Bouddi Coastal Run (Half Marathon) – Stephen Wong
Race Date: October 27th Results: 2018
Coincidental PreparationI've always been a road runner at heart and taking my first step into the world of trail running was more of a collateral from trying to build up my running strength. Bouddi Coastal Run was the very first trail race I've raced and not as a long run. The decision to compete was more of one event leading to another and rather than full commitment and training for a few months on that specific race.
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It all began back with my blow up in the Gold Coast Marathon at the start of July. I avoided any hills during marathon training and struggled to hold proper form at the back end of that race. This made me decide that the majority of my runs would be on hills and trails from then on in order to boost my strength. I was also influence by listening to the Inside Running Podcast where 3 top Australian marathoners would go on about banging out hills in their weekly training recap and how important it was to do so. Decision was made even easier just because I live in Cameron Park and it's all hills with an amazing variety of trails which I had yet to explore (even Mt Sugarloaf is nearby)
On top of that, I won a free term of RUNSTRONG as the lucky door prize of the 25km King of the Mountain (did it as a long run). RUNSTRONG is a dynamic functional strength class specifically for runners run by RUNLAB for those who don't know. At the athletic ability I was at, I found that I was getting a few niggles and also felt quite tired during higher mileage. Generally found that RUNSTRONG helped greatly with increasing my capacity to take on more, recover faster and be stronger at the end of a race.
Lastly, the timing of the Bouddi Coastal Run was perfect. It was only 1 week after I finished my RUNSTRONG term and by then I would have spent 3 to 4 months building up a solid foundation of strength with all the trails/hills and strength conditioning I've been doing. It was a great chance to see if all the training had paid off on the 21km course with around 768m of elevation. |
Pre-RaceAlarm went off at 4:15am giving me only 5 hours of sleep. After giving my 1-year old daughter her early morning feed, I had a super light breakfast which was a Granola bar. Prepared everything I needed for the race and decided that I'd use my usual 500ml handheld bottle since they don't provide cups. Wasn't planning to stop and refill and thought that should last me for the whole race as I've survived on 25km+ long runs with this. I left the house at 5:20am, arrived at Killcare around 6:45am and just managed to get a park. Race would start at 8am but had to get there early for a park (quite limited) and registration.
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Around 7:00am, I lined up for registration and got my bib. I only saw few familiar faces who I knew from Newy. There was Steve Atkins from the Wooters who did the trail race last year and gave me a quick rundown of how the course was. He said there was lots of stairs and sand. Despair came flooding at that point and only wished I knew about this sooner but it was too late now. There was also Vlad Shatrov and Benn Coubrough (my RUNSTRONG coaches on that note) who I said hi to but nobody else who I knew. I was the only one in the Flyers kit so that made me the representative! Did a quick 1km warm up and headed for the start line on the beach.
Race
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Race kicked off at the beach around 8:12am. Around that time, it was quite hot with the sun blazing. The soft sand just sapped me as it was the first time I've ran on sand since the Christmas double parkrun. Endured that for 1.5km and finally hit hard ground which happened to be stairs. This was also something I hadn't trained for - I've never done stair training in my life! Nevertheless, I was still able to gain some traction and pass a few runners. Not a great start to the race thinking I would be prepared but in reality, was completely unprepared!
The shoes I wore was a pair of Saucony Peregrine 7s. Only had worn them for 20km beforehand and thought they were great and super grippy. First mistake with these shoes was I didn't tie them tightly enough. |
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My thinking was that cutting the blood circulation would be my main worry but what really happened was the shoe easily caught on a few rocks and slipped off because it was a bit too loose. Had to wonder back to get my shoe and dropped back a few ranks in the process. In addition to that, every step going down the stairs my foot would slide a bit and my toes would smash into the front. My shoes were half a size smaller than what they really should have been and I was in a fair bit of pain. Ended up stopping at the 7km feed station to alleviate these problems. All I could do was to tie up my shoes as tight as possible so I wouldn't lose my shoe again and also so my foot wouldn't slip forward as much and squish my toes. This made the pain manageable for the rest of the race at least.
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The race has a 21km and 14km option. 21km option would involve an extra section between 5km and 12km. The 21km race would start at 8:00am while the 14km would start at 8:30am. Once I hit the 12km mark, I found myself mixed in with the middle of the pack 14km runners on what was mainly a single trail of stairs which only had room to pass every now and then. I ended up passing at least 20 runners which was annoying. It was extremely energy sapping surging on stairs and awkward at times but at the very least, I didn’t make the Flyers reputation of being the 7th friendliest running group any worse than it already was.
Most of the uphill and downhill of this course was stairs. |
Think I stayed around the same familiar faces for the whole course. I would find myself passing them on the uphill but they would all pass me on the downhill. The pain in my toes was holding me back a bit but maybe also the lack of confidence in flying down stairs. The race overall was hot, sunny and a bit humid and forced me to refill my 500ml bottle once. In terms of nutrition, took only 2 gels, one around 5km and another around 12km. 500ml bottle was also prefill with electrolyte mix. The course did produce some amazing views of the coastal line since it looked like a great sunny day but not for racing!
On the final beach stretch before the finish line, Benn Coubrough caught up to me with only around 1km to go. Always good to see a familiar face as it gives me a boost. I was fading at that point as my quads and calves had been banged up from all the stairs. I managed to get some speed back to stay with Benn but faded again few hundred metres out from the finish line but only dropped back a few metres. The finish line was located about 100 metres off the beach. Once off the sand and saw the finish line, I completely emptied the tank and dropped the hammer for a 2:30/km sprint finish.
Took the win and ended up 2 seconds in front of Benn.
Took the win and ended up 2 seconds in front of Benn.
Post-Race
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Official finishing time was 2:14:12 and came 26th out of 375. Quite surprised at the rank because I completely lost sense of where I was in the race after joining up with the 14km runners. Ideally, would have liked the race to be more runnable but I guess gives me a taste on how different and tough trail running can be. It is the most formidable 21km I've done to date!
At the start, I may have said it was collateral stepping into the world of trail running but have already taken it to the next level by signing up for UTA50. I felt that the strength base I have created has served me well and have got me through a super tough 21km. Plenty of mistakes made and tough lessons learnt. Challenging experience overall for a first trail race but definitely looking forward to more trail races in the future!
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