Molesworth Run 2008
It's been over a year since I last posted on this blog - appropriately the last post was about The Molesworth Run so it makes a good restart post to write about this year's run.
I did the run again this year - although instead of doing the relay option I entered for the solo run. All 84km of it. So what happened?
The Molesworth Run is a run through NZ's largest farm, the Molesworth Station, which runs from near Blenheim down to Hanmer Springs in the South Island. It lies between the Seaward Kaikoura and Boddington ranges. The elevation is about 1000m and the course is a dirt road all the way. There are two main hills; one at the start and one at the end and a few hills in the middle.
I asked my friend Yvette to be my support crew for the run. The support crew was rather crucial as it was her job to keep me watered, fed and alive on the run. I'm very grateful that she agreed to help.
We went down on the ferry on Friday and drove through to the start line at the north end of the Molesworth Station where we setup camp for the night. (Thanks to Al Cook for letting us borrow his tent and other supplies.) After dinner we wandered over to talk to some of the other runners and lucked onto talking to some of the ultra-marathoners. (Actually, that bit was easier - the skinny people with the over developed legs kind of gave it away.) They were really friendly and ended up giving me tips that proved useful the next day.
The start and the first leg went well. It was quite weird to toe the start line realising that a long held dream was about to start and there was 84km in front of me to cover. The second weird thing was everybody getting to a hill and immediately started walking. Not surprising at all because ultra runners walk a lot. It's hard enough as it is without wasting energy on a hill. The first 10.9k are done without support to reduce congestion on the road so I went through my 3 of my fuel belt bottles nicely on time (each had 200mL of PowerBar Endurance).
It was nice getting through the first stop. It was good to see Yvette and other people after being on the road alone and it was especially nice to get the support of all the relay teams that were there by that time. The Scottish veteran women's team gave me some great support.
I remember getting to the end of the first stage thinking that it had gone well. I was feeling good and running comfortably.
However, by this time the sun was coming on strong and life became very difficult. My nutrition and hydration plan was to have 200mL of PowerBar Endurance every 3km or so - timed to be roughly every 20 minutes. This is a mixture of a couple of different types of sugars, some sodium and potassium and a pleasant lemon/lime flavour. It's worked very well for me in the Auckland Marathon and lots of other runs. The second part of the plan was to have a selection of food available: cooked potatoes with salt and muesli bars.
What I found was that something meant that I couldn't stand the idea of drinking the sports drink and went for unmeasured swigs of plain water. I didn't want the potatoes or muesli bars either. In fact, I ended up using mushed up banana which was a tip from talking with the ultra runners the night before.
I kept going through the 2nd leg as the sun came on stronger and stronger. Every stop I was using a wet towel on my face and wetting the back of my head with a squirt of water as much as possible. Because we were running south I turned my hat around to protect the back of my head. It was also during this time I started getting headaches ; quite a concern as they are a dehydration warning sign in me. I fixed them by getting more water down. Also, at the start of this leg I asked Yvette to change from stopping every 3km to stopping every 2.5km so I could keep the fluids up.
Getting the fluids right is quite a concern for runners. You need to keep hydrated but there's only a certain rate of emptying that your stomach can handle. You don't want to over-hydrate with just water as you can end up with hyponatremia where there's not enough sodium in the blood. Unfortunately, hyponatremia and dehydration have very similar symptoms. This means that runners are busy trying to balance how much fluid they can safely drink, what's in it and whether they're over or under hydrating.
I managed to get to the end of the 2nd leg but things kept getting worse. It started being a game of getting to the next rest stop and continuing to survive. I remember having to work my way up several hills, walking of course, and not enjoying them very much at all.
At about this point I saw the car, walked up to it as I always did, and then sat down in the passengers seat. Very strangely I found I was sitting there with quite a high breathing rate which did not go away for several minutes. I took that as a warning side and got more water down.
After that, I found that even the slightest hill required me to walk up it. In fact, even flat sections would often be done with walking and running. If I tried to go faster then I found that my breathing would just stop me. At the time, I ascribed it to hitting the limit of my fitness and just kept going.
The next goal was getting past 52km (the longest distance I'd ever run) and then to get to 58km (two thirds) and then to the end of the stage at 63.8km. I started developing a blister on the side of my heel which we patched with a band aid.
