The Nike ACG 2009 Kepler Challenge - the weekend warrior

Post date: Dec 7, 2009 6:28:09 AM

It started off as a challenge from a friend of mine, Mark. He went and did the 2008 race with his wife Gab. They did well in their inaugural race, Mark 9hr 5 mins and Gab in 11hr 39mins. Both enjoyed it so much they talked me into it.

Planning started way back in March 2009, with the beginning of the long training schedule, primarily based on running the Auckland Marathon in November, with the goal of actually doing some longer training weekend runs. So the long weeks of training started, culminating in a 4h 17min finish in the Auckland Marathon, which seemed a bit slow, but then I did suffer cramp in my left quad so walked for the last 30 minutes and :-) I was carrying 6kg in gear which I would be doing in the Kepler. I did find however I had too much gear, mainly the 2L of water I had left after and way too many 1 square meal bars.

Talking with Mark over the coming weeks led me to a slightly different strategy. Gu Chomps and Roctaine and 1 or 2 square meals bars and I must say it seemed to work. The cramp was a problem I overcame myself as I discovered I was too tight in my quads, stretching every day from the marathon till the kepler (4 weeks in total) seemed to be the fix.

So the journey started with me travelling to Queenstown meeting up with Mark & Gab, where all 3 of us stayed with Ben & Kylie, Gab's brother and fiancé. Ben cooked a very nice BBQ that night which came back to haunt Gab the next day. She was violently ill, throwing up most of next morning. Her stomach seemed to settle towards lunch but she still felt queezy. I must say both Mark & I felt lucky not to be in the same situation. It did damper the travelling to Te Anau later that Friday in the hire car the first half of the road winding around to Kinston. We stopped at the obligatory 5 Rivers cafe, where I had a great venison pie and fruit salad. After craming myself full of carbs the fruit was a welcome change.

We arrived in Te Anau around 1pm where we checked in and collected our race packs, plus checked out the Nike ACG (All Conditions Gear) sale . .not much of a sale, but then all proceeds went to the local community. Then off to our local motel just down the road, within walking distance, but then what isn't in Te Anau.

Te Anau is such a great place, a very quiet sleepy tourist town, the gateway to the Fiords, brought alive by 550 athletes and their supporters all focused on the Nike Kepler Challenge or the Luxmore Grunt, we did get some grumblings from locals about taking over the town, that did not go unnoticed, but in these tough recession times are they warranted? especially given each athlete themselves had dinner at least once + accommodation during their likely two day stay, many stayed on for longer not counting the family of supporters, so for our part we ignored this as we enjoyed our time there.

Friday 7.30pm was the race brief, mainly about helicopter safety . . . don't approach from behind. Seemed sensible and obviously the major point as it was stated 3 times very clearly by the safety team leader (the local Policeman).

Now the race itself, up at 4.30am the next day, after a fitful nights rest, no nerves as yet, a quick piece of toast with peanut butter and then into the running gear, taping up my problem toes for the blisters I was sure I'd get, a quick check to make sure all was in my bag, then we were off to get to the start by 5.30, it wasn't far a quick 5 minute drive down the road to the control gates. I think it actually took longer to park in the car park than to drive to the location. It was quite cold, so one thermal was on, with my hat. Planning on taking it off later on the way up the hill to Luxmore.

