Fraser Darcy

Now we’re all on the same page with the facts it’s time to unpack why the facts occurred, what they mean for the future and what I would do differently plus other musings. If you have no idea what I’m talking about go and read Part 1 and Part 2.

Why did I not finish strong?

• Adelaide Marathon was a peak three weeks beforehand that I never fully came down from. I wasn’t desperate for the win as I have been at other races. I’d won enough this year in a way. Got complacent. Should I have pulled out then before Hounslow knowing full well that I didn’t have the raging fight of a hungry dog to win? Nah, I still got a valuable experience from my participation
• My performance was also limited by my late switch to trail running. Most other trail races I think I would’ve been fine but the Hounslow is a serious course that has barely any flat and many, many stairs. Not to be underestimated.
• The heat cooked me. Kind of hard to be ready for that off a Quorn winter where it’s a lot colder and drier. Something to consider for future race planning.

Why did I have a positive attitude anyway with my race?

• I’ve had enough experiences where I’ve sucked in a race or adventure and been sooky about it. Reflecting on those times, either in the blog or otherwise, I’ve learned to sometimes just deal with the consequences of my situation and try and enjoy it as much as I can. I’ve also been practicing this optimism at school this past term because it is very easy to be positive one minute and then frustrated the next when a student doesn’t do any work or follow instructions. The more times at school I choose to respond positively in those scenarios the more I will fall into that by habit. Something that helps to motivate me in these situations is a message from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius that people aren’t inherently bad, they just have a poor directing mind and that shouldn’t impact you.
• I’m starting to appreciate long trail races (greater than 3.5 hrs) as more epic adventures than races. I don’t know if I can ‘race’ a proper 3.5hr plus race. Over my history of racing them I’ve only had one of those races out of about eight that has seen me finish it strongly all the way to the end. I really like doing these races for the adventure of it all (I got to see a fair bit of the Bluey’s even if the course was two out-and-back sections) but do suffer from the lack of confidence a poor result brings. Can I still run trails? Or is this just a flash in a pan? So, when things went pear shaped at the bottom of Perry’s I relaxed into adventure mode and had a much more enjoyable time. Maybe I can just jog these appealing race courses on days that aren’t the race and save myself some event fee money?

What would I have done differently with my race?

• Get there a day earlier. Navigating traffic in Sydney was stressful and not relaxing. If I had another day to chill out beforehand I might’ve found the extra fight I lacked. I know for Brisbane I flew in and raced fine only a few hours later but that was because I had the body primed from the get go a bit. Doing all that travel effort on Friday, in the heat, and then resting from it overnight left me a bit off perhaps.
• Consume more sodium. Double the sodium tablets I added.
• Stay longer in the creek. If I am ever in a hot race again I won’t panic about spending an extra few minutes in a creek or at an aid station cooling down because I think that would’ve really helped. Not just splashing water on me and going, really soaking in it for a minute or so. I am a bigger runner than most. I wish I was as skinny as a whippet but I don’t think it’s in my genetics. Being a bigger runner I have bigger muscles generating more heat so hot days affect me more than skinnier runners (I think).
• Practice on stairs more. Alligator Gorge has about 130 stairs in one hit that I could practice going up and down to get used Blue Mountains running. Also strengthening up my quads again to handle downhill running. This does come at a cost to my road running which highlights a major talking point below (after the next point).
• Not have to rush back to SA for work. In a perfect world I could soak in the atmosphere surrounding my race and Sydney marathon a day or two longer.

Am I better off racing marathons or more of those trail races? What do I want out of this sport and myself? What do I enjoy the most?

• I started racing on the trails because I lived next to the trails in Blackwood. There wasn’t great road running. There is great road running where I live now though (and trail running). I then enjoyed racing on the trails because I was good at it and was winning. I also sheepishly knew that faster road runners existed but as long as they never came across to trail running I could be king of the castle. Now though, I’m getting closer to those faster road runners myself and have even slowly been able to change my outlook on what a result actually means. I like to think I can always find 100 people to beat and can easily find 100 more to beat more so what does it matter where I came in any race. So, if winning trail races, or road races isn’t important to me, what is?

