My prolific year has continued to deliver. In the past month I’ve travelled interstate twice, raced three times, bought a house, and boarded a plane to Vietnam for another race. I started drafting this post on that flight, hoping to get it down before race week swept me up.
Sidenote: I’m finishing this post now, after Vietnam 100k and Hounslow Classic. Both will get their own posts to fill in the gaps.
This post covers my training build for Vietnam, how I bought a house, and a Wonderland weekend where I won a race I felt I didn’t deserve, swapped my 50k for a 20k and somehow stood on the podium twice.
📋 The Month at a Glance
| Event | Distance | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Wonderland (Sat) | 11k | 1st |
| Wonderland (Sun) | 20k (swapped from the 50k) | 3rd |
| Hounslow Classic | 17k | 9th |
| Vietnam Mountain Marathon | 100k | Did not finish |
^ pretty prolific month of running!!
🗓️ Training Update
(Written on the flight to Vietnam.)
My ultimate goal for recent training is to accumulate enough specific volume to survive a mountainous 100k with 5500m of elevation. I haven’t been focused on performing exceedingly well; I mostly want my body prepared to survive and hopefully enjoy the adventure.
Another virus ravaged me in the lead-up to Wonderland, deleting a week of training where I was hoping to reach peak volume. But I have adapted, recovered, and feel mostly ready to take on the VMM 100k in a few days’ time.
Since it is my first international event in a completely foreign land, my goals are about having a good time rather than clocking a good time. The heat and humidity of Vietnam pose a large threat to that. But Ziggy and I didn’t build a backyard sauna for nothing.
Related Post: Building a Backyard Sauna
Our household went through a rigorous heat week, sitting in the sauna seven days in a row. We even recruited our short-term housemate Nick, who initially struggled but is now hooked. Heat week is over and he keeps sessioning the sauna.
In an inadvisable move, Ziggy and I both also chased a large amount of elevation gain during heat week. Stacking two big stressors in one week is not recommended, but we were cramming out of fear of the big hills and heat ahead. My sleep quality dropped, a sure sign my body was overloaded.
🏠 Buying a House
I had a crack at buying a house earlier in the year. I went through the motions, got finance, ran the numbers and learnt what a conveyancer is. But after battling it out with other buyers, I missed out. I hated the process of essentially having a silent auction and deciding how many more thousands I was willing to pay than some unknown character. I put buying a house on the back burner. I was only interested in that house because two friends would have been my neighbours.
Despite not actively looking, I still perused property listings. I saw a nice little place in South Hobart but glossed over it because it looked too expensive. Then my workmate Shayne sent me the link saying “this place ticks a lot of your boxes.” A week earlier I’d told him my criteria for the ideal place: within running distance of trails, within running distance of work, and in the foothills of the mountain (kunanyi/Mt Wellington).
His message made me reassess, and I realised it was a pretty good fit. Lauren and I went to the open home and both decided it was an awesome place we’d love to live in. After thinking it over the weekend, I decided to put in an offer. They were asking offers over $595k. There was a huge amount of interest at the open home and I knew other offers were already far above that. I called the agent, who alluded to the mid-$600s in the vague way real estate agents talk. I deliberated, then threw in an oddly specific offer of $632,100 and waited.
The agent called back the next day to say there were three very similar offers and the vendors wanted $650k. I got annoyed. If they wanted that much, why not list it for that? It seems unethical to list low to garner interest, then jack it up. I spent a whole day freaking out about whether to fork out the cash or walk away, and needed counselling from a lot of people. Eventually I decided the extra money was worth it to secure the place that ticked all the boxes.
When I finally texted the agent, he called back immediately and we processed the offer straight away. Afterwards he told me I’d been a few minutes from missing out: he had another, slightly lower offer the vendors were about to sign. I guess it was meant to be. It was such a wild experience I hardly slept that night. It all happened while I was sick, a few days before the Wonderland 50k. Life stressors like this add to the allostatic load on the system and might explain my performance that weekend.
Now the dust has settled, I’m less stressed and mostly excited to move into a little house with Lauren.
🏔️ Wonderland Weekend
Saturday: The Bonus 11k
As I eluded to above, I caught a cold about nine days before the Wonderland 50k in Victoria’s Grampians (Gariwerd). I rested as diligently as I could (not my strong suit). As the weekend approached I improved, though a snotty nose lingered. Despite the congestion I felt good and planned to have a crack at the 50k.
Since I recently started a new job, I wanted to squeeze this trip into one weekend, so it was a whirlwind. I flew to Melbourne and was picked up by James, an Instagram friend who has now become a real-life friend. One of the benefits of putting yourself out there online is meeting like-minded, generous people all over the place.
We drove to Halls Gap, chatting the whole way. At some point I mentioned I’d considered jumping into the 11km race on Saturday afternoon (the 50k was the next day) but dismissed it because I didn’t think we’d have time.
On arrival we collected our bibs and did gear checks. I ran into Colin (the race director), introduced him to James and got chatting. I told him I’d been thinking about the 11km but probably didn’t have time, as it was about 40 minutes to the start. Colin replied “no way, there’s heaps of time, I’ll get you a bib right now, be prolific,” and I could not argue with that. Moments later I was holding two bibs and walking to the car to get changed and run a race.
James and I had planned to get lunch after bibs, but this last-minute race superseded that. I hadn’t eaten anything except a few pieces of dried mango since 6am, and it was approaching 2pm. I was too caught up in the pre-race excitement to consider how problematic that might be.
