Run narawntapu 2022-Race Report

I had grand plans to be running the UTA 100 in May this year. I trained hard and was finally feeling ready to take on the distance. When the news of the postponement came out I was disappointed but not surprised. I still was eager to put all of the training to use. A few days later I saw a post on Facebook about Run narawntapu entries opening up. I had found my race albeit shorter and flatter and I would later realise a lot faster.

Run narawntapu is an out and back 50km starting and finishing at Greens Beach. It is the reincarnation and rebrand of the Convicts and Wenches race. There is also 12km and 25km distance options. Around half of the race in on beach and the other half on coastal headlands. As such they plan the race date each year to coincide with low tide. I entered the 50 and I had a super fun fast paced race and was impressed with what I was able to achieve.

Race Plan

For those interested I have added this section about my pre-race planning. I like to set race goals, a nutrition and hydration plan and an idea of how far apart aid stations are. This helps me work out what I need to carry and when.

Goals

I will typically have a main performance related goal along with a stretch goal and some process oriented goals.

Goals	Type	Description
A	Time goal	Sub 4:30 finish time
B	Time goal	Stretch goal finish sub 4:15
C	Process goal	Run my own race and pace sustainably
D	Process goal	Keep HR below 155 average

Nutrition and Hydration

My nutrition strategy was to take in a minimum of 100cal every 25 minutes. I set a timer on my watch that tells me when to eat. This race I planned to use a combination of Tailwind and Koda gels. I also carried some solid food in case I felt hungry along the way. Hydration plan was to drink Tailwind then supplement with electrolytes in the other flask. Start off drinking less and ramp up consumption as the day heated up.

Aid Stations

There are aid stations along the way that are located at the turn around points for the shorter races. There is an aid station at 6km, 12km and 25km. The earlier aid stations are passed again on the return journey at 38km and 44km. Due to the drive times between aid stations Dad (support crew) was only able to be at 11km / 38km.

Aid stations for the 50km race are at the following locations:

• 6km Google Maps Pin
• 11km Google Maps Pin
• 25km (turn point) Google Maps Pin
• 39km (same location at 12km station)
• 44km (same location as 6km station)

Pre-Race

I drove up to Launceston on the Friday afternoon before the race to stay a couple of nights with Mum. Shortly after I arrived the power went out and it was getting dark. Mum and I were sat by candlelight in the cold.

Dad was meant to be away on a sailing trip but he ended up bailing out. He flew back from Mackay and landed back on the Friday night too. Since Dad was back and had just taken ownership of a new car he was keen to drive I had myself a support crew and car.

On the Saturday before the race I went along and ran Kate Reed Parkrun with a friend at her pace. Which was pretty cruisy for me but hard for her. It’s not the easiest Parkrun course but it’s by far my favourite! The rest of the day in Launceston was spent going to the farmers market to eat almond crossaints, voting in the election and visiting various newborn babies that seem to be appearing at an alarming rate from many of my coupled friends.

The election results kept me up later than I planned the night before the race. It was too enthralling to watch the nation throw out a government and swing so hard to the side that cares about climate action.

I was up early in the morning eating crumpets, drinking black coffee and going through my usual pre-race rituals. Dad and I left early enough to have plenty of time to get to the start line. I learned the value of this when my car broke down in Sheffield on the way to Triple Top. We arrived with at least half an hour to spare even with a toilet stop in Beaconsfield along the way. I grabbed my race bib and did some warm up laps of the beach before the race briefing.

Race

Start – 11km

After the briefing I made my way to the front of the pack for the start. I wanted to go out with the front runners and see how long I could stick with them. It’s hard to overtake once on single track so wanted to avoid any overtaking early on.

As the race began I fell into fourth position by the end of the beach. Then held this spot all the way around the first headland. The leaders were setting a blistering pace of around 4:35 – 4:45 min/km. I was following along quite easily but at the same time was frightened of what was to come if I were to maintain that pace. 6km in I decided that it was foolish to to run that fast and let Marcus go past and set a more sensible pace .

There was a treacherous scamper down the rocks from the headland down to Badger beach. At the end of the rocks was a flowing tidal creek that was quite deep. In front of me Markus (not to be confused with Marcus) took his second epic stack of the race and landed in salt water. I made sure to take it easy past this section. The thought of the chafe that would ensue if I were to dip myself in salt water kept me upright.

Along Badger Beach I was overtaken by another person and ran alongside another bloke for a while. I had a bit of a chat with him and mentioned how fast we were going and how worried I was about setting such a fast pace. I was still going fast but I was no longer in the pack so I felt a lot more comfortable setting my own pace. At the end of the beach Dad was waiting with the car. I mentioned to him that I was going too fast and would slow down a bit. I filled up a water flask and grabbed some supplies and kept going up Badger Head. This stop cost me another position so I was now in 7th position.

11km – 25km

This next section was the most technical with the most vert but was by far the most spectacular part of the course. Immediately after the aid station was a steep climb. I begrudgingly stopped for a wee. I contemplated trying to run and wee but I have not practiced this skill and I didn’t want to risk it. I then power hiked up the steep section and once it plateaued I took off again. All of the others were far off in the distance now. I continued to chase with the hope of catching them.

Now I was going at my own pace on single track I was starting to really enjoy the run. I was feeling pretty high on the excitement of such high paced race and was loving the stimulation of single track and glorious views. As we came around towards Copper Cove I could see the leaders way off in the distance with a few others trailing behind. The leaders seemed out of reach but I still had hope of catching the other stragglers.

