46 km, forty six kilometres, 6 inch marathon, bloody long way yes that's better. Bloody long way.

A quick recap of my past month I rode 217.5 km to watch the busso ironman once down there I was told it was quicker to drive go figure, it took me about 8 or 9 hours and I would have been out there much longer if not for my American savior Christopher who rode with me and took a huge amount of time at the front. But I must say it was fun and will not do it again.

Now last weekend I decided to do a 46 km ultra trail marathon thanks to my good friend (jerk) Raymond Lampard from Break Your Limits.

Ray did ironman and had also entered the 6 inch and when I was inflicting pain upon him when he ventured onto my massage table pre ironman asked me to run 6 inch, he said he would help me through. I of course being the good track runner agreed?!?!

Why still to this day I don't know but it was too late now as I had agreed and Ray whipped it up on his website about our adventure to be. No backing out now. So I entered and spoke to my advisors. Ray and Bernadette also one of the organizers of 6 inch so a handy person to know.

Anyway somehow I find myself at 4 in the morning yes am out in the middle of no where with 500ml of water and 3 hammer gels waiting for the start of this ultra adventure, my half marathon race debut, my marathon race debut and my ultra race debut. Hey go big or go home, I was with mr break your limits so I was.

So at 4.30 am the race starts and we are away first up is 1.5 km of hill no worries first one to the top and to finish wins king of the mountain the polka dot jersey, ok so maybe there was no polka dot jersey but there was king of the mountain so I decided it would be fun to try take that out hey iv got some speed my only problem. Finishing.

So top of the hill I was first across and I stop to wait for Ray as we agreed to run together. Now going into this Ray had just done ironman and ended up with a very sore itb, he was not in super condition but he was giving it a go. So we run together for 5km almost taking a wrong turn (thanks to Nathan Fawkes for yelling out and saving us) almost alone in 4th and 5th place, until our small detour and we have 3 new friends to run with and we continue on like this for 10 km I will not describe every step to you as this would take too long and towards the end would only involve swear and curse words.

We are now 15 km in and Ray's knee starts to play up a little but we continue the 3 guys who came up went off and we were quite happy to let them go, I just wanted to finish. A few more start to pass us as we get to 23km and the first aid station and Ray is really struggling but the will of the man is unquestionable and we continue. A few uphill sections are really troubling Ray now with his knee and it is starting to give on him quite a few times and more and more people pass. Still all I need is a finish. And to try now get Ray there as well.

Between 20 km and 30 km Ray and I are in heavy discussion about the knee how long can he go on how much damage and if it is worth it at 30 km we decide it is a) not too far to aid station 2 and b) if I leave it any longer it will be touch and go how my legs end up so I had to leave Ray, he soon found a friend in a stick named it Wilson and used Wilson 1 and then a few km later Wilson 2 and crutches and hobbled into aid 2 at 34.5 km, just.

After I left Ray I quite rapidly pick up the pace and a few places even over quite a hilly section and was feeling okish sort of not really but the quicker I finished the quicker this ordeal will be over. So I got to 6 km to go in quite good time this is when everything got tough and I was struggling to run 5-6min km it was a super tough last 6 km and after a mini celebration in my mind at 42.2 km I was very happy to see 1 km to go but I swear it was the slowest km of my life.

And I was so glad that it basically counted down in 100 metre increments from 1 km. I could count it out and was happy to see the next marker and round the bend finally to see the finish cross that line and claim that I will never ever do that again... Ever...

I was glad to hear my buddy Gerry Hill from The Running Centre won in a new course record and I in the end got the king of the mountain. Finishing in 8thish in a time of 4 hours and 6ish min.

After a few hours of napping the rest of the day away and eating as many chips as I could I decided that I I could have run quicker and now need to do it agin next year. I will be the one in the polka dot jersey, hoping to go back to back kingnof the mountain and sub 4 hours.

Ultra running regards