The Toughest Race In The World? UTMB with Rachel Balding

I came to Travelo in 2018 because I was going to give up. Because I remember doing Shepparton in November 2018 and going back to work the next day and people said, how did you go? And I said, the girls are all so fast. And I was just like, in my head, I'm like, why are they so fast? Why am I going backwards? And I was like, oh, I'm just going to give this up. I'm just going to do park, run and swim. I'm not going to do this anymore. And on my wall I had a. I wanted to run the 100Ks in the blue Mountains. And I looked at that and I went, if I don't do that, I'll regret it for the rest of my life.

This podcast is brought to you by Trivalo Coaching, where we help triathletes and cyclists like you train smarter to race faster. I'm your host, Jordan Donnelly, and on my left is former Australian Ironman champion and head coach of Trivalo Coaching, Jared Donnelly. 41 hours, 50 minutes and 7 seconds. That's how long it took Rachel to complete the notorious Ultra trail to Mont Blanc, a 160 kilometer endurance race that finishes with over 10,000 meters of climbing, runs across three countries and has to be one of the hardest races in the world. And the fact that 2,600 people started the race and 900 people did not finish shows what kind of torture it is. So today we have Rachel on the podcast to take us through what she described as something that she will never put herself through again. And we'll see if that's true later. But you won't believe the effort it took to go through this experience, from the entire training preparation to the actual race. Today we're talking about some of Rachel's insane training sessions, including 12 hour overnight forest runs. How can you possibly prepare yourself for a 41 hour race? How she managed the ridiculous volume of training while working a job from eight till six each day or longer. And how can the body exercise for 41 hours without sleeping? And the ruthless every man or woman for themselves mentality of the race. And of course, so much more. So we cannot wait for you to hear this one. It's just a remarkable story. And of course, this episode is brought to you by our proud sponsor, Giant Australia. For all your bike training, training and racing needs. Ride life. Ride giant. Rachel, very warm welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

The first question I want to ask is, can you take us back to the moment that you decided this is the event you're going to enter.

So Ultra Trail Kosciusko was a new event in Australia last December, and I wanted to try 100 miles. See, I've only ever done 100 kilometer runs. I thought, let's see, what, 100 miles, Lisa? You know, it's only another 70 kilometers, so it's a little bit of a jump. And I really wanted to go and run in up at Kosciuszko. So in December, it was snowing, it's summer. And. But they had said with Kosciusko, it gave you a chance to get running stones, which are like little lottery tickets for Ultra Trail Mont Blanc. So I thought, if I ever have a chance, this is going to be my chance. And you apply to. And I applied in January. They said you're going. So it's. It told me, that's.

That's great.

Were you always thinking about this back when you did say, the Blue Mountains Classic a couple of years ago, the Surf Coast Classic, all those of long endurance events, Were you always thinking about Mont Blanc?

I'd heard about Mont Blanc when I first started doing Ironman triathlon. I remember people telling me that there was a run where you had to take your passport because you've got to run France into Switzerland, into Italy, into Switzerland. I went, wow, that's crazy. You know, how long does this take people? And I remember them saying, you know, days. So I'd heard about it. And then, of course, you never think it's going to happen to you. It was probably like the dream event, a bit like Kona, Ironman and coach.

Do you remember that conversation, that initial conversation of kind of enter this event?

Oh, some of the conversations that Rachel and I have had over the years have been, oh, really? That's what you want to do? So she shocks me the whole time with her next adventure. I call them adventures because the listener needs to understand. Rachel has done marathons, she's done ultra running, she's done Ironman triathlon. There isn't anything she hasn't had to go at. And stair running up the Rialto and overseas.

Did you.

Did you do some stair running overseas as well?

No, I've done Ironman in Estonia, in Europe, and some runs. I've done the Great Wall of China. I guess that's a stair run. The Great Wall of China marathon was. Yeah, a lot of stairs.

So I. Rachel as our endurance beast, and there isn't a challenge that she's not up for. I think that's the easy thing for me is what are we doing next? And already today, because she's still recovering from this event, our questions are already around. Well, what's next?

So how many marathons have you done overall, do you think?

Oh, I've done 16 iron marathons and then I think I've done 10 straight marathons. But then obviously there's ultras as well.

Yeah, for sure. How many ultras?

Oh, a few. I just stepped back one when you asked the question about talking to your dad. And I first came to Trivelo because I wanted to do my first hundred Ks.

Yeah.

And I'd said to your dad, you know, oh, you know, have you tried coach someone for 100Ks? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've coached people for 100Ks. But then I could come to him and said, have you coached someone for 100 miles? So, no, I haven't. So we've done it together and now I have.

Yeah. And there's some learnings that we'll talk about. So I really want to hone in on the motivation for it. So they you qualified for it, but you still have to accept and say yes. So what was the motivation behind that?

I was pretty quick at accepting because I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I don't think these chances come along. People try for years to get a spot, so. And I just knew that I got this spot to do this event. I wasn't going to pass it up.

Tell us the difference between the endurance stuff you've done. What's the hardest thing you've done? Now that you've got all these events behind you, does this rank as the number one thing you've ever done?

I did the Hawaiian Ironman with a broken bone through my foot. So that doing that marathon in the Hawaiian Ironman was pretty tough, but that was such a short event. Now compared to doing an event that was over 40, what was 41, 42 hours. But you're up all day as well. So it's that I've never done anything that long. So, yeah, they're probably the same, so to speak. Like Hawaii was so painful because I was trying to run on a broken foot and the bone was broken right through. But I think this is pretty much up there.

So, yeah, I want to go back to you, dad, and go, you've accepted that this is the next adventure and what goes through your head about, okay, what's the preparation required? What does this look like from now until the race?

Well, the beauty of having Rachel, having done all this stuff before, it's not like Someone out of the blue saying I'm going to run 170k or 165k, whatever 100 miles equals.

It was 179 case. But when you add my watch up so you know the trail running is never spot on.

That's right.

And for anyone that's heard many of our marathon stories about people trying to make break a barrier, you know, the marathon's 42.2 but often they're finishing at 42.8 or 43.4 or something because it's just the nature of the course. You run the extra distance and that is exaggerated. Over 160km race, you've run an extra 19km which is just not what's a.

Few more k's, right.

Wasn't there a blue line you could follow? You've had the shortest route. Did you get lost somewhere to run an extra mile?

I did think that, I thought maybe I was sleepwalking and I did go in a little.

So really it's not as daunting because of what we've done together before. So she has such a background already in you know, several hundred K events and, and she knows that there's going to be 6 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours probably she didn't know there's going to be 12 hour run but she knows that that progress is coming because that's what you have to do to, to prepare your body and, and for the 100k it' event. So we're doing 10 hours or 8 hour training sessions for a 15 hour event. As a coach I'm asking myself what's 40 hours? How do we train for that? And you can't do a 30k 30 hour training session. So it's accumulation of weeks of just keeping on adding some endurance to program and hopefully she doesn't break down from that. And you know, you've got to understand that this is the middle of winter for an event in August. And so all of her training was done in the freezing cold and possibly.

Rain and always in the dark.

And that, that is one of the most bewildering things that I think people understand about this preparation. And your dedication was turning up to the Danong forests here in Victoria and you'd start at night because you wanted to practice running overnight. And you do these 12 hour runs through the night in the middle of winter. If you've ever been up here in winter, it is freezing and it's not as cold as I guess north some North American winters. But you've literally trial run 12 hours through the night. Can you talk us through some of those training sessions?

I think the training, like, for all events is harder than the event sometimes because you're on your own and there's a lot of wildlife at night in the damn world. So I've learned the deer make some sounds in the night, and wallabies, which are small kangaroos, jump in front of you in the night. So. But at least I. I was really prepared, and I knew, you know, when my head torch goes out, it goes out, it's black. But we were very lucky in Ultra Trail Mont Blanc that it was the Supermoon weekend. So thank God for the moon. But everyone, the first night is just headlights. They're all up the mountain. And I looked and I looked behind me and there was all headlights behind me. The second night, not so many, but the second night I was like, ah, I still got some people. It's not as bad as the Daniels. There's no wildlife running around.

Yeah.

All you hear is cowbells. So it wasn't, you know, that it wasn't too bad.

And your thoughts watching these training sessions, it's. It's some of the most extreme training.

