Fraser Darcy

Before we get into the race and reflection on the previous six weeks of training I’m going to tell you a little story about a climb called Fingernickin so excuse the waffle if you just want the good stuff and skip to here instead.

Up at Moonarie, the almighty cathedral of climbing in SA in the Flinders Ranges, and the location of quite a few personal climbing trips in 2020-2022, there is a climb called Fingernickin. It’s Grade 24, three stars (out of three) and about 30m long. In the running world I’d put it at like running a 15:30 minute 5k for men and a 17:00 5k for women. It’s doable, but it takes a fair bit of skill and fitness to work your way to the top. The climb is all on ‘trad’ meaning you have to place your own protection to stop you from falling to your death or do what I did and hope your mate places good enough protection to stop you from falling to your death.

One trip in particular, Ferg, friend of the blog, had become fixated on ticking Fingernickin. The ‘crux’ of the climb was staying on the wall through a series of crack moves just past halfway. Like I said, a mix of technical skills and fitness was required. I wasn’t super interested in working on Fingernickin on this trip but happy to belay Ferg and give it a go. After a couple of days of staring at it I too inevitably wanted to give it a go. Crack climbing was never really something I enjoyed at the time though so I wasn’t prepared to lead the route, instead, I was more than happy to clip into Ferg’s gear (a poor style from a purist’s perspective but it doesn’t actually change the climbing).

After a few go’s on top-rope (where the rope is above me and it’s basically like having training wheels on) I was starting to enjoy it. Maybe I can do this quintessential Moonarie test-piece after all. When that thought enters my head I have to do it. I can’t go back to Adelaide knowing I tried it but didn’t give it my all. The next day we had a rest day due to rain though so Ferg, Brodie and I would have to wait.

Final day of the trip and we’re pretty tired from climbing for almost a week despite having a rest day. Ferg starts his quest to finish off Fingernickin and does the thing! Fuck yeah! Now it meant I could have a real proper go without feeling like I’m stealing Ferg’s lunch.

I tied in for my first proper lead attempt (the training wheels were off), got up to this little cave/roof thingo and moved out past it. And fell. Oh well, first go of the day, I still have time.

I rested a bit more and tried again. Each time you’re trying a hard project you have to believe this is it, this is the money shot, I’m going to do it this time. Not only are you resting your physical powers between attempts but also your mental ability to psyche yourself up. Up I go then, for the second shot, moving nicely through the easy stuff at the start, come out from underneath the cave, get into the crux move and bam, off again. Fuck this. Why would I ever think I can do this climb, especially after a week of other climbing.

Back down on the ground I was mad. I put more effort into climbing and training than Ferg, I should be able to do this. Where’s my reward? Yeah, I’m a pretty frustrated person when it comes to not being able to do something I think I should be able to do. To inspire a change in mood and to ensure I tried every trick in the ‘get psyched’ book I put on some music. Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machines was either the track I played or something very similar. I remember as I left the ground for my third attempt I was just mad. I was relaxed enough to climb well but I just wanted to make sure that even if I did fail I’d only do so knowing I gave it absolutely everything.

Up the easy stuff, music playing through my phone in my pocket, keeping me both psyched and relaxed. Into the cave, out of the cave. Ok, time to pull hard. Getting into position for the crux move felt good, shit I’m higher than I’ve been on the other attempts, don’t fuck it up. The last hard part of the crux move was a really spread-out reach to a high slot for my fingers. Being a shorter climber I have to make sure I suck in everything close to the wall and am able to hold good tension throughout my body (without being too strained so I can actually reach it) to maximise my reach enough so I can get the hold. As I did this, I thought, here we fucking go, better climb this thing, and then let out a very loud power scream as I stuck my right hand out and into the slot. It’s this moment, the power scream moment, that makes Fingernickin stick out in my memory. It has to be the biggest moment of my climbing career where I went full beserk mode to climb something in such a short instance.

Back to the slot though. Fuck yeah it’s there. Adrenalin was hitting me now, this is the money shot. Don’t blow it. I made a few easy moves up to a rest spot and let a whole song play on my phone (something by Creedence Clearwater Revival from memory) as I tried to get rid of the lactate build up in my forearms. The moves from here to the top were not that hard but still fall-off-able. I ended up piecing it together nicely, clipped the chains and returned to the ground a relieved climber. I did the thing I thought I could do.

