Race week arrived!
I’ve probably never been so excited to sit down, start a blog post and debrief the 7 days just gone.
On Tuesday morning I did my last run in Adelaide before heading to Bali with little to no idea what I was in for. Obviously I knew on Saturday night I had to run a 84km ultra road race from Lovina in the North of Bali, to Canggu in the South. Never did I expect to meet such an incredible, diverse and like-minded crazy bunch of people. Why are they crazy – because anyone that wants to immerse themselves in pain as a means to find out more about themselves, has to be a little crazy right?
The team on the opening evening featuring Bali Children Foundation team and Classroom of Hope founders.
On the Wednesday night, the team assembled for the first time. A team comprised of athletes from 7 different countries, this was going to be equally as interesting as exciting. I could feel there was an energy about the group, and that the week was going to be extremely special. For two of the girls, Nikki and Vanessa, it was their first time leaving America, EVER! David a distinguished lawyer from Sydney, had taken time out of his hectic schedule, and a few others had travelled in excess of 30 hours from the likes of Europe and Dubai.
Me speaking to the team about my WHY.
On the first night, a few of us gave speeches on our WHY. Why did we want to do this? I put my hand up to talk; amongst other personal goals – becoming a better public speaker is something I want to improve at. I talked about the physical challenge of what we were about to do, the mental challenges that would occur during the race and that I had been given an opportunity to give opportunity to others.
Beautiful Bali, travelling along the race route.
Learning about each other, team member Lyndsay and her body art.
Checking out what the halfway point of the race, I certainly didn’t see it in this light again.
Thursday saw us head up to Lovina in the North, we had a chance to settle in, work on our fundraising and start preparing for the race. At this stage, I still had no idea how I felt about the run. I wasn’t fully prepared, nor did I have a race tactic. There are so many things you need to consider before running an ultra. The closer it got to Saturday, the more I realised I still had a lot of things to tick off. Thursday night saw us head to an event put on by Bali Children Foundation, one of the charities at the front of bringing education to kids in Bali. It’s not often you get a chance to see where fundraising money ends up – lead by Margaret Barry OAM. Margaret explained the exact reasons certain communities are targeted, the results, how we are making a difference plus plenty more. Duncan Ward from The Classroom of Hope, also talked about the impact we have on the children’s lives. It was a privilege to listen to Duncan and Margaret, two visionaries with a hawk-eye for details and relentless drive to change, impact and transform the communities of Bali by allowing children to receive an education.
Tom Hickman, the visionary behind the Bali Hope Ultra. And me, soaking in everything I can.
Presentation from BCF, learning about the direct impact of their charitable work.
Duncan Ward, explaining how powerful it is to give education to the children of Bali.
The days built upon each other as the relationships within the team strengthened; we learnt more and more from each other. A team that had both experienced ultra runners and others who hadn’t run more than 24km in training – we appeared to cover the full spectrum of ability. What we all had in common was belief, belief for a bigger cause. On Friday afternoon, we tackled the arduous hills of Lovina; grinding up them in first gear. Overlooking the whole north coast we made it to the little village of Tigawasa where we visited the local school. All the kids wore tags with their name and the scholarship they were on from BCF. Before BCF came to help Tigawasa, these children had very little, to no chance of receiving their high school certificate. Once they receive their high school certificate, they immediately have the opportunity to earn $200 a month, instead of $50-80 a month. These kids shined happiness with their big smiles and enthusiasm to learn. To see how grateful they were for the opportunity to receive schooling, truly made my heart buzz.
Hi-fives for everyone.
What great smiles.
Friday night, it all started to really hit me. I hadn’t really been feeling too much emotion about the race in the lead up. I didn’t want stress, excitement, worry, concern, hype or tactics to take away from everything else I was experiencing. We had our briefing which discussed everything that could go wrong, and how it would be dealt with if that came to happen. Things that could go wrong included – getting lost, dog bites, serious physical trauma, road traffic accidents, heat exhaustion, dehydration and cardiac arrest. Often the worst case scenario can be extremely frightening, but it’s also very reassuring to know that you are in safe hands. We had an extremely accomplished nurse, Jenny Williams alongside ex-SAS Troop Commander and Kill Kapture Founder Mark Wales lead this presentation – it’s great to know you’re going to be well looked after when you’re about to put yourself in a highly vulnerable position.
All these children are on BCF scholarships. INCREDIBLE.
DONATE HERE: https://thebalihopeultramarathon2018.everydayhero.com/au/bali-hope-ultra-to-put-100-kids-through-school
Following on from this presentation, Samantha Gash took the floor to speak. Sam made history by becoming the first woman and the youngest person at the time to complete The ‘4 Deserts Grand Slam’ . This requires competitors’ to run four, 250km ultra marathons across the driest (Chile), windiest (China), hottest (Sahara) and coldest deserts (Antarctica) on earth. All four races are completed in one calendar year and it is regarded as one of the toughest endurance events on the planet. Sam also went onto run 3253k across India, averaging 48km a day. Sam gave an incredibly moving presentation which had me curled up in a little ball at one stage with a few tears rolling down my cheek. The tears were because I was scared. Sam showed clips of her during previous races – at stages where she was on the brink of complete exhaustion, deep in the hurt locker, where her legs were moving but she was verbally nearly non-responsive. It was at this point, I realised that I could potentially be in a similar physical state come late Saturday night. Another sticking point from the presentation were three words – “Relentless forward motion.” These were on repeat in my mind Saturday night.