The start was slightly delayed with a couple of people forgetting to get up .. how could that happen, Morrie (don't know his real name) a friend of a friend was there at 5am, first athlete along with the race committee since he was up since 2am, he was dead keen and couldn't sleep & one guy started 10 minutes after everyone else as he had slept in. Mark & I lined up at the 8 hour mark, hoping to be relatively honest as to when we would finish. Then we were off, a short 100m jog down into the bush then onto a undulating beach forest track following the lake Te Anau, wide enough for two abreast. Within the first kilometer though, I turned my ankle . . . damn those roots, this was followed shortly afterwards by a full frontal fall, luckily for me, no rocks or roots were there to break my fall, but nice soft beach forest leaves so I pretty much just bounced, at least that's what it must have looked like. A few worried comments from my fellow runners, was I alright? am I hurt?, a quick check while carrying on revealed nothing major, just a graze on my elbow and a knee. I did learn a valuable lesson though, not to follow too closely to the person in front, you just can't see where you need to put your feet. So lesson learned, I dropped back a metre or so leading to no further incidents. After about 30 mins the hill started, quite sedately, I stopped and took off my polyprop telling Mark I'd catch up later. I stuck to my plan of walking the hills and started the long walk. A couple of people passed me, attempting to run, I caught them later on nearer the top prior to breaking out of the bush line. The long walk, definetly not a run, at least for the majority, led to the opportunity to talk to my fellow compeditors and in doing so, strengthened my belief in the training I had done. One lady, Pam was a marathon runner from Nelson, who had done this 4 time previously, this was the fifth. She said break it down into 2 hour blocks, 2 hours to the top, 2 hours to the Iris Burn, 2 hours to Moturau then 2 hours to the finish. Later she said she was aiming for under 8 hours, I said that would be golden for me, this being my first . . so I tried to stick with her, she lost me at Moturau, finishing in 7hr 59min 42sec, maybe next year. Breaking out of the bush line let me take a few glorious photos of the Te Anau basin, the lake and the Luxmore and Jackson Peaks. (photo link) And also now allows me to reflect on the magnitute of the event I have just undertaken.

At one of my photo breaks, I had to take a look at my feet, a hot spot had formed on my left foot, on one of my toes, I thought I had it all taped, sure enough, the hot spot was there, I tried some 3B cream first hoping it would help. On carrying on Richard (a friend of a friend) passed me, struggling with a hip problem and earlier that week sickness, I said I'd catch him later, and he said yep you will. It gave me a goal though as when I caught him some 10 mins later, he asked where Mark was, I had been eyeing out Mark far into the distance and pointed him out, he must have been 15-20mins ahead.

The aid station crews all had motivation to compete for a $200 bar tab, to be voted by the compeditors at the prize giving the next day, Luxmore was the first, the had a bubble machine and streamers it was entertaining admist the bustle of the gear check. I saw Mark heading out just as I arrived, 1hr 50mins after starting (this was the only time I took note of as, I ran in 20mins sections, 20 mins running 5 mins walking. I broke this rule only at the start and on the downhill from Forest Burn). The Luxmore hut stop was a welcome relief, although the camera man was round a sharp corner and nearly scared life out of me (as my head was down). Bananas, Jellybeans, Oranges, Leppin drink and water (supposedly at each stop but not all had the jelly beans). I also stopped to deal with my hotspot which had flared up again, this time with tape. The next section was all up hill again, climbing along to the Forest Burn shelter where I caught Mark this was the highest point we were to get too, at 1270m. Next was probably my best part of the race and I wished it was longer, the downhill. I caught many people here, although got stuck behind a line of 10 heading down into the bush again, no reason to pass nor location to pass, so the train of runners trucked on down to the Iris Burn station, which you could hear from a fair distance away, due to the large bell being rung. This was a great station, lots of room, fun people and lots of balloons leading up to the station, you definelty knew when it was coming & they got my vote as it was very entertaining. I was pretty quick here, lots of people were opening sandwiches and the like, I scoffed an orange segment, my roctaine and a couple of leppins, then headed off, straight back up the hill(yes more hills). A number of runners caught me about 40mins later who were in front of me on the downhill, my goal was to put as much distance between Mark & I, so I could have bragging rights later. We broke out of the bush into the sun what I thought was briefly, maybe 40mins or so, I wished for my sunnies and this is where my mp3 player stopped, not enough of a charge on the old battery, ah well. Rocky Point was next, this was the last I saw of Pam, whom I was running behind till here. She took off maybe 30 seconds before me and that was it, until the end. This is where I filled up my Camelpak bladder with Leppin, I think this took me through till the end as the bladder was empty when I finished. From here I was down to running 10, walking 2. To keep my energy or what I had of it. Motarau Hut was next, nice and quiet, between here and Rainbow Reach I passed a number of trampers all of whom stood aside, very good of them. At Rainbow this is where the supporters could get too. It was nice to see people clapping and cheering you on after such a long time on the track pretty much alone. Shortly after this I hit the wall & hard. There was nothing left. I even pulled out my EAS energy gel, which I thought, held me out for 40 mins still I had only the strength to run 1 min, walk 1 min and this was until the end. About 5K from rainbow you could hear the announcer from the finish. This put false hope in, I was thinking maybe 2-3K to go, but oh no the distance markers appeared 2.4Km ! whoahoo, I was thinking at my normal pace it was take me 10mins, at this pace, 30mins. It took 40.

