Pushing the Boundaries, 100km the hard way.

People have been pushing the boundaries in lots of sporting events. Faster and further than I had ever imagined. I always thought it was the realm of the professional sports people and super talented.

In resent times average people have started doing some pretty incredible feats. Maybe they have always been doing it but social media has made it easier to see and the information on training and diets has been more accessible through the likes of you tube.

I had heard of a few friends that that starting running Ultra events. I have always liked running and have even done a few marathons but I used to think there was no way I could run an ultra (which is any thing over the full marathon distance of 42.2 kilometres).

Until I heard it was acceptable to walk! So when covid hit and we were confined to a 50 kilometre radius of our resistance. I thought it would be the perfect time to give in a crack. I was not running that well at the time but had still been walk lots at work.

So one Saturday morning back in 2020. I got up at 2am and was out the door with my head lamp, walking up the hills and jogging the down and flat sections of our local nature reserve.

My boundary and where I really got to know myself was 75 kilometres in. I had planned to do 4 of 25 kilometre laps with a rest in-between, back at my house, to re stock and refuel. @consciuscat was there for support but at 75 kilometres things weren't that good. I was had not been able to run for while and even my walk was getting slower and slower.

Luckily after a sit down and some real food. I was able to get back out the door and felt ok for a while.

I was hoping to be finished before it got dark again, (the main reason way I started at 2 am). Unfortunately that idea disappear with the fading light and the last 20 kilometres seemed to drag on forever. The all over body ache was intense, there was no way I could have done it without the trekking poles which helped take a bit of load of my legs.

After getting this far where was no way I was not going to finish but in the end I was breaking it up into 500m sections and resting on tree stumps in-between.
Strava has my moving time at 18 hours but the overall time was 21 hours 37 minutes.

One of my hardest weekend experiences ever!