THE MAKING OF A 100KM CHAMP

Contributed by Dion Finocchiaro, AURA member (Brighton, Vic)
1st Male of Sydney International 100km

SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL 100KM / AUSTRALIAN 100KM CHAMPIONSHIPS, NARRABEEN (NEW SOUTH WALES), 23 April 2022

Marathons are often one of the pinnacles in distance running. A mighty challenge both mentally and physically. Time management is key to getting enough training and even then, you’re not guaranteed to even make it to the start line, let alone finish one. A true test of one’s physical ability, motivation, grit and of course keeping away from the toilet throughout the event. Throw in some life challenges like work, kids, injuries, motivation, etc. then the marathon really challenges you with a marathon of life just to start the journey of 42.195km.

However, for me that’s just not enough. I want to race it as hard as I can and leave nothing left for tomorrow. I don’t even know how many marathon events I’ve completed. I need a new challenge. One that can kick my ass if I’m not mentally and physically ready, plus a bit of luck. 100km. On the roads. It’s the kind of event someone stupid would have on their bucket list. Given it’s a once off and the challenge is the distance, you’d probably choose a beautiful location with trails, beaches, mountains or the like; where you can walk and take in the scenery and experience a life in a day.

Yet for me, I want a flat surface where I can attack the distance as fast as I can. It’s a distance I’ve attempted many times. Through the hills in the Mt Dandenong Ranges and even Hong Kong. I’ve attempted the 100km 13 times where I had my ass kicked 3 of those times and not finished. A couple more have involved blowing up and slowing down a lot. You can’t hide in these events and I have experienced silly mistakes, bad luck and just being inexperienced.

I recently attempted a 100km race on an athletics track. This was to push my limits and aim to break the Australian record of 6:29:26. That’s 3:54/km pace for a long time; or a 19:28 for 5km 20 times back to back. Well, it didn’t go well and I started suffering early on. Starting at noon in the heat didn’t help either; 25km into that run I felt unwell but persisted. I got to 55km before slowing, I had a sports beer at 59km. Then ran another 20km to stop after 80km. My average pace was 4:14/km which included a 59km split of 20mins. Physically I was very disappointed but mentally I took a lot out of it and had a lot of confidence from the headspace I was in between 60-80km.

Then 2 weeks later were the Australian 100km Championships. This was my goal race and I’d had a number of goals. One – to win. The other – try break the long standing 100km Australian Record. Having not finished my previous two 100km races, I had an extreme fear of failure to complete the distance. I was fitter than ever before, but my goals were challenging me to the core to run that fast over the distance. It’s stupid to think that people choose to do these events for fun, yet I’m one of those people. I wanted to feel a great sense of accomplishment and the thrill of completing something I thought was almost impossible.

Even getting to this event in Sydney was a marathon in itself. The course had been changed close to race day and shifted to a completely different location, throwing in a lot of u-turns, speed humps, rain and the uncertainty surrounding a huge event. My goals the night before were to just bank a finish and hopefully get a result that I was happy with. I already had a qualifying time for the 100km World Championships, which are due to be held in Berlin in August 2022. Anything other than another DNF would be a success based on my headspace.

Well that changed when we started the race when another teammate (Clay Dawson) for the WC headed out at 3:50/km. I respected how brave he was. He beat me in my last 100km that I completed in 2019 so knew he would be a mighty challenge to run down. I anticipated running 4:10/km and just see how I felt when the sun rose (we started at 5:45am). I, too, with Barry Keem, were running around 3:55/km and I just felt good. 10kms down in 38:40 and Clay was still ahead of me. Today was looking like a fast one, even with all of the u-turns (we had 4 per 3.3km). That is, if we didn’t blow a gasket and struggle to finish in the second half.

20km down and my pace was still the same (38:20 for my next 10km split). The only difference was I was now out front, solo. Passing some of the other 15 competitors on course. The camaraderie on the course was next level. For a small but intimate field, everyone turned on the positive attitudes for one another. Now 42.2km done in 2:42.42 (according to my Garmin), I still felt comfortable and kept my pace at 3:49/km. I was now scared of succeeding more than I was to fail. How did I now find myself in such a different headspace? I don’t know but I wanted to bottle that feeling forever.