Old Ghost Ultra 2020

The Old Ghost Ultra 85km (OGU) is quickly becoming one of the most sort after and popular 50-mile ultras in New Zealand. In its fifth year running, nearly one-third of the field were internationals, with a significant number coming from Australia. This is mostly down to the raving reviews that the OGU and Phil Rossiter (race director) & his team have received each year – it’s a special race, in an incredible part of the world, run by amazing people.

I raced the ultra back in 2017 as a very naive, young ultrarunner. I went out hard, suffered, blew up and walked into Lyell in about 12:23 hours. Disappointed with my first innings at the OGU, I went away with things to learn and a bunch of knowledge about the course. Fast forward to 2019, when I left to do a gap year over in Europe, did some travel, ran a bunch and completed a few races.

In June last year, I entered OGU with the plan that this would be the first ultra in nearly two years (the last one was in May 2018). I hadn’t run more than 35km in over a year and had mainly been focussing on shorter distances and adding a bit of speed to my runs. The six weeks leading up to the race were important for me and it was a chance to see how much fitter I had become over a year and whether I could achieve the result I wanted. In six weeks I managed to put in a 50k run, a 44k run, a few 30km+ runs and quite a few 20km jogs. As well as this, I did a bunch of training on the hills and some speedier tempos around Hagley Park.

From the start, I had been toying with the idea of a sub-9-hour finish. For those who aren’t familiar with this, sub 9 hours for the race is a pretty fast time and puts you towards the pointier end of the field. Most of my running mates (cough, Hombres, cough) thought this was a load of crap and I’d be lucky to go near 10 hours. But I continued training, with the idea that on a good day, maybe I could run 8:59… Maybe!

Our Old Ghost Ultra weekend started in Westport on Friday where we were joined by fellow Hombres, Lee & Andy and Hombre wannabee, Dr Jarrod Cook. For those who have no clue who the Hombres are, head along to @hagleyhombres on Instagram to find some of the best ultrarunning content in the Southern Hemisphere. After one of the best race briefings I’ve ever been too, we bunkered down for the night in our Airbnb. Despite a streak of fine weather between 2016 and 2019, the 2020 OGU looked to be a wet one with rain falling during the night and the next morning.

The alarm went off at 3am. We donned our gear, ate some food and prepared ourselves for what lay ahead. The 45-minute bus journey to the start of the trail was full of nervous tension, excitement and the odd bit of singing from dad. At the trailhead, we registered, huddled around the fire and tried to keep ourselves out of the rain. Both dad and I had decided that my best shot of a sub-9 would be if we ran together from the start. At 6am, 300 watches were started and runners made their way onto the Old Ghost Road.

 

Despite it being slightly muddier than normal, the first 17km of the OGU is very flat and on pretty runnable trails. We followed the trail of headlights as they twisted and turned around the Mokihinui River. Lee had headed off in front of us early on, so dad and I ran the first section of the course with Andy. To avoid congestion early on, we started slightly harder than what was comfortable – a smart decision to avoid the queues on two-person bridges.

Perfectly paced, we hit the Specimen Point aid station in 1:36, well under our 1:40 goal time. I had decided that one of my race strategies was to spend as little time in the aid stations as possible – the plan was to grab some food, fill my bottles and then head off. At the first aid station, I stocked up on food, posed for a photo with dad & Andy and then headed off on the 25km leg to the next aid station in Stern Valley.

 

The 25km from Specimen Point to Stern Valley is very runnable, but it’s easy to slow down to a walk here and a lot of time can be lost. All three of us ran together up to about the 25-26km point before we left Andy and started moving up the first climb to Solemn Saddle. Solemn Saddle is a point on the course that is at the top of the Hanging Judge (a winding climb out of the valley) and the start of the Boneyard (an epic descent through large rocks down into Stern Valley). We caught fellow Hombre, Lee, at the beginning of the Hanging Judge and ran with him up the climb. While it’s a pretty easy climb, it’s important not to run it too hard, to avoid burning yourself out before the halfway point.

The descent through the Boneyard is pretty special and something that every competitor looks forward too. It’s not a place you want to be during an earthquake, but the 15-minutes or so that you spend there is good fun. Dad and I cruised the descent, passed a few fellow competitors and admired Lake Grim down the valley.

We came into Stern Valley aid station feeling pretty good. The aid station marks the halfway point of the race at 42km. I’d wanted to split about 4:15 for the first marathon, which would give us a good buffer for the second and much harder part of the course. Slightly faster than I thought, we came through in 4:08. At the aid station, we spent a minute refilling our bottles, stocking up on food and eating. As well as that, we were given some expert advice on the next section of the course from both Kerry (SquadRun legend) and Phil (Race Director).

