MCCONNELL’S FIRST MILER – AND HE WINS IT

MCCONNELL’S FIRST MILER – AND HE WINS IT

Kate Dzienis • Oct 31, 2018
Contributed by Andrew McConnell, AURA member/Hume & Hovell Ultra 100 Miler Winner

I ran 100 miles on Saturday, October 13 at the Hume & Hovell Ultra, and before I continue, I believe it was in my last two or three race reports that I said each time it had been the hardest race I had ever done, that I’d been in more pain than ever before. That trend had to end eventually, and it did when I raced the CCC in Italy-Switzerland-France six weeks prior.

That was a 100km race with about a million metres of elevation gain; it was not as painful as previous ultras I had run this year, and the thing about that was the lack of pain also meant the lack of a story. It turns out the more pain, the better the story, and because that race more or less went to plan, I really couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about it!

So I went into Hume & Hovell on the weekend scared as hell. I was attempting to run 40km further than I ever had before; I was likely going to spend at least three or four more hours running than ever before, and everything I had read about 100mile races made me think I was about to enter the depths of hell. I was scared by the amount of pain I thought I might need to endure, but thinking rationally I knew I was ready.

It wasn’t a spur of the moment decision to run a 100mile race, far from it.

At the end of 2015, soon after I had started running, I decided that what I would enjoy the most, and would perform best in, would be long 100+ races. I’m pretty sure the rationale behind this doesn’t make logical sense: I’ve always been slow, hopeless at sprinting, not much better at middle distances, therefore I must be good at long distances. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t necessarily apply, physiologically, but I stuck with that belief. I didn’t want to dive straight in to 100km or longer races though, I wanted to gradually work up to longer and longer distances, and never be racing with the primary goal to finish, but always to feel ready to compete.


So in 2016 I focused on shorter distances, and ran six races between 40km and 50km. My last race of the year was my best performance, so decided I was ready to increase the distance in 2017. In that year I ran six races between 50km and 120km. I still felt like I had a lot to learn about the 100km distance, so ran another three races of that length this year, before deciding I was ready to step up to 100miles.


And that was my preparation for the Hume & Hovell 100 miler. I’m not going to go into detail about the race itself, except to say it was not the most painful race I’ve done, but was undoubtedly the most satisfying. The race itself was reasonably straight-forward, and I can now say the axiom seems to be true – a 100mile race is really an eating competition with a bit of running in between. I started running slowly, slowed down as little as possible, ate as much as I could as often as I could, tried not to fall over, and 19 and a half hours later I crossed the finish line in first place. When my world started to go dark, literally and metaphorically, my usual mantras weren’t working, but a new one came to me – “This is my only opportunity to win my first miler”.


Thanks coach Gary and Run Crew for helping me be ready for this and believing in my post CCC recovery!


Lastly and most importantly I want to thank all my support crew. I don’t think it had occurred to me before this race exactly how self-indulgent something like this is. I spent an entire day doing nothing but eating and running. And at the end I got to feel the immense high of not running any more. But to enable me to do that, five large and one small person travelled for hours and then spent an entire day driving, feeding me, changing my shoes, socks, clothes, encouraging me, and providing the motivation to reach the finish line. I’m not good at expressing gratitude so I’ll take the opportunity here – thanks Annie, Rose, Alex, and Stella.


Extra thanks to brother Doug for pacing me for 20km in the dark (his second longest run ever) just hours after crushing his own 22km race (his longest run ever). And special mention to girlfriend Dominique for her support just hours after beating all the boys in the 50km race (her longest run ever).


Huge thanks to the organisers and volunteers that put on such a great event at the Hume & Hovell Ultra.


Pictured: Andrew McConnell racing at this year’s Hume & Hovell Ultra 100 Miler. 

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