The Wife of an Ultrarunner - The North Face 100 2015
It’s 6am and there is lots of nervous excitement in the air. Minutes before the race starts, Scott takes a moment to “offload” some unnecessary weight. Hannah and I wait outside breathing mist into the brisk morning air, before he comes out of the port-o-loo feeling decidedly reinvigorated.
We come across an energised David and his young family, his proud girls there to see Daddy run 100k’s!!!
The anticipation is mounting…..
We see Fraser next, face beaming, tall and lanky with those gorgeous slender legs that put most women to shame.
It’s time for Wave 2 - Scott takes off at the sound of the Starter’s horn and he is on his way. A couple of kilos lighter than 10 mins previously. We cheer him on – Go Scotty!
Then we see more of the crew – Emma with her Heidi plaits, excited girlish grin on her face and Karl and Alex soon join her, just as enthused.
It’s time for Wave 3 – Hannah and I cheer them all off – all we can think of is Thank God it’s not us!!!
We know they are looping around and we will have an opportunity to see them all again very soon so we move to the roadside and await them and cheer them on again as they run down the road off towards the bush and their nemesis which no doubt plays on their mind as to what they are in for.
Ten minutes later we see Scott and he does his first excited Bazza stance, happy to see us.
We soon see the others again also, all heading off to the bush, one expensive ASIC, Saucony or HOKA foot in front of the other.
We see Tanya, Hannah and I call out to her madly, she looks around to see who the crazies are!
We have seen everyone we know now, so we decide it’s time to go and get ourselves organised and refreshed for the long day ahead we have of support crewing!
We know that the first checkpoint we can get to is Checkpoint 3 in the Megalong Valley so we figure we have plenty of time to go back to the “oh so swish” Clarendon Guesthouse to sort out the Support Crew bags and make sure we have everything we need to keep Scott replenished through 100kms.
Back in our room, I’m fiddling around with a spreadsheet on the laptop, doing my head in trying to calculate formulas to work out Scott’s pace as he goes through each checkpoint, comparing them against his own forecast. Do I work out K’s per hour or how many minutes its taking him per K. I wasn’t that bad at maths at school – but something just wasn’t adding up, frustrating the hell out of me! (I later discovered it was Scott’s calculations that were inaccurate, hence my confusion!
Hannah is sorting through the bag, and then with a mild panicked look on her face exclaims “mum, I can’t find dad’s thermal pants!!”
“Well wouldn’t he have them with him?” I say.
“I’m hoping so but he doesn’t need them till Checkpoint 4 and they are supposed to be in this bag” Hannah responds.
Oh dear, first dilemma of the day. I guess we will have to remember to ask him at Checkpoint 3 if he has them and if not we are going to have to go and buy some.
Okay we have a plan and therefore we calm down and go out and have some breakfast in a lovely little café and fill ourselves with waffles, banana bread and a couple of coffees. Oh, this Support Crewing is tough work, we joke ….ha ha!
We decide we have a little time to wander the shops to check out where we may be able to get some thermal pants later on, just in case we need them. Various shops have them; we work out where to get the cheapest ones and start to wander back to the car.
We see Target and think; you never know they might have some cheaper ones there. We go in and have a quick look but can’t see any – but there are some nice inexpensive clothes we might browse through. After a short time we decide we better get back to The Clarendon, pack the car and get on our way to Checkpoint 3. We take a look at the NF100 app on my phone and see that Scott has not yet gone through the minor checkpoints of Ironbark Ridge and Dunphy’s so we have plenty of time.
After 3 NF100’s, I know my way around the Checkpoint route now so I am fairly confident of getting there but we do put on the Tom Tom just to be sure. As it happens we didn’t really need it – we make the left hand turn to go to Megalong Valley and all is feeling good. Then we come across a car right in front of us where Grandpa is driving around 40kph in a 60kph zone. I know this road is a little narrow and windy however please 40ks !!! with no way to overtake Grandpa we are stuck behind him.
We don’t worry too much, although the frustration does get to me and I try not to set a bad example to my newly P-plated daughter but I think I may have failed that one! We reassure ourselves that we will get there before Scott does. After all, in the past we have always waited between ½ hr to 1 hr at Checkpoint 3 before he gets there.
We finally arrive, seeing some room on the right slope leading up to the checkpoint where we can park, only to have the Parking guy instruct us to go the opposite way, oh poop! Hannah and I look at each other; we are going to have a long trudge down and up the hill with all the gear. We get out of the car, I decide I won’t need my gum boots and we load ourselves up and start towards the already settled groups of support crews set up and waiting for their runners. We suddenly find ourselves ankle deep in mud (well maybe exaggerating a bit), yes I know, all you trail runners are used to that but Hannah and I don’t like mud! We decide we are going to have to take the extra-long way, damn why didn’t I get those gum boots!
