The Horrie and Belinda Show

11/11/06

I guess most of you have read my thoughts on this race on Cool Running. I realise that I have upset some people with my comments. But after witnessing what I did at the event, staying up all night crewing and helping several runners out and only having a half hour sleep, my emotions were very high.

This event is an amazing event and there were several outstanding efforts out there. All the people who toed the starting line are legends in my book. Some runners went on to produce marvellous efforts and finish either the 100km or 100 mile events.

Unfortunately Bandanna, who I was crewing for had to pull out at Checkpoint 2 after suffering heat stress. He was in a real mess when he pulled into the checkpoint. I had hoped that after pumping several litres of fluid into him that he would come good. Unfortunately he got worse before he got better and his legs completely shut down, spasming out of control. After encouraging him to drink several cups of sports drink and lifting him to his feet with the help of Alex, Robert Fox's crew and holding him up while he drank more sports drink, eventually his legs started to work again. We then encouraged him to walk around to work the lactic acid out of his legs and eventually he came good. He was probably one of the worst affected of the 10 runners who had to withdraw at this point.

Allison Lilley, a Cool Running lurker and a good friend of Bandanna's whose parents kindly gave us a bed on Friday night managed to produce a special effort completing the 100km event in 20 hours and 17 minutes. This was a fantastic effort from her and I am telling her she has got a Glasshouse 100 miles in her. I hope both her and Bandanna come up next year.

As for my running on the weekend, I did run for an hour around the trails of Checkpoint 1 between 8 and 9 am and I knew the GNW runners were in for a very tough day.

14/11/06

Headed back to SWEAT after having the last couple of days off and was happy to be doing speed work again. I had 10x400s on the menu while Belinda had 10x300s. After the drills and warmups, we were ready to rock and roll. Sean advised us to start out slower and try to get quicker for each rep. Well I managed to get quicker for the first 5 but then couldn't get below 84 after that. I had nowhere near the zip I had 2 weeks ago when I averaged 83 for the 10.

Splits were 91, 87, 87, 85, 84, 85, 85, 86, 86 and 85 for an average of 86 per rep.

Belinda knocked out her 300s in good time and was having a willing battle with Ellie before pulling the pin after 6 reps as she is still getting over the stomach bug which has caused her to hardly run since last Tuesday.