Colac photos

Colac 6-day race photos are now starting to be uploaded at http://sixdayrace.org.au/colac/index.php?option=com_zoom

David Jones - Making Lemonade out of Lemons

Know an ultra runner who makes lemons out of lemonade? Submit your story to pessam@bigpond.net.au

Below is a story written by ultra runner Jeffrey Bryan, who, from the looks of it, embodies the spirit of the ultra runner he so admires, refusing to leave Jones behind after a nasty fall, and willing to sacrific his own race in the process. Turns out Jones was just fine, thank you very much.

Originally posted to the Dartmouth Ultra List
12/9/05
Reprinted with permission of the author

I was running with David Jones when he fell at Mountain Mist. He was one lucky guy. If he would have slammed his head rather than his back up against that boulder, we would be talking about the late David Jones. Below is an excerpt from an article that I wrote about Mountain Mist that year.

"Somewhere on the course between 17 to 20 miles, I had a distinguished masters runner, David Jones, catch up to me. David is the 1997 winner of the Badwater Ultra Marathon and has completed in many other tough ultra events. I was honored to be running with such an accomplished runner. While running with David, I witnessed the worst "face plant" that I have ever seen. On a down hill stretch, David hit a loose, ice covered rock, did a 180 degree spin and then slammed himself into a boulder. It sounded incredibly bad and looked much worse. I hurried to his side to see what assistance I could provide. As far as I was concerend the race was over right there. Looking up, David tells me to go on ahead. I objected. I told him that I wasn't just going to let him lay there in the woods and insisted that he needed help. He said that he didn't need any help and that all that he needed was to get back on his feet. He pulled himself up and we continued to run together for about a quarter mile. He told me that he would be fine after he had a chance to run it off. He wasn't kidding. He not only left me in the dust, he went on to blow away his own grand masters course record. David now ranks as one of the toughest people that I have ever met."

Jeff Bryan
Tallahassee, FL

--Constance Karras

Hellgate 100K Results - 12/10/05

Hellgate 100K Results
Camp Bethel, Fincastle, VA
December 10, 2005

Serge Arbona, M,40,MD 11:41:01 - OAW
Justine Morrison, F,25,DC 13:39:11 - OAF

For full results and to read race reports by finishers Dave Bursler, Paul Carrasco, Darin Dunham, Jamey Groff, Eric Grossman, Neil Jamison, Shawn Krause, Sophie Speidel, Nick Whited, and Jeff Wilbur, go to: http://www.extremeultrarunning.com/2005_hellgate/finishers.htm

--Constance Karras

Ancient Oaks 100 Mile Results - December 10 -11, 2005

Unofficial Results
Ancient Oaks 100 Mile Endurance Run
Titusville, FL
December 10, 2005

Monica Scholz, CAN 19:19 - course record
John Dodds, USA 19:38 - men's course record

For full results, go to Matt Mahoney's Ultrarunning Home Page:

http://www.mahoney4.home.netcom.com/scr/races/05ao100.txt

--Constance Karras

Article in Canberra Times

'Crazy' Fryer on the mend after discovering it's a long, long way to the top
Rebecca Wiasak
Tuesday, 13 December 2005

Canberra endurance runner Martin Fryer returned from a record-breaking effort in a Coast to Kosciuszko Ultra Run but instead of celebrating his win the athlete was visiting the doctor.
Two doctors were needed to assess Fryer and, while they labelled the runner "crazy", the recommended medication was for an inflamed foot rather than his psychiatric state.

Seven competitors embarked on the two-day journey that started at Boydtown Beach, south of Eden on the NSW South Coast, on Friday. Only five finished.

Fryer was the first across the finish line at Charlotte's Pass more than 30 hours later.

His time 31hrs55min broke the race record by seven hours and was three hours ahead of his nearest rival Paul Every, a zookeeper at Sydney's Taronga Park.

Fryer, 44, said he was sometimes "paranoid" during the 246km journey to the summit of Mt Kosciusko, but crew members Ian Wright and Seb Dunne's clever tactics helped him maintain the lead.