That I just feel cruel. Like, I'm setting it and I feel bad. Right. Imagine how Rachel feels doing the session. It's hard to explain how much admiration I have for someone who can go out by themselves in the middle of the night and have no fear. She's got fear about it, but she's overcoming it because she's so determined. Personality is one of unbelievable determination. And I don't know how many people who would go and do that after being set that program would look at the coach and go, are you for real? Do you really expect me to do that? But Rachel never has that answer for me. It's always, okay, how long am I going for? And off she goes. And it's quite remarkable coaching someone like that. It's a dream to coach someone like that because they're so on board and they trust the process. And I think because we've been working successfully together, and I'm sure if we had had some dodgy events where things didn't go so well, you'd be questioning a bit more. But you tell me how it's gone over the period.

I came to Trivelo in 2018 because I was going to give up. Because I remember doing Shepparton in November 2018 and going back to work the next day, and people said, how did you go? And I said, the girls are all so fast and I was just like, in my head, I'm like, why are they so fast? Why am I going backwards? And I was like, oh, I'm just going to give this up. I'm just going to do park, run and swim. I'm not going to do this anymore. And on my wall I had. I wanted to run the 100Ks in the blue Mountains. And I looked at that and I went, if I don't do that, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. And I was like, I got to get a coach that's going to help me. And did a bit of investigation. And I thought, I'll go to Trivelo, do the 100Ks and then I'm done. That's hilarious. And I did the hundred Ks and it was the best run. I said, we said 15 hours was my goal. We did 15 hours.

That is remarkable. I think it was a few seconds over.

Yeah, it was a few seconds over, but I'm not, I'm not with that. You know, I'm not one that's not that ocd.

Well, I was in shock that we had the time almost exact, like, to me that was like, are you kidding? You've done exactly the time that we predicted.

So take us through the training program. How do you, how do you train properly? The, obviously the endurance session on the weekend is, is the most important, but what are you doing through the week?

And yep, so I, I have a job that's 6 to 6. So 6am to 6pm is the minimum. So I do do long hours. So thank goodness I've got a coach that understands that you've got to work.

My apologies. In the intro, I cut you short two hours. Okay.

So we would run some of the way to work, so. Or you're like, do double sessions. So sometimes I'd catch the train halfway home and run the rest of the way home. So it was good because I had to get to work and get home. So it was just part of the process. Quite often I ride my bike instead. I just run. So it just meant, you know, getting up a little bit earlier instead of 4:00am Sometimes it was 3:00am but, you know, I knew they were the, the days that would make the difference in the event. When I was, you know, doing the event because I was knew I was going to be tired, but no tighter than when I'm working in training.

And some of the, you know, sessions that Rachel was doing, she might ride her bike to work on Tuesday morning and it would be an hour and we wouldn't try not to do anything too hard. Just get her to work. And then she would have to run home, which would be. If we went the long way, it could be an hour and a half. If she went the short way, it could be whatever. So I would give her 45 minutes, and she would get off the train according to the time that was left. And so the next morning she would run back to work, and then that night she would ride back home. So.

So.

So we were using her commute as a. As her program because there was no more time. You don't. There's no more time in the day that she had available.

When it's a race of such volume, you're not worried about a traditional program of VO2 max sessions, and you're really just trying to get your body used to that volume. And you've got to allow yourself the time. We talk about this all the time. But you've got to allow, in Rachel's case, years of buildup, of preparation to be able to cope this training load and cope race day.

That was the key to it. Rachel had such a good endurance base from all the work she'd done from when we very first, first started 2018 or 19. We really worked on her ability to cope with load, and that's what she got good at. And you had quite a few injuries over your career before.

Before I became. Came to Tribala.

Yep.

And.

And that. That was one of your major concerns was, I don't want to be injured. I want to. I want to keep training. I'm sick of being doing some training and then getting injured. So getting you fit for. Not intensity, but getting you fit for strength. And so we did a lot of he'll runs and he'll repeats, and funnily enough, anytime I tried to give Rachel any intensity in training, she couldn't match the intensity that we would give her. And then come race day, she would smash it. It's quite a conundrum to be as a coach, I'm saying, Rachel, what's going on with the training session? You're not hitting the targets. And then race day, I'd hit it. I'd give her a target pace for a 10k or a half marathon, and she would smash what I gave her. And it was quite incredible how competitive she is and then how uncompetitive she is when she's training by herself.

That can definitely happen. As a side note, I think it is wor mentioning that this is a great, almost anecdotal social experiment or training experiment for for zone two training and just long, consistent K's in the legs. Because Rachel over the years has consistently ran PBS at the shorter distance, 5k, 10k, even half marathon, which is definitely short to her, but not everyone else without doing any intensity. All just from building that endurance base, which I think a lot of people could learn a lot from.

But also, as I was talking to Rachel off air, don't underestimate how much the intensity we got from swimming and on the bike. And so we weren't trying to run with intensity, which stopped her getting injured. That was going to be a problem. If we started giving her four hundreds on a track, she's going to break down.

Yep.

So the intensity had to come from, you know, as I said to her, your heart and lungs don't know whether you're running, riding, or swimming. They just know that it's puffing, it's breathing hard. And if you do that on the sports that have no load from gravity, swimming and riding, then you can do all the hard sessions you like in those sports. And it really builds your cardiovascular system. And as long as you keep running and, and your load for your legs, your muscular system and your skeletal system, that's going to withstand anything, you know, because your cardio can cope with it.

So there's some lonely, cold, dark mornings and nights and, and shy gee, sometimes if you had a long work day, the last thing you want to do is rug yourself up and try and rung home. Were there many tough periods throughout, throughout winter? And in those, in that, those training.

Blocks, I had one run out at Mount Donabuang. So that's an 18k climb for people that aren't familiar. A lot of cyclists do it. And it was pouring with rain and it was so wet that it was like a river coming down the road because I was running up the road because it was so dark, I wasn't going up the track and so wet. And I didn't want to, you know, fall over and break an ankle or anything. So I was running up the road. It was pitch black, pouring with rain. I had waterproof socks, and in half an hour, those waterproof socks weren't waterproof. My leggings were falling down my legs because I was so wet. And this was just running up the hill. And it's, you know, a good two hours to run up the hill. So, yeah, that was probably one of the toughest days. And when we got to the top, it was nearly snowing. Like I was just up there on my own and it was, was like so cloudy. And I had my gloves. I know. And it was just so cold. And I went, I gotta run back down, back down. And I just ran, like, as hard as I could back down to try and just keep warm. So, yeah, that was a really tough day out there. Yeah, that was probably one of the. And there was, you know, it was. It's lonely, but you've got the big goal, and I think you just got to push through that loneliness and just go, yep, I've got a. I just got to get this done. And you remember those really tough sessions when it's tough during the event.

Well, that was my next question is, did you ever feel like giving up or that it wasn't worth it?

No, I don't give up. That's just not in me. And that's why, you know, I came to Trivelo because I wasn't giving up. And I've seen that so many times, like, trying to get a spot for Kona. Trying to get a spot for Kona. And I missed out one year by three minutes or something crazy. You know, like, it was just like, do I just give up? I'm like, I'm not giving up. You know, like, I saw so many people give up. Like, I'm not giving up on my dreams. There's no great. See ya.

Perseverance is one of the things that Rachel is king of. And, you know, it takes a real mindset to do the training by yourself in uncomfortable conditions. It takes a real certain personality to be able to do that and just give us an insight. Rachel, what are you thinking when you're at work? Knowing that tonight I've got to run. It's bucketing down. It's freezing. It's July in the middle of Melbourne. Winter, what's your mindset? Are you. How are you going about that? Is it. I'm just doing it, or, yeah, I'm just doing it.

I just make sure, you know, try and have the right gear. And it was good because I had always had my backpack. So it was good training to run with the, you know, a backpack, because in the event you had to carry. My backpack weighed about 6 kilos with obviously with 2 liters of fluid as well. So that was just. It was just all training, and I didn't know what weather I was going to get. I'm going to the highest point in Europe. It's probably going to snow. You know, I didn't. So I think I didn't have. I never had a time where I was like, I'm not Doing a session. My, my training peaks is great.

We've spoken a lot about that in this podcast. But the best athletes, it's, you know, you set the sessions and training peaks. And if you do the sess, it goes green. If you do it and do too much, too less, it's a traffic light system, so it's either yellow or orange. If you don't do it, it's red. And Rachel would be one of those athletes that is just that perfect green.

Consistency, but that's just me. And I'm like, I, I'm not going to let myself down, so I don't want to let the coach down. Like, that's just me.

I really want to make sure in this episode we're not skimming over just some of these casual statements, like that 18 kilometer climb, you know, you, when you go for an endurance hilly run, you, you might hit a two or four minute hill, you know, in the Daniel's, even a 10 minute climb.

