The Ginger Beer Comeback

As soon as I finished Northland100 last year, I’d already decided I had to come back.  I'd won the 105k women's race but I'd also spent the last few kilometres hobbling to the finish with a calf strain and knew I had more in me. So I had unfinished business!  

Chris and Helen (Race Directors / His and Hers Events) have created a really special event. The atmosphere is relaxed, the volunteers genuinely care about every runner out there, and the Northland running community is awesome. I also have family connections and ancestry in Northland, so it's a place that means a bit more to me than just another race destination.

After Northburn in March, I rolled straight back into training hoping to keep the momentum going.  I'm more suited to big vert and walking up hills than running long distances, and Northland is very runnable.  The training centred around lots of running at or below aerobic threshold, some higher-intensity work early in the block, more tempo work closer to race day, mostly rolling terrain, and consistent strength training.

My coach Chris Lucas deserves a medal for putting up with me because I wasn’t always compliant and I was often cranky and miserable.  Winter turned up and life kept getting in the way.  Motivation wasn't always there, and most of my long runs ended up being by myself along the same gravel roads. (At home we've got heaps of steep hills and technical trails but not many long stretches of undulating gravel road like in Glenbervie Forest).  One thing that did keep me going though was seeing improvements all throughout the training block. My aerobic pace was noticeably quicker, I was running downhill much better thanks to the strength work, and I think Park Runs played a big part in improving my leg speed. It was nice to have metrics to show that the training was working.

Mum and Dad met me in Auckland and we drove the rest of the way to Whangārei together. They crewed for me last year as well, so the night before we went through the race plan to make sure everyone knew what they were doing.  The plan was pretty standard: don't go out too fast, keep eating and drinking, run the runnable, and keep it aerobic.

I used Perpetuem and sugar syrup because that's what I'd trained with, but hydration was one thing I wasn't completely sure about. After getting it wrong in a race in Australia a couple of years ago and DNFing with dehydration, I deliberately erred on the side of drinking more, expecting Northland to be comparatively warm and humid compared to Alexandra.

The first 40km loop went really well.  I settled in with some great people early on, the pace felt comfortable, and I found myself moving a bit quicker than planned without really trying. I was interested to see what all the training had actually given me because everything just felt easier than last year.

Then, on the first downhill after the Lookout Aid Station at 50km, my stomach started churning, I noticed I wasn’t moving as easily, and before long I was stopping to retch on the side of the trail.  Not ideal.

By the time I reached the 60km aid station I decided I had to stop and assess. The aid station volunteer handed me a small cup of ginger beer while I had a sit in the chair.  I started cooling down, and my muscles began seizing up. I rang Mum and Dad to let them know what was going on because I'd never had this happen before and genuinely had no idea whether it was going to settle or whether my race was over.  (In hindsight it was just panic).  

Thankfully, after about 15 minutes my stomach suddenly relaxed enough that I felt I should keep moving, but it wasn’t the prettiest.  I mostly walked, retched a few more times, and questioned my life choices.

By the 70km aid station I was feeling a bit more like myself.  Another cup of ginger beer, another sit and chat with the volunteers, and I headed off down the hill.  My stomach seemed to have settled down and I started thinking that maybe I'd turned the corner.

Around then Helen happened to be driving up the hill to collect another runner. She stopped to check I was OK and encouraged me to keep moving if I felt I could with an offer to feed me properly back at HQ. I was pretty sore by this point, but I could still move efficiently. Walking the hills and jogging the runnable sections was working well enough, so I decided I'd just keep doing that and see what happened. 

Back at HQ at 80kms I grabbed another ginger beer, changed my shoes, grabbed my poles and headed back out.  As soon as I left the gate I felt like I was back racing.  The poles really helped, especially through the muddy sections.  I was able to run all the runnable sections again, and I settled back into a rhythm and flew to the finish.  I also managed to take on fuel again. I smashed the final downhill and crossed the finish line feeling relieved and quite surprised.  I'd spent a good chunk of the middle of the race wondering whether I'd even be able to finish, so to come away with another win was a big turn of events!  I also somehow shaved 16 minutes off my time from last year, and while it wasn’t the crushing time I’d dreamed of, it was still a good result considering the circumstances and I feel very grateful.  

I think the nausea was caused by overhydrating.  I'd been so worried about not repeating my Australian dehydration mistake that I went too far the other way. The weather ended up being cooler than I'd expected so I wasn’t sweating as much as I thought, and the mechanical action of running most of the first 40kms jostled my stomach quite a lot.  My heart rate was a little higher from the excitement of race day too which meant my stomach wasn’t as chilled as normal.  It was a good lesson that even when you've practised your nutrition during training, you still need to adjust for race day conditions, and that there’s not much that slowing down and giving it time doesn’t fix.  

A huge thank you to Mum and Dad for crewing and handling logistics again, to all of the volunteers who looked after us throughout the day, and to Chris and Helen for putting on another fantastic event.  If you're looking for an A race, I'd genuinely recommend putting Northland on your list!  It's challenging without being intimidating, incredibly well organised, and has one of the friendliest atmospheres of any event I've done.