Supporting a DIY UTA

The iconic UTA (Ultra Trail Australia) races (varying distances over a weekend up to the epic 100k one) in the Blue Mountains were cancelled due to Coronavirus, but some people didn't want to waste all the training that they had put in, and decided to arrange a DIY version themselves. 

A friend of mine (Geordie) asked me if I wanted to join him in supporting some of his mates who were doing such a run and I jumped at the opportunity of seeing new trails and meeting new runners. Two of them were "taking part".....Rich and Ant.....and they had done a lot of research into finding a route that was the right distance, with a similar amount of elevation gain/loss, and wouldn't be too hard for support/refuelling. 

The planned route

They had decided on a looped course, each lap of which was slightly over 16k, so 6 laps would get them up to the full distance (and another of their friends would run 3 laps as he'd been planning on doing the 50k race). For a bit of variety, they would run each consecutive lap in the opposite direction. I didn't fancy an excessively early start, nor a rough run with a headtorch, as I actually like to see where I'm running (especially if it's somewhere new), so Geordie and I agreed to run laps 2 and 3 with them.

The "racers" started their first lap at 5am, whilst Geordie picked me up at the closest station at a more lazy 6:50am, and we headed down to their cars (ie refuelling station) to await their arrival (and eat some of the delicious pumpkin and feta bread that one of their wives had made 😂). They arrived around the expected time of 7:30, quickly refuelled and shedded a bit of clothing, and then we were off. 

Looking down towards
Galston Gorge

As usual for any long distance run, I found the testosterone levels high in that the guys all set off rather too fast. Well, I say "too fast" as that's what it seems like to me, as early on I struggle to keep up but then later I find I have to hang back for them (without me actually changing my pace). Still, it all evened out after the first lovely undulating stretch of trail, as we started to climb up and up to a trig point (and they did refer to the climb as "the great evener" as it certainly caused the group to come back together). 

Halfway down Galston Steps

The road barrier marking
the turnaround point

Although the route was mainly a big loop there was one out and back stretch.....which was in fact by far the toughest stretch of the course. It involved a steep rocky descent (with some steps and iron rungs hammered into the rock face in places) down to Galston Gorge, where you touched the road barrier and promptly retraced your steps all the way back up. The total distance was only about 500m each way but it took a good half hour. I certainly wouldn't have liked to be doing that section in the dark!!!

With Rich and Skip having climbed
 back up the Steps

When we got back to the top of this climb, it appeared that Ant was having some issues with cramp in his legs and hence was struggling somewhat. Rich was much fresher-legged as he'd recently had plantar fasciitis and had not been running much in the past fortnight, but keeping ticking over on his bike. We decided to split up and see how they got on....Geordie, myself and another guy called Skip going ahead with Rich, whilst two of the other runners stayed with Ant. 

Myself, Rich and Geordie refuelling

We'd not seen anyone else up to this point but as the morning was now progressing, we started to see a few people coming the other way on the trails, many of whom were friends of Rich and Ant and had hoped to bump into them at some point. We exited the trails via a firing range (luckily not active), had a short section of the road, and then it was back to the bush with more steep slopes and steps, before finally popping back out near to the cars. 

More of the lovely pumpkin and feta bread, a refill of water, time for me and Geordie to dump some kit (the early morning mist had now cleared and it had warmed up considerably) and then suddenly I spotted Rich was off and running back up the road. Geordie thought he'd gone to encourage Ant in but I realised that he was actually heading back on Loop 3 as he felt (sensibly enough) that if he hung around chatting and refuelling for too long, he'd find it hard to get going again.

The forestry road near the
start of my second lap

I liked the idea of running the laps in alternate directions as it made it all seem relatively new to me the second time around....though I had some glimmers of recognition of when there would be significant climb and descents. Rich checked his phone regularly as he was dreading a text message to say that Ant hadn't started Lap 3 but luckily, although he was slower, he was still trucking along, albeit with more walk breaks. 

Oops - Geordie and I getting
too far ahead of Rich!

Speaking of walk breaks, Rich had definitely slowed down by now and Geordie and I had to be careful we didn't get carried away chatting and disappear off into the distance. My quads were starting to feel it, so I could imagine how much more Rich's would be protesting with another lap in them. Initially Geordie seemed to be going at the fastest pace so we'd make a point of regularly waiting for Rich at the top of inclines, but then even he seemed to be flagging a bit. Again, I think some of that was down to nutrition as he's more of a shorter distance road runner, so isn't used to refuelling whilst on the move and so hadn't really done so all run. 

