In 2023, I will....
"Keep your fluids up mate" - Highly experienced ultra runner, Jack Banwell.
Hello there. Welcome. The weekend just gone was the best of my life. I received an unimaginable amount of positive support from people at the event and online so I thought I might expand on what happened a little further.
Before we dive into the race recap from the weekend, lets wind it back to about 6-7 months ago – I get asked a lot, “why?”, so that’s where I’ll start. Why did I want to dip my toes into the world of running, particularly ultra running? This is what I wrote:
- To push my body so fucking hard.
- To connect further with my best mate. He inspires me.
- I want to feel that competition again; it’s something that’s escaped me since stopping playing footy.
- To prove to myself I can be consistent, disciplined, and relentless in the pursuit of a desired achievement.
- To learn how I will overcome deep challenge, hurt, and pain. Test out my mental.
Prove Yourself Right. Go One More.
“In 2023 I will, run an ultramarathon” is what I wrote at the start of the year. After scanning the upcoming years races, I booked my place in the starting corral for the Hysterical Carnage Backyard Ultra. At this point I was only aware of this race from a friend, Jason, running it the year prior, and I remember sitting at dinner with a few mates and telling them about it, “boys, a fella I know just did this… that’s crazy, but bloody cool”, as the big dog pumped out 100kms!
Anyone that knows me will know I like to take the road less travelled, so true to that, I booked my first ultra for a race that has no bloody finish time. The format of this ‘race’ appealed to me so much. It is a war of attrition of the highest order, 6.7km to complete in 1 hour, restarting the same loop every hour, until you quit, hurt yourself or “DNF”. My journaling is few and far between; I say this because I don’t refer to it in my decision making, but I think subconsciously I kept getting drawn back to this race because it aligned so perfectly with the ‘whys’ I wrote.
I also wrote this in my journal which must have been a few weeks after signing up for this event.
“It’s time I cut the bullshit with myself and get a routine for hysterical carnage.”
Fast forward to the present and we find ourselves a week out from the run. I’m out meeting new humans and for a final tune up before the big weekend. Jon is out front chatting with a fella when he turns around and says “Jack, this is Jeremy, he’s doing the backyard ultra that you’re doing next weekend!” I love how the universe brings people together. So eventually, Jez and I get chatting, and he tells me he signed up for it 2 weeks ago. On first thought I kind of remember thinking something like “This guy is either brave or foolish! But fuck yeah, let’s go!”
I learned quickly that Jez is a beautiful man & I was keen to see what noise we could make. I also love being an adult and the freedom we have, to make spontaneous decisions, a trait I admire in anyone when I hear cool yarns like that.
It's race weekend and after a nervous and anxiety filled couple of weeks, with getting sick & revising my packing list numerous times, Caiylan and I head up to Loxton. Between my nerves and my carb load, I was knackered, I slept pretty much the whole way there. We met up with Jez, Jason, DK and Hoops and headed to the Loxton Hotel for a final carb load and catch up with race directors & other runners/support crews. Everyone was super inviting, friendly & a little quirky. Little did I know the atmosphere in the pub would set the tone for the weekend.
Race Day!
After an average night sleep in the swag, I managed to sleep until 7:30 which was a win, I had a big time on legs goal and knew every hour of Z’s counted. 9:30 race briefing for a 10am start was the clock we were working against. I remember the morning going so fast! I had a shower and helped my team set up the crewing station with my smorgasbord of fuel to keep me going. It’s now 8:30 and I haven’t had brekky. Good start? Oh well. 2 pieces of toast with banana, honey and jam will see me off.
And we are off! You couldn’t wipe the smiles of mine and Jeremy’s face. Everyone was full of optimism and energy as we all embarked on a common goal, to run as far as we can. The “Stairway to Heaven” was probably a good thing at the beginning, forcing the speedy types (Jez) to slow down at the start of each lap. Eventually it became the “Stairway to Hell” for most.
You’re running slow enough to have a yarn with a fellow runner for a few minutes, even a whole lap. I look back on the chats I had with people and everyone’s story is so unique and inspiring in their own way. A highlight of the weekend for sure!
Quite often when running with someone you’ll get the “what’s your goal?” question, I think I told 1 or 2 people what mine was, before I heard someone say “Whatever your time/distance goal is, forget about it, and just try to run until you can’t finish a lap”, so I adopted that attitude, which I think helped so I wasn’t counting down the laps and made the laps go super quick.
My strategy was to go slow as possible for as long as possible, to preserve my body by walking the inclines & declines and run the flats. The first half of the loop was good for this strategy as it forced you to walk; the stairs, into a soft, sandy, undulating terrain meant if you were to run from the outset you would fry your body well before the night. This terrain then had the adverse effect deeper into the run… I was ready to enter the unknown.
