CONSISTENCY KEY FOR STORRIER’S NARRABEEN WIN

Contributed by Rick Storrier, AURA member, 1st Male 2019 Narrabeen All Nighter with 126.58kms

I rolled over and looked at my watch. It was 7:31am Saturday, 5 January and the kids had beaten me out of bed after I forced myself back to sleep at 5am, my usual waking hour. It was the morning of the Narrabeen All Nighter, and I wanted to bank as much sleep as I could before the 5½ hour drive to Narrabeen, backed up by a 12hr race through the night.

As I got up I inspected my knee, it was pain free for the first time in the last fortnight following continuous stretching, yoga, physio and massage appointments which over the past 10 days had paid off. I felt the best I’d felt in weeks, and it was truly a nice boost of confidence for race day.

This race I was going to be crewing for myself. Up until now, I’d had a big family contingent at each of my runs, but for various reasons my wife Jen and my children were not able to make this one, so I began to pack a big esky of supplies to leave at the 5.275km turnaround point – it was full of chia pudding, mashed banana with sweet potato, nuts, bananas, watermelon and rice. I double checked all my gear, had breakfast, played with the kids, gave Jen and the girls a kiss goodbye, and hit the road.

I had lined up with a friend of mine to cook up a good hearty lunch and she did not disappoint, filling up on cauliflower paddies with walnut dressing and a big side of salad…I felt full, maybe too full. It’s so hard to know what to do nutrition-wise when you have never run a night race before, however by the time we finished lunch it was 4pm and I still had 4½ hours to the start of the race.

With lunch down and a nice catchup, I still had over a one hour drive to get to Narrabeen, and I had never been in that part of Sydney before so I decided I’d best head off. Once there, and as I began to unload the car to set myself up for the night, I started explaining to someone nearby that the parking machine would not take money until the morning and therefore we would had to park our cars on the street.

That’s when a woman named Cathie Wiltshire piped up and said “Don’t worry, get your crew to do it for you,” to which I replied “I have no crew.” Cathie’s reply stunned me at first; this was a person I’d never met before. She said “I’ll crew for you.” As I already felt somewhat prepared, I wasn’t sure what she would do, and I didn’t take her up on her kind offer at first, however going back over to her and asking if she was serious was one of the best choices I’d made during a night were there was going to be many.

The race

I had learnt over my last couple runs that I was not a middle of the pack runner, and therefore starting in the middle or at the back of the pack like I used to do just meant that I was going to be running past a lot of people. So this time I positioned myself near the front and when the race organiser said go, I was right up there with the lead runners. There were half a dozen or more runners that went out at a cracking pace and while tempted, I knew I had a big night in front of me if I was to give myself the best chance I had to run this race to my plan and not get to caught up in what others were doing.

My coach, John Pearson, had given me a simple plan from the start. Run for 13 minutes at my slowest comfortable pace, and walk for two minutes, and to be honest I thought he was bonkers. My ego was telling me to run faster and run for longer, but my intuition told me to follow the advice of someone who has got the results I want, so I found a nice rhythm, ran my 13 minutes, power-walked my two minutes, and I let those front runners go.

The run itself was a wet one, and it poured rain on and off for the first six to seven hours of the race, which from a temperature point of view made for perfect conditions. However it meant that I had to pay extra attention to foot placement, and not allow any sloppiness into my run to avoid slipping over.

As the race progressed, I began seeking comfort in my 13:2 ratio. It was amazing how quick that 13 minutes flew by, and I’d push myself on, knowing that every 13 minutes I would have some reprieve.

In this style of race, I had no idea where I was placed because there were people all over the track walking, running, or hobbling, and the TV monitor was not running until about five or six hours in to the event. I didn’t get a chance to find out my placing until I finally figured out what the screen said – I was coming third, and then only one lap later I was in first place. I managed to keep my lead from that point through to the end of the race, extending it to win with a margin of about 10km and 126.6km in total.

I am very proud of this race result, not just for the podium finish, but even more so for the level of consistency that I kept up throughout the race, overcoming the signals when my body was telling me to stop, and pushing on to run a very even race.

A big thank you to Cathie for everything. You have no idea just how much you helped me. For someone who thought they did not need a crew, I leaned on you a lot throughout the night. My next crew have big shoes to fill.

Pictured (feature): Rick Storrier after winning the Narrabeen All Nighter. Photograph – Supplied/Facebook.