Northern Beaches FatAss

An intimate group of three assembled this morning for the inaugural Northern Beaches Fat Ass. They were Sportsman, TallGeoff and I. They both parked in queenscliff and I picked them up on the way to Manly. We headed out together until Sportsman dropped off as he was looking for some slower training, with some walk breaks.


I initially had the goal of 5:30, however in the first 10k I realised that was never going to happen. My real goal for the day was to get a really long run in the legs and to feel what Ultra running was like. A big goal at the start of the year was to do an Ultra and specifically Poor Mans Comrades. As that didn't happen because of sickness I decided to do this. I changed my goal to run each 10k split under 60 mins.

The first 20k went through pretty uneventfully. It was good to chat with TallGeoff who was good company. The 20-30k stretch does get hard with the undulations and it was hard to push myself knowing I had such a long way to go. The third split was over 60 mins (62:13) however I made half way in just under 3 hours. Mrs. Hamburglar was here to offer some food/drink and I said farewell to TallGeoff.

I was glad to be by myself. Whilst the company was good on the way up, I was happy to be by myself absorbing the experience - bit weird huh?

I passed Sportsman just on top of the Palm Beach (Nellie's Glen) stairs. He eventually made half way in 3:18. He was looking extremely comfortable. The 30-40 section was undulating but I was feeling OK. Mrs. Hamburglar again met me at Newport before the long climb up to Bungan. I was walking the hills and I was rolling along the flats/downs quite well. I went through the marathon in 4:20. It was after this that things started to hurt. My right knee started to get weak and the down hills/stairs were painful. My left toe and whole of my right foot when numb. I was simply just starting to feel uncomfortable all over the legs.

Mrs. Hamburglar met me for the last time at Mona Vale, where I picked up a coke. This was the last time I would see her and I was now on my own. 12k to go. I kept ticking the k's off but as much as tried, I couldn't get the pace any faster than 6:00 min k's. I was also starting to get the odd stitch as well. With about 5k to go, I took a walk break on a flat. I resisted for as long as I could but eventually lost. From here it was running (or shuffling) the flats/downs and walking any slight incline. Coming over queenscliff headland and seeing the finish was nice. The last 1.5k was nice and flat along the beachfront, touching the surf club in 6:27:14.

Whilst I waited for Sportsman, I had the best meat pie I have ever had and a lovely bathe in the chilly water which was fantastic on the feet and calves.

Sportsman cam in at 6:59 however he bumped into a lot of people on the way back, so his race time was more like 6:30-40.

I will look for a more appropriate date to do this all again next year and hopefully more people will join us. It is a road run, but very picturesque. Something also good about an out a back course which is also appealing.

Below are my 10k Splits. As Tim from CR says, I started off slow and slowed down. Each 10k split being slower than the previous. Interesting to note is the HR on the last split. The heart/lungs were OK but the legs just didn't want to go.

58:18 (148)
58:57 1:57:15 (148)
62:13 2:59:28 (151)
64:52 4:04:20 (155)
66:39 5:10:59 (153)
76:15 6:27:14 (144)

6:27:14 (150)

Mission accomplished!