The laps were just ticking over, 53ish minute lap times, like clockwork. Jez and I ran together for the start of most laps, until he got to some flat ground and those fast legs just kept sneaking him a few minutes ahead of me. DK kept going to the toilet in the Loxton Village and come out saying “Well at least I know I’m hydrated!” Jason kept singing his rendition of the ‘Vengaboys, We Like to Party’ “Hoops has got something to tell ya, Hoops has got news for you…”
Jez and I kept smiling and laughing and saying “fuck sake, how good is this?”, “where else would you rather be on a Friday arvo?”
Working with a nutritionist in prep for this event was so beneficial for me, I wasn’t kidding when I said I had a smorgasbord of fuelling options – anything with carbohydrates in it, take a guess, I probably had it! 1%er’s from my fuelling options were, Clif Bars, baby food (fruit puree’s), LCM bars. It turned into a guessing game amongst the fellas what I ate each break.
My crew know me better than I know myself and could adapt my fuel to how I was feeling, it also brought excitement to me on some laps when I remembered I had a certain something. For most laps, I went with what I knew worked, what I had absolutely dialled in: 1 LCM bar, 1 GU energy gel, 3-4 Allens snakes, 2 scoops GU energy powder in 400ml water and 500ml water or water + electrolyte sachet. I knew I had 70-90 grams of carbs nearly every lap + almost 1litre of fluid. I was set.
Receiving unexpected cups of LA Ice and Pasito were massive 1%er’s.
The knees started to ache after lap 2, but this was something I’d dealt with a few times in the past, so was expected. After lap 4-5 it was still there, so on the voltaren goes with panadol. A few laps later the discomfort was still there through the knees so I chucked on more voltaren plus compression sleeves. Instant relief! We’re on here! I’m pretty sure this feeling didn’t last long..
I had been dealing with a bit of discomfort in basically all my toes, each stride, my toes were smashing the end of the shoe, but again, I’d experienced this in training - but I also had never spent this much time on legs before, we were in the unknown now. There would be an accumulative effect to all this time on feet eventually.
Things were going to plan, fuelling perfectly, sock/shoe changes, no gut problems. I don’t think the same could be said for DK unfortunately, at this point I think his number 1 every lap had turned to a number 2 and I remember thinking, “If that was me, I would be done, this bloke has some ticker. There’s no way I’m stopping for some busted toes.” Gut problems were the #1 thing I was expecting to go wrong for me hence my angst seeing DK go through it. It brought some much-needed perspective to what I was dealing with.
Before lap 13, in haste I requested my 3rd pair of shoes, my favourites, Brooks Glycerin, I thought they’d get me out of trouble and threw them on without changing my dirty, sweaty, 6-hour old socks. I take my first stride out of the corral for number 13, thinking I’ll feel better being in my favourite shoes, but the universe had other plans, blister pop on the big toe, awesome. I hobble the next lap like a sniper has shot me in the calf.
After a sock change and patch up, I was back out there for number 14. I text my dad at 11:47pm, “Going strong”. After a frustrating couple of laps, I was still well and truly in this fight.
There was a main hill at the half-way point, about 300metres and maybe 20-30m elevation loss. Sometime in the night I made the call to walk backwards down the hill on each lap. I just knew I wouldn’t make it if I was to persevere with walking forwards, the pressure on my toes was too much with all my weight on them. DK added this to the list of coaching tips that I gave out during the run.
There was no let up on my toes, my big toes especially, killing me, the nails are purple and kind of loose when Jon wakes up from a power nap, throws his cape on and comes over, “dude no wonder your toes are sore, look at your nails!” They were way too long! Caiylan gave me a pedicure with arts & craft scissors and chucked some tape over my big toes to save the nails. The 2-minute bell rang, and DK walks past “Jack, just keep showing up.”
I hobbled through the night & each lap progressively felt like more of a grind. It was tough, I was hurting and got to the stage of fatigue and hurt where I yell at myself; midway through having a chat with DK I would let out a few “AHHHH”, “Come on Jack!” and “Fuck me!!”s out to relieve pain temporarily. Believe it or not, I was in a good headspace, the thought of stopping did not enter my mind, I was in ‘adapt and problem solve’ mode (remember that arbitrary goal I made up? I still hadn’t ticked it off yet!). I’ve been thinking of this moment for 6 months, I’ve been envisioning myself in the hurt locker, I knew I would feel like this.
Big ups to DK & Johan for getting me through the night, after we caught up to the offy, it was 3 mins run…. 2 mins walk…. Rinse…. And…. Repeat…..
