The IAU Global Solidarity Run

Anyone would think that I would have been entitled to a rest after the past few weekends, but I did have one more event in the diary, that I had to get my body through. Luckily it wasn't a high pressure race, but something that would link me up with my global running friends, despite all the upsets of the past 13 months. The event was the IAU Global Solidarity Run - something set up by the International Association of Ultrarunners in view of the cancellation of all the World Championships. Teams were selected to represent each nation, and they all had to run for 6 hours on the same weekend, wherever they were in the world. It wasn't about recording the furthest distance that you could cover in the time, but about uniting ultrarunners again round the globe. 

The Run!!

I was delighted to be back running for Team GB, but my plan (to fit with the concept of "Global Solidarity" was to represent GB, whilst wearing a Team USA vest (I've now learnt that running vests are called singlets in Australia), and run in Australia. A friend helped me to design a circular route which I called the "Ring of Friendship" and my Australian running friends (the 5:20 chicks) would all come out and support me on the day. As it turned out, the weather in the UK was much kinder on the day than the weather in Australia - they had beautiful blue skies and sun, although I gather it was nice and cool.....whereas I had torrential rain and flooding, but unfortunately I had no option but to zip up my mansuit, give my tired legs a good talking to, and just get on with it!

The weather forecast!!!

As I was running on a Saturday, I wanted to link it in with the lovely Terrigal Trotters and so I decided to start (and finish....if possible) at the "Trotter Tree" in Terrigal at 6am, when the usual Saturday run would be going off. I thought that there would be almost nobody running that day due to the weather (and predicted forecast) but there were actually lots of people huddled together in the darkness under the shelter of the Surf Club roof. My good friend Monika (who has just recovered from a nasty injury) started the "run" with me (I say "run" as we headed off up one of the steepest roads around and so I was reduced to a walk within the first few minutes!!) whilst (the legend that is known as) Julie layered up for the weather ahead and came along on her bike. 

Repping every nation I could!

All too soon, Mon had to turn and head for home (but reassured me that I'd see her again later) so it was just Julie, myself and the open road.... That sounds so poetic, but the real reason that we had the road to ourselves was that it was still early and so pitch dark!! The road verge was rather narrow (and made all the more so by overhanging branches) so Julie kindly cycled along behind me with a flashing red light on her bike. I confess to not exactly feeling very fresh, but I did also know that it was still early, and the first part of the run was by far the hilliest. It gradually got lighter as we wound up and down the road round Brisbane Water, managing to chat when space permitted, so it was great to have a blether about all sorts of rubbish :-) 

Just the lonesome twosome in the early morning light..

Suddenly it seemed to have stopped getting lighter and actually be getting much darker again, but just as I was about to comment to Julie about this, the heavens opened....and when I say "opened", I mean that it was like a flood gate had broken! Within seconds, I resembled a drowned rat and the rain was bouncing back up off the road to about knee height, coming down way quicker than it could run off the road, so that I was splashing along on tarmac but in water up to my ankles - I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it before!!! Dave (Julie's partner) drove past us to check we were OK and I don't think I could even focus clearly on his numberplate to make out that it was actually him! 

It takes a good mate to put up with me for that long in that weather :-)
 

With the weather being as bad as it was, I would not have blamed my friends for staying in bed that morning, but as I ran past a bus shelter at the side of the road, Jackie was there waiting to join me - and she'd also dragged along a friend of here who had come to stay for a few days. It was lovely of them to come out in that weather and the next few k's ticked by easily as we chatted away and laughed at ourselves being out in that rain. Unfortunately for Jackie's friend, she got rather more than she bargained for, as Jackie will always go above and beyond and so they accompanied me all the way from Bennsville, up and down the hills at the bottom of the bay, across the Rip bridge and along into Woy Woy. Julie was kindly giving me some of my food supplies as and when I asked her for it, but the girls refused to take anything of mine and so I think they were hungry on their long run all the way back to Bensville again :-( 

Just slightly damp...

 Just before we got to Woy Woy, I spotted Simone standing on the cycle path by the water waiting for me, and then she jumped in to run a couple of ks, which was lovely as I knew she had lots of family commitments already that morning. Luckily for my guilt at dragging everyone out in that weather, the rain has stopped and it hard warmed up (slightly!) so we took off our waterproofs and handed then to Julie on the bike, who then handed them on to Dave in the car :-) 

The tag team handing me on at WoyWoy

I was handed on to my next tag team at Woy Woy - Anna (who'd been dropped off by her hubbie and hence was running with me back to her house), and Monika (who'd been dropped off and was running along to join her family at Bunnings). Don't get me wrong, it was fantastic that they'd all come out to support me, but I had to keep asking them to slow down as they were all springing along at a pace I knew I couldn't keep up for the whole 6 hours :-( 

We were running on a "proper" cycle path along the shoreline so Julie could also cycle with us for this section, and as it was mainly flat, it was much easier to keep the conversations going. The roads were still "rather wet" and so one car who happened to drive past us just where there was a huge puddle on the road, actually sprayed water right up over our heads!!! The cycle path becomes rather low-lying as you near Gosford and it is very prone to flooding so there was no possibility of avoiding getting our feet even wetter than they already were, so we resigned ourselves to it and just splashed through like the kids we all are at heart. 