I intended to take the 11k fairly easy, but the pace started cruisy and somehow I was out front. I felt good initially, but once we hit the first climbs things felt way harder than they should. The sun was scorching, adding another layer of difficulty. I dropped back from the fellow in first and decided to slow down and look after myself.
My pace slowed to a walk, then to complete standstills at times. I muttered “what is wrong with me,” certain the virus was still wreaking havoc. My legs turned to jelly, and the climb felt like 9/10 exertion at a pace not much more than a walk. When I finally reached the pinnacle, I was glad the climb was over, but my jellified legs wouldn’t do what they were told. I felt clunky on trails I’d usually skip along.
By then I’d given up on racing and planned to jog it out. I smashed all the sugar I had on me: a Moor gel sachet containing four gels, demolished in two goes. The downhills brought me back from the dead a little. Then my watch beeped at me to say I was off course. Since I hadn’t had time to study the route, I’d loaded the GPX onto my watch. I couldn’t see any markers, so I came to a complete standstill, pulled out my phone and checked the map. I was still on course; my watch had dropped out of navigation mode.
I reloaded the navigation and got running again. I must have picked up the pace, because eventually first place came into sight, then I caught right up to him. I was willing to jog it in with him and let him have the win. We’d been chatting early on and he’s relatively new to trail running, so I wanted him to have a win. But he took a fall. I stopped to help, but he said he was ok and to go ahead as I was moving faster.
So I found myself in the lead and decided I might as well hold on. I ran well on the downs, but the slightest incline nearly killed me. I held the lead, finished strong and got the win while gasping for air, shell-shocked. It felt like a minor asthma attack after crossing the line. I sat down physically wrecked and mentally confused about a win I felt I didn’t deserve. It’s a weird feeling winning a race that felt like one of the worst of my life. People congratulated me, but I felt little pride and a lot of fear about the 50k I was meant to be doing the next day.
Sunday: Plan B
I spent the afternoon in infirmity and uncertainty about my body’s ability to run. I went to bed praying for a miraculous recovery but woke feeling terrible. Worse, my overnight health metrics were out of whack: low heart rate variability (HRV) and a high resting heart rate, all signs my body was fighting something off, fatigued or stressed.
After suffering through 11k the day before, I had no confidence in surviving 50k, so I made the last-minute call to bail. My fallback was the 20k. I messaged Colin and he happily swapped my entry. I was relieved, but James was still on the hook for the 50k and anxiously preparing.
I lined up for the 20k still anxious about my body holding together, which made me start incredibly conservatively. I hiked most of the first hill, watching my heart rate and trying to keep it under 140bpm. I didn’t want a repeat of the day before, when my heart rate was in the 180s while walking. I started out feeling wretched, but as I warmed up I felt good. It was a glorious day and I was soaking it all in, loving being out on the Gariwerd trails.
At the Boroka aid station I was thriving, and based on my cursory study of the course I knew it was mostly downhill from there. I picked up the pace along the road, overtaking three runners, then really took off once I hit the single track. I knew this section well from the Grampians Peaks Trail (GPT), but I’d usually run it on fatigued legs. This time, on fresh legs, I was ready to take advantage of the flowy single track.
I ran hard but still stopped atop the cliffs to admire the cloud inversion in the lowlands below. I filmed bits and pieces on my little camera, and the conditions were ideal. I wasn’t sure of my position but knew I was getting close to the podium. Eventually I spotted Peter Ham ahead and gained on him rapidly. I consider myself a strong downhill runner and put that strength to work. When I caught him, he muttered something like “you bastard, I thought I had you covered.”
I got a long way ahead quickly. The descent into Halls Gap was so nice, and I finished strong, psyched up by the fun, flowy downhill. I crossed the line in third, my second podium of the weekend. Nothing had worked out as planned, but it was still a relatively successful weekend of running.
Remote Support Crew
Once my race was done, I sought food and soaked up the immaculate vibes of a Sunday in Halls Gap, in perfect conditions and with that post-race endorphin glow. But I had one final job. James started messaging me with misgivings about finishing the 50k, so I switched into Ultrarunning Counsellor / Problem Solver mode. I advised him to sit at the aid station, rest, cool off and then reassess the “DNF thoughts.” After a sit, and the medics assuring him he was okay, he got back out there and finished the thing. I was proud of him.
Not only did he finish, he also drove me all the way back to Melbourne Airport without stopping. Clearly he still had some juice left in the tank.
Wonderland weekend was so much fun. It was a super quick trip where not much went to plan, but I finished it incredibly stoked. I love being amongst it, and often the ones that don’t go to plan are the most memorable.
🔭 Reflections / Looking Ahead
I’ve scaled this post back a lot due to time constraints. I’d intended to write about Hounslow as well, but I’ve run out of time. I’m finishing this in a hotel room in Haiphong on a laptop.
I left Sapa this morning after my attempt at the VMM 100k, and there’s a whole blog post in that too. It was a challenging journey that I did not complete. I spent Sunday at Wonderland talking James out of quitting, and a few weeks later I was the one facing the DNF.
Hounslow and Vietnam will each get their own post over the coming weeks, so I’ll fill in the gaps then.
Thanks for reading. I hope you found it entertaining and informative.
Joseph Nunn: An avid trail runner based in Hobart, Tasmania. He loves getting out for big days on the trails with mates or racing against them.
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