But you, a two hour climb, two.

Hour 18 kilometer climb that you, you mentioned is a cycling climb. But, but you've run on it.

But Rachel's also done Donna Buang running climbs, which is, you know, for a cyclist, that's an hour to climb up. Donna Buang, how long did it take you to go up there?

Two hours. Yeah.

And I do want to dive into this once I know that giving up is not your nature, but did you ever question whether the goal was worth it or. I know that you, you're saying to yourself, that's what I want to do, but where you're just going, it's, it's not even worth this much.

No. Because I knew Europe's going to be so hilly, like, and now that I've been there, there's no hills in Melbourne. You know, we all know that when we go over there and cycle with the Tour de France, like, we don't have hills here. But I really, I knew that it was going to be hilly, but it was really hilly over there, like a whole nother level. So even knowing I had run up Mount Donna Buang and I did every hill I could find in the Dandenongs and I was running Parents Creek Road, which is another cyclist. So I was trying to do all the cycling ones, you know, in the dark because I was like, I need to find the steepest, hardest hills. I. It still wasn't enough.

That is the most rewarding part. I keep asking you these kind of motivational questions and you just, you just kind of, your mindset is so strong. That doesn't even, it doesn't even hit you on the like coming to your radar that you could possibly give up. But I want to keep going. Did your motivation ever wane or were you just ever any sessions where you just going, I really don't want to do today?

No, I think there was once I sent a text message when I got the 12 hour training session. I just said, is this the last one? I think I am. I said I was just preparing myself because I was like, I had, you know, on the weekend we have social events and I had a big friend. A friend's birthday was zero. So I went to the dinner, you know, and I said, I've just got to go and drive up to the dining islands. And no one knew. And then I did my 12 hour run and then I had my goddaughter's birthday lunch on Sunday. So I went straight to Mornington for the next birthday and I was like, everyone's like, oh, you know, what are you doing? And I'm like, oh, nothing, just a little run.

I haven't seen slept yet.

I didn't tell anybody anything. I was just trying to fit it all in. But everyone's going to try and fit their training in. But I, you know, it's, to me it's just like what I do.

Yeah, you're probably better off not telling anybody what you just did because.

No, people don't understand unless they're, you know, an athlete.

Think you're crazy.

Yeah, they would have locked me up.

And to your credit also, I don't think you specifically set the 12 hour sessions or the 10 hours overnight. You just wanted to do them, but it was, you took it on yourself, right?

Yeah, I wanted to do it at night also. I needed to make sure my head torch, how many hours I could get out of my head torch, my nutrition and, and being out on your own and yeah, it was all, all training for the event.

So there's so many things to this event that you don't think about, like the head torch running out batteries. What are you carrying in your pack? The extra 6 kilos, which is just running 41 hours is hard enough. If you, if you've ever ran 10k half marathon, marathon, you know that half an extra kilo will kill you. But to have to run with a pack 6 kilos. One really interesting one was the Garmin conundrum where you actually have to take two Garmins, two Garmin watches because they'll run flat after 41 hours. They actually can't make the whole race, which to me is just astounding. So any other little things you did in practice, in training for these sessions that you probably wouldn't have found out unless you did like a 10 or 12 hour run?

Well, the nutrition was knack and we don't have knack in Australia, so I had to get it sent over from Canada. And you know, just trying to make the have the bars and the drink. I'm glad I did that because I knew I wasn't going to drink that drink unless I really had to. And I hope, you know, know no one from NAC is listening. They're never sponsoring me, so it's okay.

But yeah, they could do something with the taste. Is that what you're saying? That's a kind way.

I'm not a watermelon person. It was watermelon flavor, so maybe it's just me, but I was like, if I had to have it, I was prepared, but I didn't have it.

One of the things that Rachel is unbelievable at is preparation. And we say, you know, it's great, here's your training program. But the training program's not just the exercise part of it. It's actually understanding the requirements of, of the race. And she just went to the nth degree to find every single thing that she needed to do in preparation. So her preparation is almost better than her execution of what she does on the day. Her execution is always great. She really understands right from the start the theory of even pacing. And you'll get the best result whether it's 42 hours or 4 hours or 4 minutes. She understood that right from the beginning and. But also understanding that what is required for this event and she's done so many variations in events like the surf coast is on the sand, on the beach, it's climbing boulders with your hands and knees and then got some trail runs. It's got varied terrain. Well, she knew all that and found out about it and was prepared for that. And Kosciusko had snow, ice. You can't really prepare for that that well. And she did fall over and really hurt herself. And her mindset was she was really injured and she kept going. I think it was 20k out of 160. She was injured for 140k. So that gives the listener an example of strength of mind. And some people might say, well, that's ridiculous. If you're injured, why would you keep going? But that's the way Rachel is and she gets over the injury and she's ready. And that got her to qualify for this event without that. That was her mindset is, if I don't finish, I'm not going to qual, so my dream is not going to happen.

So what was, what happened in the injury? What happened?

Oh, they have what's called the cheese grater. So it's like a metal pathway. It's more for. Obviously during the snow and the whole race they had said we weren't to. We weren't going to run this 5, 6, 5K section because it is so dangerous. But then because the weather had turned so bad, they changed the race and said, oh, you can run. So everyone's running on this cheese grater. But I don't think trail shoes and cheese grater go together. I went down pretty hard and my knees, both knees, but one knee more. The other was just so swollen. And then it got to the point where I just couldn't run because it was so sore. But I think I learned from that event, you just keep moving. And I've got through Hawaii Iron man with the broken foot. So you're going. You just got to keep keep moving, you know, like. And people listening are probably going, oh, this girl's crazy. It'll lock her up. But I think it's just, I don't, I don't want to be that person that didn't finish and you know, it doesn't give it at all. That's just not me.

So how long was that was the Kosciusko race?

That was 30, so that was 100 mile and that was about 30 hours. 30 hours, yeah. With a bit of walking, obviously. But believe me, that course was flat after what I've discussed.

Yeah. The difference for a similar distance, difference in time is only 12 hours. So it shows you the.

And I wasn't injured in.

That's right, you were quite healthy. And the other elevation is what kills Everybody because it's 10,000 meters of climbing in one race.

It's the 11K's downhill.

Yeah, yeah, and we'll touch on that when we get to the race. But again we. You just say these casual statements like it's, it's an extra 12 hours, but it's. It's the same distance and it's an extra 12 hours. That just shows the difference in elevation ascending and descending. So let's start to talk about the race prep and, and getting to the race and some of your last conversations here between athlete and co coach. And I know you came up here and spoke to that in person and talks through that conversation when you're starting to really. The race is coming up and you really. It's in front of you. It's becoming real now. So what's happening there?

Of course, I got really nervous and, you know, it came like all. You think you've got lots of time and then all of a sudden it's there and you're like, oh, God, have I done enough? Have I done enough? And we had no idea how long it was going to take. We. The event gives you 46 and a half hours. So I always said it's like 46, half an hour buffer. So 46 or. Or less, you know, I, I had no idea. I. It would probably be some 36 hours we were talking about. And then I laughed when I was out there. I'm like, it's not going to be 36 hours.

It's going to have a four in front of it.

And I'm like. And then I got to the point where it's like, am I going to even finish? You know, like, it's. The clock is ticking and it's really tough. So, yeah, I think your dad. It was unknown for us and. But that's, that's why it was good because that's how we learn and, you know, definitely out of the comfort zone and, you know, making sure I had everything, you know, I knew what time the sun was rising, setting full moon. I had spoken to people who had done the race and tried to watch every YouTube clip. Until you do it, you don't know.

But that gave Rachel all of that preparation stuff, gave her a really good grasp of what she was going to encounter from all that research. Her research is brilliant. So when we had the chat before she left to go overseas, for me, she put my mind at ease about how well prepared she was. She'd done the training, training, but she's also prepared for what the expectations of the day were gonna. The two days we're gonna have. And her mindset was. It was like, I'm just moving, I'm moving. I'm not stopping, I'm moving. And I'm saying, you think you have a lie down, we have a little rest. No, I'm just going to keep moving. And that was our. That was our mantra, was just keep moving. And I think that was the main. The main thing that we were grasping on was when everything else is going bad, just keep moving.

Yeah.

