A Great Day out in Orange
2nd Place in the Aussie Champs, showing glimpses of form into the European summer
On Sunday I was excited to come away with a second place in an Australian Championships in Orange, New South Wales. In what was tough challenge of flatter faster running combined with steeper moderately technical rocky climb and descent running.
Pulling the pieces of the puzzle together
The race was a good confidence booster, and a sign the heavy diet of hill sprints, long steady climbs mixed in with some shorter recovery runs is starting to translate into Mountains (& trail) form. It was always going to be an uphill struggle to climb the top step of the podium on the day however, with former Australian Olympian Ben St Lawrence in the field. Admittedly it was helpful from a strategy perspective, as I stuck to a race plan of sticking on his heels for as long as a I could. I thought I held him well for a while on the first three mini climbs and reeled him on the third one, but as soon as we came down the first major downhill he was off to the races. I felt a bit more flat speed based on some bigger rep sessions and tempos could’ve helped reduce the gap a bit. Overall I felt very strong on the climbs and feel I just need a tiny but more training in me to be smashing through the 20 and 30% gradients. I felt fresh at the finish and was even able to bound up the final steps skipping over a few on the way towards crossing the line.
A runnable course with technical aspects
Like any good Mountain running course the event had a good mix of challenges across the 11km and roughly 550m of climbing. The course primarily took place on a rolling rugged 4 by 4 forestry road, with stints out onto steeper more technical trail segments to reach each of the three peaks that made up the course; Mt Towac, Young-Man’s Canobolas, and Old Man’s Canobolas (the finish). My biggest concern coming into the race was how narrow some of these segments were with athletes both ascending and descending the same trail, but despite it being a highly competitive race it was great to see that everyone was extremely courteous with sharing the very narrow paths. Throw into the mix a start-line at 1,100m elevation and you could certainly feel there wasn’t quite as much oxygen in your lungs as at sea-level and by the finish line your lungs knew you had been a battle as much as your legs.
Some other great athletes amongst the fields
Third place Zbynek Hanys (aka Ben) was strong and never appeared to break stride, adding further international flavour to the field originally from the mountain powerhouse of Czech Republic he had run a number of major races in Europe including the Dolomitemann before taking a break upon moving permanently to Australia and returning in more recent years. Respect to Australian Mountain Running stalwart Leo Peterson who came fourth overall (3rd Australian) off running a Vertical Kilometre in Hobart on Friday then flew back and camped near the start line for the Sunday race. While in the Women’s racing Steph Auston won, a runner with strong pedigree in the ultra trail scene, who was followed by Channa Marsh and Emily Bartlett. The only major disappointment was in a growing sign of popularity of the Mountain and Trail discipline, that three major mountain races were held on the same weekend in Australia; with the Kunanyi Mountain Festival in Tasmania and The Buffalo Stampede in Victoria also taking place. But I guess that’s the nature of logistics sometimes.
Lessons in Travel, Training and Racing
I think I worked out overall during the trip I spent something like 7hrs each way in the car plus a good 6hrs of flying time and another 7-8hrs in the airport. Seemingly I lost a couple days in there most of Friday and almost all of Monday with the change in time-zone biting back hard on the way home. It once again brought home to me the importance of getting an early run in travel day before checking out of accommodation so you can get the training out of the way and get a shower in. Equally when you return home you’re tired and groggy and running is a distant third place to getting some good food in you and sleep.
Orange was a great place to spend a couple of days in somewhere that could easily be described as heartland Australia. A modest sized town on the Western side of the blue mountains, with was a group of friendly locals to chat to and fantastic local support for the event. Like any good running weekend the enjoyment came from a solid performance and exploring somewhere new and different to spend time and run.
Finally thanks to the organisers particularly Michael O’Mara for being extremely welcoming and providing me with athlete support while I stayed in Orange.