Year in Review 2022
I chose ‘momentum’ as my key word for 2022.
After two years of covid lockdowns making me feel like I was stuck in one spot in more ways than one, I just wanted to move in 2022, preferably in a forward direction, preferably overseas at some point in time.
January started off with promise. I had finally changed jobs after 4.5 years at the one place, and was getting interesting and challenging work. After parting ways with my coach of three years a couple of months prior I had found momentum with running again on my own terms. I was looking forward to finally heading up Mt Bogong around Australia Day. I had two projects I wanted to complete in summer 21/22 and that was Mt Bogong and the Guthega traverse.
Part 1 – Pause
My plans were paused when I fractured several bones in my left foot after falling off a rig. Initially I was very disappointed I couldn’t go up Mt Bogong, but wasn’t that concerned about my foot. People break their toes all the time and seem to be back in four weeks or less. Unfortunately that wasn’t my story. Due to the location of the bones they were slow healing due to blood flow issues with the area. It was ten weeks before I was able to run (1min runs with walking in between).
Being injured is not great for any endurance athlete, and I did my best to stay involved in the community. I still went to races and volunteered including at Spartan Bright, Spartan Marulan, the Australian Mountain Running Championships and Kowen Winter Trails. It is ok to feel both happy to be around the running community and unhappy to be missing out.
Volunteering at twister at Spartan Bright 2022. Fellow canberran Adrian Redman going through on lap two of the ultra.
Volunteering at Spartan Bright 2022. Shannon giving me sass on her way through on her second lap.
Volunteering at twister at Spartan NSW.
Stairway to Sparta at Spartan NSW. Robyn Koszta about to take a grab.
Volunteering at Kowen Winter Trails. -6 degrees is not a great temperature to be a volunteer at an aid station.
Sunrise at Kowen Winter Trails. Very frosty.
Previously when injured I have stayed well away from races until back to fitness. I did the opposite this time. Two weeks after returning to running I was cleared to run 10km which meant I could do the Super at Spartan NSW. As you could predict, this ended poorly because I couldn’t actually jump that well yet (though had been cleared to land safely from obstacles). My race featured a lot of burpees as I could not get over the 8 foot wall or stairway to sparta. Three weeks later I did the Alpine Challenge 16km at Falls Creek as a long run. By May my jumping rehab had progressed and I could introduce very small amounts of downhill running, meaning I could compete in True Grit SA. The Australian Mountain Running Championships were held at Mt Tennent on 11 and 12 June 2022, 12 weeks after I started running. I still wasn’t able to descend at race pace, so although I got to race the uphill course, I could not race the classic up and down course due to my knee being overloaded from the introduction of downhill running a few weeks prior. This also meant I missed out on Kowen trails. My knee still wasn’t quite coping with the load but I insisted on racing True Grit NSW. I would do things differently next time. In particular performance would have come back quicker if I had not pushed returning to racing so much. Most of these races would not have been on my radar if I had been in full health.
Despite taking away the first 6 months of the year, there were some good things that came from my broken foot. Mainly that I started working with coach Ian Hosek, so I could get use to his style while injured and then trust the process when returning to running. I am positive that if I wasn’t working with Ian I would have picked up some other major injury immediately after returning to running. I had never taken a 3 month break from running so did not appreciate that I was essentially starting from the beginning and that it takes a long time to recondition ligaments and soft tissue to running. Other positives were spending a lot of time cross training on the bike, which gave me the skillset to continue road cycling throughout the year. I also actually followed a taper program for the first time for the Australian Mountain Running Championships (previously I would have tapering on my program but wouldn’t follow the programming) and started to see tapering is a positive thing.
Return to run race results
3/4/22 – Spartan NSW Super 10km 185m vert 1hr 5min – 4th female
23/4/22 – Alpine Challenge 16km 351m vert – 1st female
14/5/22 – True Grit SA 11.3km – 2nd female
11/6/22 – Australian Mountain Running Championships uphill course 6.2km 700m vert – 7th female
25/6/22 – True Grit NSW 11km – 2nd female
Part 2 – Play
Finally with my broken foot healed, the second part of the year was all about playing in mountains. By July I could run downhill and finally I could train again on my favourite mountains. Getting covid effected my lungs for four weeks afterwards but I could still spend time running at Mt Coree, Bullen Range, Tidbinbilla, Mt Gingera and Mt Tennent. In August I spent three weeks playing in the Canadian Rockies, travelling through Banff, Yoho, Glacier, and Revelstoke National Parks. I finally did a beginner mountaineering course at Columbia Icefields and climbed Mt Athabasca. There are so many shiny mountains in the Rockies. My neck got sore from looking up the slope ahead while climbing up mountains and from gazing at summits while camping in the valleys.
Day 2 in the Canadian Rockies. Can confirm it is the rockiest place I have ever been.
Just before sunrise at Lake Louise, Canada.
Views on route to Mt Rundle.
Looking down at Lake Louise from Plain of Six Glaciers.
It is possible to take on too much mountain. In my first five days I did Sulphur Mountain, Mt Rundle, the Iceline Loop, two days of mountaineering school and Mt Athabasca. The day after on the Edith Pass loop I completely ran off the single trail onto an exposed shelf because I was so fatigued I could barely follow a path. When I found myself balanced precariously on a cliff the only way back was to climb up. Luckily some hikers were passing on the actual trail which was about 200m away and I could follow their voices to get back on path. The Rockies can be dangerous so probably don’t go alone when that fatigued. It took 11 days but at Glacier NP I finally saw a grizzly bear on my way to Mt Sir McDonald. While they look like teddy bears in photos, grizzly bears are legitimately terrifying when you encounter one eating berries. At the end of my Canada trip I was fortunate to race the Spartan North American Championships at Big White Ski Resort. This was quite a big race to choose as a comeback from a broken foot and also my first Beast race in 2.5 years.
Back in Australia I trained solidly through September with a focus on building back to skyrunning, the type of running I enjoy the most. In October I travelled to Queensland for Spartan Gold Coast and Victoria for Bright 4 Peaks. At Bright 4 Peaks I raced Mt Buffalo, Mt Feathertop, Mt Hotham, and Mystic Hill on back to back days, something that I wasn’t able to complete the first time I attempted it. In November I raced Triple Top, Tasmania’s preeminent skyrace that traverses Mt Roland, Mt Claude and Mt Van Dyke on very technical terrain. There was torrential hypothermic rain throughout the race and I have never raced in such challenging conditions, made even more challenging by coming down with a virus (not covid) a few days before. After recovering from the virus it was only a week or so before Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko. The course was rerouted to take out most of the vertical gain, and this race highlighted the changes I need to make to training for the coming year. Hoping for less pause and more play in 2023.
Race results
27/8/22 Spartan North American Championships 24km 1,299m vert 9th female
28/8/22 Spartan Kelowna Super 13.4km 611m vert 2nd female
15/10/22 Spartan Gold Coast Beast 21.7km 895m vert 2nd female
29/10/22 – 1/11/22 Bright 4 Peaks 3rd female (overall result from the four mountains)
13/11/22 Triple Top 19km 1,079m vert 2nd female
15/12/22 Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 8th female