And no matter how bad you feel. And that to me, gave me huge confidence. And I don't know whether that came back from me to her, but. But I Absolutely. When she left, I thought, Rachel, there's nothing stopping her. She would have to actually break a leg and she'd probably keep going. But. But I was that confident in her preparation and I'm not talking about training. Training was great. She'd done everything she possibly could. There was no question about that. But all the other details she had covered and spent hours of preparation understanding the require. And there's a lot of lessons for a basic Ironman or a marathon that don't have that much information that you have to find out, Go and find out what the course is like. That's pretty much what the temperature is going to be. Is there a wind, are there hills? There's not much more you have to find out. But this had everything. This had so much information about nutrition and what's available and as she said earlier, getting the nutrition that race course organizers had, having to apply to get that sent to here and practice with it. So that's how the detail was with Rachel. So that meeting we had, I'm not sure how she left. I could ask you now, did you.

Leave thinking, yeah, I just remember you saying to me, keep moving. And that's. And I was like, that's all. I'm just going to keep telling myself. And I probably told myself that a billion times on the day, just keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. Because like I said, I didn't want to let you down.

So that, that pre race plan, that pre race coach athlete talk is so important and you were kind of saying, how do you possibly prepare? He's saying this from the start of preparation. How do you possibly Prepare for a 40 hour hour, 46 hour potentially event? You know, you. How do you come up with a race plan for that apart from just keep moving? Is that as simple as it was or what else?

Absolutely, that is absolutely what our final conclusion was. Let's just not worry about the time. The cutoff time was the only concern. And if we kept moving, we knew that you would be under that. And that's why she was adamant she wasn't going to sleep. Is that a good strategy? Well, probably. I think it's a better strategy if you stop and then you try to go again. That could be fraught with danger. But other people in the event did that and they may say that's a better strategy. But I think for Rachel, the experience she had as she got tireder, hallucinations and stuff like that, what's happening to her, you would say you probably should have stopped and then got some recovery. So that you had a chance to think clearly again. But this shows you how mentally tough she is. She just charged through that period and came out the other end. And so look, the plan was never about pacing. It was always about, you've got to keep the nutrition up, up. You've just got to keep moving. And you've got to understand how. You've got to ask yourself all the time, how am I going? How's my. How's my hunger? How's my energy levels? How's my tiredness? They're the things we talked about and only Rachel could determine. But then there's a point where she can't determine that because she's actually almost losing the fatigue from tiredness is if you stay awake all night, you're quite tired the next day. At periods during the day, as long as you keep energized with activities, you can get through it. But the minute you stop for a second, you almost asleep standing up, aren't you, when you don't sleep all night. So that's a factor that you have to consider as well.

Is that what happened? Like, in terms of the next day, you would. If you found. If you stopped, you could have just fallen asleep standing up?

Yes, I was tired, but I was worried if I went to sleep, I wouldn't wake up. So I thought, if I try to go to sleep, I'm not going to go to sleep because I'm going to be worried that I'm not going to wake up. So what's the point even going to sleep? But then it was funny when you see bloke sitting on a rock having a sleep.

Yeah.

And I'm like, do I wake him up?

Yeah.

Is he all right?

How long have they been here?

So I, you know, but because it was each man for their own, I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm just preserving myself here. But towards the very last sort of section, unless I was hallucinating, there were three people checking that everyone was okay on that part of the course. And I said, oh, you. He just scan me. Because they normally scan you as you go through. They said, no, we're just checking you're okay. How are you? I said, I'm good. I'm really good. I was like, you're not pulling me off. No, course. I don't care how bad. I don't care how bad I'm going.

I just saw Santa Claus back there. But I'm actually going well.

And I was like, so determined. And the last aid station, they said, you're not Stopping. And I said, no, I'm going home to bed. And the. There was an English couple that were running and they said, you were so determined at that aid station. You were not stopping for no one. You were just going home.

Yeah, that's unreal. All right, so take us through. Take us through the experience, getting there. Where'd you fly into? And then kind of race week and stuff.

So we flew into Geneva in Switzerland. So it's probably about two hour, not even two hours from Geneva over into France to Chamillon, which is the ski resort. And it's just the most beautiful location in the world. And that's where the race starts and that's where the race finishes. So we got there just what, about a week and a half, half before. It's had a couple of days in Switzerland and then we went there and it's a bit like going to a big event, like a big triathlon where, you know, everyone's wearing their triathlon gear, but everyone was wearing their running vests. Just walking down the streets and my, like, we're like, oh, they just been for a run. But everyone, it's like a handbag. Was wearing their vests and, you know, obviously all the trail shoes and all the trail gear, it was just trail city. Trail trail running geek city. Yeah. So that was a real opener.

Did you join in?

Did you.

No, no, no. I had my Iron man top on. I was like, definitely stood out. But then after the race, then like the next week before we left, it's all gone. So it was just that race week, like all the runners from all the world just take over.

Yeah.

So that was. Yeah, it was just interesting because it was just every nationality and they have a great big expo.

Yeah.

And I've never seen so much trail running stuff in my life and everything. Obviously lightweight. And there's me with you. I'm a big, heavy torch because, you know, this was a once in a lifetime. I didn't want to go and spend all the money. I spent enough money to get myself there.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so it was all. It was exciting, but the weather, like, one day it was poor with rain, one day it was snowing. And then I remember sending your dad a message going, I don't know what's gonna happen. Yeah, yeah, I'm really scared.

Yeah, it's. It's everything that comes with these big events where you just don't think about it. You don't expect to rock up to a triathlon and just see all the fit people and the fast bikes and because you've been training on yourself, with.

Yourself, so much self doubt is shocking.

Yeah, it's very overwhelming.

Yeah.

And I think that was the case because I had been by myself. You're just running by myself. And then all of a sudden there's just. And they have multiple events during the week. So there was a marathon. And all the marathon runners came back and they were just covered in mud. And I'm like, oh, they only did 40ks. Look up. And I'm looking. And they all look knackered. And I'm like, oh my go. What have I signed up for?

What?

Sign up. So this is probably when the, the doubt started to come in. Like the rest of the motivation was there until the few days prior. I'm like, oh, am I doing the right thing?

Like, you can't underestimate how hard that is to manage.

And the weather was pretty bad.

The weather was very.

Days before the event and it was snowing.

Yes. And very cold. But. And when it rained, it absolutely poured. You could, you couldn't keep dry. So yeah, that was very. My poor husband. I was a bit stressed.

The psychological warfare. You're going those few days prior and.

Doubting whether you had the right equipment.

And so I went to the expo and kept looking at the €600 jacket and going, do I need that jacket?

Buying the ten dollar poncho.

So yeah, I bought the $10 poncho instead. Yeah. And I didn't need it because we were very, very lucky. The weather gods just. And you know, I, I think that was one of the things that would have been a lot more people didn't finish if the weather was bad.

Yeah, yeah.

A third of the field didn't finish. Im whether it was bad. But we looked at the. They actually do a great job of giving a summary of each individual athlete with checkpoints of video. So the video goes for about five.

Minutes and if you watch this podcast, you'll see some of this footage is absolutely incredible.

But each time Rachel comes to the next checkpoint, some of the views behind her were out of this world. Stunning. I'm not sure whether you've seen scenery much of that because you were.

Oh no, no, no, no. I made myself look up and say, look at this. Pinch yourself because you are never going to see this, this again.

Yeah. Okay. So the night before and the morning of what were the emotions?

Yeah, so it was weird because it was a 6pm race start. I've never really had an evening race start for anything like that kind of an event.

So your Night trail runs for 12.

Hours starting at 6:00pm so yeah, yeah, true, true.

What a good decision.

So yeah, it was really weird because I was like, okay, just keep off my legs, keep up my legs and just, you know, make sure you're hydrated and get some, some good food into me. So we had a self contained place where I cooked my own food and made sure did what you normally do before event but just trying to, you know, work out the timing. But you have to get to the start two hours before just to get a good spot on the start line. And it was quite warm then too because it was like 4 o' clock in the afternoon. And also I had my husband and support crew. There's no cars allowed anywhere so they've got to go on a bus or a train. So I had to make sure, you know, he. And also I wanted him to get sleep. So he took me to the start in the afternoon and then he caught the train 7K's down the road to see me so that he could go back that night and sleep. So then I knew he was fine. And I met an Australian at the squashy start line. So he was from Adelaide and they're playing the song they played at the start was highway to Hell by acdc. So there's two Aussies singing Highway to Hell because that's about what we're going to do. So that was, and it was really nice that I got to ch have an Australian with me. That was like I think probably the best thing because you know, each country sticks to their own. And it was very squashy because there's like 2,800 of us in this tiny little area. And all I could, you know, it was really squashy and finally race started and I'm like, okay, I just got to do what I do. Just going for a run and it was a lot of argy bargy for quite a while. And I'm glad I've done the New York marathon and done a few Ironmans where I'm used to Bargie Bargie. But it'd be a bit, you know, daunting if it was your first big event like that.