Splashing along with Anna and Mon

All too soon the girls had to peel off to get back to their Saturdays, but I was not left alone as Julie had crazily agreed to come with me for the whole loop. She kept me right with navigating the busy main road intersections and then cycled alongside me where she could, bearing in mind that the next stretch I had to run had neither pavements nor a cycle lane. Not long after that the heavens opened up again and it felt like I'd had buckets of water emptied over me - funnily enough, Dave drove by about the same time, so Julie and I decided that we might have to ban him, as he seemed to be the bad weather jinx!! 

Julie and I "on the road again"...

Another Trotter friend Graeme suddenly appeared at the side of the road to give me a wave and a high five, and he then popped up at several other random spots along the route, even giving me a Union Jack (he's an ex-pat Brit) to carry at one point too :-) The rain came and went, as did some hills, but Julie kept me going (and out of the pubs I spotted along the road!!) and offered to find shortcuts if I was struggling as I really wanted to complete a looped run, rather than have Dave pick me up somewhere random at the 6 hour mark and have to be ferried back home. I realised how tired I was when I seemed to be crawling up even the smallest of inclines and randomly kicking a football I came across in the middle of a road seemed to sap all my energy.

With Graeme's Union Jack

My last running buddy to join me was Krystie, who was using it as her final long run prior to the Canberra marathon, so I was a bit worried that the pace was not going to be good enough for a proper training run for her, but she actually ended up doing more of a fartlek session for the first half of her run. She had parked her car at Ourimbah and I knew that if I stopped to chat where I saw that she and Dave had parked, then I probably wouldn't get going again, so I just ran on past and she had to then chase me down (sorry Krystie). On a funny side note, the area where she started flooded whilst we were out running, and there were photos of her half-submerged plastered all over Facebook with people commenting about it being abandoned for insurance purposes - we did have such a laugh about the posts afterwards as she only managed to get back into it by climbing through the boot! 

Now with "added Krystie"

 I was definitely tired, so some new chat with Krystie was great - and Julie also tried to take my mind off the distance with funny anecdotes and offers of shortcuts that we could take. I decided that I'd rather shortcut the route if I had to do so in order to make it back to Terrigal within the allotted time, rather than just keep plugging along to the 6 hour mark and then need to stop on a random kerb and be driven back, as that would be a kind of "fail" in my head! 

Not exactly typical Aussie weather - I'm sure there's a street there somewhere!!

As well as Graeme popping up to wave and high-5 me at various points, another Graham (from Trotters) also came out to give me some encouragement. This meant that it became even more of a fartlek for Krystie as she'd stop to chat to them briefly, but then have to sprint back after me, as I would just wave, say Hi and keep going (I felt that if I stopped, then I wasn't very likely to be able to restart). My plan had been to run along the lovely cycle path around Tuggerah Lake as it was nice and smooth, traffic-free, wound amongst trees and would be fine for anyone accompanying me on foot or bike....but the weather had other ideas. We headed down a path towards the water and were soon up to our knees in flood water, and sinking further into mud as we couldn't see where the path was meant to be. That led to a quick reversal of direction back to the main road, but needs must - at least there weren't many people out "for a drive" in those conditions!! 

The cycle path is somewhere under there!!

I knew that I was getting closer to the end when I started to recognise some of the roads from club runs, but I also knew that every club run is hilly and so it wasn't going to be a gentle jog home. Looking at my watch, I could see how close I was getting to the 6 hour mark, so although it was the last thing I felt like doing, I had to turn the screw and pick up the pace. Julie was trying to help me by telling me how far away from Terrigal we were, but this just made me panic as I didn't think there was any way that I could cover the distance in the time that I had left. 

Passing the tree the first time with some good cheers from Mon

I'm still not sure how I managed it, but I gave it as much as I could manage (even gathering up a Strava crown or two by accident), and misjudged it slightly, so I had to continue on beyond the tree (albeit very briefly) until the time ticked over.

Prosecco Pals

Several of the girls had come back out in the rain to cheer me in, which absolutely made my day - and we celebrated with some nice (!?!) cans of prosecco before heading back to get warm! What a day - 6 hours in the most torrential rain and flooding, but I'd completed my Ring of Friendship - and wouldn't have done it without all the lovely support all the way round - thankyou girls (and guys) xx

Some of the wonderful 5:20 Chicks at the end xx