Team Degani athlete Matt Webb reports in after the weekends
100km running race....
It was my
second time at tackling The North Face 100, in the Blue Mountains
of NSW. After a solid lead up of training and racing I was able to
knock out a very respectable finish of 12hrs 59mins 32secs which
was a personal best on last year of 52mins. The time ranked me 28th
overall with a starting field of 551. The course and terrain were
as hard as I had remembered, with over 4,500m in elevation gain!!.
The ascents and descents involved a mix of everything from slow
going rock scrambling on hands, knees and butts through to leg
busting stairs steep enough you need to use your hands to help you
up. There was also plenty fast passed steep down hill were you run
that fine line of being in control or out of control in what I
describe as a fast falling technique, which is faster? I'm still
not sure but I do know that 'in control' can take a lot more energy
out of your quads!.
The key this year was being better prepared, I was a lot stronger
in the legs and I had run a 60km training session on the back
section of the course which gave me a huge confidence boost when I
was tired and mentally exhausted. The confidence boost especially
helped once it turned pitch black and I finally had to put that
head lamp on. Suddenly, all that rocky terrain which I thought was
hard going before just became ten times harder, I was battling in
my mind with how fast do I push, I was running on a knifes edge of
injury in one missed placed step or glory of reaching that target
time. I went the latter and kept on attacking the goal time I had
set of sub 13hrs. It came together by the end and good old
adrenalin got me to the end. I am very happy with the finish time
and best of all I learnt a lot more about ultra running and I know
there are areas I can improve on. So, maybe take another 52mins off
next year!!
What's next for me? A few weeks rest and recovery then back into
it again, I have planned to tackle the You Yangs 50 miler, 100km
Tan Ultra, Great Ocean Road 100miler then if all goes to plan I
will be set to tackle the 246km Coast to Kosciuszko.