Spartan Bright 2019 race recap
It is almost impossible to visit the Victorian alps and not leave feeling inspired. I started the weekend extremely anxious and unhappy and finished the weekend confident and energised. Thank you Bright for making me feel like myself again!
Two weeks out from Bright I was running really strongly. I’d come back from two weeks of trail running in the mountains of California in the US to win a local 20km race at Majura Two Peaks. I’d then got my OCR racing confidence back at Spartan Canberra and had completed a few really solid vert sessions and long runs. Then I got really, really sick. I was in bed with a fever for five days. The weekend before Bright I was able to do two back to back 17km runs, but that was it due to still feeling shaky from the virus. Trying to run through the virus I also pulled my hip flexor badly and on the Monday before Bright could barely walk. It was unlikely I’d even be able to jog properly by the weekend, let alone complete a race. Racing both the Super and Beast as planned seemed completely unlikely. I was cleared to race by my physio but on my shakeout run on Thursday I was getting constant really sharp stabbing pain. I told myself the dry needles need a bit longer to kick in, but after what seems like a whole year of injury I know the difference between a pain you can race with and a pain that was crippling, and this was in the latter category. I decided that on Saturday and Sunday I would do the warm up and if it was sharp stabbing pain I would not race. Anything less I would.
Friday I had the day off work, and arrived in Bright at 1pm after a 6 hour drive. I went straight to my favourite waterfall Lady Bath Falls for a swim and leg stretch. Lady Bath Falls is found on the way to Eurobin Falls at the base of Mt Buffalo. I then went to do some foam rolling at Howitt Park. I was chatting to a local lady and patting her dog when we spotted a platypus in the Ovens River. A platypus sighting mid afternoon is pretty special. It was definitely feeding and surfaced about 20 times before we lost sight. That was really special and I decided that even if nothing else positive happened to me the whole weekend that made it worth it.
I was then on the athlete panel at packet pick up with Lachie, Liam and Bianca. The audience was really supportive which made the interviews easy, but it just added pressure for me because I was unlikely to race the next day let alone perform well. I tried to welcome the pressure because I need to get used to this to achieve the goals I have set myself in 2020.
Super 14km 310m vert
The Super will be reduced to 10km in 2020. At 14km it was already on the lower end of the distances I am competitive at, with 21km being my favourite distance. I was desperate to run this race as it was my last opportunity to run a Super at its traditional distance. I had been expecting a similar course to previous years with a climb ¾ of the way up Mystic. Instead, when the course map was released, it was basically flat single trail along the river with two smaller climbs (to give context the 310m vert was less than half the vert of the Maleny Super). This would make the race a lot faster, which was bad for my hip flexor injury and definitely doesn’t play to my strengths. At 6:30am I arrived and did my warm up. I could feel my hip flexor and it was mildly painful but no stabbing pain. Woohoo! So I decided to race.
This was the most competitive female line up since National Series so there was a solid number of women on the start line being blinded by the rising sun. The race start went over a couple of walls before going straight up the river. With the extra resistance from the water and uneven rocks underneath, I had immediate pain in my hip flexor but on leaving the river to single trail my whole lower body was numb which was excellent. After the single trail there was a gradual firetrail climb with a sandbag carry through the woods. This was the longest carry and Paul had positioned branches over the path, but it was not particularly steep or difficult. There was then more climbing through firetrail and single trail but on a relatively gentle gradient until we came out onto the main Mystic fire trail for a short but steep descent to the bottom. Surprisingly hip flexor was fine. I find when injured if you can get yourself to run normally that is often the best way to avoid pain. If you try and alter your normally running style you often get injured elsewhere and get yourself into more painful situations. I knew from the course map there was a heavy net crawl right before the river crossing so I was running as fast as possible to catch up with the men running about 300m in front of me. I didn’t catch up to the men so I was at the net solo but I was able to get my head under the net and going on the muddy slope side it wasn’t too painful on my bare back. Paul had been relatively kind with the net crawl for once. After the water crossing there was more single trail along the river, rocky, with flowing undulations. I knew that Olympus was coming so tried to get time here too. Since failing Olympus at both Maleny and Picton I was extremely nervous about this obstacle and had been trying to get as much lead as I could to cushion any obstacle failures. I had spent hours and hours practising Olympus drills and practising on Olympus at Burns. I jumped onto Olympus and immediately had hip pain in the squat position so I did the obstacle with knees on the board. Even with this, the obstacle was easy. Although I’ve probably improved a bit I think the dry conditions in Bright definitely helped. After that there was about two kilometres of uninterrupted single trail with a further river crossing to get back to the main oval and obstacle gauntlet.
I’m not sure if it was the dry conditions, or it was just me, but the obstacles feel like they are getting easier and lighter every race. The bender was slightly damp with dew. Next up was atlas carry. Spartan must have purchased new stones, because this was 30kg maximum. I just picked it straight off the ground, probably could have cleaned it onto my shoulder. If you’ve ever seen me do this obstacle before you know this is not normal. I personally don’t think its worth the extra time and risk to clean the ball onto your shoulder because the distance of the carry is super short.
