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Hello folks,<br>
earlier this year I had the great honor to meet Martin Fryer, a wonderful aussie runner when he was in Quebec for the 24 hr worlds.... needless to say we drank a few beers and exchanged a boatload of ideas..... a truly fascinating dude!<br>
anyway, I received an e-mail from him yesterday which I thought I could share with you all..... I'm sure he won't mind!<br><br><i>Hey guys<br><br>
Well the pain still persists but so will the memories.<br><br>
Thanks for all of your messages of support for the Coast to Kosi run (246K, probably 4000m total ascent). My crew were absolutely brilliant and had very little sleep throughout the event. They estimated that they stopped at least 65 times for me during the race! There's no way I could have knocked 3h 22 min off my old course record if it wasn't for their efficiency, encouragement and sense of humour. Unfortunately this still wasn't fast enough to catch the 26 year old Tim Cochrane, who went out hard in the first half of the race (1st marathon split 3:27, 100K split around 9 hours), with about a 10K lead on me at halfway (120Kish). I managed to reduce this lead to only about 1K by the 190K mark near Thredbo river. Apparently, just prior to this Tim had been resting in his crew van for quite a while so he was refreshed whereas I had made a big push around Jindabyne and was pretty flat and exhausted. I worked out we still had about 7h to go so I planned to sit behind and watch him blow-up. This didn't happen- his crew told me later that when he came upon the sight of my crew hanging out by the side of the road at 2am in the morning wearing headtorches and tights he transformed into a scalded cat running scared, which was just what he needed to get out of his malaise. He ended up winning by 47 min in a time of 27:46, I did 28:33 and then 3rd place was about 5 hours behind me- Phil "Spud" Murphy in a little over 33h. It was an unforgettable experience- somewhat like a really bad B grade road movie with lots of bad acting but great changes of scenery and many memorable incidents, including my crew greeting me at the 100 mile mark with sparklers and the three of us ran down the middle of this dark country road with two sparklers lit, hooting and hollering and pretending we were in Chariotsw of Fire. Right now I am still feeling pretty whacked out- the oedema that came up in my right foot after a few days eventually subsided but I still can't run due to a haematoma that has formed on my left thigh.<br><br><br>
My highlights of 2007 included:<br><br>
March: Finally broke the 4h barrier at one of Australia's toughest 45K Trail races after 11 years of trying<br>
April: Won the Coburg 24h track race in ugly, wet conditions with a solid 228.686K, which was the highest total achieved there for many years<br>
June: Finished the Western States 100 mile trail race in California (18,000ft ascent, 22, 000 ft descent) in 20h 30min to set the all-time fastest time by an Aussie at this iconic race<br>
August:Finished Trailwalker 100K (4 people in a team do the 100K together) in 3rd place outright, feeling very strong at the finish<br>
December: Finished 2nd in Coast to Kosi (246K, about 4000m total ascent) 28h 33 min, cutting 3h 22min off my old course record<br>
Lowlights:<br><br>
July: World 24 h Champs, Drummondville, Canada: a nightmare- I'm still traumatised by this one- 2.2K road loop, >90% humidity, 30 degrees C, 2pm start and finish, thunderstorms for the first 5 hours- after a solid start of 167K in 17h I completely seized up, dehydrated, couldn't generate urine, collapsed and laid out flat for 45 min then could only walk for the last 6 hours to finish 21st of about 100 starters with 215.3K. Peed blood for up to 4 days after- very ugly indeed!<br>
December: Now- Coast to Kosi has beaten me up and I haven't run a step since Dec 8 due to a haematoma on my left, inner thigh (vastus medialis). Can't even walk properly and I am losing all that hard earnt fitness, even with X-training.<br>
So there, that's it from me- a HUGE year and as a result this old body is complaining that it's time to take it easy for a while. I think 2008 will be a quiet recovery year for me where I earn back all my family brownie points and do home projects for she who must be obeyed.<br><br>
Have a great Xmas and see y'all in the New Year.<br><br>
I hope to see some big performances and new barriers broke by you guys next year<br><br>
Best Wishes<br><br>
Martin<br><br></i>Interesting the Dummondville experience tops the list of lows!!<br><br>
