I have seen plenty!
The crosswinds on the salt lake "causeway" were horrendous on my last lap, but my carboshotz, gatorades,coke on the last lap, combined with water in the face and powerade from the drink stations throughout mix was working like a dream....Had a bit of a battle with a few of us backmarkers runners on the last lap which was good as it got me going a bit, and passed a few guys in the process...Had km markers for the last 9km which was VERY! important to have them...D and M showed up just after I paid the bagpipes bloke his dollar with about 5-6km to go on bikes to encourage us which was very welcome! Got going a bit the last 3km, and was very happy to finish!!!!
It was tough! but I love a good challenge every now and then!
One of my favourite memories from the weekend is climbing over stacks of nocturnal? quokkas on the way back from the carbo-loading party the night before the Marathon.
Its a real team effort for something like this to happen, and I am sure there are many people the WAMC works with to get something like this to happen.
It was a real team effort for our group of runners (Well Done! Team K) to get over there and make a success of the weekend, and there were also many people providing crucial support/encouragement/motivation/useful advice as well.
For me some of the main ones would be my parents getting me to the ferry terminal and back, and my new friend from USA, as she is someone close I could talk about the race with before and after.