Sunday 6 April 2014

Jabulani Challenge 22km 2014

Once again the guys put on another cracking event. It was my third Jabulani Challenge, it always attracts a great bunch of entrants and is very well put on. I arrived with ample time before the start which was nice as I wasn’t at all rushed. 5 minutes or so before 8am we gathered around the start and listened to the pre-race briefing and then we were off.

Cruising at the 1km mark
I wasn’t really sure how things would go, my preparation hasn’t exactly been ideal with a few sporadic weeks of mileage due to an ITB niggle. It seems to have sorted itself out thanks to the fantastic work of James at The Body Mechanic. The pace at the very start wasn’t crazy and I managed to settle into 3rd position leading into the first singletrack section of the Gibberagong Track. The pace through here was a little hot for me but I managed to stay right behind the two leaders until the first big climb at the 4.4km mark. I immediately feel into a powerhike on the climb and had dropped back into 5th spot about half way up the climb. My legs were feeling the effects of a couple of tough training days on Wednesday & Thursday and soon were screaming with lactic acid.

Finally after a number of steep rocky switchbacks I crested the climb I managed to get moving again and cruised up to the Grosvenor St aid station at 6.4km. 4th spot still had about a 100m gap on me which I was able to maintain all the way along the fire trail that circumnavigates Cliff Reserve. At the 8.5km mark I hit the big steep climb that leads up to the Golden Jubilee Field. My legs were on fire here and running was out of the question. I was hiking strong but got passed by one runner about halfway up and then another caught up to me near the top. We crested the climb together and blasted down the other side. I dropped a gel here which perked up my energy levels a little but unfortunately I couldn’t hold onto old mate and he slowly opened a gap on me on the next few kilometres of fire trail. 8th place was also closing in which was a bit of a worry, I was determined to stay in the top 10.

At the 11.8km mark I hit the next single track section with a small gap over 8th and managed to hold him off for a while before he eventually passed me on a short steep section at the 14.3km mark. I had another gel straight after he passed me and maintained a pretty solid pace through to the second aid station at the 15km mark. The legs were finally starting to feel a little better and I could see a runner up ahead who was clearly cracking as he had been in 3rd postion when I had last seen him almost 10km earlier. I bridged the gap and passed him approaching the road crossing at Bobbin Head Road.

Back in 7th position I was determined to stay there and decided to turn up the throttle. I absolutely bombed down the Sphinx Track which drops about 150m over 1.5km and pops out right alongside Cowan Creek. I knew it was about 4km to the finish so I took my final gel and just tried to hold it right on the limit. The trail ungulates quite a lot and is reasonably techy so a fast pace proved to be pretty difficult. I was certainly pretty shattered but the kilometres ticked by and eventually I popped out of the trail into the Bobbin Head Marina. I looked at my watch and saw that I was going to be pushing it fine to crack my goal time of 2:06:00 (an average of 6min/km for 21km – the race ended up being 22km). I pushed as hard as I possibly could through the carpark, over the bridge and crossed under the finishing gantry in a time of 2:05:36.

I am really stoked with this time, especially since it was a kilometre longer than the half marathon distance. 7th place overall is also a pretty sweet bonus. Although I don’t always enjoy the higher pace of these shorter distance events there is the definite advantage of getting the finish and recovering quicker without the body being totally destroyed. It was ton of fun and I really enjoyed hanging around at the end chatting with the other runners for an hour or so. It was the exact hit out that I needed in the lead up to the Mount Solitary Ultra at the end of the month


Not only was it a great run with some awesome folks but more importantly, the money that was raised by the event is going to feed 300 children in the Kayamandi community in South Africa for the next 12 months. Such a great cause! Looking forward to next year already!

Strava GPS Data.

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