Wright and Dunne are accomplished ultra-marathon runners, and when the gap between Fryer and Every narrowed they chose not to post updates to a public forum updating interested parties on the race progress.

"Some of their tactics allowed me to do better than other teams," Fryer said. "They were a critical part of it."

The Weston Emus orienteering club member decided to enter the gruelling event after completing a 24hr track race in Queensland last year. He said part of the attraction of the event was to go from sea level to the highest point in Australia.

"The thought of it was intimidating but the way to get through it is to break it up in micro chunks to the level you run to the next snow poll then walk to the next pole.

"The worst part for most people was between two and three in the morning.

"You body wants to shut down at that stage and it ends up being willpower rather than physical that gets you there."

The Coast to Kosciuszko race was one in a series of 'Fat Ass' events which are gatherings of like-minded athletes following the motto: 'No Fees, No Awards, No Aid, No Wimps'.

There are no entry fees, no course marshals and no help if runners encounter trouble on course, making crews of helpers integral to the events.

Fryer hoped the extreme mountain run would attract sponsorship so the event could grow.

He believed the entry of more competitors would eventually bring the race record to well under 30hrs.

"It's basically a purist, experiential running group, sort of like an underground current of getting people and supporting them to get into running longer distances, even though there are no prizes."

AT A GLANCE1 Martin Fryer 31hr55min; 2 Paul Every 35:28; 3 Kelvin Marshall 39:07; 4 Jan Hermann 41:22; 5 Brendan Mason 41:47.

Colac report by Lindsay Phillips

I broke a 14-year drought last month, by running my 1st 6 day race since Campbelltown '91, when I ran 509 km. at Colac. I enjoyed the experience immensely (just to confirm my extremely questionable sanity levels), & my "Colac '06 assault" can't come soon enough!!!

The 1st highlight of the week would undoubtably be the very high levels of professionalism & friendliness of all the race officials & voluntary helpers. I can't speak highly enough of these extremely dedicated & helpful people. In saying this I'm including; Bill & Bev, Glen & Emma, Les, Phil, Pat, Helene, other food van helpers, and of course all the lap counters and IT. people. I hope they enjoyed themselves even 1/2 as much as I did. - And if they didn't, I guess I may understand that too!! (My humblest apologies to anyone I may have accidentally over-looked here.)

The 2nd highlight of the week was undoubtably the last day or so, when I was fortunate enough to witness what I believe to be one of the greatest athletic achievements of all-time. I speak of course of Yiannis breaking his own 21-year old!! 'men's 6 day track world record' by running 1036.850 km. (Having also been at Sandy Barwick's breaking of the women's 'women's 6 day track world record' in '90, and thus possibly being the only person to have witnessed both, I feel very lucky & proud to say I've been there to see both such great athletic
feats!!!)

The final highlight of the week was the total & utter medical back-up of one of my fellow competitors. I'm referring of course to the 'inimitable and irrepressible' Dr Andy Lovy. As I've already said, I'm looking forward to running this race again next year, and I am quite perturbed by the possibility that Andy may not attend the '06 race. As a result (those present at the finish ceremony will know) I've donated $100 to the race committe to 'kick-start' a fund to help subsidise Andy's air fare to the '06 race.

Any intended Colac '06 competitors (or runners from the past few years to have benefitted from Andy's extensive experience)...Could you please give this issue serious consideration & possibly donate $20 or $50 to this extremely worthy cause.

Thanks for your interest,
Regards & yours in running,
Lindsay Phillips.

Blog Procedures

We shall post any ultra information on the web site relating to race results, previews, event stories, runners profiles and stories. If the information has been given to us first hand by the author we shall post it direct on the net. If we have recieved the information second hand we shall send an email to the author and ascertain permission rights to run with the story. We shall attribute the original source in each story that we run.

We shall not directly copy information from another web site. We shall post a link to that story on the Blog.

Phil Essam
11 Dec 05