It wouldn't be though because the qualifies so hard. So.

Yeah, true, true, true. But normal trial running is not so argy bargy over here.

Yep.

Like, you know, like once you've got your space. So yeah, so that was. So we had two hours of daylight. So I knew that I wanted to just get that, you know, two hours as far as I could because I knew the first night is going to be, you know, tough because it was the big climbs. So I saw Gordon, my husband, and I never gave him high fives, but I gave him a high high five so he, he could, you know, go and relax. And then, then it was just down to business and head torch on and get through that night where was quite windy up the top of the hills. And I thought, oh, you know, is it going to get cold? But you could feel the temperature change as you went down the hills. So it was, you know, that was, it was. We were lucky. It wasn't wet. It wasn't. It wasn't like people were stopping, putting jackets on. But I didn't need to. I was okay. And then it was like every checkpoint was different. So it wasn't like water electrolyte, you know, like Iron man, you know, exactly. Each checkpoint. So you'd go in and it'd be someone slicing the meat on the meat slicer. Oh, yeah, there's the cheese, there's the bread.

Yeah, just anything.

And then, you know, they very environmental friendly. They don't, they don't have bottles, so they have sodastream making the cola and all the Europeans drink mineral water. So, yeah, all these things that we don't normally find. And then you finally just find the water.

Yeah, yeah.

So and the volunteers, like all events, you know, if you didn't have them, the event wouldn't run. And there's so many volunteers and they do want to help you. So I was a lot of sign language, but, you know, was that a.

Disadvantage not being able to speak French, Italian and.

No, I don't think so. I don't think so. Because you do. Aqua is water, you know, and you just. I would get them to fill my flask halfway and then pour my electrolyte and then they'd put the rest. And they just want to help you. And, you know, you just cross your legs. You got to go to the toilet and they'd laugh and just go like this. So, like, you try not to spend too much time in the checkpoints, but because each checkpoint was different and you're trying to find everything and always the toilets were far away. I felt like I was spending too much time in the checkpoints. So I was like, okay, you've got to keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. And they scan you, obviously your. Your race number. So I knew that people were tracking me. So I'm like, okay, people know where I'm at. So Italy Coromaya is where it's your 80k mark. And you're allowed to have a bag there. So that was sort of always the halfway point. Get to that bag and have a good break. And I set myself 20 minutes and I was 23 minutes because there was a big toilet queue line and I was three minutes. I was so angry. Like that's three minutes. And out of Italy it was this massive climb and most people had their support crew walking with them. Oh yeah. And that killed me as well because like it was a three hour wait to get through the tunnel which is normally 45 minutes. So it would have taken Gordon six hours just to get through the tunnel. And I didn't want him to do that. So I, it was my doing. But I was like, I wish I had somebody. And then it was like just remember the nights in the dandyongs, you had nobody. And then I had Gordon was at the 126k mark in Switzerland. So that was my goal, just to get to him. And I'm like, he's been waiting there a very long time.

Yeah.

And I felt so bad because I was way off anytime I thought I'd be there. So yeah, he had to hang out at Switzerland for a while.

That must happen so often to the checkpoint crew when, where you know what's happened in between the last 40k where you've just run a marathon. Anything could happen in that period. So people could. Would come in hours later than anticipated. Right.

Quite concerning, isn't it?

You saw a lot of checkpoint and the supporters were just all asleep on the floor. They were just sleeping everywhere, you know, like. And I didn't know are they spectators, are they runners? You know like it was like a war zone, especially the second day. And like, like you can see on the video I come into the checkpoint and I'm just like yo, like a headlights, you know, in my eyes. Because I'm just like okay, where is everything? And you know like where's the toilet, where's the water? You know like it wasn't set that you could go there and there's the water there. And so that was something I wasn't prepared for. And it's.

It's just Lemont actually one of the world's best triathletes. She was support crew for her partner and she posted on Instagram saying that that is harder than any triathlon she's ever done being a support crew. I know she said the most stressful amongst anxiety producing when he just didn't turn up for three hours at a checkpoint. And you can just imagine that's the worry not even doing the race and you don't even think about these little things like the differences at the checkpoints. That is just a stress and decision making process that you don't need to go through. When you're 30 hours into a race and not trying anything new on race day, there's all this food there that you don't get in the Dandenongs in those training sessions. Do you try them or do you just ignore them? That's hard stuff to get through.

Yeah, absolutely. And I was tracking Rachel mostly of the two days and the periods where she'd stopped and I was thinking, oh, please, please, she's not injured, she hasn't fallen over. So it's kind of. I've watched a lot of Ironman races, but that's only 10 or 14 hours. But as a coach it was like, oh, far out. This is. He's got no control of what's happening and then all of a sudden the beacon moves.

The, the surprising part was the, the fact the environment wasn't that friendly. You mentioned the Argy Bargie at the start, but the whole time there was probably a lack of camaraderie, which you weren't expecting.

Yes. So trail running I have always found to be a very friendly event in Australia. Someone passes, you say, keep going. Good on you, mate. You know, well done. They. There's always. Or passing not over there. And we all had our flags on our back so people knew what language people spoke. So the French definitely only spoke to the French. But I was just amazed that people didn't. Didn't speak. But then as the event went on, I knew why people wouldn't speak. They were just saving every energy they had. I did speak to an English guy the second night. We had a big climb over these tree routes and it was just horrible. And I said to him, this isn't a very friendly event. And he made the same comment. He said, in England your trail running is really low key. But he was saying he didn't think it was friendly, but it might have been our experience. But I did get pushed over a couple of times because it. Where it's single track and it was like a ditch where obviously the, when the snow melt, all the water goes down and it was very narrow and I kept getting out of the ditch to let people pass and I got to the point where I was like, I can't keep getting out because it was a step up and a step down. I'm using too much energy. That's where the extra k's are. Yeah, so I was holding my line. I felt like I was a cyclist, you know, I'm holding my line, I'm holding my line. And a French guy pushed me over and it really like, like I was just scratched and so, and I saw like people always falling over and you just go, souther. You know, you just didn't care. And that was really a different environment. But, you know, I guess it's just, everyone's just trying to preserve their energy and, and I'm not an elite athlete, you know, I'd hate to be in the elite if this was the age groupers at the back, you know, like.

It'S, it's intriguing, isn't it? And you go into survival mode, don't you? And you just want to spend the least energy you possibly can and, and that's what you should be doing as a caring human being. You know that that's not your personality, but it's like the white line fever. You cross that line and it's like survival.

Now, for a lot of athletes, it would be a case of every single sentence spoken probably matters. And I, you know, if you read the UTMB website, I was surprised at this after hearing your experience that the, the mantra is surpassing one, limit one's limits, fair play, respect for people and the environment, and solidarity.

And so I'll tell you a funny story. When the Spanish guy, a Spanish guy pushed me over and this, I was just, I'd had enough and I just said, respect. This race is about respect. And he's going off at me in Spanish. I don't know what he said to me. Sorry, but you know what they like when they speak and I was just like, just keep going, you know?

Yes.

But, you know, that's part of it all. And you know, I, it was a. I don't know, maybe it was my experience, but I found, you know, it was very different to trail running in Australia, that's for sure. Where, you know, if you were doing a big climb and you're all walking, everyone's having a chat. This was having a big climb. Everyone was just like, I love that.

So much when you put it in perspective. I mean, the big, the biggest event at kosciuszko, you were 12 hours slower. So, So I think, I don't think anybody really is going to have that same, you know, over a 50k trail run. You know, you've got time to be partying almost. But yeah, look, I'm not defending it one bit, but, but I can understand how when you go into Survival mode. You are in survival mode. And I've been there many times myself, but not, not to the extent that you have, but. But yeah, you just gotta look after yourself in any way you can. And. And if it means you going to do it, aren't you?

Well, I was trying.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So what was the hardest part of the race?

The downhills. Yeah, the downhills were just brutal on your toes. We ran down a lot of chairlifts, like, so the top of the chairlift and you go down zigzag. Zigzag all the way down. So. But we ran down, like, next to a glacier, which. Where it was melting. You ran in the melting water on the rocks and the rocks were moving. And I just remember running as hard as I could down that hill because I thought, the rocks are moving, just keep moving. And I just was following the people in front of me. If they rock went flying, I went the other rock. And the tree roots, some of those tree roots. I've never seen tree roots like it. And of course, you know, I'd come so far I didn't want to fall. And. Yeah, so the, the down downhills definitely took their toll. The Europeans walk the uphills, walk the flat and run down the downhills like they're downhill skiing. So that was hard too, because they just were going so hard, so hard to pass you. And you were just like, I've got nothing.

