In November 2015, Rob proposed a run from Perth to Albany, via Clackline and Bluff Knoll, mostly following the Great Southern Highway, as a training event ahead of his attempt at the 500km Vol State ultra.
Initially over 600km, Bluff Knoll was dropped from the route (due to the risk of a fatigued runner falling off!) an the overall distance reduced to approximately 555km.
Rather than setting a fixed route, Rob set down some rules for the journey, which I’ve ammeded slightly:
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You cannot travel along, or cross over Albany Highway
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You cannot travel along or cross over Great Eastern Highway to shorten the journey if it significantly shortens the race distance
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You must pass through Clackline
But Why?
I’d wanted to do something epic for ages. The last couple of years, I’ve had injuries and setbacks with my running. As I write this today, even though this journey seems crazy and insurmountable and maybe even impossible, I feel strong enough to give it a go. I’d rather try and fail than sit on my butt wondering what might have been.
2019 has been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster both at home and at work. If I can’t clear my mind through ten days of mindless perambulating (and truck dodging) then there’s really no hope for me!
This is not a fundraiser. I’m not trying to raise awareness of anything. I’m just doing this for some type-f fun
Day One - Perth to Wundowie
26/12/2019, 62.76km in 11:54
Joanne dropped me off at Yagan Square in the centre of Perth at the crack of dawn. We took a few photos, then at 6am on the dot I set off. I was joined by a few friends, including Hoffy, Michelle and Mel on their bikes.
First half was easy. But then the sun engaged beast mode and it was a real slog. I stopped off at Maccas in Swan View for some cold drinks, ice and a bite to eat, and then again at the Stoneville IGA.
Was desperate for food and a cold drink at Chidlow, but everything was closed. So had a siesta instead to allow my heart rate to come down (was racing and weak, so probably early signs of overdoing it in the heat).
As I’d decided to be “self-dependant”, I veered off Kep Track at Wooroloo and headed to the motel at the old El Caballo site. After checking in, I wandered over to the servo and demolished a huge burger and a few cold drinks.
Lesson learned for upcoming days: carry some calories don’t be depending on shops and pubs!
Day Two - Wundowie towards York
27/12/2019, 56.25km in 10:44
Hard to put into words the ups and downs of Day 2.
I didn’t get a great night’s sleep at El Caballo, waking several times through the night. I was definitely dehydrated after day one, and focussed on getting a clear wee before starting again … a lot of water was consumed in the evening and overnight, and I eventually celebrated just before hitting the road.
Although I felt ok when I woke at 3am, I definitely wasn’t refreshed. After covering up my blisters and adding some Engo patches to the hot spots in my shoes, I shoved everything back into my pack, grabbed a large choc milk from the fridge, and was on the road at 4am. Pitch black walking along Great Eastern Highway was certainly an interesting experience, but thankfully not too much traffic at the time. I turned left after not too long to head back to the Kep Track, thinking to myself how nice it was to be out at that time of the morning and not to have to worry about sunscreen and hydration etc. Though it was really humid at the time.
10km later, I patted my leg semi-automatically to check for my money and cards, only to feel nothing there. Ahhh, that’s right. As I was attempting to fall asleep last night I had this thought that I should put my money somewhere safe in case my room was broken into, so left it in the bedside drawer. Doh! Well, not much I could do at that point, I could hopefully use Apple Pay at the bakery to buy some breakfast when I got there. Thankfully that worked (the lady behind the counter had no idea what I meant by Apple Pay, but the terminal looked modern, so I took my chances!) One sausage roll and a gatorade later, I was back on the track.
Once again, first half of the day went well (in the cool of the morning). I made it a real focus to consume a lot more liquid in the early parts of the day, and can report that I was wizzing every 30minutes or so, which was a relief. Sorry if that’s TMI, but it was a big deal for me!
Kelli & Kirsten had arranged to meet me at Clackline, and attempted to retrieve my money from the motel on their way up. We had a bit of a miscommunication about where to find the key, so that didn’t work out! I did eventually get it back though after phoning reception a little later in the day, and Jo collected it on the way past.
HUGE thanks to Kirsten & Kelli for providing support from Clackline, both running and providing the best hot-weather mobile aid-station a person could hope for! You ladies are my heros, thank you so much! It was super-awesome to throw my pack in the car and just carry a water bottle – we managed to run a few bits, though for the most part it was just walking. During the 16km to Spencers Brook it really heated up a lot — in the 30min between car stops, the water in my hand bottle would go from super cold to room temperature warm.
