Fraser Darcy

I may have finished my race but the show does not stop there. I had no real plans for after my race. I had organised it that way so I could keep myself open to anything that popped up and just embrace the championships in a bit of a ‘free-spirited’ way. No expectations. Kind of how I should’ve approached the race a bit more but I’ve learnt that lesson already!

First way of living expectation free was attacking the breakfast buffet. Scrambled eggs, bacon, different breads and pastries and a couple of coffee’s later I was loaded up. Probably ate 20 euro’s worth. Some admin time spent responding to congratulatory messages (thanks everyone) and then I was ready for Day 3.

Day 3: The Trail Long event. 85km with 6000m of elevation gain.

With the offer of a car ride out to the second supported aid station at the top of a ski resort (which was used for the 1964 Winter Olympics) I was in for a treat. Matt and another two fella’s plus myself made our way out to easily the best location on course. It was great to be able to get back into spectator/fan mode and appreciate what the top athletes and Australian’s were actually running through.

My thoughts post my own race experience with the crowds left me questioning whether I actually enjoyed the race or not. I now understood why some surfers just ‘free’ surf all the time for magazines and don’t actually compete. Maybe I was going to be the running equivalent of that. Avoid the cowbells.

Being up at the aid station for about thirty minutes though and these thoughts started to change… Andreas Reiter, the first placed Italian runner, was on a mission as he power hiked his way towards us and watching his focused look on the trail and the look of his body performing the way it was amidst the crowd was inspiring. That’s the level you dream of and instead of dreaming it, I was bloody watching it. Knowing that my initial reaction was, ‘yes, that’s the vision of what success looks like, I want that’, instead of something in opposition to it demonstrated that the fire within me for competition hadn’t been put out, but just maybe dampened a bit for a minute.

In hindsight it’s crazy to think that the first major race I’ve ever seen was one in which I was a part of. The biggest race I had competed in before this, for size in numbers, was probably the Adelaide Marathon or a Trail Running SA event. To think I would just step into a level way above this in terms of exposure and handle it well was really a fallacy. Imagine taking a kid from Alice Springs at age 18, putting them on the MCG and expecting them to play a good match… very unlikely to occur. But hey, at least I now appreciate this for next time and know that my competitive fire is still there. A bit more fuel was needed to get it back roaring and I was certainly going to get it through supporting my fellow Aussie athletes while at the aid station.

After watching the front runners power through and soaking the atmosphere up a bit, the first Aussie’s started coming. It was almost a pinch me moment to know that I was helping support the Australian Long Trail athletes even though I myself had now ticked the box of representing Australia too and was on the same level as some of them. Being support crew to me means doing your best to fill up the athletes bottles, hand them any gels, get rid of rubbish, tell them if they’ve done something obviously wrong (put their shirt on backwards or whatever) and give them plenty of smiles. The smiling part is to remind them they’re doing a good job and to enjoy the run. It was also hard not to smile seeing these people, all at different stages of pain but all in pain, as they came through and then kept moving. Very cool.

One athlete in particular gave a very big shake of the head as he entered the aid station in a slow walk. Clearly this Aussie was thinking of pulling out there and then. Only thing the support crew like ours knew how to do though was fill him up with plenty of supportive commentary, get him moving, provide a stimulus to change his thought pattern and get him out of there before he got too comfortable. Safe to say we got him back out there and he did eventually finish. Interesting how four random individuals, only linked by the country we’re from, can come together to convince some other random that yes, it’s a good idea to keep moving for another 6 or 7 hours despite already cramping and being in pain. I can’t even convince my brother to go for a run with me but I could convince this guy to keep suffering for another half of the race! Amazing!

And that was really the theme of the Australians in the long trail. After we packed up the aid station and moved to the finish line the rest of the day involved just watching each athlete finish and getting around them if they were Australian. It was a bit of carnage in the athlete room for everyone and it was great to offer them help if they needed it as I was just in awe at how they finished despite looking pretty terrible at halfway. No-one placed too high in the event but following everyone’s position throughout the course of the day showed that everyone slowly improved at each checkpoint. Upon hearing this, several Aussie’s couldn’t believe it seeing as they hadn’t actually passed anyone. What was actually happening though was that everyone in front just kept dropping out and not finishing. But not the Australian’s. Yes, we may have been slower than most but we were certainly tougher than most. Proud Australian moment right there.

Day 4: Final day of competition. Another breakfast, followed by a light jog and then another breakfast and again we were on. The final day was all about the ‘Mountain Classic’ event. Up and down a mountain once for juniors and twice for seniors. Four races in total, this was going to be a busy day. The cool thing about this race too was being able to utilise a few different vantage points along the course.