I was going to say. So what point did you feel the tiredness? So the downhills were tough.

Yep.

But what about your tiredness, your lack of sleep?

Yeah, that second night, because it was. It was a bit darker. We were in a forest and it spread out a bit more and it was very quiet. That's when I sort of thought, oh, there's a dog up there and it would be a tree, you know. And then, oh, they're filming because they did have live film. And I was like, okay, wipe the stud off my nose, you know, make sure I'm looking good. And, ah, it's trees. And it was just the point where I was like, it felt like it was never going to end. But as soon as the sun comes up, you've got that different mindset. Ah, you're a whole new person. Anyone can run in the daylight, but I think that for that night, it felt long, but it went like that. At the same time, I was like, oh, I just put my head torch on. I'm taking my head torch up. And I think when I knew it was the second day and I knew that I was just had a few more big climbs. Wasn't the climbs, it was the downhill. So at each aid station they had a sign. So how long it was to the next aid station, what time the cutoff. You had to be there by how much ascent. I didn't look at it. I just looked at the descent and. And psyched myself up. Okay, I've got, you know, 2,000. 2,000. That's all right. 2,000 meters of descent. That's fine. I can do that.

Yeah.

The mindset of the others would be 2000 ascent. Yeah.

I love the appeal. I love. I wish it was all uphill. It would have been so much nicer.

So what. What parts of the race were you. I mean, how is your negative. How is your. I wouldn't say negative. Sel. How was your self talk throughout it?

Yep. So coach had sent me a message and it said, you've got this. So I kept telling myself, I've got this and keep moving. So that were. Anytime I felt like I was thinking, this is. I can I swear on here.

Sorry.

I'm sure people understand it.

I would say, yep, you've got this. Just keep moving, just keep moving. I was three hours ahead of the check. The cutoff time for the cutoff time, like for quite a while. Then it got down to two and a half hours. Then I started to get a bit stressed and then I kept saying, well, you've come this far, you know, like, at least you can say you've come this far, you know. So I was trying to just say, yeah, you know, I've done 140, you know, like. And I've. I've been to three, two. Two countries. I'm in the third one or, you know, like, so I think. And then I'd stop and go, not physically stop, but stop my. My mind and go look around at what the scenery is. And quite often you. A corner and one of the climbs and there'd just be a big flock of sheep just hanging out. Or you go, and there'd be goats and then these cows and they're just all wandering. There's no fences anywhere. So, you know, you had to just go, this is just nature. Like, look how beautiful it is. And I remember it was quite warm and people were runners were actually in the water on the. The melted glacier, you know, lying in the water. And I'm like, oh, I'm not doing that. I think just trying to just bring it back to where you're at. I kept. I didn't want to look too far Forward. And I just would go, okay, look how far you've come. Yeah, yeah.

Were you talking to yourself a lot? Were you?

Yeah.

Was your mind. Did you find your mind wandering?

No, I found it was pretty much just keep moving. Like, I think, like, I kept. I knew I had to get to Gordon at that one. So that was a good, you know, I got to get to. And I'm like, oh, he's been waiting so long. He's been waiting so long. Get to him, get to him. It was. It was a bit like Iron man, where you just. Just letting the run and you're trying to get to the next aid station. Just trying to get to the next aid station. So I guess that's how I can explain it to a lot of people.

Did you draw on your training much? Did you think about the preparation you've done or.

Yeah, yeah, I think so. Like, I was like, when I was. But I think, like, I went, no, training would have been enough training, like, because I've never done anything that long.

Yeah, yeah. So you can't adequately.

There was never enough training.

Exactly.

Winner. He moved from America to the race location to train because he wanted to win.

20 odd hours.

Yeah. Freak.

They're seriously running.

It's just.

It's absolutely insane. And then what was happening physically to your body? What was. What was breaking down?

Yeah, that was. That was interesting because I soon learned that my mind was overriding my body. Like, my mind was like, you were going to do this?

It took you to this race to learn that?

I'm quite shocked at that. Yes.

My legs were burning from about 90Ks, like, because of that really rough downhill on those rocks, I think did that damage. So very dry because of the breathing. So no matter how much you tried to drink, you're just dry. Just dry, like so. And you'd see, like troughs for the, you know, the cattle and you just get your cup and drink. I think about it now, like, what was I thinking? But it was just anything, like, seriously, if someone was out there selling ice cream or icy poles, they would make a fortune. Fortune. Because that was the thing they didn't have at the aid stations. They had like potato chips. And I'm like, I need something orange. I was eating the oranges because they were soothing, they were nice. So obviously my quads were burning, my hamstrings were burning. Everyone goes, what about your knees? I'm like, my knees were probably the one thing I didn't even think of. But everything started to hurt. Your back hurting because of the Pack your arms hurting from the poles. So everything's hurting. You're like, okay, it's just gonna hurt. Just suck it up and keep going.

And you mentioned something that you didn't think about or no one would think about, but you said you'd never worn sho for 41 hours straight. And that's an interesting experience.

Yeah, I've never had blisters. I'm always for long events. I've Vaseline my feet even when I get off the bike for an ironman, I Vaseline my feet, put my socks on and run the marathon. I've never had blisters. And at the 80k mark, I stopped, I changed my socks and all socks I'd ran in before, the same trail shoes I'd run in. Everything was the same. I put nearly the whole jar of Vaseline on each foot at the 80k mark, but I had blisters like never before. But everyone had blisters. So I knew that Gordon had a bag. I put a bag of everything I possibly needed. It must have weighed 20 kilos that he had to carry at the. At that checkpoint because I didn't want to go to medical. Medical make you lie down, fill out all the paperwork. That's 20 minutes. I just want some band aids. I wasn't doing that. So when I saw Gordon, the Band Aid and most dodgy band aids I could, you know, and Vaseline my feet. And I just remember Gordon saying to me, I think you need a T shir shirt. So I obviously stunk to high hair. So, yeah, the blisters, I'm not going to let a blister stop me. Yeah, like. But, yeah, who wears shoes for 40 odd hours? You know, you go to sleep.

I.

And my trail shoes were the most comfortable shoes. I'm never wearing them again.

Would you, if you were to do it again, would you consider swapping shoes?

Halfway through, I did have a. Another. I did have shoes for that, but at that point I was fine. So, I don't know, like, I thought I had really good socks and, you know, like. But then I spoke to like a few Australians and everyone was the same. Everyone had blisters. So, yeah, I'm just sure that someone said they reckon it's because there's a lot of grit gets in your shoes. So. I see. Maybe I should have had. What are those gator things? But not the Europeans didn't really have them either. So, yeah, that was something that I was surprised. But it was good because you're looking learn, you know, if my Vaseline didn't do the job like.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so what surprised you about, about the event that you weren't expecting because you were so well prepared?

So, yeah, I don't think I thought that my toes were going to be. I've never had my toes hurt so much. I felt like I was a ballet dancer on point, on ballet points, you know, because you're just on your toes going up the hills, trying to grip on but going down. So yeah, I, I didn't think that the downhill. So if anyone was to do this event, I would just say practice going downhills like you've never done ever before.

If you were to pick the toughest period, Was it the 25 to 30 hour mark? Was it the, that point to the last, last checkpoint? Was it the last downhill?

The last downhill was pretty horrible. That wasn't pretty because I was just hurting so much. So yeah, that was, I was pretty, pretty much over it by then, but I just was like, I've come so far, I've just got to get this finished. So yeah, pretty much. That last downhill, the last checkpoint, my husband was at Valencini that he could come to and he said to me, you've got one big climb. It's taking people four hours to do it. So I'm like four hours, great. Just going out there for another four plus hours because I knew I was going to be slower because by this time you're just getting slower and slower because you're fatigued and no matter what food, you just can't eat anything, you know? Like I was like, I didn't even look at the aid stations because they're all the same. I'm like, okay, let's get another jelly. And oh yeah, this just tastes great.

So did you find that you couldn't consume any more fuel or did you have, did you think you were adequately fueled or.

Yeah, so I had a lot of gels and the, the knack bars, they had chocolate chip. You probably don't want to hear this, but they had chocolate chip cookies that were the best chocolate chip cookies to a point where I was like, I can't do the chocolate chip cookies anym. And they had little snicker bars and I put them in my pocket. By the time I got up the first climb, they'd melted. So I am not eating those cuz I thought I'll take them for when I get to the top, you know. And then at the top of the lot of climbs there was nothing. So that's why you had to drink out of the trough. So, like I, I drank a lot because I had to go to the toilet a lot. So I knew I was hydrated a lot, but I was still dry. But yeah, these stomach goes, I don't need anything. You know, Like I. I remember looking at one of the aid stations and I went, there is nothing here that I want to eat.

