North Face 100

[Turfa]

Is anyone else entered in the North Face 100 next month ? I will be walking the course & am curious if any other forum members will be there.

I'll be the slow guy right at the back with the trekking poles........

[wayno]

oi Forest, wake up mate,,, sounds like your gig.

[Tuna]

Is anyone else entered in the North Face 100 next month ? I will be walking the course & am curious if any other forum members will be there.

I'll be the slow guy right at the back with the trekking poles........

Yeah I'll be there, I was planning to run as much as possible though. First one for you as well? I'm really excited about it, it's a massive community of people that do this one and it'll be epic, not to mention the free carbo-loading dinner the night before.

Are you really taking trekking poles? I'd not thought of doing that, I've never used them, do they make a difference? After checkpoint 4 is where the epic slopes come in, maybe pulling out poles at that stage would be a good idea to put some of the work into the upper body?

[Turfa]

Actually my second......It is a fantastic event, you will have a great time.......have you done a 100k event before ?
Did it first in 2012 and was a little concerned about deliberately planning to walk a running event, but the cutoff time is 28 hours, and that is pretty generous.
As a walker the poles are a big help, and even as a runner I would expect they could help a lot on the steep ups & downs. You would just need to figure out a way to easily get them out or put them away without having to stop & take off your pack. They can also be a huge benefit if you have something blow up & you want to just keep going to finish.(crutch mode !)

[forest]

Thanks for the wake-up Wayne..... Been to busy training !!!
Just finished my last long trail run, 40km's and 2200m vertical gain. I did a 15km stairs session yesterday and another 800m vertical. Tired now.... legs, mind, tired. Looking forwards to taper time.

Yep I'll be there for the 50km race. It will be a great event. I ran/walked 45km of the course in early March.
Fun isn't a word I used at all that day. Tracked over 3000m of vertical gain on that full loop from Scenic world and back.
Stairs, stairs and more stairs. It's a tough loop and will be murder after 56km's on the legs for the 100km runners / walkers.

I ran in the Northburn NZ, 50km race in March. Wouldn't have done that without poles, they were great and I always walk with them too. For TNF I'm not taking mine. I carried them for the training run on course and didn't get them out. They are a pain on stairs and there's plenty of handrails to grab on them. The climb out from Kedumba wasn't that bad, but that's based off the 1400m climb straight off the start Northburn had. If I did the 100 at TNF I probably would take them.
But make sure you have trained a little with them, don't try anything new on race day PERIOD !!.

Nutrition is just as big as fitness for the 100km race. Make sure you fuel early and keep feeding it in. Once your bodies low on fuel you just will not make it up during the event.

I'm pretty keen to bring it home in sub 6 hours. Might be a big ask but I've been training pretty hard and doing LOTs of stairs and hilly trails. Plenty of km's in my legs over the last 3 months with Northburn and Newcastle Marathon (3:34) in the mix.
Coming from a Bushwalking base into ultra's and trail running has been great.
Most of us have plenty of hours on the legs, it's just a matter of will/can you run much during the event.

Looking forward to having a solid crack at GNW100 come September, that will be my 12 month anniversary into running from a walker. I should be doing TNF100 but I've raced to much in the last 6 weeks, body can only handle so much.

I wish everyone good luck in the event. Hold on and enjoy the ride.

[Tuna]

So Turfa wanted to thank you for the trekking poles idea, I gave the trekking poles a short go yesterday, but it's going to take a couple of practise sessions I think before I can master the spider monkey. Really good suggestion, I do really like the idea. I have this funny loop on my backpack for the trekking poles, apparently, I now just need to master it. They also just break up any monotony and make for a bit more fun. I like laughing at myself and amusing myself through stupid things, that's my key to keeping my head in a good state to keep going in things like this.

I'm really excited about the adventure.

...wanted to see what other people were bringing along for food ideas???

[creeping_moses]

I'm in the 100km! Can't wait to get into it!
Bib #523.

[Turfa]

So, how did everyone fare on the weekend ? I thought it was a fantastic event, with a great group of people competing and a terrific course. Views are amazing....well at least the first half when it was still daylight! Finished in 20 hours, 30 minutes, which was a little slower than I had hoped, but I did underestimate the extra difficulty of the new course, so I was pretty happy with the result, and really don't think I could have gone any faster without doing some running.

Had some grief from my right knee after the Giant Stairway (again!) and that made the last 40km a little uncomfortable. It also made me think that the course went up and down every single set of stairs between Echo Point and Wentworth Falls, but maybe that was just my knees opinion !

The last section from the hospital,all the way back down into the valley across Jamison Ck and back up again was a tough way to finish, but it did have one funny moment. Somewhere on the fire trail up from Leura Falls Ck a wombat wandered out of the bush and snuffled around the feet of a guy who was about 20m in front of me. He stood completely motionless while the wombat checked him out and then waddled back into the bush. He looked up at me and asked "what the hell was that ?" ....... Either he wasn't really a local , or it was 2am and he had been on his feet for 19 hours...both are understandable !

Crossed the finish line at about 3.15 am and then sat down for a bit ! Eventually got up the energy to have a shower and crashed out in the back of my car for a couple of hours. Got up just before sunrise and cheered on the rest of the finishers as they crossed the line...some very happy people !

It really is a fantastic event in a beautiful location & the organisers did a great job. Will definitely be back again, and maybe even inspired enough to do some running !

[cajun]

Much respect. We walked the National Pass on Friday and anyone racing over that type of terrain deserves kudos.

[creeping_moses]

Great work Turfa. I thought it was such a brutal course and definitely a huge achievement to get around it! I was a bit faster than you but really think you guys who were out there into the early hours of the next morning (and not so early hours of the next morning!) had a much tougher event overall. Much respect.