At Spencers Brook we had a little picnic, with Zooper Doopers, chips, water melon, chocolate, the list goes on. It was awesome. I had been expecting them to leave me at that point, but they volunteered to continue along for another few hours which was so super appreciated. The day continued to get warmer, with the highlight being the little bubbles of bitumen forming in the road as it melted.
In the end, the heat stopped my progress. Temperature jumped from 33 to 38/39 degrees within a few km, and I was getting a bit delirious. Joanne had taken over road-side duties from K&K and she expressed her concern about me continuing in the heat. Although I had been determined to finish out the day despite the heat just a half hour earlier, her worry (and my fragile mind!) saw me jump in the air conditioned car without too much hesitation. I ended up pulling out 11km before reaching York.
We headed to Lake Leschenaultia for a cool down, and then home for a good night’s rest.
Calf is sore af, resulting in a bit of a swagger when I walk. Will try to get that sorted before re-assessing if I’ll continuing from Day 4. I set myself a pre-condition of not running in 30+ degree days; Saturday was forecast to be 37 degrees, with a 33km section in the afternoon with no opportunity for ice or refilling water. After today’s experience in the heat, I knew that was not something I could realistically achieve without vehicle support along the way.
Day Three - Brookton to Cuballing - 29/12/2019
58.45km in 11:52
This is Day Four, but actually Day Three …
I called today (Day 3) off (York to Brookton), due to a 33km section in the afternoon with no water stops and a forecast max of 37.
After the first two days I realised that I need a lot more water during the heat of the day than I’d planned for (was thinking 500ml/hr for 5h, but day two I was drinking over 1l/hr, and I just don’t have capacity to carry that much and keep it cold). Plus, anything over 30 degrees, on the road, in the heat, is just plain dumb.
I would not have made it far past Clackline without the wonderful support of Kelli & Kirsten, two absolute legends. Thank you ladies for the great company, motivation, ice, cold water & all-round best hot-weather aid station a person could ask for.
I spent the night in Brookton at “The Brookton” hotel. It was being renovated by a couple, beautiful building and they were doing a great job. I think I was the only gueset that night, and was very fortunate to be invited to join the owners for a roast dinner - they fed me so very well!
So, to Day Four (Day Three!) – so much better today. Got my shoes sorted (thanks Annabel for the good catch, and Glen for the quick fix). More running today with the nice flat roads.
Had wonderful support from the amazing Melanee.
Need to eat and sleep. Soo tired.
Day Four - Cuballing to Piesseville - 30/12/2019
50.12km in 8:14
I definitely didn’t hydrate well overnight, and felt a little rough for first two hours to Narrogin. Took a couple of attempts to find some open toilets, and after locating the Italian grocer, had a bite to eat. Once the council cleaner had chased me off with his noisy leaf blower, I headed out again towards Highbury, with Melanee joining me just after I left town. It was super awesome to throw my pack into her truck and just have the one carry bottle. Mel met me every 5km or so, sometimes I’d just grab more water and keep moving, other times would stop for a 10min chat, throw on sunscreen, or have a quick bite to eat: it had a bit of a C2K feel about it, with aid available from crew at regular intervals!
The day started very early, waking at 3am (15min before alarm darnit) after a shocking night’s sleep at the Cuballing Tavern. While the food there was good, the noise and the quality of the room and shower facilities were pretty basic, and I never sleep well in a new bed.
During this stretch I received a call from Water Corporation, as I’d reported a leak along the pipeline early Sunday morning. The fellow was trying to locate it, and although I’d provided precise location via phone (including “200m north of the brook named xxxx”), I couldn’t for the life of me remember the details. I hope he found it … The story though is that during the previous afternoon, a cyclist had stopped me for a chat on the side of the road … and it turns out it was the same guy: probably the only person I’ve spoken with on this trip so far who hasn’t called me insane, crazy or stupid !
The final few km into Highbury (30km mark) I was feeling pretty flat, but after an ice cream sandwich and a banana (and a long chat to the local shopkeeper about his 90s era POS terminal which looked to me like it’d been written in Clipper), the next 20km flew by quickly.
Speaking of those 20km, the amount of litter by the side of the road was terrible. The main culprits being flavoured milk & gatorade plastic bottles. If I had been counting, it would have been several hundred, easily.
Our plan today had been to keep moving until midday, and then call it. My groin has been feeling pretty sore and I had no intention of pushing things too hard. Conveniently, Piesseville was about 49km into the journey, so I added a little out and back to round it out to 50km
I’m taking a couple of days off and will resume on Thursday to complete the journey from Tenterden to Albany, hopefully in the company of Shannon & Justin.
I’m not going to hit 555km, it’ll end up being around 333km, which is ok by me. This has been a great journey of self-discovery!