We finally get ourselves set up and settle in our chairs to wait for Scott. Not more than a couple of minutes later we spot Fraser not far from us with his Support Crew! Oh dear, this is not good – we know from the NF100 App that Scott was ahead of Fraser and we fear that we have missed him. We quickly look around for him but to no avail, we cannot see him. I go to Fraser, tap him on the shoulder and gingerly ask him whether Scott is ahead of him – we get our answer and in a panic I make my way back to Hannah – “we missed him! Shit, we are going to be in trouble!”
We quickly pack up and get on our way. We have to get to Checkpoint 4 at the Katoomba Aquatic Centre as quickly as possible because we know it is a short leg. If we miss him at Checkpoint 4 we know we will really be in big trouble and no doubt pay for it for the rest of our lives, I can hear him now when he’s 90 – “remember when you support crewed me and you only turned up at the last checkpoint” – I knew I couldn’t put up with that – I was going to have to floor it there!
On the drive I get Hannah to check my phone with the NF100 App to find out what time Scott had gone through Checkpoint 3 – how much time did we miss him by? How much time did we have to get there before him?
Relying on that App was our first mistake because according to it, Scott still hadn’t passed through Checkpoint 3 and it became apparent to us that this App was not working. It hadn’t even updated to say that he had gone through Dunphy’s or Ironbark Ridge. So really, we had no idea how much we missed him by at Checkpoint 3.
Whilst trying to make a good pace in the car and still be a good example for safe driving, I also realise at this point that we didn’t get a chance to ask him about his t
hermal pants!
Oh this hasn’t been a good start for us at all, but we come up with a plan that I drop Hannah off at Checkpoint 4 with the gear and then I go off to main street Katoomba to get those thermal pants he will need for when he has his bag checked!
We are so devastated that we missed him, and worry about how we will pay for it later, we start thinking up good excuses (lies) about why we weren’t there…car trouble, Hannah got car sick, sick animal on side of road (Hannah being a trainee vet nurse could not possibly go by without helping out the poor thing!).
We decide honesty is probably the best policy and we will blame the really, extra slow driver in front of us. He really was only doing like 20ks!!
We finally get into Katoomba and we have made good time (safely) and we are confident I can get Hannah to the Checkpoint before Scott arrives, I will just have to be quick to get those thermal pants and get back there before he has to wait too long. I drop Hannah right outside the Aquatic Centre, I load her up with the stuff she needs and she makes her way inside.
Meanwhile I make a bee-line for main street Katoomba heading for Paddy Palin, hopefully the shop won’t be too busy or I will have to go against my usual polite behaviour and become a demanding, frantic wife who simply must be served straight away or will be in big trouble with her husband!
I’m nearly there, when my phone rings – oh shit, it’s Hannah, lucky she is not in the car as I blatantly flout the law and pick up my phone to answer her while I am driving.
“It’s okay Mum, I’ve got the thermal pants – they were in the bag the whole time”. “Oh great, that’s wonderful Hannah”, I say with gritted teeth (in frustration I think, why did she not see them the multiple times she went through the bag earlier!).
I head on my way back to the Aquatic Centre, praying there will be a park miraculously appear before me – thank you God, you were listening!
Scott is there when I enter the Centre and I get to see him before he heads off. He doesn’t appear too pissed off with us, maybe he takes pity as we profusely apologise for our tardiness. The fact that he is there already is really encouraging though – he is making good time, maybe he will break that 14hr mark after all (I hadn’t told Scott at the time but I really didn’t think he would be able to beat his last years’ time by enough to break 14 hours). I started to get a little excited for him.
Okay, Hannah and I can relax a bit now – feeling good that all will now go smoothly – we will definitely get to checkpoint 5 in time. And yes we did, it was around 4.30pm and for the first time ever, this being the fourth NP100 Scott has done, it is still light at Checkpoint 5 and it is the last checkpoint before the finish – I am anxious for him but quietly confident that he can make good time.
Hannah and I are set up already and rugged up in our chairs, I read a little of my book but my mind cannot concentrate too much on the storyline, so I put it away and tell Hannah that at 5.00 o’clock I am going to go and stand near the entrance to the checkpoint to watch her dad come in. Hannah thinks I am a little ambitious in my thinking “oh mum, last year it was a slow leg for Dad, I don’t think he will be in for a while”.
None the less, I look at my watch and I think if he can just get in around 5pm or so and we can get him on his way to the Finish quickly, he may just have a chance. I take up my position to wait to see him come in.
My positivity was justified because not long after at 5.08pm I see Scott running towards me, I get excited, I almost can’t believe my wishful thinking has come true! I turn around and give the thumbs up to Hannah who gets up excitedly and then I turn around to wave my arms madly as he comes towards me, I shout out to him as he goes by to let him know where we are set up.
