The Sri Chinmoy Canberra Centenary ultra is one of my favourites, more than anything because it showcases what a beautiful place Canberra is. Where else in the world can you host an ultra run that circumnavigates a major city while spending most of its time in the bush? Throw in a heap of mountains (hills actually) and you have a great race.
This was the second year running, with an extra km added to celebrate. I came second last year, and was hoping to improve this year. I am fitter than last year, and scoping out the form guide I didn’t see any super stars, but as always in racing you never know what’s going to happen on the day. Long story short I ran really well, everything went to plan, but was beaten by a stronger competitor. Kudos to Bradley Carron-Arthur. On the negative side I missed out on first place. On the positive side I did a PB, plus I have extra motivation to train hard for next year. I’m a glass half full kind of person.
My lead up to this race involved a bit more tapering and less running than I usually do. I strained a glute two weeks before race day and despite loads of stretching and massage it still wasn’t fully healed. It was the sort of injury that could easily go away with a long run and not be a problem at all, or might flare up and risk my first DNF. I briefly considered pulling out to avoid the risk of a DNF, but being motivated by the great Kilian Jornet, “I am not afraid to fail”, decided this really wasn’t kosher. Fortunately the injury went away in the first leg and caused no problems after the first 20 metres limping down the hill. Love the body.
Pretty much from the start I was running with Brad. There were a couple of other people as well. John Power broke away at one stage early on which made me uncomfortable, because being a mate I really didn’t want to see him blow up. He ended up having a great race so my fears were unjustified. Another “unknown” to me (Stuart Davies) made a serious break away on the first leg, and was out of sight for ages, but it was too early on to know if he could maintain the pace.
Coming into CP1 my plan was to ditch Brad and run the rest of the race at my own pace (aside from Stu, who was still in front). I raced down Taylor and did a super quick change of packs with Tom Brazier on support. The plan seemed to be going well and I was running by myself for most of this leg, aside from passing Stu who looked in a bad state a few km later. (Checking the results later I see that although he slowed, Stu kept going and was consistent the remainder of the race - so kudos to Stuart Davies as well).
Approaching CP2, Brad had caught up and we ran together into the CP. By now we had covered over 50km and so I knew I had real competition by my side. The second half of this race was clearly going to push me!
I managed a quick transition and left the CP in front of Brad. He was soon to catch up and passed me heading up Black Mountain. I was quickly realising that Brad was faster than me on the uphills and I was faster on the downhills. Usually it’s the opposite, with race competitors passing me on the downhills. I ran the mexican hat on Black Mountain feeling less than ordinary, but somehow managed to catch Brad again later as we were leaving Black Mountain.
Around this time I stumbled a couple of times, and finally fell and grazed myself. I was getting tired and sloppy with my feet. This was definitely not the message I wanted my competitor to see. Brad managed to break away after I fell (after checking I was OK and graciously offering his help), and so I chased him all the way into CP3.
I hung around a little too long at CP3 and was gradually giving in mentally. I could see that Brad was a tough competitor, and having run Canberra to Cape York I knew he would not give up easily. Still there’s was always the hope he was feeling worse than me so I pushed on and tried to avoid losing too much time. I figured I would push at least until the Mt Ainslie summit ridge, where I would see what sort of lead he had and what condition each of us was in.
By the time I made the summit ridge I could see Brad had a decent lead. It was not insurmountable if I was feeling good and he wasn’t, but unfortunately I wasn’t feeling good! At this point I was pretty sure it was going to be a 2nd place finish, provided nobody was right behind me. I made it to the top and down again without seeing third place, so with 15+ minutes up my sleeve I had a pretty comfortable lead on third.
I really didn’t want to get lazy for the remained of the leg, so I kept telling myself that either David Baldwin or Andrew Donaldson (both running the last leg) would soon overtake me, and how embarrassing it would be if this occurred while I was walking on the flat. It was a silly mental game but helped me keep going to the end.
I crossed the finish line in a time of 9:53:27, which is almost 17 minutes faster than last year. The course didn’t climb Stromlo, but was an extra km, so I really don’t know if it was easier or harder this year around. I figure it was about the same so I’m wrapped with a PB and pleased with how I ran. Can’t wait for next year.