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Now that little climbing story has set the scene it’s time to return to present day time and bring you the main meal of the blog this week. A 5000m track race! Six weeks of targeted 5km training had led up to this race. Prior to the race I had a fair bit going through my head. Don’t put any expectations on yourself, it’s your first time on the track, don’t go out too hard, enjoy racing on a track, who knows when you’ll do it again and get to the end absolutely cooked knowing you gave it everything.

On race night I arrived at the track pretty keen to give it a good go. Two easy days of running had left me feeling fresh and confident I had all my ducks lined up in a row to do so. Sitting around watching the other track races was good fun and also kept me pretty relaxed. I can do what these people are doing and more. I wasn’t really sure of when to start warming up and switching into real race mode so kept my eye on some of the other runners in my race and watched their cues. Yeah maybe it was a bit like hanging around like a bad smell but hey, they’ve done this more than me and it was my opportunity to learn from them.

We eventually started warming up at 8:20pm. The late timing of the run hadn’t really bothered me mentally but I was worried physically it might cook my stomach. About two km’s into the warm-up I started to feel the frustrating symptoms of having an unsettled stomach bouncing around. It used to be a common experience in my arvo runs but hadn’t happened for a while. I’m not sure if it’s a food, water imbalance or a stress thing. Either way, it was coming on in the warm-up. Far out, six weeks of dedicated 5km training, new spikes and now my stomach is giving up on me, is one way I could’ve looked at it. Instead, I went for the yeah you’ve had this before, it’s only a 5km, you’ll be fine and stressing about it will only make it worse. Sure enough, I finished the warm-up, did my best effort at relieving the uneasiness on the toilet and with some stretching and then did a few strides.

We were called to the start line in our ‘seed’ order which had me 9th on the list. Although, seed 1 was only pacing and two other runners weren’t there so it was more like I was 6th seed. There was a delay to the actual start and everyone else went for another stride while I was just relaxed enough to wait. I was comfortably numb ready (sublte nod to Pink Floyd).

The gun went and Robbie Killmier had been organised to pace the group I wanted to be in for the first few laps, or however long he could last, at 70 seconds per lap. That would give us a finish time of 14:35, which is only 5 seconds off my goal of breaking 14:30 for this year. Perfect.

Robbie set the pace brilliantly and I snuck in behind another runner, Luke, and in front of two others. Tom, from the Belair race, was in this group and I wanted to be as close to him and Luke, who’s beaten me on two other poorly paced races of mine, at the finish given I thought I was just as fit as them. Going through the first few laps I was focused on staying relaxed. Our times were spot on and I think a couple of runners dropped off our little pack so it was just Robbie, Luke, myself and Tom. After those first few laps, out of 12.5 laps in total, I started to look around a bit more as we went through the home straight. That helped break up the monotony of it a bit.

Robbie stepped out just after the 2.4km mark and did an excellent job. Luke carried on for a few more laps before I felt him drifting back a touch. I moved up on his shoulder with ease on one lap before settling in behind him again on the bend. If I went too early past him I would blow my opportunity to ‘race’ the final lap with them. But, if I didn’t keep to the 70 second lap pace we were holding I might blow the opportunity to get a time close to 14:30. The next lap I went past him and felt myself surge a bit at the excitement of it. It was still 5 or 6 laps so it was a bit early to put the hammer down but it still felt nice to be making a postive move.

I held that position and created a small lead over the next few laps. Motivating me coming down the home straight was the fact that I could hear the tension in the support of Luke and Tom from the crowd ‘stick with him, someone has to catch him, get back up to him’ from the majority of the spectators which made me think I was looking good and maybe they weren’t. There was only one person I could make out saying ‘go Fraser‘ which gave me the underdog card too. I don’t think anyone really expected me and my trail running ability to have such good 5k speed.

With just under 3 laps to go though Luke and Tom started to come back to me a bit. I was a little disheartened at first but also knew that it would drag me along to a good finish having to chase them. Usually, at parkrun, I start to really wind it up over the last kilometre. On the track though, the last km stretches over 2.5 laps. I held back winding it up too instead just match Luke and Tom for another 1.5 laps to ensure I was on them with one lap to go.