While Hannah gets on with her job of replenishing her Dad with what he needs, I try to get Scott to focus (sometimes he can be a little excited and off the air when he comes into a checkpoint). I tell him if he can push himself a little harder in the last leg, and not hang around too long in the checkpoint he will have a chance of getting that silver buckle. He looks at me a little doubtful saying “I don’t think I can push myself any harder”.
I try to stay positive and tell him to do the best he can and see what happens. We are doing what we can to urge him along to get on his way when a random lady I have never seen before comes up and starts talking to him and asking him questions. Who are you?? and please don’t hold up my husband, I scream in my head to myself! He, I think, is thinking the same thing as he says to the woman “I really need to focus and get going” in the nicest possible way he can manage in that situation and she backs off and we get him on his way. See you at the Finish!!
With a big sigh, Hannah and I relax a little but we are feeling excited to get packed up and on our way to the Finish. Can he do it, can he break the 14 hour mark! We start to pack up the gear when I notice a long sleeve top lying on the ground – I say to Hannah “is Dad supposed to have this?” Hannah’s reaction is not what I wanted to hear right now, “oh no” she says – that’s his thermal top, he needs that for the Bag Check!
Oh God, in a matter of seconds we have gone from being in a highly excitable state to being deflated like a party balloon popped by a disgruntled kid! We were devastated, we worried he could be disqualified. We were so sure there would be a bag check at the end of the race as there had been
in previous years. And what if he does beat the 14 hour mark, only to be disqualified or hit with a time penalty. From amazing joy to morbid disappointment, it’s all we could think of!
On the way to the Clarendon, having some spare time before we would need to head to the Finish Line, Hannah and I try to think of various scenarios of how we can get his thermal top to him. If the event had still started and finished at the Fairmont Resort, we could have caught up with him on the road and thrown it to him as we passed. But the route had changed, now the runners head further into the bush in the opposite direction to where the support crew cars exited. We thought of trying to get it to him as he came through to the Finishing Line, but we were concerned we would be spotted, then named and shamed!
We continued to brainstorm, however all we could come up with was stupid, crazy ideas like me dropping Hannah off in middle of the bush to go find him, but she didn’t want her hair to get frizzy in the cold weather. Before you gasp too loudly, I would NEVER do that to my child! We were just being desperate and crazy, trying to release the tension. I would never subject my child to frizzy hair!
We get back to The Clarendon and Hannah goes through the NF100 Rule Book, but alas it appears that the thermal top is a mandatory item from Checkpoint 4 as was our worry with the thermal pants. I take a look at the Rule Book myself and read the section also, not that I don’t trust Hannah, I was just desperate to find a way to make everything okay again. I re-read the rule on thermal gear as I had read it just that morning to make sure I bought the right thermal pants. I looked at the top, picked it up in my hands and thought to myself that this top does not meet the requirements of a thermal top! A light bulb went off in my head! This is not his thermal top, this is his fleece top!!!!!
I quickly looked through the pages for the rules surrounding the fleece top. Rule states that if the weather is likely to be bad, the fleece top may be deemed mandatory for the whole race. However, if the weather is okay then the fleece top may only be needed from Checkpoint 5 after 7.30pm and Scott was away well before that time.
AAAAHHHHH, the relief – I shared the news with Hannah and we jumped for joy!! Literally, you would not have seen any two people more relieved while we did something close to an Irish Jig in pure elation in that guest room at the Clarendon.
After calming down a little Hannah and I had a drink to celebrate – Hannah with her coke and me with my coke (with a little bourbon added.
Wow, it was a mix of extreme highs and lows for this very knackered support crew and definitely our most memorable yet. It was a day long emotional roller coaster– things gone wrong and things becoming right again, thankfully it ended on a high!
On the other side of the coin, physically it was the easiest Support Crewing job we’ve had – only had to go to two checkpoints – didn’t have to wait around at all at one of them and only had to wait a ½ hour at the other!
Later Scott told us he had a dream the night before that we were going to miss the third checkpoint and therefore he was prepared. What a good Boy Scout is he is and ye have little faith!
Hannah and I went to the Finish Line, rugged up and ready for the wait. We stood near the corner where the runners rounded to go down the straight, their first view of that Finish Line. We cheered each one that came along, we locked arms and did silly little synchronised steps together to keep us warm and you couldn’t wipe the excited look off our faces when we saw Scott coming towards us rounding the corner towards what would have seemed, only this morning, that scary and almost elusive Finish Line.
The important thing is we were there for his finish and although he missed out on beating the 14 hour mark and missing out on his silver buckle; he did do his best.