On the climb back out of Copper Cove I experienced a flash back from the last time I walked the trail on Year 8 school camp. I recalled the exact section of the path where a classmate was running down and tripped over and rolled her ankle. We all had to take turns carrying her all the way back to the campsite many kilometres away. I then ran on continuing to think about that Year 8 camp from over 15 years ago and marvelling at how good the brain is at remembering things and randomly recalling them.

As I came down onto Bakers Beach I was still in high spirits, I even got my phone out and sent my girlfriend a status update video. Since I knew I was buckling up for almost 16km of beach running I got the headphones out and started playing a flowy techno set. I got this going and engaged float mode all the way down the beach. The runners high paired with euphoric techno had me feeling like I was effortlessly flying along the beach. At this stage I was doing 4:30min/km pace and maintained it down the beach. I stopped trying to slow myself down too much and just ran to what felt good. This section of the race was a time when I reached a pure running flow state. The kilometres flew by and I was loving it.

As I approached the end of Bakers Beach I saw the first two runners making their way back down the beach at a romping pace. At this stage they both looked to be running with ease and I knew there was no chance of me catching those two. I still had hopes of nabbing a few other though, I was still in 7th. Coming into the aid station I had a flask readily primed with Tailwind and did a quick refill and grabbed some lollies and was off again.

25km – 38km

Once I turned around and headed back down the beach I seemed to crank it up another notch and increase the pace further. I could see two runners ahead. The beach was so wide that one was running closer to the shore so it was hard to tell if I was gaining on him. I had the fire lit inside at the stage and decided I wanted to use this stretch of the beach to try and make up some ground. It was hard to tell if I was gaining so I kept pushing and not looking too often up the beach to see where he was.

After a while I realised I was running right alongside him and I was able to gain about a 500m lead by the end of the beach putting myself into 6th position. I got to a fastest split going back down the beach of 4:18min/km for my 27th km. It was at this stage that I realised that all of the long training runs with fast finishes were really paying off and giving me plenty of juice still in the tank.

Coming onto the headland again I kept nudging myself along with the hope of catching another victim and not letting the person I just overtook catch me again. I stubbed my toes many times on the technical terrain. I remembered that wearing Pulsars over 30km destroys my toes. When I came into Copper Cove and was walking over the rough beach I called Dad who was waiting at the 38km aid station and told him to be prepared for a shoe change. He was happy to hear I was still going ok. He was watching me on the Garmin tracker and had seen my pace continue to speed up after I told him I needed to slow down. He was glad to hear I hadn’t bonked yet.

This final section of the headland was hard. I was starting to lose energy and my toes getting progressively more painful with every ensuing stub. At this stage I had to start talking to myself to egg myself on. Mostly talking in my head but occasionally saying out loud “come on Joe, keep moving” and many more self deprecating variations of that sentence. I was happy to get back to the car and see dad there with the shoes ready. I did a super quick change over while filling a flask and grabbing some more gels. By this stage I knew I was on the home stretch but I was feeling pretty wrung out. I knew I was in for a painful final leg.

38km – Finish

Stocked up and newly shod I headed off back down Badgers Beach into a gradual swarm of 25km race runners. I was pleased to see Dave Lennon flying down the beach in first place who I gave a hi-five and egged him on to catch me before the end. By this stage the beach was too crammed with people to tell if I was catching anyone. I just focused on moving along at a consistent pace which was becoming gradually harder. I removed the headphones and was relying on the encouragement of the 25km runners to keep me going. It’s amazing how much a few words of encouragement help when things are getting tough.

I noticed that my pace along the beach was dropping and the effort to maintain it was going up. A sure sign of fatigue setting in. I was being sure to get fuel and hydration in even as I started to feel nauseous. At the end of the beach I power walked up the headland and struggled along the undulating trails back around to Greens Beach. By now I had given up on catching people but I still had my time goal in mind. I kept glancing at the watch and doing mental arithmetic and realising that the goal was still within reach. This was enough to keep me running when I wanted to stop and get me running again after periods of power walking. I was struggling but was still trying to eek out every ounce of energy I had left to keep moving.

There were many points where I got around a headland and thought I was going to see Greens Beach only to be let down by a rocky cove. I continued on and experienced this a few more times. Dave did end up catching me about 2km from the end, he was flying along and seeing him pass through gave me a slight boost. Still pushing for the time goal. I finally passed a corner and could see the finishing arch on the beach.

I looked at my watch and saw it was around 4:14. I had a minute and the finish was over 500m away. I knew it was not possible but I was so close and the end in sight was enough to keep me pushing. I even ramped up the pace coming down the beach and finished with a time of 4:16:16, a minute and sixteen seconds over my overly ambitious time goal. I was so close. I was stoked! I thought the time goal was completely unrealistic when I set it and to get that close I was so happy. I placed 6th and was handed a 6 pack of beers upon crossing the finish line.

Results

Position	6th
Time	4:16:16
Strava	Strava Activity
Results	Official results

Goals	Description	Status
A	Sub 4:30	✅
B	Sub 4:15	❌ so close though
C	Sustainable pace	✅
D	HR Avg < 155	❌ 160bpm avg

Photo Credits

• Photo credit goes to the official race photographers as shown on the event Facebook page, any photos with “official” in the URL were taken from the event Facebook page
• All other photos and videos are my own taken on the day