Fraser Darcy

A number of new eyes might be clicking on to the blog lately since I started spruiking it on Insta. If you’re new here, welcome. Those familiar with the blog will understand that sometimes this can get erratic, one-sided and very Fraser centric. That’s because it’s my website and you’re living on it. If you don’t like it that’s ok, simply click away. Otherwise, there are no rules. Let’s begin.

Friday. Or even back on Thursday. In the car, after school hot footing down the highway. Smooth run and felt good. Body was pretty good. I still felt like a road runner despite switching back onto the trails. My right quad also had a flare-up in the last week so that was concerning but I was also ready for anything to happen in this weekend. A lot was planned.

Now really Friday. Airport. 6.5kg carry-on baggage in one backpack. Nice flight to Sydney, no issues, all relaxed. Picked up a hire car to trek out to the Blue Mountains and was a little confused with the process but managed it in the end. Can’t say the same about my driving experience. Very busy on the roads compared to Quorn/Port Augusta. But again, I made it to the Blueys. Just like the traffic, the Sydney heat was also smacking me in the face. Non-tinted windows in the car didn’t help either. Get to Blackheath, check into the accom, get some food, get my bib, check out a bit of the course, get back, have a shower, hand some bottles to a friend (Jess/Australian Female Mountain Running Champ) who was helping support, eat some dinner, stretch, bed. Done. Not as restful as I’d hoped but that’s what happens when the race is on a Saturday and you only take one day off.

Saturday. All normal pre-race jibber jabber. I’d set this race up in my mind as the last serious race for a while. Put a cap on 2023 after starting things off in January. If I didn’t give the body and mind anytime to decompress what has been a terrific year of running then I won’t be able to see clearly into the future.

As I started I felt pretty good, a bit warm but not too bad. Happy just cruising in second. The descents down random blocks of steps were not so friendly and I would lose a little distance but I felt fine going uphill. So much so I grabbed a small lead for a bit. And then lost it straight back down some more stairs. I remember crushing downhills and stairs when I didn’t run on the roads as much. How the times have changed. Ah well, I’m here to enjoy it, put together a complete race as best I can and get the best result possible (a win qualified me for the Australian Skyrunning team). I was wary of the heat forecast for the day so I didn’t stress too much in the first 16km loop about dropping off the pace. I’d much rather cruise, stay in control and come home strong.

16km’s down. Still happy, still smiling, getting hotter though. Hadn’t gotten into a rhythm yet in the race but wasn’t mad by it. It is what it is. Jogging down the road I was only a couple of minutes off third and anywhere from 5-10 mins off first and second. The next 28km’s of the course involved dropping down and climbing out of a massive valley. Then repeating it. Mostly on stairs.

21km’s. Aid station before the first descent. Got a bunch of cold ice water poured on me to cool off and topped up a 500mL flask I’d finished in the space of 5km’s. I had 1.5L to get me 9km. The stairs down into the valley were pretty uniform and well constructed so it was nice to take it easy down them. I still didn’t want to start smashing my right quad in case it failed on me. Save that recklessness for the last 5km’s.

23 or whatever km’s. Big creek. Cooled off. Very nice. Climbed up the other side to Lockley’s Pylon. Not a very good track. Very overgrown and slippery eroded sections. Oh well, enjoy it I thought. It was starting to get hard to stay in race mode and run up the hill so I just resorted to strong hiking mode. Grabbed two big sticks and used them as my poles. Other runners looked very jealous later on in the race when I passed them going the other way with them. Grab your own, I thought, there’s sticks everywhere!

25 or 26km’s. Towards the top of Lockley’s Pylon. Caught and passed third. Now I’m third. Cool, maybe this is the coming home strong part. Maybe I’m putting together a nice complete race. Not bad. There was about 3km’s of relatively straightforward single track to the aid station and turnaround point and I had a pretty decent trot on here. 1st and 2nd went past me a bit further in front (maybe 20 and then 10 mins ahead?) than I would’ve liked for confidence in the ‘coming home strong‘ plan but I was also pretty (pleasantly) focused on enjoying it and putting together a complete race.

30km’s. Aid station turnaround. Saw Jess and her two mates Max and Maddy. More water and electrolytes but no ice water to cool down with sadly though which I was dreaming of. Kept moving and got back out on the trail. In my head if I could stay in 3rd till the bottom of the climb up and out of the valley I was confident of being on the podium.

Heading down the Lockleys Pylon track I grabbed my two sticks. It was actually a really nice scrambly part at the top of this track before it turned back into the slippery eroded overgrown style trail. The further and further I went down the weaker I started to feel. I had been keeping pretty regular with my gel intake (every 30 minutes) and smashing all the 1.5L of fluid (water and electrolyte) I was carrying in between aid stations but the heat had started to make my appetite for gels non-existent. Maybe that was a mistake. Or maybe I was just hot. As I got closer to the bottom I tried to stay positive and not focus too desperately on the creek but I folded and had to ask a few people how far until the creek like how the students I teach ask how long it is until the end of the lesson. My voice sounded terrible. All dry and lifeless. Oh boy, this could be about to get fun.