Watching the competition go round in this event was again very cool but the fact we were in the city all day meant it wasn’t as cool as the long trail. Admiring the Ugandan’s and Kenyan’s bust it out for just under an hour was an experience I’ll regularly reflect on later though. Often you’re watching these East African’s run like metronomes around a track or on a road in a marathon. Seeing them do that on the trails out of Innsbruck on the big screen and then in real life on the famous ‘City Trail’ section was special and made their pace seem even more impressive than it usually looks. As opposed to watching Andreas hike up towards me yesterday thinking I could do that one day I watched the African’s more of how I watch Rafael Nadal on clay. I’ll never do that so all I can do is sit back and applaud.

Come 4pm-ish and all the racing was in the bag. Quick nap to recover and then I popped downstairs to see who was around before we trotted out for the Closing Ceremony. New mate Nath and two of his Aussie mates were in the foyer and provided good banter for half an hour plus the opportunity to ask one of them about their life in Munich. This bloke had flown to Munich with no job on a 90-day VISA hoping to land something in that period and do the Europe thing for a bit. A bit scary he said at the time but it all worked out and was pretty straightforward. And here he was spending his Saturday in Innsbruck because it was only a 2 hour train ride away. That could be the life…

But it’s not my life now. What was my life was strolling through Innsbruck with about 25 Aussies on our way to dinner. Pretty good as well. Instead of heading to the athlete village we bombarded a small Nepalese restaurant and gave them the best deal they could ever ask for. 25 hungry athletes who wanted to be in and out in an hour meaning they could get a whole new batch of customers in after us. They were up to the challenge and provided us with enough seats and all our food. We received in return a great feast and a real intimate last dinner together with the majority of the team. Something that would’ve been weird and awkward on night one. Sure, we missed the start of the Closing Ceremony but like most of us expected it was just a talk-fest in German anyway so our option was much better.

But we did get there eventually. The talking ended with a handover to the next World Champs in 2025. To be held in Spain the proposed races look ever more meatier than the ones this year. One positive though is that the races already exist so at least potential competitors can start training on the course now and have an idea of the expected finish times (5.5 hours for the short course…). A musical act wrapped up proceedings and yeah it was a good experience to get a free concert but really, standing around late at night drinking beers amongst lots of people is not really my scene. Would’ve much rather stayed at the Nepalese restaurant or retired to the local park with the other athletes but sometimes I pretend I’m a sheep and fit in. To make the most of fitting in I did sneak in a congratulations to Stian Angermund (winner of the Short Trail race) who strolled past and was happy to chat for a bit. Add to that I had a brief chat with Jonathan Wyatt (former World Champ for NZ) which shows what a cool sport trail running is when the ‘idols’ of the sport are just as accessible to chat to (and nice) as every other competitor!

The Wash-Up: If you’re reading this still you’re obviously pretty smart and can imagine that the day after a late night/closing ceremony is probably followed by not much special. You’re imagining right if so. Breakfast, quick jog, pack-up the room. Stroll around Innsbruck listening to Essendon v Carlton. Celebratory fancy pizza to cap off my two weeks in Europe and then some mingling with the leftover Aussies before I started the journey home.

On the journey into Innsbruck I remember being very curious as to what was going on around me, all excited to be in Europe for the first time. Heading back, it was clear to me I’d done my European dash as I was very much less curious about my surroundings and the ‘process’ to get back. I was probably quite tired too but I really also knew that I had filled my plate with lessons learned from the experience in Innsbruck and it was time to go home to act on them. I had also filled my plate with all the niceties of hotel/city life. Get me back to the outback quick smart where I can have a simple bowl of muesli, a tuna with salad wrap for lunch and dinner and there’s no sounds of traffic going past my bedroom window…

Although I was keen to return to the simple life I was also jealous of the other Aussies who were staying on longer to do cool things (something I will definitely plan for if I do another overseas race) and other big races. It would be great if I could mix the simple life with the Euro life. So as I boarded the train to Munich as the first leg of my two day mission home it did occur to me that ‘anything is possible in life’ and I could just stay undercover in Europe for a bit. What happens if you just don’t get on your plane? Do they track you down from your bank card and then deport you? Wouldn’t that be a great adventure. I wouldn’t find the answer to my questions this time but it is something I’m curious about…

And that’s enough about that really as a ‘this is what happened in Austria’. I’ll keep the theme of this one as a descriptive piece but reckon I’ll crack out an overall reflections one on the weekend. Something to flick through in a year or two’s time if I don’t have time to read 9 entries in total…

By the way, a neat official wrap-up of the event from a professional journalist is available here with fancy pictures too.

Thanks for reading!