Morning run up in Lovina.
It was now very real, I was about to run 84km across Bali. All the work I had done over the last 10 weeks was about to come to fruition. I went to have a private chat to Sam about a race plan. What we devised was to walk EVERY hill, run the flat and be light on my heels on the down. We discussed about not being a front runner early with the risk of blowing up.
RACE DAY/NIGHT
** I am going to do a seperate blog post just on the race experience, the race alone was such a huge experience and I want to discuss my thought processes with more detail. I feel as if I have been hyper-stimulated within the last week and I am still trying to collate these thoughts, feelings and physical adaptions.
Race morning I was up early, to do some strides and fuel and hydrate my body early. I probably needed the sleep but I was relying on adrenaline to deal with that later. I wanted to nap but realistically that just wasn’t going to happen.
The last thing I needed to organise was my race bags, one for each support vehicle so my gels and nutrition would be distributed evenly over the course of the race. I planned to consume approximately 200 calories of nutrition every hour along with at least a litre of hydration.
The whole crew after their blessing, my new extended family.
Tim, Me, Lyndsay, Vanessa, Julie, David (back), Tarek
Receiving our blessings.
THE BALI HOPE ULTRA – 84km- IT BEGINS.
Fast forward, to 6.40pm – it was time to go. Wow, the moment had finally arrived. I can feel my heart beating a little faster as I think about toeing the start line.
Into the dark we ventured, still bathing in the thickness of the island’s humidity – still not really grasping how far 84km actually is by foot. Quickly we hit the uphill grind, 1400m of incline over approximately 12km with some kilometres hurling us a 16-22% incline. BRUTAL.
I managed to climb the hill quicker than I expected, I also found myself leading the race with fellow Australian runner Michelle Edwards. Michelle, 45, from Queensland really motored up the hill. Trailing a 45 year old (young) lady on a mission was very motivating. Michelle set a hot pace for the run early. One of my favourite images from the run was seeing Michelle in front of me; She was striding through the mist, dogs on the side of the road howling with car lights striking through smokey air. We ran together for a while but not long after the 30km mark it was time for me to go out on my own.
30km was my furtherest run in the lead up to the race, hence, after this was complete unknown. I think I reached this stage of the race around 3 and half hours in, but it wasn’t until the 35km mark did I really start to hit my stride. At 40km I dropped my quickest split of the race so far, doing a 4:33km. I don’t know how I felt this good to be doing a kilometre that fast, but it filled me with confidence despite knowing it could cost me in the backend of the race. I went into the halfway mark of the race feeling good, I didn’t want to stop too long at the aid station but they put my phone on a new charger and set me off. At every aid station, I never stopped, I would pace around because I was aware that if I completely stopped still, there was a chance I may cramp or tighten up. Sitting down was the temptation I had to battle.
First marathon down, boom! That was a pretty cool achievement, I yelled something out, I can’t actually remember what but I definitely exclaimed some kind of excitement to the world. Sure enough, more pain set in. My legs were really feeling all kinds of hurt now, like I’d been beaten all over from the hips down. This is when I plugged in the earphones and tuned into Eminem – Lose Yourself, the distraction this provided pulled me through the 50km mark. It was crazy looking at my watch and reading ‘Distance: 50km’. That’s motivating in itself.
From 55km, I pushed through several more painful barriers but would find myself entering these new zones. I would have 3-5km bursts where I would be doing kilometres quicker than I was doing in training. (Sunday long run kind of training).
At 71km and 78km in, I did my fastest kilometres of the race and had completely distanced myself from the next runners. I had a police escort car in front of me and a crew car alongside. Now I had a new goal, to run across Bali in under 10 hours. It was doable and I was throwing everything I had at it. I was pushing myself towards breaking point, I didn’t know if I would break and what it would feel like – so I kept running harder and harder. I would run a kilometre then walk for 30 seconds and get back on the jog again. I wanted to set an example, that we can push ourselves so much further than we ever thought possible.
I finished the race in 9 hours 49 minutes, earlier than anyone expected. I ran into Canggu, with drunk people still lining the streets and clubs packed to the brim. It was a strong contrast in imagery. I just completed a race many thought I wouldn’t, in a time people didn’t consider possible.
AFTER FINISHING
Me coming to terms with what I had just accomplished.
I crossed the line and immediately my legs shut down. It was the perfectly run race, I gave it everything I had and when I stopped – my body went into shut down mode. Sam came over to me, and I remember saying to her “SAM, WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO?” She held me up before moving me towards an ambulance. I spent the next two hours on an IV DRIP trying to restore the litres of fluid I lost.
For me this is a very powerful image. Sam taking me to the ambulance shortly after finishing.
I was out of it for quite a few hours after, till the presentations. All 13 runners made it through and I couldn’t be more proud. Looking back at some of their videos, seeing their displays of strength, partnership, grit and determination only confirms to me that there is really nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it.
I left it all out there. Nothing more to give.
Thank you for the support and messages, you have all been apart of the journey.
Big Love,
JL
Surround yourself only with people who want to live life with such intensity and drive, who want to see how they can push themselves. These people will help you get to places you’ve never been, places you never thought possible. – JL, inspired by Mark Wales.
Watch my race video here – beautifully created by Kirsty Mckie.