The third section of the course from Stern Valley to Ghost Lake is by far the hardest part of the course. You spend 8km slowly climbing out of Stern Valley, before hitting the Skyline Steps – 302 uneven steps out onto the Skyline Ridge. These steps are known for bringing on cramp and are pretty demoralising. Even worse, when you top out on Skyline Ridge, you see the climb you have to do up to Ghost Lake Hut (a small hut up in the clouds). I felt pretty strong on the climb and managed to run a few of the flatter sections. I also fuelled up a lot on the climb, ensuring I had enough energy for the next few hours.

 

 

 

At the start of the day I had said to dad that if we hit Ghost Lake aid station in about 6 hours, then a 9-hour finish would be pretty doable. It’s funny to think that 6 hours of running later, we crossed into the Ghost Lake aid station with a split of 6:00:26 hours – hows that for timing?! It was game on. I knew we had three hours to run 30km, of which 25km was a descent. We both skulled back coke, ate a bunch of food and had some banter on the Facebook live stream. I’ve never felt so ready and gunning to run 30km’s in my life.

We left the aid station, eating marmite sandwiches and ready for what lay ahead. There is a small climb up to Heavens Door, before the descent down to Lyell starts. We started running the flats and downs, knowing we would have to average under 6-minute km’s to finish under 9 hours. We also slowly started to reel in a bunch of runners in front of us, some of whom joined onto our running train and others we left to themselves. From Ghost Lake its about a 13km descent down to the Lyell Saddle aid station. We managed to run some solid kilometres here and despite the twinges of cramp, the goal time started to look more and more like a reality

We split 7:11 at the Lyell Saddle aid station and spent no more than 30 seconds here. I drunk some coke, picked up some Mars bars and we hit the trails. From Lyell Saddle its 18kms with a 700-metre descent to the finish line at the Lyell campsite. We decided to run conservatively for the first 10km and if we felt good towards the end, change it up a few gears and have fun. At about 12km to go, we were joined by two other runners, one running it for a second time and another, his first. 6km more and we were speeding up, now well into the sub-5-minute kilometres. While these speeds are pretty easy normally, after 80kms it’s slightly different!

3kms to go and we hear a scream from up on the trail. “Hey buddyyyy, I’ve got the bumblebees” – were the words that came from the mouth of the legendary Scott distributer, Grant Guise. Grant had spent half the day running easy with some friends and had sped up in the back half of the race to reel in the Hombres or bumblebees as he calls us. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite have the legs to hang onto Grant so we let him go.

The last few kilometres were special ones. The cramp and soreness had gone and I was ready for the finish line. It wasn’t an 8:59 finish, nor an 8:45 finish. Instead, we got home in 8:41:08, a lot faster than I believed was possible.

It’s pretty special to cross the line next to dad. I’ve trained and listened to him since I started running as a 10-year-old. Fast forward nearly 10 years later, we’re running 50-mile races together and making some pretty cool memories. Running ultras isn’t the most popular thing for a parent and child to do, but for me, it means a lot and I couldn’t think of something better to do with my weekend. So I guess that’s my Old Ghost story for 2020. Nearly four hours off my previous OGU time, 17th place equal, 1st parent/child combo, 1st junior, a junior course record by two hours and a parent/child combined time which I think will be around for a while! It makes me hungrier than ever for what 2021 will hold. The Hombres did well too. Both Andy and Lee ran easy sub-10 hour races and honorary member, Jarrod ran a solid 10.40 in his first OGU.

I’m not sure where to start with thank yous. Thank you to all those who have helped me along the way, given advice and joined me for runs. It’s hard to find younger runners who enjoy a 50km long run on a Saturday morning, but it’s nice to have a supportive bunch of runners around me who love to give each other a bit of smack talk and always keep me in line. Phil, Jim and the OGU team; thank you for allowing me to race as a 16-year-old and then return again this year – you know what this race means to both dad and I. Mum and Omri; you’ve been there since day one and have always allowed dad and me to do our long runs, turn up sweaty and demolish large quantities of food. It’s a very unusual sport, but you both understand it better than any non-ultrarunner could and it means a lot. Finally, dad – thanks for everything. From waking me up at 6am for some morning miles or giving me advice on what my training should look like – its good fun huh? I’m proud to not only call you my dad, but also my coach, training partner, mentor and a runner I look up too.

We’ve run together since I was 10 and even though this is becoming a bit rarer, I’ll always find times to continue it and races to finish together.