We'd not seen hide nor hair of Ant by the time we'd descended and reclimbed the Galston Steps so I got Rich to check his phone again. I'm not sure if that was a good or a bad thing, as there was no word from Ant, but another of his friends had messaged to say that they'd come across an injured hiker near "The Fishponds" and one was waiting with her whilst another went to call for help as the was limited phone signal where she was.

Hmm....not "too far" to run to the
Fishponds then...

We pondered on this for a minute, just as Ant and his two support runners came round the corner. In a split second I made a decision. I would run ahead to get to The Fishponds (as it was on our route back, although still a few miles away) to see if I could help, taking Geordie with me (as he had a phone on him and I didn't) and the other support guys would split up so one would go with Ant and one with Rich. Having decided on this, Geordie and I headed off at a decent lick.

Unfortunately I was soon alone as Geordie needed to walk, whereas I was happy to run at an increased pace.....it was actually quite nice to stretch my legs out a bit. I knew that Geordie didn't have the best sense of direction so when I got to an important route divide (we had to turn right and zigzag up a very steep hill) I made sure to catch sight of him and shout directions before disappearing....but was surprised to see the distance I'd actually gone ahead.

Native fauna

I guess if I'd been on my own I'd have definitely slowed down and probably walked more sections, looking at the flowers etc, but I felt that I should keep going as I had no idea how badly the lady had injured her ankle. I passed several walkers on the fire trails, but luckily remembered the route well so didn't have to hesitate at the odd junction I came across (though the distances seemed further than I remembered, probably because I was quite tired by now). I managed some rough scramble sections including creek crossing and stepping stones, and even passed the fire rescue services making their way slowly along the trail. 

Eventually I found the injured Asian lady and her son (who was very useful as a translator to tell me what had happened as his mother didn't speak that much English). She'd slipped in the creek and twisted her ankle but didn't know if she'd inverted or everted it but had banged both sides on the rocks. They'd managed to walk about 50m with the aid of a stick, but it was very painful for her and so her son was debating trying to piggyback her out. Her ankle was a bit swollen and tender but not discoloured/bruised and the pulses were normal, and there was no knee pain/tenderness. She was comfortable at rest but found it painful to try moving the foot.

By this time the fire service and a paramedic had appeared and so he and I put a Sam Splint on the ankle and worked out the best way to get her out of there. It was probably less than 1k to somewhere with vehicular access but it was a very rough rocky single track route to get there. There was no other way to get her out than being carried by one of the firies (in fact the female firie was probably the strongest/fittest and so did the job) as they couldn't negotiate the path with a stretcher and there was no way a helicopter could come close due to the undergrowth.

One creek crossing even
had stepping stones

Just as we got this all sorted, Rich and Geordie appeared (it turns out that Rich had just caught Geordie up at the last creek crossing, and he'd been on his own up to there  as neither of the others had wanted to cut their run short and turn back from where we'd crossed paths with them. As all was under control (I reckon I must have been there about 15-20mins and so another paramedic had also appeared) I could now carry on with the other two, scrambling up out of the creek bed and running the last few undulating miles back to the car.

We reported the dramas of that lap to the waiting support crew at the cars and then debated what to do. Geordie was done (in fact for those last few miles I'd mainly run with Rich, but hung back at junctions to make sure Geordie knew which way to turn, and then pushed on to catch Rich back up again), and I didn't want Rich going off on his own (more of their friends were coming along as run support later, but they hadn't yet arrived) so I set back off with him. Luckily I'd hardly gone any distance when we came across Trevor, who had been there for all the first three laps as his target was 50k. After getting to the bottom of the Galston Steps with Ant he'd then paused ahead to get back closer to Rich, and as he was still a few miles short of his goal for the day, he was happy to turn and do a bit more with Rich. As it turned out that worked well, as Rich was now flagging and Ant picking up the pace and so they ended up joining forces again on that lap and to the finish.

With my new marra Rich :-) 

As for me and Geordie, it was nice to rid ourselves of our running gear, rehydrate and refuel (I introduced him to Pie in the Sky before he dropped me back at the station) - we'd had a great run, but had no desire to run further, though were full of respect for the guys doing what they we doing.....and even more so, when we heard that they'd done it....late into the night! I'd also seen some new trails and feel I've made some more good running friends that I will hopefully be able to meet up and run with again!