Archive for October, 2011

Athlete: Rob Donkersloot

For Rottnest last year I had joined Bruce and Nigel for the race weekend on the island, but because I was in the middle of my spate of running injuries, I was there on cheer squad and marshalling duties. 12 months later, after a stop / start year of comebacks, I was finally ready for my first race of marathon distance since the 40 Miler in April 2010. It’s been a long time between race reports, so I thought I would make up for lost time.

For this year’s trip across we had a team of five…Nigel and Bruce again, plus Rob Rob and Mick Hearne. We met at the ferry at 2pm on Saturday, only to find out that Rob Rob had injured his leg in during his 24 hour Cape to Cape attempt a couple of weeks earlier. So for 2011 it was Rob Rob’s turn to don the mini skirt and pom poms at the Thompson’s Bay marathon turnaround point.

After a worrying couple of hours needlessly wondering where our luggage with running gear had got to, Saturday night was spent enjoying Nigel’s culinary spaghetti delight, and a game of cards. As well, Rob Rob had co-opted me to provide a half hour lecture on the benefits and features of the iPad, which Rob Rob appeared to enjoy, but assisted giving the other three an early night’s sleep.

Race day morning involved a 4am start, a few pikelets for brekky, and last minute race instructions from Rob Rob. He gave each of us a clue from his cryptic crossword, which we were to solve on the first lap, after which Rob Rob would provide a second clue etc. So with four runners, solving four clues each over the four laps, that would just about have the crossword solved by marathon’s end. Rob Rob is certainly a very resourceful fellow.

We walked the small distance to the start line to catchup with the rest of the Northern Suburbs starters including Chris, Coops, Simon, Annie and Julie, and after the piper had done his thing on the bag pipes we were off.

Now the goal for me was to run a sub four hour marathon, and if things went really well I thought I might be a chance to beat my Rotto PB of 3:51 set in 2008 running with Roy, Coops and Ali. So the goal average km pace was 5:25, which would get me a 3:50, but no slower than a 5:41 which was needed for four hours. Nigel, Chris and I had run most of the training run together, and Nigel and I had discussed running together, as he would also be happy with a sub four result. Like a lot of people, I have taken off too fast in previous marathons, so I had told myself this time I would definitely not go any faster than 5:15k’s.

Mick as you probably know has also had some big injury issues, with his last marathon being over 12 months ago, and having to have surgery back in May. He was also hopeful of a sub four, but “just happy to be running again”. Bruce has had a stellar year with some great times at other races and he was hoping to finish his last marathon of the year with another quick one.
Anyway, the gun went…and by the time we had run the 200 metres to the bakery, the running together strategy had evaporated with Nigel taking off in hot pursuit of Chris, Mick and Bruce. I was running by myself some distance back….trying to keep that pace to the 5:15’s.

The first part of the race is a 2km trek out to Kingston Barracks and by the time we got to the turnaround point I was a good 200 metres behind the NSRG group of Julie, Chris, Bruce and Nigel and as we came back to Thompson’s Bay and ran along the causeway between the lakes, I watched them slowly disappear into the distance.

I was still trying to keep the pace to around the 5:15 to 5:20 mark, and felt great. The half way point of the Rotto Marathon lap is always marshaled by Bob and Deb Edwards, and it was fantastic to see them at their usual location.
A few hundred metres further at the Armstrong Bay aid station I spotted Nigel, and he was running towards me rather than away from me. I was glad to hear everything was ok, and that he had decided to ditch the rest of the rabbits and join me instead.
As Nigel and I do on a regular basis during our runs, we discussed the state of world macroeconomics, molecular physics and the like, as well as solving the two cryptic crossword clues Rob Rob had set us.

As we finished the first lap I was eagerly looking out for Rob Rob to give him the answer so I could get the next cryptic clue to ponder on lap two. Unfortunately there were no pom poms to be seen…Rob Rob had gone missing. I reasoned that Bob Braid of the WAMC must have collared him and given him an important job to do at race HQ.

The second lap was uneventful, other than us catching Chris who was struggling a bit. A two week cold, plus overnight tummy problems had taken its toll unfortunately.