There was light at the end of the tunnel, figuratively and literally speaking, on the eve of the 5am lap I saw what was the very start of a sunrise, I was on my own here and thought “maybe don’t get too excited, you could be imagining it”. 20-30 minutes later a shine of orange started to appear on the horizon, “get your solar panels out!!” I yelled! That second wind I was after was coming to fruition; or was it the 2 energy drinks I drank in the past 2 breaks?
The body was absolutely shot and I could no longer keep up with the two beasts up ahead, 500m ahead is so much further to make up after you’ve been on feet for 22 hours. I was by myself, along the river, thinking about my crew who was made up of - my brother Jed, my best mate Jon and my woman Caiylan; then my dad, who was only a few towns away - I was hanging in there so that he could hopefully make it while I was still in the fight, and then I think of my family, my grandparents and I lose it, uncontrollably crying for a few minutes until I pulled myself together. Ever seen a grown man cry, running with a tutu on?
I get the nails cut even shorter and head back into the starting corral and there was some relief in my toes. During the 10 second countdown, I remember having a distinct thought, “fuck this Jack, lets see how sore the feet and legs really are.” 42 minutes later I was back, I remember feeling invincible as I crossed the line with a big “AHHHH!!” I had spare time, so I had a shower and brushed my teeth which was great to freshen up. I saw the medic and he patched up my toes properly.
“You have 2 blood blisters in the one toe, I can drain them but it’s going to be very painful to continue running on.”
“No thanks Doc I’ll put up with the pain, they haven’t popped yet.”
In hindsight, maybe going out that hard wasn’t the play, I seized up pretty hard after that. Hobbled a few more laps, ticking off my arbitrary goal, 24 hours, 100 miles, 160kms. I was very proud of this, but still in the zone, I maybe gave the crew a quick smile, but then it was off to do number 25. Jezza’s quote prior to the run ringing in my head - “Anything after 24 hours is choccies”, I was getting stuck into the choccies!
Lap 26, moving terribly. I get to the top of the hill and I turn around as I did for the previous 15 laps, hobble backwards down the hill, I could hear my team cheering me on, I get to the flats, turn around to continue the lap, and see my dad, the tears flow & he hugs me “you’re a beast mate, keep going, love you”. The rest of the team also start crying, which on reflection is a special and beautiful moment.
I was emotionally and physically spent, my feet, knees and hip flexors were absolutely shot. I barely said a word to my crew in the last few laps. I saw Jed with 500m to go in what would be my last lap, hobbling past I give him the hand gesture as if to say I was done, he said “just get to the finish line”. Jez tried his best to give me a rev up after I told them I was done, I was beaten but I was satisfied. I walked out for lap 27 to the bottom of the stairs, yelled up to DK, who looked fresh as ever, gave him a thumbs up, and turned around. My people rode the highs and lows with me, all exhausted in our own way, we exchanged long emotional hugs, and I rang that damn finishing bell.
26 laps, 26 hours, 174.2km later, I had run my race. I am damn proud of my race.
The thought of doing another one, immediately after the race made me feel sick, but after reflecting this past week, I am pretty confident I will do more of these in the future. The atmosphere, the people, the energy, the support, everything to do with the event was infectious!
I can already see the toxic trait that comes with this race, “damn could I have gone again?”, and truthfully, I think I could of. I’m not upset that I didn’t Go One More though, because I buried myself enough, this time around….
I am filled with massive confidence that I can go further considering how far I went in my BYU debut.
First shout out goes to Jezza! 2 weeks ago you signed up and ticked off 15 laps for 100kms! Your first ultra! Super effort legend!
To DK, you’re a fucking champion, I wouldn’t have got where I did without you. 34 laps with a proper DNF. Our whole crew has a man crush for you. Superhuman.
Thank you to the race directors, other runners & other supporters for bringing the vibrant, positive energy for the race’s entirety. I genuinely felt like a rockstar running through that finish line each hour.
To the runners I shared conversations, stories and laughs with, thank you, you’re all inspiring.
A special thank you to Jason, seeing you do this last year inspired me to do it this year, it was a pleasure to run with you & thank you for introducing my people to yours.
Thank you to Jezza, Georgia, Jason, Hoops, Claire, Josh and Chloe for forming an extended support crew.
And lastly, a HUGE thanks to Jed, Jon and Caiylan for helping me go the distance. I am forever indebted to you three.
This is elite. I can hear you speaking these written words - so bloody good. Love you mate x
I absolutely love this! A prefect recap of a sensational day! I keep thinking about what you achieved this week and I’m just so damn inspired by it. You were a broken man at 18 laps and pushed on, I’ve never witnessed someone push themselves so hard. Be proud great man