Grommit
earlier this year I had the great honor to meet Martin Fryer, a wonderful aussie runner when he was in Quebec for the 24 hr worlds.... needless to say we drank a few beers and exchanged a boatload of ideas..... a truly fascinating dude!<br>
anyway, I received an e-mail from him yesterday which I thought I could share with you all..... I'm sure he won't mind!<br><br><i>Hey guys<br><br>
Well the pain still persists but so will the memories.<br><br>
Thanks for all of your messages of support for the Coast to Kosi run (246K, probably 4000m total ascent). My crew were absolutely brilliant and had very little sleep throughout the event. They estimated that they stopped at least 65 times for me during the race! There's no way I could have knocked 3h 22 min off my old course record if it wasn't for their efficiency, encouragement and sense of humour. Unfortunately this still wasn't fast enough to catch the 26 year old Tim Cochrane, who went out hard in the first half of the race (1st marathon split 3:27, 100K split around 9 hours), with about a 10K lead on me at halfway (120Kish). I managed to reduce this lead to only about 1K by the 190K mark near Thredbo river. Apparently, just prior to this Tim had been resting in his crew van for quite a while so he was refreshed whereas I had made a big push around Jindabyne and was pretty flat and exhausted. I worked out we still had about 7h to go so I planned to sit behind and watch him blow-up. This didn't happen- his crew told me later that when he came upon the sight of my crew hanging out by the side of the road at 2am in the morning wearing headtorches and tights he transformed into a scalded cat running scared, which was just what he needed to get out of his malaise. He ended up winning by 47 min in a time of 27:46, I did 28:33 and then 3rd place was about 5 hours behind me- Phil "Spud" Murphy in a little over 33h. It was an unforgettable experience- somewhat like a really bad B grade road movie with lots of bad acting but great changes of scenery and many memorable incidents, including my crew greeting me at the 100 mile mark with sparklers and the three of us ran down the middle of this dark country road with two sparklers lit, hooting and hollering and pretending we were in Chariotsw of Fire. Right now I am still feeling pretty whacked out- the oedema that came up in my right foot after a few days eventually subsided but I still can't run due to a haematoma that has formed on my left thigh.<br><br><br>
My highlights of 2007 included:<br><br>
March: Finally broke the 4h barrier at one of Australia's toughest 45K Trail races after 11 years of trying<br>
April: Won the Coburg 24h track race in ugly, wet conditions with a solid 228.686K, which was the highest total achieved there for many years<br>
June: Finished the Western States 100 mile trail race in California (18,000ft ascent, 22, 000 ft descent) in 20h 30min to set the all-time fastest time by an Aussie at this iconic race<br>
August:Finished Trailwalker 100K (4 people in a team do the 100K together) in 3rd place outright, feeling very strong at the finish<br>
December: Finished 2nd in Coast to Kosi (246K, about 4000m total ascent) 28h 33 min, cutting 3h 22min off my old course record<br>
Lowlights:<br><br>
July: World 24 h Champs, Drummondville, Canada: a nightmare- I'm still traumatised by this one- 2.2K road loop, >90% humidity, 30 degrees C, 2pm start and finish, thunderstorms for the first 5 hours- after a solid start of 167K in 17h I completely seized up, dehydrated, couldn't generate urine, collapsed and laid out flat for 45 min then could only walk for the last 6 hours to finish 21st of about 100 starters with 215.3K. Peed blood for up to 4 days after- very ugly indeed!<br>
December: Now- Coast to Kosi has beaten me up and I haven't run a step since Dec 8 due to a haematoma on my left, inner thigh (vastus medialis). Can't even walk properly and I am losing all that hard earnt fitness, even with X-training.<br>
So there, that's it from me- a HUGE year and as a result this old body is complaining that it's time to take it easy for a while. I think 2008 will be a quiet recovery year for me where I earn back all my family brownie points and do home projects for she who must be obeyed.<br><br>
Have a great Xmas and see y'all in the New Year.<br><br>
I hope to see some big performances and new barriers broke by you guys next year<br><br>
Best Wishes<br><br>
Martin<br><br></i>Interesting the Dummondville experience tops the list of lows!!<br><br>
Grommit
