April 21, 2021

Buffalo Stampede 2021 race recap

I get goosebumps every time I go to Bright. Bright is home of the Buffalo Stampede, Bright 4 Peaks and Spartan Bright Trifecta weekend, and not far from the start of the Great Southern Endurance Run and the Wandi Cross. My favourite Australian mountain, Mt Feathertop, is only a stone’s throw away. Also nearby is Mt Hotham, Mt Buffalo, and Mt Bogong. So many mountains. So many goosebumps.

The week before Buffalo Stampede was a bit crazy for me. I badly bruised my right heel when I stepped on a rock descending the Wednesday before (it is still bruised). I couldn’t take time off work on the Friday so squeezed in the five hour drive after work. I made it to Bright, picked up race packs and still had time to look at Emily’s Spur in the twilight (Mystic climb firetrail). Only issue was I managed to lose my car key somewhere in the one hour I had been in Bright. I am fairly sure it dropped out on Emily’s Spur. Bright is surrounded by pine plantation, and if you lose a key among the pines, you have almost zero chance of relocating the key as the trees all look the same. This is why eucalyptus trees are the best, they are always so different to each other and simple to use as landmarks. Anyway, I had lost my car key. All of my race gear was inside the car.

Following a lot of anxiety, I walked back to my car and by some fluke I had not locked the car and so could get inside so I had gear for the race on Saturday. I also hadn’t organised accommodation, but luckily Graham, my OCR friend from Sydney had spare floor space so I slept snug on my camping mat.

Photos of Emily’s Spur – Mystic mountain climb – taken on the Friday night.

The 20km skyrun (also the national short course skyrunning championships) has 1,400m of vert on an out and back course. However, the first and last 3km along Morses Creek are completely flat, which means the 1,400m of vert is spread across only 14km, with much of the climbing at 35-40% gradients. This was my third attempt at the course, coming 4^th in 2018 and 1^st in 2019.

The start line was a massive reunion with so many people I hadn’t seen since pre-COVID19. In particular it was awesome to see Penny Deacon and Jono (Jonathon Ewards) from Canberra. It was a cool morning, but not too cold, and after the first kilometre I had taken off gloves and buff. The first three kilometres went by in a single trail blur. Much concentration is required in this first part, winding through the caravan park, making sure you cross the correct bridge, and then joining the firetrail up Mystic. Paige Penrose was leading and so I started the Mystic ascent in second just ahead of Sara-Jane Donges. Emily Spur was more eroded than two years ago with more exposed rock, so although the ascent was runnable in parts, and at intersections with other firetrails, I was power hiking more than I thought I would be. The Mystic climb tops out onto a single trail which then flows onto a shallow gradient firetrail that leads to the Micks track descent.

This is where the cracks began to show for me. Although I had done plenty of technical descending on long runs in the preceding three months, I hadn’t been able to do any downhill speed work for about 1.5 years because of my patella femoral injury followed by plantar fasciitis, and this really showed. My bruised heel also didn’t help the situation, though I had chosen to wear shoes with slightly more cushion than I would normally choose in a race to help the heel pain. Mick’s track is 36% average gradient, and over 40% in parts. It is eroded and technical, and so if you haven’t prepared specifically for technical descending it will show. I wasn’t descending confidently, smoothly or fast, and about halfway down SJ passed me, descending at a super impressive pace. Yes, being local probably helps, but what helps the most is practising downhill, so can’t wait to get back into it now my body is holding together. Even Jono, who is decades older than me overtook me on Mick’s Track.

The relatively flat section connecting Baker’s Gully with the Clearspot Track was next. I got some time back here, running fast to overtake Jono and get SJ back in sight. The Baker’s Gully firetrail is always dotted with spectators and so it is good to soak up the energy here (while running fast).

Clearspot is the longest climb of the skyrun and is almost 100% powerhiking, though towards the summit the firetrail becomes runnable in parts. The ascent was solid for me, I could see that I was very slowly gaining ground on SJ who was ahead of me. Paige was killing it, far ahead of all the other females and coming fourth overall, and was descending smoothly and confidently. SJ started the descent at a crazy fast pace. I knew now that with two big descents to go there was no way I was going to catch up. Instead of being devastated about my descending, I tried to use it as practice, and that helped me relax, making the Clearspot descent faster than I anticipated I would be. Back in Bakers Gully, my legs felt like jelly and I felt a bit nauseous and dispirited, running by myself and no one close by in fourth. Although my descending was slower than normal, looking at my splits I am a bit disappointed in myself that where I lost the most time was transitioning between descending and ascending in Baker’s Gully and also the flat 3km to the finish. I definitely needed to be more focused in these sections rather than beat myself up about the descent I just did.

Starting the Mick’s Track climb just before the power hiking gradient starts.

Anyway, despite the negative self-talk I got to the Mick’s track ascent which I love and overtook a couple of men on that ascent. Topping out of Mick’s track, I knew that this was the highest risk part of the race for someone to overtake me, because the only parts of the race left were descending Emily’s Spur and a flat 3km to the finish. I tried to descend Emily’s Spur as quickly as possible by relaxing as much as possible and focusing on leg turnover. This worked and the descent went far better than I thought it would, overtaking two men. The last three kilometres to the finish line were so tough despite being flat. The jelly legs from hard descending, nausea from blood pressure dropping, and the fact I was completely by myself, made it tough. One kilometre from the finish I was feeling so terrible I had a walk break for a couple of seconds. By then one of the men I overtook on Emily’s Spur passed and I tacked onto them towards the finish.

After passing through the caravan park Sarah Jane Miller was waiting with her family and that was so awesome and she jogged with me until right before the finish, and prevented me from taking another walk break. Somehow she managed to get to the other side of the finish line to give me a hug which was very welcome because I needed someone to collapse on! Shivonne Watson came in fourth a while after, followed by Penny Deacon in fifth. My OCR friend Graham successfully completed the race and later told me he had no idea how steep the gradients would be. I need to do a better job at briefing my friends on what they are signing up for!

Thank you Single Track for putting on Buffalo Stampede in 2021. I think everyone will agree that it was run super smoothly and professionally with the trail running community at its heart, which is what we all like to see at events.

I am looking forward continuing the build post injury, sharpening my descending skills and fixing the self-talk for Buffalo Stampede 2022. Or more pressingly for UTA22 in a few weeks.