COACH’S CORNER - A DNS and a DFL by Andrea Doney

May 31, 2024

Andrea doney guides you through the experience of a dns and a dfl

I’m a passionate and committed runner and coach, but you wouldn’t know it to look at me. I’m duck-footed, lumpy, red faced and short sighted, and about as talentless as its possible to be with a fully able body.

As a child I pretended to be sick to get out of school sport carnivals and avoided activity at all costs. But a few years ago, for a complex set of reasons fuelled by trauma, I decided to go for a run. And despite having no natural ability, no competitive spirit, no athletic intuition, and no kinetic intelligence, I fell in love with it.

Over the years I’ve graduated through the full race spectrum, from parkrun to ultramarathon and back again, and relished in the sense of personal progress and pride that the races have given me.

In November 2022 I took on my longest run, the 80km Bondi to Manly ultra, and to nobody’s surprise I was dead f&%*#ing last across the line. I loved it though, and rode the high of this accomplishment for a long time. But it came with its own toll of a mild hamstring strain and some physical burnout, and I returned to shorter distances for the next year or so, until the ‘what else am I capable of’ curiosity rose like a ballast in the second half of 2023. Which brings me to the point of my story.

In my head, 2024 was meant to be a year in which I returned to ultra-running. So with naïve goodwill and the indomitable courage that is fuelled by a few gin and tonics, I signed up for Sydney’s backyard Ultra in April. I mapped out my plan with my amazing couch (shout out to Anne-Marie Cook if she’s reading) and began to clock up the training runs.

But as you might have guessed by the title of this piece, it didn’t go to plan. Training on the course of the backyard ultra I had a significant fall, the biggest of my running career, and I suspect I broke a rib amongst a significant litany of bruises and cuts and scrapes. It hurt to run and I backed off the plan for two or three weeks, hoping that I hadn’t lost too much time. Then just as I was getting back into it, I was struck down by a mega dose of covid. As someone who rarely gets sick, I was astonished at my own frailty and diminished capacity, and retreated to bed for around ten days while I snivelled and coughed my way through youtube videos on trail ultras and wondered if six cups of tea a day counted as a hydration strategy.

When I finally returned to real life, I had to make the hard acknowledgement that there was more than a month missing from my training plan, which was likely too much for my mediocre talent to rebound from in time. So, in my next coaching-catch-up-slash-counselling-session (thanks AM!) we agreed that withdrawing from the BYU was the safer and wiser choice, because as the saying goes we have but one body and many races. And instead I would focus on my other A goal of the year which is Gold Coast Marathon.

But withdrawing from races comes with its own baggage, right? It’s a bit embarrassing, it feels wasteful and there’s a fair bit of self-criticism in the process. Until I remembered that whether I lined up at the start or not didn’t change the fundamental fact that was NOW A PERSON WHO SIGNS UP FOR ULTRAS. And that, I think, is my journey. From an anxious, bookish couch potato incapable of running to the corner, to a coach and ultra-runner, my identity and my trajectory is forever changed because of my decision to try. Even the so-called ‘failed’ version of me is more wildly capable of anything that old me could have dreamed of. So if DFLs and DNSs are part of my ultra-mediocre journey, then that’s fine, because they take little away from the work that it took to get me here.

But there’s one more thing to this tale. I’m currently overseas, watching my adored mother succumb to a cancer diagnosis and fade through her final chapter. Both her experience of this and mine have strong parallels to ultra-running, and I’m sure it’s my training in endurance that’s allowing me to cope, just barely, with the grief. What’s more, the fact that I don’t have to train quite so hard at the moment has become a blessing, amongst other things allowing me to sit on her bed for guiltless hours, rifle through her drawers full of trinkets from my childhood, browse the family photo albums and type this tale.

So I guess what I’m saying is, running is about more than being on the start line, being eight laps in to a backyard effort, or emerging on a podium. The real race is in becoming the version of yourself who has the courage to sign up, the grit to face whatever the training throws up and the experience to know when its better to drop out again. Ultra-running gives us capability to explore, to endure, to try, to grieve and fail. If you were to measure my year so far in metrics, I’d be an unmitigated failure. But the truth is, it’s ultra-complicated, and I’m in it for the long run.

Andrea doney is known as the slow coach, and coaches in person and online in st ives, sydney, nsw. iF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ON BEING TRAINED BY andrea, CLICK THROUGH HERE TO OUR AURA ENDORSED COACHES PAGE.

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AUTRA News Report 19-02-2025

By Kate Dzienis • February 19, 2025

The latest in race results, covering Cradle Mountain Run, City Run, Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut and Yaberoo Trail Ultra.

