Lessons from Kowen Forest

Course reconnaissance

When I arrived at the Wamboin Fire Brigade, it was my very first time laying eyes on the location. I had never before visited or seen the trail, and had no familiarity with the elevation or trail technicality.

This was my biggest mistake.

By the time I hit the 3km mark, I felt comfortable and similar to my race in April. I knew that if I could keep that pace up, not only would smash my pace goal, I would also place in the top 3.

So I continued at that pace, even speeding up a little up until 11km into the race. I was still in the top 5, thinking that the elevation wasn’t too bad. Then I hit Mount Doom.

Almost 1.2km of continual climbing (which I attempted to run up) absolutely killed my legs. Slowly but surely, I was overtaken by a runner (who was walking) up the mountain.

By the time I had summited, I couldn’t maintain the old pace. There were further climbs, although less demanding. I was overtaken on these, too, as my pace declined.

Completely exhausted by the 18km mark, I decided to go conservative for the last 3km. “Who knows if there’s more climbing” I though to myself, clearly unaware that the remaining kilometres were almost entirely downhill.

In those last kilometres, I was overtaken twice again.

When I finally crossed the line in 9th place, 12 minutes after my goal time, I immediately knew that course reconnaissance would have probably spared me all that grief and a poor race plan execution.

Course recon gives the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the layout of the course. It’s a crucial step in understanding the hills and the technicality of the track.

Even a quick walk through the trail allows you to get a good idea of where to take it easy in the race, perhaps even walk up certain steep sections. It can help you get a feel for the real distance of the trail, so you don’t go out too hard, or try to conserve so much energy that you end up disappointed with your effort.

Understanding technicality is still an area of trail running I’m familiarising myself with, but this is another crucial element to course reconnaissance. There are going to be some sections which are tough to navigate with rocks and roots, narrow sections and tight turns. Learning these can help with pacing strategies as well as foot placement. At least one run through in advance is that little bit of extra practice which can make race day easier.

In addition, visiting the race location prior to race day will settle your nerves a little bit on race day. There is less worry about finding the registration tent, knowing the start line, or struggling to find where to park.

The importance of warming up

I ran approximately 1 kilometre as my warm up.

I already knew this was going to have negative effects on my race but I ignored it, attempting to follow my original race plan. This meant that when I went out hard for the first 3km of the race, this was actually my real warm up.

Huffing and puffing, I was still in the top 5, leading the chase pack after my actual warm up, but I was knackered. I’m sure the other competitors already knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up – that’s how loud my grunts were.

On top of my lungs, grasping for air, my muscles felt slow and heavy from the get go. They felt lifeless, as if there was not a shred of energy going into them. Each step felt sluggish.

I know a solid warm up would have removed all these unnecessary pains I endured in the run. Perhaps it would have spared me from a 9th place finish and 12 minutes off my goal time. I don’t think I would have won the race had I warmed up, but I definitely would have performed better.

I know what I’ll be doing before my next race.

I have a love hate relationship with trail running.

While I was running along the incredibly scenic and gorgeous trails, I couldn’t help but think to myself “If I wasn’t in so much pain right now, I might actually be enjoying this.”

At one point, I remember every step being agony and despair, as I would check my watch every 100 metres, hoping to have run another 1km, to be met with disappointment and further despair.