Coming up to the end of the leg I had a car come up and concerned woman ask me questions: did I need water, was I with someone, was I still alright? All a bit strange but fine. Indeed, while I was feeling rubbish I was still going...
About 100m before the end of the leg I came across Yvette so I asked her to go past the checkpoint before I stopped. At this point she told me that the official (the woman in the car) had found her and told her that I was wobbling. It was also about then that a blister in my heel popped, I found that my watch was warning of low batteries and I figured my iPod was not far off. Having the watch stop was quite a concern because the officials would leave the finish at the 10 hour mark and I'd need accurate time after that to get an official finish. At this point it was 9 hours in and I was looking at another 3 or so hours to get through the final 20km. I was definitely going to need an accurate time.
So at the end of the stage I decided to call it a day. I figured that the wobbling and concern expressed by the official was a very bad sign and the blisters on my foot would become very nasty across the final 20km. I found the official and told her I was pulling out and then we drove into Hanmer Springs.
I happened to discuss the events with my doctor who pointed out that the breathing thing was a severe dehydration sign. In fact, he suggested that if somebody had put 2L of saline into me I would have bounced up and been fine.
I've also subsequently found that the blisters were probably a dehydration/hyponatremia sign as well. i.e. as the salt balance changes more fluid goes into the intracellular space and your felt swell. This means that your shoes will cause more friction and it's easier for the skin layers to separate - hence blisters.
I still remain heartily glad that I stopped. I should be disappointed but I'm just not. I think I came damn close to quite serious dehydration and went well past the point where I probably should have stopped because of it. I covered 64km in just over 9 hours and I'm very proud of it.
I'm also very keen to do another one - and finish it - and, one of these days, I'm going to go back and complete Molesworth.
Strangely, I quite enjoyed it. I think ultra running is the thinking person's end of the sport. It's not about speed, it's about learning how to make your body work at the extremes and how to get your mind to let you keep on going.
If I'd got the hydration right then I'm quite sure I could have completed it. My legs felt just fine. However, I have to learn how to get the hydration right in extreme heat in an environment that is impossible to replicate in Wellington.
I've got lots of photos on that old-fashioned technology known as film. I plan to finish the roll and develop it in Canada. You'll just have to wait a while to see what I look like when I'm really tired.
On to the next one!
I did the run again this year - although instead of doing the relay option I entered for the solo run. All 84km of it. So what happened?
The Molesworth Run is a run through NZ's largest farm, the Molesworth Station, which runs from near Blenheim down to Hanmer Springs in the South Island. It lies between the Seaward Kaikoura and Boddington ranges. The elevation is about 1000m and the course is a dirt road all the way. There are two main hills; one at the start and one at the end and a few hills in the middle.
I asked my friend Yvette to be my support crew for the run. The support crew was rather crucial as it was her job to keep me watered, fed and alive on the run. I'm very grateful that she agreed to help.
We went down on the ferry on Friday and drove through to the start line at the north end of the Molesworth Station where we setup camp for the night. (Thanks to Al Cook for letting us borrow his tent and other supplies.) After dinner we wandered over to talk to some of the other runners and lucked onto talking to some of the ultra-marathoners. (Actually, that bit was easier - the skinny people with the over developed legs kind of gave it away.) They were really friendly and ended up giving me tips that proved useful the next day.
The start and the first leg went well. It was quite weird to toe the start line realising that a long held dream was about to start and there was 84km in front of me to cover. The second weird thing was everybody getting to a hill and immediately started walking. Not surprising at all because ultra runners walk a lot. It's hard enough as it is without wasting energy on a hill. The first 10.9k are done without support to reduce congestion on the road so I went through my 3 of my fuel belt bottles nicely on time (each had 200mL of PowerBar Endurance).
It was nice getting through the first stop. It was good to see Yvette and other people after being on the road alone and it was especially nice to get the support of all the relay teams that were there by that time. The Scottish veteran women's team gave me some great support.
I remember getting to the end of the first stage thinking that it had gone well. I was feeling good and running comfortably.
However, by this time the sun was coming on strong and life became very difficult. My nutrition and hydration plan was to have 200mL of PowerBar Endurance every 3km or so - timed to be roughly every 20 minutes. This is a mixture of a couple of different types of sugars, some sodium and potassium and a pleasant lemon/lime flavour. It's worked very well for me in the Auckland Marathon and lots of other runs. The second part of the plan was to have a selection of food available: cooked potatoes with salt and muesli bars.