When we got back to Thompsons Bay the second time there was still no sight of Rob Rob, so we set off on lap three, still (cryptic) clueless.

Lap three is always the hard one, and it was turning out that way again, as I looked at the average pace on my Garmin starting to slip alarmingly. After a couple of 5:40 laps I said to Nigel that I was worried about the pace starting to slow, and that he should run his own race from here on. Nigel took my advice, and slowly started to move ahead.

Tory had been out on her bike shouting lots of support every time we saw her, but this time when I ran into her, she didn’t seem to be quite as convincing when she said I was looking good. Coming down the hill past Geordie Bay with 10k to go I looked at my watch and saw there was an hour and two minutes left to get my four hour goal, so I set my mind to running each of the last ten at 6 minute pace or better.

As I ran into Thompson’s Bay the last time I spotted Rob Rob, who was offering me one of Mick’s gels…but all I could think of was to tell him the answer to the crossword clue…”artichoke” I shouted. He looked at me puzzled and answered “artichoke???”
It was only in the pub afterwards that I found out that Rob Rob hadn’t been working hard at race HQ at all…rather he had figured that he would go back to the cabin for a nap for the first hour of the race, and then come back to cheer us on. Well one hour turned into three.

And when I shouted “Artichoke” at him, he had totally forgotten about the crossword. Instead he thought I was asking for assistance of some kind, but couldn’t figure out what I was after…had I said ”Flat Coke” or maybe I had some special artichoke gels somewhere? Anyway he decided it was important enough to race back the kilometer to the cabin and back to search for anything that may match my strange needs for the last lap.

The last lap was difficult going, but every km was below 6 minute pace, so I was starting to feel pretty comfortable about the four hour finish. Nearing Longreach for the last time I spotted Nigel who was slowing a bit, and soon caught him up. Luckily he had enough left to latch onto me for the last bit, and despite Nigel getting an attack of his usual case of cramps in the last kilometer; we crossed the line together in 3 hours and 57 minutes.

Bruce and Mick had meanwhile finished exactly 10 minutes earlier in a time of 3:47 after racing each other over the last few miles to the finish…with Bruce winning the uphills, and Mick catching him on the downhills. Bruce won their race to the finish by a short head, however that didn’t stop Mick being arguably the happiest person on the island; you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face all afternoon.

Soon after the finish I heard the race announcer talk about the race winners, and I was super surprised (and delighted) to hear our very own Eulalia had won the women’s race. I hadn’t spotted her at the start or during the race, so wasn’t even aware she was running…it was fantastic news though.

After the race we went back to the cabin for a shower, and watched Rob Rob do a great job at cleaning sweeping and mopping, before going back to listen to the presentations. Once they were over it was over to the pub, and we had a very pleasant afternoon drinking Coronas and swapping war stories with the usual WAMC suspects. One hot topic of discussion was the price of the beer which ran at $10 a stubby. Rob Rob worked out that with the money we spent on stubbies at the bar that afternoon, we could have each bought two cartons of Coronas at the bottle shop.

Soon it was time to get on the 4:30 ferry back to Hillarys and after a pleasant journey back, we were dismayed to find that our luggage had not made it back with us from Rottnest. Members of our travelling party were far from impressed, so much so that Nigel called radio 6PR’s breakfast show the next morning to give the whole of Rotto Ferries and administration a blast on air. 6PR rang him back an hour later to tell him he had won “whinge of the day” and a prize of a $200 restaurant voucher. Dinner for five coming up!

This was my third Rottnest, and it’s an event I really enjoy. It’s not just about the race, which is certainly a challenging and spectacular one, but it’s also about a great couple of days away with good mates. Thanks to all the support from the NSRG guys and girls, both the runners and the cheer squad. It’s all part of what makes the Rotto weekend magic.
We’ve already have cabin 715 booked for Rottnest 2013, but as Rob Rob is set on running next year, we have a vacancy for someone willing to put on the pom poms.

Rob

Note: I am hopeless at crosswords, cryptic ones especially…and wouldn’t have a hope in hell of solving Rob Rob’s question for him normally, let alone while running a marathon. “Artichoke” was just a wild guess.