Final 2024 Points Competition Results

By Alexis Oosterhoff • January 30, 2025

Results for the 2024 AUTRA Points Competition have been finalised, and are available on our Points Competition page. Full details of the top 10 (as shared on Facebook during January) are detailed below, and results for all participating AUTRA members can be found in the documents at the above link. It was a real battle throughout the year between our top two finishers, Phil Gore & Kevin "BK" Matthews, with both giving it their it their all at events, and through contributions to the community - volunteering at multiple events, and submitting articles to our monthly newsletter, Ultramag. They finished within 2km of total distance for the year (Phil on 1203.087km, and Kevin on 1205.510km), and it was only Phil's final volunteering effort on 6 Inch Trail Marathon in December that gave him the that very narrow victory. As you'd be aware from previous communications, this marks the end of the Points Competition. With trail running (of all distances) now incorporated into AU T RA's constitution, and after careful consideration of the costs of the competition payouts in it's current form, the committee felt it was time for it's retirement. This marks my seventh and final year of delivering the points competition to membership (2018-2024), after taking on the role from Cheryl Symons. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and I feel like I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of our members through seeing their race (and volunteering) performances over the years! I'm continuing in my role as the AUS/NZL statistician for DUV (from whom we shared the data for the points comp), and you can expect to continue to find your ultra-race result on their site. 1st Place - Phil Gore (WA) - 86 points Phil's achievements this year have included a massive 265.653km (and 2nd place) at the IAU 24h Asia & Oceania Championships, wins at the Red Dirt Backyard Ultra (33 laps), the Australian leg of Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship (96 laps), and the Soochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon (270.826km). He also knocked out an easy (!) 72km at the Light Horse Ultra 24h in between supporting his amazing wife Gemma. Those two 24h wins netted Phil new Oceania 24h Open Male records, IAU Level 1 qualifiers, and pushed him to the top of Australia's 24h trophy board (with only the great Yiannis Kouros having run further). Phil topped-up his points by contributing one article to Ultramag, worked as an Event Director at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, and volunteered at a further five events through the year. He finished on 86 points. 2nd Place - Kevin Matthews (WA) - 84 points Finishing in 2nd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Kevin Matthews. He monstered his way through the year with finishes at Australia Day Ultra 100km, Delirious WEST 200mi, 24 laps at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, 190km at Light Horse Ultra 24h, 23 laps at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, and also completed Feral Pig 100 miler, Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km. And to top things off, he contributed five articles to Ultramag, and volunteered at five events. BK ran 1205km in Ultramarathon races this year, all of them AUTRA-listed, and surpassed 100 marathon finishes (including 51 Ultramarathons!) Kevin finished the year on 84 points, a massive 34 points ahead of our 3rd place finisher Sue Robertson. 3rd Place - Sue Robertson (WA) - 50 points Finishing in 3rd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Sue Robertson. Sue completed the Ultra Series 100 miler trilogy of Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST, and rounded out her year with the Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km races. She received 30 points from the racing at AUTRA-listed events, and was awarded a further 20 points by volunteering across eight events and contributing two articles to Ultramag, for a total of 50 points for the year. Thank you Sue! 4th Place - Margie Hadley (WA) - 47 points Finishing in 4th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Margie Hadley . She was the top-female finisher at both the No Time to Die Frontyard Ultra & Wild Dog Backyard Ultra, 2nd at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, ran 182km at the Australian 24h Track Invitational and placed 3rd at Coast to Kosci. Margie received 47 points in the competition 5th Place - Melissa Robertson (NSW) - 44 points Finishing in 5th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Melissa Robertson. Melissa took out 1st place at Irrational SOUTH 200 miler, 2nd place at Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place at Hume & Hovell 100 miler, 3rd place at Rumble in the Jungle and 6th place at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100 miler! She also volunteered at the GNW 50km event, receiving 44 points in the competition! 6th Place - Aaron Young (WA) - 42 points Finishing in 6th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Aaron Young . Aaron finished in 1st place at each of the Ultra Series "Triple Crown" of 200 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), 55 laps at Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship, and rounded his year out with Feral Pig 100 miler. Aaron receives 42 points, just nudging ahead of Maree Connor (who also finished on 42 points) on a count-back 7th Place - Maree Connor (NSW) - 42 points Finishing in 7th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Maree Connor. Maree had an outstanding year, achieving 2nd place with 221km (and an IAU Level 1 qualifier) at the IAU 24th Asian and Oceania Championships, 1st place at the Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place with 67km at the Southern Sydney 6h race, and 1st place with 116km at the Narrabeen Allnighter 12h. Maree also competed at Spartathlon race this year (for which she contributed an article to the September Ultramag on her experience), receiving 42 points in the competition. 8th Place - Darren Linney (SA) - 41 points Finishing in 8th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is SA's Darren Linney . Darren completed 34 laps at No Time to Die BYU, 199km at the Adelaide 24h race, and 814km at the Australian 6 Day race, for a total of 1241km raced and 41 points . 9th Place - Tristan Cameron (WA) - 40 points Finishing in 9th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Tristan Cameron. Tristan completed the Ultra Series Triple Crown of 200 mile races (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), along with Feral Pig 100 miler, for a total of 1154km raced and 40 points. 10th Place - Jen Millum (WA) - 39 points Finishing in 10th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Jen Millum . Jen finished 1st at all three of the Ultra Series Trilogy of 100 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), and was 2nd female with 35 laps at the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra. With a volunteer stint at the Yaberoo Trail Ultra, Jen finished the year with 39 points in the competition. To view the complete list of members who secured points in 2024 click here and then follow through to Points Summary under the 2024 tab. All winners have already been contacted, with cash prizes distributed for 1st - 7th places, and AUTRA Store vouchers sent for 8th, 9th & 10th.