GOW100s 2012

I have never even thought about flying over to Australia until my parents took a three year contract job for Japanese elementary school in Melbourne. I luckily have my excuse to run ultra and am visiting my parents in Australia. A quick "Googling" for ultra took me to few 50km's and 100km. I recall an AURA site (Australian Ultra Runners Association) provided me good amount of ultra race information to discover all kinds of ultra races. I found the race called "Great Ocean Walk 100km (GOW100s)", which was able to fit my schedule. I visited to the official site of GOW100 and saw a beautiful coastal photo of Twelve Apostles on the official website. This is it!

The Great Ocean Walk is a trail started from Apollo bay and ended at the twelve Apostles, which is just 4.35 miles (7km) east from Port Campbell. The official distance between two places is 65 miles (104 km). Although the place is fairly remote location, but luckily there is a public transportation available, which is called "V-line" train and bus. The V-line can take me to Apollo bay about AU$22.80. The distance between downtown Melbourne (Southern Cross Station) to Apollo bay is approximately 117 miles (198km); however, the bus ride from Geelong (pronounced "Je" like "jam") to Apollo bay takes 2hr 40min because of the coastal twisty road. The whole trip to Apollo bay took me 3hr 52min.

When I finally arrived at Apollo bay hotel, the briefing was started. RD Andy Hewat explaining the course markings and general rule of closed course trail running. After the official briefing, I had to check with RD for requirement equipments and safety items. I forgot about the cell phone, which did not included my item lists at that point. The RD kindly let me borrowed his pre-paid cell phone on the race day morning.

Since the GOW100s has only 4 Aid stations, which were located at approximately 13, 26, 34, and 50 mile point, extra clothing can be a better choice than nothing. They were more widely spread between an each aid station than typical US races, the backpack system is a part of requirement to carry all kinds of equipments like a UTMB.  My choices for large capacity running backpacks were either Salomon S-Lab 12 or Ultraspire Omega. I did like the Ultraspire Omega, but there were on backorder at that point, so I decide to go for Salomon, which was the most expensive running backpack I ever purchased. (This pack come with whistle, emergency space blanket, and even larger capacity than Omega.)



Oct. 13th, Sat. 6:30am. the thin rain cloud still sprinkled a bit but noting surprising me with typical coastal weather. I guess I am used to rain living in Willamette valley area, Oregon for so long. Air temperature was around 42F, which was comfortable to have extra layer at that point. About 60+ participants started from Apollo bay park toward to west. The first 4.5 miles were flat and the view of ocean on my left side. Then the uphill gain the elevation from zero to 900ft and down again. There were few small hills continued when I was at hillside, and the flat sections is on the sandy beach. The beach sand in this bay area is deep and heavy, like running in wet snow fields, to slow you down a bit. I rather be on the hill side with hard surface than the soft sandy beach, but the view of coastal line is the worth of effort. The first aid station was very simple settings, and I refueled with electrolyte and grabbed a bite for banana and PBJ. From 13 to 31 mile, the course was mostly on the single track, with one exception for going through the wet and muddy jeep road. Small rolling ups and downhills with technical rocky surface to grassy trail kept me away from good running rhythm, but it was nothing like a rocky Wasatch Front 100. My frustration was obviously from fatigue started to show up my quads. I felt heavy my legs and unable to run continuously on such small uphills that would normally run them without thinking about. I probably had little bit less calorie uptake than normally do, just because only two aid stations to grab any foods (there were no energy gels at the aid, by the way).

The second half of 100km was rather be painful. The nice partly cloud weather suddenly changed back to coastal shower, and my newly changed socks and shoes were already wet. The second big uphill started at 34 mile point at the elevation of zero to 900ft within next 3.5 miles. The big one was mentally prepared myself, but I was beaten by continuous small uphills and drops for next 10 miles. The steepness of hill was runnable, but my quad is already beaten by steep downhills on the last big hill, resulting slow leg turn around. I switched to power walking, and that wasn't make me so happy on runnable uphills. From 31 to 50 mile point, I took 4hr 30min to do 19 miles. My average pace was about 15 to 16 min per mile. I had hot tea and boiled potato at the mile 50, that bring me back to life. The last 11 miles were better than previous 19 mile section, and weather came back to partly sunny. My average pace came back to 10 to 11 minutes pace and push through small uphill running at that point. The final stretch of 7 miles, I can see tiny rock pillars on the ocean at the far west side. I thought that may be the twelve apostle, but it soon lost the site for another 4 miles. I was jogging up the last long uphill, the twelve apostle was clear and big enough to identify from the vista point. The rock pillars were bright orange reflecting the light of sunset. It was beautiful. The last one kilometer was on the side  of Great Ocean Road HWY, and the finish line was located at the one of parking lot. My time was 11hrs 39min 52sec. My garmin corrected elevation gain was 9,300ft, distance of 61.68 miles.

(The blue line on the map is the whole GOW. Goodies: Belt buckle, T-shirt, Injinji socks, and ruffle winning for Syrah wine!)