Well everyone, we made it. Ultra Trail Australia  starts today! We kick off the festivities with a cocktail party, and I am more nervous about that than the actual race! For those that have been following along my journey, it certainly has been a rough one.. . The road to 100k….didn’t quite happen, but  sometimes that is what happens as a runner. We get injured and I believe it is all part of the plan to make us better, stronger runners sometimes. My 100k is coming….so stay tuned.

This will be my third attempt to line up for UTA. In 2015 I was struck down with a really bad ankle injury so that cut that out after all the training before the race and then last year I had a successful UTA50 race. I clearly remember saying as I came over the finish line I would NEVER line up for the 100k at UTA, yet months later that is exactly what I signed up for….. (runners hey!), and yet, the goal was not to happen as once again I had a devastating injury that wiped around 7 weeks of running out of my training right when I should have been building my biggest mileage.

It was a hard decision to drop to the 50k and one that took weeks to make.

I believe that things happen for people that are willing to put in the hard work and that can shift their focus and be positive. You see, instead of wallowing in the fact I couldn’t run the 100k, I decided that I was going to try my best at at least trying to make the 50k, which is no mean feat in itself! I trained hard. And by hard I mean hours and hours on the bike and running in the pool at times and when I could run I followed my coaches plan to the letter, because to me not lining up for the 100k was okay (eventually…) but I had to line up for something, and I was going to do my best to be in the best shape and recover my injury so that I could have a successful day.

I don’t do it for glory and I don’t do it for anyone else other than myself and to see what my body can do and the goals that I can achieve.

I am really excited to be lining up for the 50k again, I think this time I have the added bonus of having done it so I can plan my race better than last time and I think I am a stronger runner in some ways than last year.

It looks to be a wet UTA, but we can’t change things that are out of our control, but what we can change is our outlook on situations, so let’s go out there and have some fun in the mud, tread carefully and have a great day!

I wish all of my trail friends the safest and most adventurous of races and I will see you on the start line!

 

Nicole