Race Reports

Race: Ultraman Canada

Date: 31st July to 2nd August 2010

Race: The North Face 100
Date: 15th May 2010
Location: Katoomba, Blue Mountains, NSW
Description: A 100km trail run through the Blue Mountains 

As I sit at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Honolulu Airport waiting to fly back home, it is with a sense of relief that the race is over, but also with a sense of sadness that the week and experiences I have had has now come to an end.

It is finally over. The race that I have been most anxious about for the last 5 weeks - Paluma Push. A gruelling 65km cross-country mountain bike starting in the rainforest at Paluma, North of Townsville and finishing in the dry tablelands of Hidden Valley.

The race is a one-way ticket to the pain locker. A race so tough, that you don't have to go home and lie about how hard it was. It is fast, technical and has absolutely no forgiving terrain. A perfect way to round out the Cairns Show Day long weekend.

This was undoubtedly one of the toughest races I've done.

Despite my efforts in running across the desert during the Marathon des Sables in 2008, crossing the Kokoda Track in PNG over two consecutive years, both over 20 hours, and enduring the heat and pain in the energy sapping "energy lab...." of the lava fields in Kona during the 2006 Hawaiian Ironman, the shear intensity of the Comrades certainly paid tribute to the saying, "mind over matter".