One supporter in the last 2 Km was coming back along the track, stated the undeinable fact, your doing well, only 2K's to go . . .my head fell as I exclaimed 2K!, she then said in what was my most uplifting moment, you've done 58K that's awesome, keep going it's not far. The track followed the river from the control gates . . you can see the gates from the track, then you know your nearly there, 1k to go. The end, it was a marvellous sight and sound, the announcer read out some blurb I wrote in the 10seconds I had to fill out the entry (by the way the kepler & grunt sold out in 9 minutes) and then it was over - 8hr 22mins 21sec - estimated time 8hr 30mins. I got handed a beer, an orange juice and a medal, then that was it. I felt very grey, my legs were sore, I didn't seems too tired, any movement meant pain in my quads or feet - the blisters. I took stock of the next couple of people coming in then I was very surprised when Gab walked up and said hello, I thought, she pulled out or got evacuated, she explained, she was struggling from the beginning, walking very slowly up the hill, the sweepers (people on the track to keep everyone out of trouble) were with her stating, your going to have to pick up the pace or your not going to make it. Gab made the decision to pull out about halfway up the hill, but stated she would walk to the Luxmore Hut then down again, that took her 3hours, maybe she should have taken the car key to get her gear :-) instead of me, she said it was interesting to have the Luxmore Grunt guys pass by, they were flying, they would have to be to get the 2hrs 10mins up and down the 27.6km course.

Would I do it again, yes, would I do things differently - of course, after all it wouldn't be called experience if I learnt nothing.

Injuries

Feet - blisters on my little toes, really big, caused me more pain when walking than running.

Recovery - rest and lots and lots of eating, I seriously didn't feel full after each meal till Monday at Lunch.

Results - go here - http://www.keplerchallenge.co.nz/results-full.htm

Nutrition the day of Kepler

1 piece toast - peanut butter - breakfast

Gu Chomps x3 packs, 1 Chomp every 20mins

Gu Roctaine x1, taken at Iris Burn

Water - 1.25 litres start till Rocky Point

Leppin - 1.5 litres from Rocky Point

EAS Energy Gel - from Rainbow Reach

From Aid Stations

+ 1 or two glasses or Leppin each aid station

+ 2 bananas

+ 1 cup (full in total) jelly beans

2 Oranges (cut into segments, eaten individually, 1 per station)

My training(actual - differed from the planned)

Build weeks (1-12)

Monday 9K (under 45min)

Tuesday 6K recovery run (under 30mins)

Wednesday 10K (hills - under 55mins)

Thursday 9k recovery run( under 50mins)

Friday Cross training - Cycling or Rowing machines

Saturday 25K (hills)

Weeks (12-18)

Monday - Stairs - 30minutes

Tuesday 6K recovery run (under 30mins)

Wednesday 10K (hills - under 50mins)

Thursday 10k recovery run( under 55mins)

Friday Cross training - Cycling or Rowing machines

Saturday 25K (hills)

Weeks (18-32)

Monday 9K (under 45min)

Tuesday 6K recovery run (under 30mins)

Wednesday 10K (hills - under 55mins)

Thursday 9k recovery run( under 50mins)

Friday Cross training - Cycling or Rowing machines

Saturday build day - add 10% per week - from 25K - last big run for me was 37Km mainly due to sickness.

Week 28 - Auckland Marathon

Week 29 - Recovery week - Mon - light run 30mins, Tuesday 30min cycle , Thur - 10k, Sunday 25K hills)

Week 30 - 7hours - The Dome - hard lots of power walking

Week 31 - Mon - 9K, Tue - Row, Sunday 10K flat)

Week 32 - Kepler lead up - Tue - 9k, Thur - 8k, Fri - 30 min jog, Sat - Kepler 61Km