What I found was that something meant that I couldn't stand the idea of drinking the sports drink and went for unmeasured swigs of plain water. I didn't want the potatoes or muesli bars either. In fact, I ended up using mushed up banana which was a tip from talking with the ultra runners the night before.
I kept going through the 2nd leg as the sun came on stronger and stronger. Every stop I was using a wet towel on my face and wetting the back of my head with a squirt of water as much as possible. Because we were running south I turned my hat around to protect the back of my head. It was also during this time I started getting headaches ; quite a concern as they are a dehydration warning sign in me. I fixed them by getting more water down. Also, at the start of this leg I asked Yvette to change from stopping every 3km to stopping every 2.5km so I could keep the fluids up.
Getting the fluids right is quite a concern for runners. You need to keep hydrated but there's only a certain rate of emptying that your stomach can handle. You don't want to over-hydrate with just water as you can end up with hyponatremia where there's not enough sodium in the blood. Unfortunately, hyponatremia and dehydration have very similar symptoms. This means that runners are busy trying to balance how much fluid they can safely drink, what's in it and whether they're over or under hydrating.
I managed to get to the end of the 2nd leg but things kept getting worse. It started being a game of getting to the next rest stop and continuing to survive. I remember having to work my way up several hills, walking of course, and not enjoying them very much at all.
At about this point I saw the car, walked up to it as I always did, and then sat down in the passengers seat. Very strangely I found I was sitting there with quite a high breathing rate which did not go away for several minutes. I took that as a warning side and got more water down.
After that, I found that even the slightest hill required me to walk up it. In fact, even flat sections would often be done with walking and running. If I tried to go faster then I found that my breathing would just stop me. At the time, I ascribed it to hitting the limit of my fitness and just kept going.
The next goal was getting past 52km (the longest distance I'd ever run) and then to get to 58km (two thirds) and then to the end of the stage at 63.8km. I started developing a blister on the side of my heel which we patched with a band aid.
Coming up to the end of the leg I had a car come up and concerned woman ask me questions: did I need water, was I with someone, was I still alright? All a bit strange but fine. Indeed, while I was feeling rubbish I was still going...
About 100m before the end of the leg I came across Yvette so I asked her to go past the checkpoint before I stopped. At this point she told me that the official (the woman in the car) had found her and told her that I was wobbling. It was also about then that a blister in my heel popped, I found that my watch was warning of low batteries and I figured my iPod was not far off. Having the watch stop was quite a concern because the officials would leave the finish at the 10 hour mark and I'd need accurate time after that to get an official finish. At this point it was 9 hours in and I was looking at another 3 or so hours to get through the final 20km. I was definitely going to need an accurate time.
So at the end of the stage I decided to call it a day. I figured that the wobbling and concern expressed by the official was a very bad sign and the blisters on my foot would become very nasty across the final 20km. I found the official and told her I was pulling out and then we drove into Hanmer Springs.
I happened to discuss the events with my doctor who pointed out that the breathing thing was a severe dehydration sign. In fact, he suggested that if somebody had put 2L of saline into me I would have bounced up and been fine.
I've also subsequently found that the blisters were probably a dehydration/hyponatremia sign as well. i.e. as the salt balance changes more fluid goes into the intracellular space and your felt swell. This means that your shoes will cause more friction and it's easier for the skin layers to separate - hence blisters.
I still remain heartily glad that I stopped. I should be disappointed but I'm just not. I think I came damn close to quite serious dehydration and went well past the point where I probably should have stopped because of it. I covered 64km in just over 9 hours and I'm very proud of it.
I'm also very keen to do another one - and finish it - and, one of these days, I'm going to go back and complete Molesworth.
Strangely, I quite enjoyed it. I think ultra running is the thinking person's end of the sport. It's not about speed, it's about learning how to make your body work at the extremes and how to get your mind to let you keep on going.
If I'd got the hydration right then I'm quite sure I could have completed it. My legs felt just fine. However, I have to learn how to get the hydration right in extreme heat in an environment that is impossible to replicate in Wellington.
I've got lots of photos on that old-fashioned technology known as film. I plan to finish the roll and develop it in Canada. You'll just have to wait a while to see what I look like when I'm really tired.
On to the next one!
posted by Edward Sargisson at 10:03 pm
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