But you didn't feel like you were going hunger flat.

Because I think we're not. It's. You're not going that ex. That extreme. Yeah, that intensity. So. But you're fatigued. So everything shuts down. They're like, you're, like you're. It's like you're in your own war zone, zone just to survive. So your body just. Is just shutting down. No stomach. I was saying, you know, I could smell everything. And then you can't smell anything anymore. You know, it's like your body's just going, no, we're just getting you to the. Keep moving, you know, to the.

What was it like knowing that you had maybe another hour to go and half an hour or an hour and a half. Were you conscious of. I'm. I'm nearly there.

Well, I'd asked the English guy about the last downhill because he had done it, and he said to me, oh, it's a bit brutal, right? So I sort of had that in my. But it was more than just to be brutal. So we got to the top of the. The highest point and the photographer had said, you're at the highest point. And he's taken a photo and I've got this great smile. And then he says, now you got to go downhill. And my smile go. And he's taken the two photos and only him and I would know that. That's, you know. Yes, I'm happy. No, I'm not. He said, you've got to go down and then you're. Then your home. So I was like, okay, I can do this. You know, I can do this. I can get. And I didn't stop at the checkpoint. I just kept going down. But. And someone, a girl said, oh, you got about an hour. I'm like, an hour. It's five k's. I've got an hour. And then the time starts ticking in my head. I'm like, what time is it? Like, how long have I been out here? And on your front of your bib there was Australian flag. And as I'm going down the hill and I'm trying to, you know, jog the best I could down the hill, these people said, aussie Aussie. And I'm like, finally English. What time is it? And they said it's 11:30. And I'm like, okay, I've got 4:30 to finish the race. The lady said an hour. I'm probably going to be an hour and a half. Like it probably took me about 20 minutes to work this out in my head. So it was good because it kept me focused. I'm like, okay. And I got to the bottom of the hill. We have to cross the road. But they did a mate ship like at the Grand Prix where you've got to go the metal up the stairs, across and down. Oh. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And I'm looking at the road and I'm like, I'm just going to run across the road. The traffic's like this, you know, like because it's the only road in and out. And I'm like looking at the volunteer and I'm like, I can't be disqualified now I've come this far. Get your ass up the stairs. So up the wonky stairs, you know, and you're already wonky yourself. And then going down, I'm just grunting. And then it was flat and I just ran. I was like, I'm, I'm home. And the volunteer, as you come in goes, welcome back. And that was the best thing anyone said to me. And around the corner was my husband. He wore this bright lobster shirt. So he stood out and I saw him and he had, when he saw me, just had the biggest smile. And that was probably one of the highlights to see his smile. And I'm like, I'm yelling, I did it. I did it. And everyone around me started cheering because I could hear how excited I was. And the one nice thing about this event is they let the vol your family come with you. So he ran down with me and he's asking how I am and. And I'm just like, I've done it, I've done it, I've done it. And yeah, we finished and you don't even get a medal.

So. So the last 100 meters, is that the best euphoric experience?

I think Kona has a better finish but like because this event's going for days so there is a people there.

Was waiting for you to come.

There was a lot of people and I went slow down the finish cuz there was French finishes in front of me, three of them. And they hogged the whole thing. And cuz they're French and it's you Know French majority. So I was going slow, but I nearly fell over. Because when you hit the carpet, it wasn't even. And I nearly fell over on the carpet and I'm like, don't fall over now. You can't miss. I think I was just so happy that I did it and I'm was. And I, I was worried about the cut off and my husband, like, he killed the cut off, you know, like, because he, he knows me. He's just like, you did it well in the cut off.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it was pretty special and. But there's like, you just finish and that's pretty much it. You go and collect your bag and you go and collect your vest and Yeah, a little bit different to Iron man finishes.

So no finishing recognition. No, like, so they're relying on the fact that, you know, you've done it yourself.

Yeah, but they had a screen and you went over to the screen and you're racing. Number set that your time. So it says set my name and that you know what time and what position I came. So that was your certificate, so to speak, on the screen.

So position you've ended up coming fourth overall in your age group.

Yeah, I think there's about 25 girls, though. It's not a lot of girls.

But at one point you're in third.

Yes.

Tell us, tell us, tell us how that was playing out as part of your thought process.

Obviously, the whole goal of this event was to finish. I never cared where I placed. You know, I just wanted to finish within the cutoff. That was always the goal. But my husband knows that I'm very competitive, so I had no idea where you are. Like, you have no idea. There was only 11 female in the whole field, so I didn't feel like I saw a lot of females anyway because it spreads out. The last checkpoint where I saw my husband, he said, if you, you'll catch the Malaysian girl on the hill, you'll be third. And I looked at him like, you know, he's lying to me. But anyway, because, you know, I was so fatigued at that point, you know, you just. Survival mode. I'm like, okay. But I caught the Malaysian girl going up the hill and I actually said to her, good on you. You know, I did the sportsman thing and she didn't like that, I don't think. But she got me on the other side going down the hill and she kept looking over her shoulder running down that hill like she was running for third. But, you know, I had nothing left on the downhill. I was like, it's all yours. I just. And that's when I knew that I was pretty much fatigued and done because normally I wouldn't let anyone beat me, but there was this body was like, you're just finishing, it doesn't matter where you finish. There was only 188 girls out of the 1,000, I think 700 finishers, 951 people didn't finish. So over 30% didn't finish. I'm just proud I finished. No, I did it.

Incredible stat. Do you get that post race afterglow or are you so exhausted that, I mean, what's the next one to two hours like?

I went to the ice cream shop before I did anything, and it was the best ice cream in the whole world. And I got three scoops and I'd never, ever get three scoops. I can't even tell you what flavor I got, but it was just so. Just soothing. And I just sat on the floor. Like basically it was. Yeah, yeah. I was just so dry. Then you're trying to have a shower and I. Then I went to sleep for a couple of hours.

Did you eat?

Did you eat anything?

No, no, just the ice cream. Because the ice cream. And I didn't want to ever drink again because I felt like I drank so much. So. On your race kit, they give you, as I said, your flag on the back and on the other side it said, I'm sleeping. So if you did stop and sleep, you're meant to put that on so people knew that you were okay and you were sleeping. So my husband actually put that on me and sent that through to my family that I was just sleeping. And then the pain started. Then there was no more sleeping. It was like, like you are on fire. Like. And I think like I was. I couldn't. That whole night you just couldn't sleep because. And your body's so out of whack, it doesn't know what's happening.

What is the pain? Is it. Is it. You just describe what's happening?

Yeah, it was just, I think the. All the lactic built up, but just burning. Everything was burning. But my feet, my toes just saw the whole. Everything was sore, Everything was sore. But then you, you know, you start hearing about people that didn't finish. I was in the laundromat the next day, washing all my clothes and.

Can you walk the next day?

Yeah, yeah, I, I like, as we all know, keep moving. So, yeah, I was just. Stairs were really bad downhill stairs. I didn't avoided any kind of downhill.

Was It a problem, the laundromat being 15k away from the walk.

It wasn't too bad. It was probably about. It was probably in about a 5 minute walk. It probably took me 220 minutes. Like I had to allow a bit of time. But we booked into the day spa and that was like I said to God, and we better allow an hour to walk the 20 minutes. But once I went to the spa and we, you know, got everything sort of a bit of flow. Flow. Yeah, that really helped. But I've, yeah, definitely just found them. Keep moving, keep moving. But obviously blisters and all the toenails are falling off and black and yeah, my feet were pretty. My ankles were really small, swollen. That took a few days for them to go down.

And what is your, what is your post race reflection? And I'm talking in terms of, yeah, that, that first few days and then now how long has it been? It's been.

So Friday will be three weeks. Yeah. So it's still, still very fresh.

Yeah.

Obviously my first reaction was, I am never, ever doing this again. And my husband goes, yeah, right. And then I was like, like, I am never doing 100 miles again. It's too hard on your body.

Yeah.

And then you have a few weeks and you're like, oh, baby.

Yeah, can I do 40 hours or 39?