Day 5 - Cranbrook to Porongorup - 2/1/2020
64.68km in 11:12
Longest day so far, and probably the best! Started at 5am from the wonderful Nanna Vick’s Cafe accomodation, after sharing a meal the night before with John-Marianne Barton who stayed at the nearby caravan park.
The weather was much milder today, peaking around 23 degrees with the sun playing hide n seek behind clouds for most of the morning. I was through the first 25km to Kendenup on my own before John & Marianne joined me a little after 8.30am, and surprised myself by doing a lot more running with the pack on than I had previously (I hardly notice it on my back now: with water it’s probably 8kg). Morning tea consisted of a half sandwich of egg and tomato and a ginger beer, heaven!
The next 30km was just me rolling along the road meeting J&M every 5k for a water top up and the occasional bite to eat – I am finding that whenever I start getting down it’s a good sign that food is required
Towards midday the weather got gusty and wet. This was just after I’d spotted (and almost stood on) my first snake of the trip – a 1.5m dugite smack bang in the middle of the dirt road. Pretty sure he was more scared than me and slithered off into the bush while I did my impression of a scarecrow trying to dunk a basketball. The rain was nice though, and with the wind quite chilly, I was encouraged to keep running when I could so as to stay warm!
When we reached 55km it was time for lunch, and headed to Mt Barker bakery for the obligatory pie and dessert, before completing the last 10km or so to Porongorup. Once again I felt a little sad during the last hour that the day was coming to an end, as it had been a great one, and joked about continuing to Albany without stopping!
I’ve managed to score a family room at the Porongorup Village Inn: double bed, seperate full kitchen and en-suite, for $45! Totally awesome, though the walls are quite thin.
Tomorrow we finish the journey to Albany, with a 6am start accompanied by Justin & Shannon.
50k to go — my feet will be pleased when it’s done! The weather is looking really cool, and probably a touch wet, so great for running.
Day Six - Porongorup to Albany - 3/1/2020
51.69km in 8:55
Lying in bed the previous night I could hear rain falling until midnight, and wasn’t particularly looking forward to the idea of a full day of running in the rain. It did eventually stop though and my spirits were buoyed.
Justin & Shannon were ready and waiting for me as I emerged at just after 6am, and we sat around chatting for a while as Justin took some more shots of the area from his drone. I wasn’t in any hurry, for a change, knowing that the sun wasn’t going to be a challenge today, and we started a little later with Justin by my side and Shannon crewing from the car.
The road was narrow, windy and narrow for the first 10k or so with beautiful views of the Porongorups to our right and farms to the left, and the Stirlings off in the distance. There’s nothing nicer than the smell of morning dew on the trees and the first couple of hours seemed to tick by quickly.
Once out of the Porongorups we joined a busy road, playing dodge with grain & fire trucks – there wasn’t much of an edge to the road so a lot of time was spent running on the gravel gradient. We played enjoyed a game of “sunshine or squall” with rain rolling through at regular intervals. I was fortunate to have a rain jacket, S&J however powered through the rain without complaint (though I did seek shelter with Shannon in a local community hall when one particularly unpleasant squall came through!) Also had a big headwind the whole way – great for keeping cool, but tough to run into at times.
The day seemed to tick by quickly – I felt in no rush to finish, so we walked, talked and ate a lot, while seeking out the “xx km to Albany” signs, counting down through 35, 30, 25 … etc until reaching King River roadhouse and enjoying some hot food. Then it was 12k to go, and we looked and looked for the 10k sign, never to be found (sad face)
It was pretty exciting to suddenly see commercial buildings on the outskirts of Albany, and before we knew it Justin and I were climbing up steep roads and then even steeper trail towards the Anzac memorial, followed by steps at the very end! No stopping us now it was two steps at a time until the memorial was reached, placed my hand on it, stopped the watch and let out a wee smile!
Wow! What a journey. Done!!
Couldn’t be happier. Sure, it wasn’t the full 555km solo originally planned in 9 days, instead ended up with 344km across 6 days.
Was super privileged to enjoy support from some wonderful friends along the way: I can’t thank you guys enough for helping out as you did – Kelli and Kirsten on day two, Melanee on days three and four, John & Marianne on day five, and Shannon & Justin on day six. Couldn’t have done it without you guys, or without that of my wife Joanne and my wonderful kids. And every day I learnt something new about myself – the power of mind over body, the ability of the body to recover and keep moving, how to treat blisters the right way, and so much more.
Thanks all for being part of this journey. Your comments over the last 10 days were so supportive and motivating. I doubt I’d have returned after the first couple of days if I’d not felt so much positive feedback and motivation from this group. I never felt pressured, but I did feel empowered to keep on trying!