Monkey bars, Hercules hoist and cargo net complex were as normal. I didn’t do any rolls on the cargo next because I was scared Ill tweak my hip flexor so that was slow. Spear throw was next. I arrived and literally all the spears and their ropes were tangled, it felt like I spent a good 30 seconds wrangling one free. I missed and started burpees. It was a nice place to do burpees with a bit of grass but firm ground so no mud. After 20 burpees Bec arrived, and also missed her spear throw.
The descent into festival was interrupted by an inverted wall but still allowed for a really quick descent. The obstacles before the finish line started with the barbed wire crawl and then the new Z Wall. The new style of wall is definitely favourable for taller people than the older style. I was reaching above my head for the holds. In saying that it is easier for everyone of all heights, but I really wish the obstacles weren’t getting easier. The multirig, which was just rings, was next. It would also be nice to actually have a ‘multi’ rig. The word ‘multi’ is meant to mean multiple different holds, but we usually always have just rings. It would be really nice to see some baboon bars and short ropes to mix things up. I think there were 8 lanes, so even if there were 4 harder lanes that elites had to complete, there would be sufficient space for elite and age group as this obstacle was right at the end of the race. The final obstacle was the vertical net and then the finish. I cannot tell you how relived I was to finish the race let alone win. Although there was not much vert, the course was stunning and had the most single trail I have ever seen in a Super. There were no nasty surprises like last year’s cargo net crawl across the finish line, and I kind of missed that.
Beast 21km 930m vert
Saturday afternoon I did my best to stop the pain in my hip flexor but it was hurting just wearing my backpack and really hurt carrying groceries back to the accommodation. I agreed with Caine that if my hip flexor was acceptable in the warm up, then I would race. My hip flexor usually starts really playing up after 10km so we agreed that I would push really hard on the first ascent and descent of Mystic to try and get a lead so that the rest of the race I could push moderately. I couldn’t take my hydration pack because the extra rotation was hurting my hip flexor so I took a belt with gels and an empty 250mL soft flask.
It was great to see so many of the elite females from Saturday on the start line. In previous years at Bright there have been very few elite females who have entered the Beast after the first day of racing. After the leading Elite Ultra racers Quinton, Liam, Lachie and Josh P had passed, we were off. The course followed the same course as the Super but at two points continues up and down Mystic. After the sandbag carry when the Beast course diverged I started to push hard through the single trail. The single trail winded its way up so it wasn’t a slog but it was definitely steeper than the day before. The single trail was broken up by some moderate firetrail running where I tried to pick up the pace to make time. The last half a kilometre was power walking adjacent to the main Mystic fire trail. This was relatively slippery because of the thick pine needles and there were a few ferns across the track, but it gave those ascending good visibility of those descending Mystic ahead of them. I hit the descent as fast as I could go. The descent was uninterrupted which meant you could get a lot of speed on. On the descent I saw Bec on the last power walking section but that was my last sighting of any females during the race. The large amount of single trail made it difficult to know where everyone was on the course.
I ran the single trail as per the Super, again finding myself alone at the net crawl. I got under and started crawling along and there was a man in front of me crawling at snails pace, so I did my best to encourage him to move a bit faster, then crossed the river for more single trail. My hip flexor was worse than the day before so I again did Olympus on my knees. The obstacles in the festival area were the same as the day before with a few additions. Bender was more slippery for the Beast, but when its slippery I just get my feet on to a bar earlier, so it is only a couple of seconds longer to complete. Tyrolean traverse was an addition to the obstacle gauntlet. I’m not a fan of hanging upside down but having the advantage of short limbs helps me on this one. There was also an additional barbed wire crawl up a slope but on juicy grass. There was no torsion bar to take with us on the crawl like 2017 and 2018 which made it relatively quick. I made the spear throw and through the other obstacles then out of the festival area. This was much easier than it was for the Super on Saturday when I was shaking off the 30 burpees. My hip flexor did not tweak as badly on the bucket carry as during the Super so I could complete the obstacle at an acceptable pace. I was quite impressed with the volunteers and marshalls at this obstacle they were hard core enforcing the rule and even though I always fill my bucket generously above the line, my heart still beat faster when my gravel level was checked.
Race director Paul asked me how the race was and I said I was really happy to get to run some vert after the flatter Super course and that the hills were invigorating. It is possible to be completely physically exhausted but stoked by the course. I had not felt that way since Buffalo Stampede in April. For me this really highlighted that next year I need to try as much as possible to pick races that inspire and challenge me (aka more races with mountains) and minimise races I am doing because I feel obligated to do so.
It wasn’t just the racing and mountains that left me feeling recharged ready to take on another year. It was the people in the OCR community. From our share house of 7 and epic conversations at Saturday dinner to seeing sparkly people like Amy and Jords in the festival area and meeting new Spartans, there was energy everywhere I turned.
