Surf Coast Trail Marathon 2022

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In terms of number of marathons I’ve run, this was to be my “Unlucky for some” race. So I left nothing to chance. I completed a pretty diligent 16 weeks of training, running 705.4kms in total.

An added bonus was most of my training was on the Surf Coast Trail Marathon course, known as the “Surf Coast Walk”. The SCTM sets off from Salty Dog Café (Bella and my local beach walk turnaround point), and finishes at the Fairhaven Surf Life Saving Club. And it’s a simple route, as the Race Director announced. If you’re up to your waist in water you’ve gone too far left. If you’ve crossed Great Ocean Road, you’ve gone too far right.

Most of my final packing and prep has become quite standard over the years, and went to plan, except .. The night before, I wisely left out the Vaseline to apply in the morning to prevent any chafing during the race. Except, it was NOT Vaseline I was applying. Quite the opposite. I could tell from the strong Eucalyptus aroma I was mistakenly giving my tender areas a generous Vix Vaporub! Instead of the cool relief of a moisturising balm, I felt the warm inner glow of a sexually-transmitted disease. It washed off OK. Good thing our Deep Heat isn’t in a similar shaped tub.

Rather than walk the 2kms from home to the start, and organise a ride back from the finish 42.2kms West, I decided to leave my car at the finish & use their shuttle bus back to the race start. It seemed logical, but certainly felt odd to drive the entire distance of a race before shuttle bussing all the way back, only to then run the full distance under my own steam.

At the start line, there were maybe just 200 runners, which was nice and intimate. There seemed to be no sudden influx of runners despite US politician, John Kennedy’s suggestion that gas prices are currently so high that people would find it cheaper to “buy cocaine and just run everywhere.”

The temperature at the start time of 8:30am was much warmer than my training runs which were usually an hour or two earlier in the day. As we set off, I was shocked to see the group in front of me were all vaping. Were they all sharing the same e-cigarette, or did they each have their own cause it looked like they were puffing in unison? As I got closer I realised it was just the steam from their breath. So maybe it was colder than I realised.

I felt reasonably OK throughout most of the distance. There are always moments though when you need to find something to encourage you to keep up the pace, or just keep going. At one of these points I found some extra motivation, hearing quite close behind me a guy coughing and spluttering. I had no choice but to pick up the pace and outrun any potential COVID germs.

At the 39km mark I saw a runner crouching down next to a marshal at the Airey’s lighthouse. He was clearly struggling and looked unable to continue. As I was about to pass him he joked “I’ll give you $50 if you give me a piggyback.” I laughed and apologised, “Not today” (which sounded a bit more suggestive than I hoped). As I painfully shuffled by him, I realised I’d knock him back even if he was offering $50,000.

It was no surprise, the final four kilometres were the toughest. I’ve learned from trail runners it’s fine to walk up hills, guilt free. When my legs were starting to run out of juice, everything started to look hill-like. I tried keeping a little bit of movement ready for the infamous finish line which is halfway up the surf club stairs from the beach. But it proved unnecessary. The high tide had washed away the sand and left the bottom step dangling infeasibly a metre or so above the shoreline. Coming up the alternative final climb of the subway suited me fine. I crossed the line with much relief at 4hr 25mins. This was five minutes under my target time; and 15 seconds per km quicker than my Surf Coast Century relay leg late last year. The SCC Leg 3 was a beast with the same elevation, but SCTM is over twice the distance. So today felt like a good result.

I made use of the surf club’s gloriously warm showers, then after a beer enjoyed cheering on the others still finishing.

All I then had to do was make the journey between Fairhaven and Torquay a fourth and final time. Which at least had an enjoyable pit stop at event sponsor Aireys Pub with some of the Surf Coast Trail Runners. I enjoyed a rewarding free beer (the tastiest of all beers).

Following is the Relive video of my Strava journey on the day, with some photos along the way.