In the creek. Fully submerged. Still in third. Great we might be ok here, just get up the Perry’s lookdown track you damn fool. Made my way over to the first steps and then bam. Both legs started cramping. Ah bugger. This isn’t good. Paused for thirty seconds. Made another attempt to lift my legs. Nope, not working sorry. Do I go back a couple of hundred metres to the creek to re-cool off for a bit longer? Take a five minute break? Or just roll over and admit defeat. Either way my disposition at this point was not ‘ah fuck, I’ve screwed it, this isn’t fun, this isn’t a complete race and I’m going to have a shit result‘ and get all sooky sooky la la. It was more ‘ah k, I’m cooked, now we have a new game of getting to the finish. enjoy that, have fun. I’ve had some practice at this game now so hopefully I can piece together a good epic‘. All my training with Chad at the Heysen and on the SSSFFF was paying off!

So I sat down with my new attitude and laid on my back to try and rest. It was quite nice to sit in the deep part of a Blue Mountains valley for a bit and be quiet (besides my heavy breathing) instead of rushing about.

Couple of minutes past and I got up and started walking without cramping. Good. We might manage this. Five minutes of walking later and my legs started cramping again. Another two minute rest ensued.

And this game repeated itself for several times more. Walk, feel weak and cramp, lie down, get up and repeat. A few bushwalkers passed me going down and a couple of runners passed me going up. Toodle-oo I thought, I’m having an adventure here! I also wondered as to whether my cramping was from a lack of nutrition, sodium, fluid or neuromuscular fatigue (or a combination probably). If it was from nutrition and sodium depletion I don’t understand how two minutes of resting on my back with my heart rate dropping is enough to allow the muscles to re-prime their calcium pumps and get back into proper firing patterns. My intuition tells me it’s more a brain thing where my body was trying to get me to stop moving so I could cool down a bit so it just refused to fire those muscles. Or it got tired of firing those muscles. There could be some ego-stroking in that theory though because if that theory was to be to correct it would be a ‘see, I didn’t get any nutrition or sodium or electrolyte intakes wrong, I did consume enough‘ response from me coupled with a pat on my back. Or maybe it was justa delayed effect from the electrolytes I’d been consuming actually getting time to work when I rested. Scientists please write in if you know the answer. But back to the race.

I finally made it to the top of Perry’s Lookdown back to the very friendly aid station and grabbed a chair, put it in the shade of the marquee and relaxed. All the volunteers got all busy grabbing me some coke, watermelon, ice cold water, salt etc. being really nice and quick but I wasn’t in much of rush. Another runner came up and passed me, he looked much stronger, but I was still having fun and for once felt like I was getting my $240 worth out of the event by soaking up some of the aid station help. Not quite $240 worth but that’s a discussion for later. If I was really invested in this race maybe I would’ve rallied and tried to beat that other runner. But I wasn’t. I was invested in the Adelaide Marathon and that went well but I found it hard to peak again only three weeks later in a trail race. Maybe some people can do it, and maybe with more experiences like these I can too, but this race didn’t get me going into full Tyler Durdin Fight Club mode.

Eventually though as you might’ve guessed, I rambled my way up the final 4-5km, hoping not to get passed by any more runners and just reflecting on the culmination of my 2023 season more so than it being the end of the race. It’s probably worth a whole season review blog but in a nutshell this year of racing has been pretty good. New 5km, 10km, half-marathon and marathon PB’s set, won Australian Mountain Running Champs, represented Australia at World Champs. And had a massive blow-up! What more could you want from a season.

I crossed the finish line with a time just under 6hrs 30 minutes and was very glad it was done. I was proud of how I handled myself when I was I distressed outside my comfort zone and felt like I’ve progressed in that space. I also strangely felt as impressed with myself for finishing it as I did my first ultra back in 2016. Maybe it was just because it was in a such a new environment. Side-note, on a quick scan back at my previous results when racing ultra’s the numbers show I repeatedly burn up at the end of most of them. Something to think about in the off-season. The good thing about a negative result is that it does ensure I remain humble and enjoy my successful races because they don’t happen every day. For now, though, being finished with serious training for a bit I don’t have to think about:

• Recovery from this race as being that important. There’s not extra training I’m trying to cram in.
• Fitting in a run on Sunday or Monday around my travel arrangements.
• Getting up early for a run all this week for extra training.
• Watching what I eat throughout the day so I don’t upset my stomach for an afternoon run.
• Not pressuring myself to plan my runs with good consideration.

Instead I can think about all the other things in my life and focus on them. Which is what I got to do straight after my race by catching up with friends (Jess and her crew), eating nice food and catching up with siblings. All in preparation for Part of 2 of the NSWExtravanganza. The Sydney Marathon. More to come on that later. For now though, thanks for reading!