I had a fairly good race, coming in 12:38:51 for 46th male. I am happy with this but could have gone under 12 hours with ease had I not totally blown my quads on the long final decent and left myself with nothing but the stiffest legs I've ever experienced to get up the the last climb. I should be happier than I am considering I went into the race just wanting to go under 14 hours, but after just ~20km I realised I was travelling quite well and should aim for a sub 12. I started in the 4th start wave (about 450 people ahead of me) due to a lack of recent results so I was held up for a while in the opening ~10km or so but by checkpoint 3 I was up into 32nd spot with plenty of air. Starting from the front of the race next year will be welcomed!

[Turfa]

Wow.... Congratulations , that is an amazing time ! Might want to change your username, not much creeping going on to finish in 12 hours!

[forest]

Wow, well done creeping moses. If one of the administrators sees this thread please change his name to something more appropriate. Huge well done to Turfa, anyone that just lined up for the 100 had my utter most respect. Completion is awesome.

My race went well in the 50 and I stuck to my plan. Finished in 5:56:45 and placed 29th out of 906 starter's.
Really happy and looking forward to a crack at the 100 next year. It's amazing how you can still be recovering and in the same breath looking for the next punishing race.
For me hopefully that will be GNW this September. Fingers crossed I can get in for a start.

[Turfa]

Good work Forest, that is a fabulous effort !....... The 50 was definitely over the hardest half of the course, so you should do well in the 100 next year.

A question for both Forest & Creeping Moses (seriously....change that name ) I would be very interested to hear some details of your training programs. You both did spectacularly well, so you obviously prepared well. I have only ever walked the event & so my training really just involves going out for a few longish walks beforehand. The serious runners like you guys have inspired me to take it a bit more seriously and have a go at running some of it next year. I would really appreciate any information you could share on how to train effectively.

[forest]

Hi Turfa. There is a great wealth of knowledge on the cool running forum.
I basically kicked off as a "runner" back in August last year straight off the back of walking Larapinta. Walking is a great base I have found out to start running and I recall you have done pretty impressive long walks under your belt.
It's a challenge to not get niggles and injuries as your fitness will increase faster than your muscles and your tendons and joints last. I've had ITBS and Achilles Tendonapathy on my little journey to becoming a better trail runner.

Don't get hugely caught up on the "Run" word. I still walked all the stairs and most of the hills in the course. Kedumba is only ever a walk up that and I was passing runners who just blew out half way up the climb, on a climb like that it's the very front of the pack that might run it. Pacing is important on the longer runs for sure.

Another great blog to look at is Mile 27. He's a excellent ultra coach and has some great tips on the site. I pretty much tried to follow his advise and it worked for me.

The biggest tips I could give are train specific for the course. So for TNF that was 1-2 hrs of stairs mid week. And a long run/walk of around 3-4 hours each week. I guess I run 4 days a week but the main focus is a hill rep / stair day, and the long run. The others are just fill runs, might be some speed work or just easy recovery type runs. I'll also normally MTB once a week too as I found 5 days run training on hilly trails too much and that's when injurys started.

I did run Northburn 100 (50km race) in NZ during March and Newcastle marathon 2 weeks later in my buildup. Was tough work but really helped mentally as I knew I the endurance and a little speed. TNF50 was just the icing on the cake and all the stars aligned on the day.
Goodluck on your journey. I've loved my slight conversion to a runner. I think you will find they are quite similar. Main thing is I'm still out in the bush enjoying nature.

[Turfa]

Thanks Forest, that information is all really helpful....and it's great to hear the story of someone who has successfully turned to the dark side
I can't believe that I would ever say this, but I'm quite excited about the idea of running the event next year !

[davidf]

What's wrong with Moses name? Enlighten me.

[north-north-west]

What's wrong with Moses name? Enlighten me.

Anyone who finishes that high & that fast in a long-distance bush run can hardly justify the term 'creeping' in his title. Unless it's a typo for 'creepy', that is . . .

[creeping_moses]

I would be very interested to hear some details of your training programs.

Overall general training that I follow:

Get your running technique down-pat. Run tall and light, preferably forefoot striking under the body, use your arms on the uphills. Think about your technique all the time.

Work your core as much as possible. I do a 45 minutes core workout 3 times per week minimum.

Train to be an effective power-hiker. When you get to part of a run too steep to run/not worth wasting energy running, power hike like no tomorrow using your arms and powerful strides.

Run long at least once per week (4hours + at least) amongst your other training runs.

Race nutrition is vital, practice it on your long runs. Eat early and eat lots. In TNF100 I had a gel every 35minutes and chomps sporadically also and 2 bananas and 1 blueberry muffin (these real foods at checkpoints). I consumed 3L of GU roctane electrolyte endurance drink, ~1.5L of Hammer perpetuem and 300mL of coke during TNF100 along with ~1L of water.

Get your race pack weight down. Use checkpoints effectively for this regarding liquids. Soft flasks on the front of the pack tend to be best for me.

[Vern]

Congratulations guys! Very inspiring stuff.

[cajun]

Hey creeping, or is that moses?

What is the mandatory equipment you have to caryy. The NF100 site wasn't much use in outlining what id required.

thanks

[Turfa]

Here is a link the the mandatory gear list (it is a little difficult to find on the NF100 site)

http://www.thenorthface100.com.au/Downl ... -100km/pdf

And thanks for the info Creeping Moses, in particular about the running technique & core strength.... That makes a lot of sense for long distances......good, strong form will make you efficient. I think I have the power hiking thing under control....just need to start working on becoming a runner !

[cajun]

thanks. Interesting!