The Run

Well it’s been a while and much has happened.

For those that followed along via the socials you would be well aware of how the run panned out. I achieved a great deal, although not as much as I had hoped and planned for. Below is a shortened version of how it played out.

It was an amazing start, with family and friends, along with the Health Minister Chris Picton starting me of at Seacliff. I had a great first day on my usual trails as I completed 53km, ending at Mt Barker for the night to celebrate my 54th birthday.

Day 2 was a mix of road and trail and things still were going well. I did kick a tree root on the Lavender trail and have a little stack, but dusted myself of and thought nothing of it as I completed 52km, ending at Tailem Bend. Recovering that night at a friends beautiful property on the river.

Day 3 I taped a couple of blisters that were forming and set of for what would be a 60km day down to Meningie. I was joined for half of it by my son Luke and his friend Harvey, which was lovely. It was coming into the 30km mark that I started to feel a little niggle at the front of my ankle and decided it would need some attention. We had a little face time with the Physio and decided that it may just be a bit of tendonitis, (I didn’t really think about the fall from the previous day at that point). We taped it up to take the load off and I commenced running the final 30km. It was a tough day with the head wind, still a little warm from the 35 degree day before and the undulating road made for some slow back end kilometres. It was a long day but we made it.

Day 4 we decided to reduce the planned kilometres from 64 down to 50 to see how the ankle went. It was a good idea as I was ok for the first 35km, but had to resort to a run/walk for the last 15km. I was also developing hip pain due to the change in my gait but also the camber of the roads. The following days saw me limiting the days to 50km, which was a good plan and I still had Day 20 to be able to make up the required kilometres if I needed to, as Day 20 was currently only a 5km day to finish.

I was managing well and had started 5km stops for massage to keep on top of the tight hip and glute and this seemed to be working, however unfortunately heading out of Mt Gambier at around 25kms I felt a sharp burn in my ankle and realised that was not so great. I took a 10 minute rest to eat and added some more padding and taping, and I continued on to the Victorian/South Australian border. This was a huge milestone and to be honest the ankle held up well to this point.

After having some photos at the border with a great group of friends that were waiting for me I headed towards Nelson to finish of the day. I knew I was in trouble after the first couple of kilometres as I was having pain and needed to walk or rather hobble quite a bit. This was a very slow process and was up to this point my slowest finish so far.

We headed back to Mt Gambier, where we were staying and I carried out my recovery including icing my ankle with the Game Ready. I had an early night and mentally prepared myself for what the next day may look like with my ankle. My hip was no longer an issue after having some Bowan therapy the day before in Mount Gambier. In fact I had no more issues with my hip for the rest of the run.

Today I was heading to Portland and I am not sure why, but my ankle seemed to not be as painful as I expected. In fact I was setting a good pace for the first 40km averaging 7:30’s, but it began to come unstuck again in the last 10kms and it was a slow finish.

It was pretty sore that night, even after the icing, but after discussions with Ash we decided I would try for 53kms on Day 11, to start to pick up the extra kilometres I has dropped on the previous few days. I was also meeting my coach David in the morning as he had driven over to run the morning with me along the beach.

I warmed up with a walk this morning for the first few kilometres and then we hit the beach for 19 kilometres. Wow it was a gusty strong head wind, soft sand, loud waved and in parts a terrible camber. Definitely not what I needed, even David said it was tough conditions. It was slow going as not too much of it was runnable, we would get compacted parts every so often, but spent most of the time navigating the best line. By the time we reached the Fitzroy river mouth I had a headache and we had taken much longer than my usual first 20 kilometres.

I decided at this point to change the plan and head back to the highway otherwise it was going to be such a long day with another 20km strip of beach. The crew drove me out of the river mouth, otherwise I would have been wading for a kilometre and once back at the RV had some nutrition, emptied the sand from my shoes and continued on the 4km track back to the highway. The next 15 kilometres, although I was going ok, were tough with the strong head wind, put at around 50km/h. When the logging trucks went past I was practically being blown of the road. I was grinding it out and just thinking about getting to the end of the day.

Unfortunately around the 40km mark I felt a searing pain from my ankle up to my hip and this stopped me in my tracks for a while. It was not a constant pain and I almost though perhaps more nerve related. After a short break I continued on heading to Port Fairy.

Aside from the continue grind into the wind, and the rain that had started I kept moving forward, yes with pain but nothing to indicate that it was any worse than previous days. That was until the last kilometre when my ankle and leg locked up and I could not weight bear or bend the knee. I had to finish the 53kms I had set out to do. I think I had an inkling at that point, that Day 11 could be the end of my run, so I think that is why I needed to finish this day and not give up. And if you have seen the video of the last 300 metres then you will know some hopping was involved to get to the Day 11 finish line. It was massive and I was exhausted for the first time on this run. A combination of the head wind grind and the pain has taken it’s toll today.

Later that night I was still in pain after my usual recovery and my foot a lot more swollen than usual. I said to Tim to let the crew know, I think I need a rest day. I was still hopeful that having a day off might give the ankle time to settle down.

After a sleepless night though, I realised that I needed to go to hospital in Warrnambool to find out what was happening and what damage I may have been done. They were wonderful there and had me seen to so quickly. I was still hopefully it was just tendonitis and inflammation that could settle with rest. Unfortunately I was wrong and an MRI revealed I had torn the ATFL completely. This was the end of the road for me.

After 11 days, 569 kilometres and 2 states my journey was over and I would not be reaching Melbourne. Devastating this was.

To be continued.