Yeah. But I did meet an Australian and he had done. Done the event the year before in 36 hours. And I said, oh, what are you hoping for? And he wanted to improve by 30. He only improved by one hour, so. And I said to him, you didn't tell me it was that brutal. And he goes, I don't remember it being that brutal. So, you know, so I'm like, remember that conversation if you ever do it again. But I think the response I've had from people that, especially people that don't exercise, they're just blown away. So I realized that, you know, I've done something that most people probably wouldn't have a go at or couldn't do. Yeah. So I think that's, that's why I thought I'd do the podcast. Because you've asked me so many times, do podcast. I'm like, no, no, no, no. And I'm like, look, if I can inspire one person out there, don't give up. You know, I'm not an elite athlete. I'm just out there having a go and getting all my dreams ticked.

No, it's an unbelievable story. And, you know, just to go and do a 5k park run for some People is a Mont Blanc challenge for them in perspective. So that's, you know, we want people to be healthy and fit and have a longer enjoyable life. And you know, if you're at a desk all day, it's really difficult to do that, that to be concentrating on your health and fitness because you're not moving and, you know, you've really mastered that art of, you know, commuting to work, doing your office job and then commuting home and then training on the weekends. You're a real leader of how it can be done. And she's. There's some sacrifices you have to make which you're quite good at doing. And for those listening out there, we're not expecting you to do a Mont Blanc, but just to get yourself moving. And, and they're the things that are gonna help you when you get to the ripe old age of 70 or 80, that you'll have a better 70 or 80 period in your life where you can actually function rather than being almost unable to do anything without care. And I think these are the things that we're trying to get across to people in our podcast of how important exercise is to the longevity of your. But doing things like a Mont Blanc is probably detrimental in some ways to the folks who of how human body should be able to perform. But look, we're so grateful that you've come on because you are very quiet and humble human being and it takes a lot for you to talk about yourself. So we're really grateful for you spilling the beans on what actually happened. And hopefully it inspires others to get off their chair and get themselves fit and healthy and enjoy some of the experiences that you've had, which have been an unbelievable story. So so far, and I'm sure there's many to come and we've just been talking about what you're going to do next. So you haven't really spilled the beans on me what you're going to do next. So. Any ideas?

No, I've got a few things, but it won't be. Yeah, just letting the body recover at the moment.

So that's such an important lesson for anyone doing any endurance event. Marathon, half Ironman, Ironman, even half marathon. The recovery period, you still obviously haven't ran. You'll be a while off that, I imagine.

Yeah, I just, I, I have. Like you just said, there's a lot involved getting to the event. Uh, so a lot of things get put to the side. So now it's time to look after those things a little bit. Like you know, clean my house. Um, but, you know, I. Yeah, just keep moving and, yeah, there'll be goals that'll come along, but, you know, obviously that was a big one that I ticked off and, yeah, we'll see what. See what the body wants to do next.

And there was just. Yeah, we were firing questions at you then, but there's just great description of how the race unfolded. And I haven't asked you, dad, what was your experience seeing her finish and knowing the preparation that went into it and just watching how it all unfolded and. And, you know, she got there.

Yeah, nothing but admiration. And unfortunately, I sat there on Sunday night or whatever night it was, watching the video live stream, which was absolutely brilliant, and watching all these people come and. And I'm. I'm sure she had four minutes to go when I had. I even had Aunt Andy, my wife, joining in to watch the family finish and Rachel didn't appear, and then it appeared like she'd finished. And so I must have been watching something that was delayed because I wasn't actually watching the finish and I had to wait till I saw the video somewhere else before I could actually see her come through the finish line. So I didn't get that feeling, which is really disappointing because that's been one of the things I love when I'm watching Iron man, to see people actually cross the line. But when I did get to see her finish, even though it was a delayed video, it was almost. That started crying. It was. It was one of those experiences. You just go, how did she do that? That is. That is superhuman. And, and look, I've just got utmost respect for the way you go about it and, and everything. Everything that you achieved is well deserved because you prepared incredibly well. And. And you get what you deserve a lot of the time, and sometimes you don't, but you definitely got what you deserved. And that was, you know, an incredible feat. And. And I was super proud of you just as a person and as a human being, and you're always so grateful for everything that happens around you. And I love it when this happens to someone who deserves it because you're always caring about other people and for once, it's about you, and it should be, because this is an enormous achievement. And for those who do exercise, I know one of the other guys that I actually know can't. Kane did the event, who you met, and he was actually traveling a similar pace as you. You're about six hours apart and you stayed that way for about the last 40k.

Kane is also an Ex professional athlete, isn't he?

That's right. So I couldn't wait to tell you that you're doing pretty well here, Rachel. Not far off. Kane, who's a bit of a gun, so. So, yeah, my feelings were just incredibly proud and love to be associated with whatever you're doing. And. And you certainly challenged me as a coach, and I'm better for it because I've learned so much about endurance. These are the reasons why I love doing the job that I do, because I'm learning with each athlete I coach, I learn so much more about human behavior and what works and what doesn't work. And it's extending my capabilities as a coach to have someone do an event like this because I've never had anybody go this far before. So now, now I've got that experience and I'm better off as a. As a result of it. So thank you.

Thank you. But also, you don't know what you're capable of until you have a go. And that's what I've definitely learned from this event.

Yeah, that's kind of the last thing I wanted to ask you before we finish is you mentioned the reaction to. Your reaction to the race has been pretty interesting and especially because you kept a lot of the preparation hidden. And so. Yeah. What has that been like for you? And that was part of the reason, like you said, you agreed to come to the podcast. Podcast. Because you found that, yeah, the story had inspired some people.

Yeah. So obviously at work, people know I do a bit of running and I knew I was going to Europe, but I didn't really say what I was doing. I didn't tell pretty much, not even my friends. You know, like I said, I'd go to the parties and just say I have to go, you know, go and do my 12 hour training session. Because I was really worried that I didn't want to, you know, if I didn't finish, I didn't want to be an embarrassment. And I thought that cutoff time was always a worry, so I just kept it. You know, I said to my husband, we're not telling anyone, we're not putting anything on Facebook or anything until we've done. So he was, you know, supportive with that. He knew. So only a core group of people knew. And obviously they're people that are really important that, you know, knew what I was doing, were really interested. But then when I, you know, obviously I've done the event, so now I can let people know what I've done and I show people some photos and they're just. Yeah, they're just amazed that a human can go for that long. Because, you know, most people, like, I went back to work and I said to go, how you doing? She says, I'm so tired. I have to be in the office two days this week. And I'm. My head, I'm going, you have no.

Idea what time this is.

Yeah, I'm like, you're not falling over in the dirt. You're not like, trying to tackle a metal staircase over a road and wondering how you're going to get up and over it because you're so tired. But, you know, you realize, you know, that you've done something that's so out of your comfort zone and that's. It truly is where the magic happens. Know you hear that saying, but, you know, I really have experienced it. Definitely.

Amazing. That's a great way to finish off. And I'm sure you would be rewarding your husband for the. The crew job he did.

I couldn't have done it without him. Yeah, like, that's definitely, like, as I said, we didn't have many people that knew, but he cooked all the food for me when I come home from work. He'd always say, how long are you running for? Like, he is the best support crew. And I think that, yeah, couldn't have done it without him, for sure.

Yeah, it's a good point, isn't it? You just need people supporting you. Otherwise, it is a very lonely experience. And. And having to share it with someone is even better, isn't it?

And like I said, the best thing when people say the best thing was when I saw Gordon smile when I. When I got to. To him, because, yeah, he's probably was so relieved because there were times on that tracker, I think I was moving, you know, three kilometers an hour, but he was there, so he knew what the. The terrain was like. So my dad's like, why were you going so slow sometimes? And then I showed my dad the photos and the footage, and then he's like, okay, now I get it.

Exactly. Incredible. Any final words from you or.

No, no, no. Just loved. I've just loved the podcast and it's one of the. One of the better ones. And thank goodness the result was what you wanted because I couldn't have stood another year where you're going to go back and prove that you could do it, because now you've proved that you can do it. So now, well done.

Thank you. Thank you for your help.

Incredible story. Thanks again for coming on the podcast and sharing that. That was awesome. We hope everyone listening enjoyed it and we encourage you to jump on and watch the episode. Episode because we'll be chucking a lot of clips in from the video you gave and it's, it's really awesome to see and it gives you a good kind of visual experience of what's happening. And Rachel, you were somehow smiling at every checkpoint and big double thumbs up.

So try to just to let my family know it was that people knew that I was okay. I think that was why I made an effort to do that. So people that were and it's amazing, like people that I didn't think like, you know, would be watching. Watching.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah. Unreal. That's it for this episode. Again, thanks for watching listening. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we'll see you on the next one.