At the bell I was right where I wanted to be. 13:25 had just ticked over the clock giving me 65 seconds to make it back for a 14:30 time. That’s doable in an all-out 400m sprint for me. I felt Tom and Luke start to surge off the first bend but I was able to surge as well. I moved out to overtake them on the back straight but timed it poorly as they also moved out to overtake a slower runner who we were overlapping. This was my major mistake from the race. I had to check my stride and slot back in behind them to make sure I wasn’t sitting in lane 3 by the time we got to the final bend. Attacking on the bend is very difficult to do and I didn’t have the ability after 12 laps to do so.

Into the final straight the order was Luke, Tom then Me. The race had already been won by Jacob Cocks in 14:06 for a national qualifier but this was the race I cared about. We were all gunning it with 100m to go and Luke had the best spot. Before the race I had given myself a cue with 100m to go to remember the amount of effort I put in on that crux move in Fingernickin. So with 100m it was time to call upon that memory for a final burst of speed. I had driven all the way from Quorn for this race, blocked out my week for it, bought spikes for it, focused on 5k training for six weeks for it at the expense of being carefree over the holidays so no way was I going to finish thinking I could’ve ran faster at the end. I was channeling some of that inner motivational anger at those decisions just like I channeled being mad when I climbed Fingernickin that day.

With 50m to go I moved past Tom and was getting closer to Luke. If there was another 50-100m maybe I would’ve had him but this time he had too much speed for me. I finished feeling pretty cooked but not as cooked as I was after the Belair parkrun. I think that’s just a sign of how well I paced this effort in that I didn’t get above my absolute limit until right at the end. Maybe if I had managed to move past Luke and Tom on the back straight I might’ve gone a couple of seconds quicker but nothing major.

In the end though, my final time was 14:29. I had achieved my 14:30 goal and I did the thing I thought I could do.

After the race I chatted with the other runners and we were all pretty pleased with how it went. There was certainly a sense of ‘I didn’t think you could do that‘ from a few people which was nice. In the cool-down my stomach issues, which proving myself right, didn’t impact my race, returned though and left me feeling downright terrible (and still terrible the next day!). I managed to make it through the cool down, made it home to bed and reflected on a few of the takeaway’s from this summer project.

1) Having a time on the board of 14:29 now gives me more confidence to aim for a sub 30 minute 10k, sub 65 minute half and sub 2:20 marathon this year.
2) It also means that I don’t have to have the pressure of trying to wipe almost thirty seconds off my PB the next time I race 5k. My PB has gone from 16:00 in early 2022, to 15:35 in mid 2022, 14:58 in mid 2023, 14:55 in early 2024 to then 14:29 a fortnight or so later. Even if I tried another 5km in six months or twelve moths time, which has been the frequency the past two years, a thirty second improvement is pretty unrealistic at the speed I am running at now. Instead, I can just aim to run 69 second laps for the next 5000m and aim for 12 or so seconds max off it. Or just run 70 seconds again and finish stronger over the last kilometre.
3) Running a 5000m on the track as the last event of the night is pretty fun. Yeah sitting around all day waiting for it is kind of boring but being the A grade runners and feeling like the stars of the show, with race commentary, is pretty cool. And having fun is what I like to do with running so I could definitely see myself doing more of these.
4) I can still make improvements with my top end speed. Given how I wasn’t 100% cooked aerobically at the end indicates I probably have a higher level of aerobic fitness than I can mechanically reach. I.e. my legs don’t move as fast as they probably could. That comes with more practice though and if I’m patient, like I have been with my 5k time over the last two years, then perhaps in two years time I’ll have a 14:1X or even a 14:0X time, or maybe even a sub14?!
5) If they had played Money for Nothing by Dire Straits over the loudspeaker as I cracked into the last lap I might’ve made it under 14:15… next time though…

That’s about it though for this update. I might give the Belair parkrun a crack this weekend but otherwise this race signifies the end of the 5km project and the start of focused marathon training for Ballarat Marathon. It doesn’t mean I won’t race any more until the marathon (there’s a 10k and a trail race all in February that I’ve got my eye on) it just means my focus will instead be on maximising my marathon ability. Which is why I did this 5k block anyway, to make sure I was more comfortable running at sub 3:00/km which makes running 3:20/km (marathon pace) feel even easier. Thanks for reading and to finish here’s a final video (below) that I was trying to focus on while staying relaxed for the race. All I had to do was just begin to believe I can run 14:30 (and train of course) and then I can work towards any goal I have.