1. Running fast. I like running fast at a good hard effort. Like running along the wing in footy. Just feels good. Sometimes on trails that’s not possible. In TRSA races it mostly is but not in Hounslow and not in parts of Brisbane or Austria.
2. Sharing running. I know that running has been a positive influence in my life. I wish more people did. We would be a healthier society, get more work done, stress less and have numerous financial benefits (less healthcare costs, less gym costs, more income from better productivity). The Hounslow Classic event had at most 300 people involved including runners and spectators. Road events attract a lot more people and are a lot more relatable to the everyday person. Every one has a road to run on but not a trail. If I can participate in road races and show people it’s fun to work towards a goal, get fitter and happier and achieve it in a race then that’d be pretty cool. Trail runnners look down on road runners because they’re boring but something is only boring because you have no imagination. Road runners look down on trail runners because they’re slow and just jogging or even walking most of the time in big races. That’s kind of true. To be clear though, I don’t aim to be a big celebrity influencer and grow my audience, instead I just want to influence those around me in my community already.
3. Having fun. It’s fun to run on the roads surrounded by lots of spectators cheering you on when you’re going fast. On the trails there’s hardly any spectators which is great to relax into a rhythm but not great for feeling like you’re in a race. You would never contemplate running a road race without spectators but that’s kind of what happens in every trail race. The caveat to this is in Austria there was lots of spectators and I didn’t necessarily enjoy that either at times (at times I did thinking back). What I think is the issue here is that I enjoy being out on the trails in my own little world and when I get distracted from that in a race it’s not as fun as a training run (like Austria). On the road side, running on a road with traffic can sometimes be not very fun. But when the roads are all closed and you become the king of the castle for an hour or so then that is very fun and cool. You can always run on trails but you can’t always run on roads. A final point to make here is that maybe because I run on trails all by myself in Quorn in my own little world I’ve come to have that as my baseline. I get very meditative. When I’m racing on trails I don’t have that same feeling and over several hours I get a bit meh about it. On the other hand, I gravitate to running on the roads sometimes so I can get out in the community in Quorn, see a few cars, wave at some people because I haven’t seen any for a few hours. Perhaps the trails are becoming too much of my private area that I am protective of and the roads are where I go to seek company from others.
4. Being successful. Ok ok, I said I’m starting to accept my performance at races without putting too much emphasis on the result. But I am not that 100% committed to that so-called ‘loser’ talk. I want to win, get prize money, beat people and represent my state, country and more importantly my friends, family and supporters. That is possible in trail running as I have shown this year but it’s also possible in road running for me which I never imagined would be the case. If I wanted to I could’ve nominated for the SA Cross-Country team or Half-Marathon or Marathon team this year but I didn’t for race clash reasons or training reasons. It demonstrates though that I’m capable of satisfying my representative cravings on the road if I keep my head down.
5. A challenge. The road scene is challenging because there is a larger field of runners and it is much easier to compare times in events to always monitor my PB progression. I can always challenge myself to a PB. Trail running is sometimes challenging from a competition point of view but I have found in eight out of the nine ultras I’ve done a big challenge is just running the last hour or so of the race without dying.

Five things that are important there. What’s not important then, or what’s frustrating about either road running or trail running?

• Event fees are sometimes exorbitant for trail running. It’s free to run on the trails, there’s no traffic closures so where does the money go? This is also why I love TRSA events, so cheap!!! Such good value!
• Carrying mandatory gear always feels useless. I know one day I might need it but if that was the mantra I should carry the whole kitchen sink. We are such a nanny state country. I wish people were smart enough to manage risk for themselves and we could all be allowed to choose our own gear.
• The weather in road running can really impact your ability to nail a PB. Do all this training for a fast road race and then get hit with a hot day. That would be a shame. Yes, you just employ the trail running mindset to not worry about a PB but if that’s the one day of the year you’d targeted for a marathon it’s a bit sad.
• There’s not massive hills in road running. I like grinding up a hill because it doesn’t require massive leg speed (which I have never had). Trail running has hills.

2 points for trails, 2 points for roads. I wish I could obtain the best of both worlds (now that would be a good challenge). I tried to do that this past three weeks but failed. I would never attempt that with one week in between, or even two weeks in between and I now know three weeks is too close. It’s all good information for future calendars I guess. (… is four weeks too close? I did nail the two week gap between Brisbane and Hills2Henley though…)

Heading into a self-prescribed ‘off-season’ what does this mean for the future?

• I’m pretty keen on building up the mental bikkies (or biccies?) to challenge myself to become a sub 14:30/30/65/2:20 runner across the 5/10/21/42 distances in 2024 and beyond. The trouble I have at the moment is I never imagined I would achieve the times I do I have so I have to break down the mystique about some of these times.
• I need to continue considering where my intentions to race lie. I did one marathon this year and I know I would at least like to do two next year, if not three (if one is in January or December). Trail running wise I could continue to try and qualify for the world sky running team still however that would preclude me from running in the Sydney Marathon (although running in Sydney makes doing the Adelaide Marathon difficult) as they are the same time. I also am close to biting the bullet and considering only trail races that are shorter than the marathon distance. The marathon distance is the most appealing to me but I don’t want to keep wasting big A grade race efforts on races where I die in the last hour. Maybe I’m better at the 10-30km stuff which is the Mountain Classic distance at the World Champs in 2025. The trouble is, there aren’t many good quality races at that level in Australia so I would never be able to compete as much as I want in my chosen ‘discipline’ of the sport. So a bit to think about.
• I have liked signing off the past two years with a big race that is more just about the experience. While I wasn’t approaching Heysen and Hounslow initially with that intention they both turned out to be like that and it was quite fun when I relaxed into both of them. I’ve always said to myself the Alpine Challenge race in November is my ultimate adventure race so maybe that’s the ideal sign off to my year from now on? And then relax over December?

If I was to do Sydney again in a year’s time where would I hope to be with my running?

• Another solid 2:20-2:30 (or even sub 2:20) performance under my belt
• Represent SA in the state team for the Australian marathon championships
• Have a crack at being in the top five Australians (dependent on who rocks up though).
• Build up my running networks and connections. Have more people like Georgia running with me. Harry? Susie? Emma? Dylan?
• Incorporate a sitting around day.

Overall the NSWE was a terrific weekend that provided me with a lot of information to reflect on, add to the memory bank and consider for the future. It is enlightening to see my progression from one year to the next and I hope in a year’s times I can continue to say the same. As you can see I have a bit to think about for the rest of the year. In the short-term I will continue to do some running, I have a climbing trip planned plus a bushwalk with Papa Kym and some other walks for the holidays and then I hope to build some consistency in my training again from mid-October onwards. Once the training is going well and I feel like I’m ready to challenge myself again I’ll be back racing hard. I’ll still pump out some blogs along the way of course but that info/plan is just to give you some direction in what to expect from the blog in the next little while. Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks for following along with all three parts if you did!