The 6 Inch Trail marathon is a race I have missed out on the last couple of years since moving to Perth as my body has generally had a guts full by December and is ready for christmas ham and mid strength beers. Although I was by no means in ideal 'race' shape because of a couple of minor injuries, I was stoked to be lining up alongside some super fast runners for the race.
The race as always started at the crack of dawn at 4:30am and involves the first few km of the race going up Goldmine Hill. Not a big climb by any means but enough to get the juices flowing right from the start line while I was still trying to wake myself up. The pace was on right from the start as the lead guys took off. The race this year was stacked!
Brendan Davies had come over from the Blue Mountains and we had local talent including course record holder Gerry Hill, last years winner
James Roberts and a bunch of super quick marathoners in Tom Bakowski, Etienne Rodriguez, Kevin Matthews, Michael Ho and more.
The first 10-15km played out pretty much how I thought it would. Brendan and Gerry were off out front for a while before Brendan dropped the hammer and made a decent break. Behind those two was me and my good mate Tom and we gradually bridged the gap between Gerry and ourselves. Personally I was just trying to keep things as low key as possible early on making sure I stayed within touch of the front runners.
Approaching 18km I got word that Tom, Gerry and I were 2mins down on Brendan. I was surprised we weren't further back so knew we were running well. At this point the trail crosses the road and then goes up a short climb. It was around here I seemed to run ahead of the other guys.
As I got to the 1st aid station the plan was to drop my handheld and pick up my AK race vest with 2 bottles as I knew the heat was going to come in hard and fast so I'd need the extra hydration. I basically grabbed the vest as I dropped the handheld and was off again down the trail within seconds.
The next section to aid 2 was a tough wee section. Enough short hills to keep you honest but enough flat stuff so that I had to keep an eye on my watch to make sure I was cruising along at a sustainable pace. I was averaging around 4min/kms through to aid 2. I was really cautious of not pushing too hard too soon in my efforts to try and catch Brendan out front. I figured there was no point pushing hard to catch him and then not be able to push harder, Brendan is a world class trail and ultrarunner so I was going to have to be smart if I wanted things to play out in my favour. Approaching about 34km there is a 2.5km out and back to aid 2 up the top of a fairly decent hill. My plan pre-race was that if I was anywhere near the front this was a spot I could hopefully close the gap. As I went past the volunteer at the start of the out and back he commented that Brendan was now about 30 seconds ahead. Unfortunately for Brendan along this out and back he made a wrong turn because of some flagging tape being down which on a course like 6 Inch makes things confusing at best - likely a kangaroo or possibly mountain biker, not at all due to course markings.
I was already running pretty solid approaching the start of the climb as I wanted to try and catch Brendan before the top or at the aid station. As I got further up the hill and finally to the aid station I realised he must have taken a wrong turn. Dave Kennedy the R.D was kind enough to provide some world class bottle filling skills and I was off hammering it down the hill a few seconds after arriving at the aid. I took to the downhill pretty fast, but a conservative fast. My Rapa Nuis were loving the descent and I maintained a pretty good speed down here. On the way down I came across Brendan, we had a brief few words and he said he'd gone the wrong way. Not too far along the trail I came across Tom next followed by Etienne, James, Big Kev and others. Tom looked super strong which also gave me motivation to ensure I closed out the race well.
My plan for the final 10km was to run solid but to not empty the tank completely. I had thoughts of the Hong Kong 100 go through my mind and I wanted to make sure that I didn't do anything silly in the final stages of the race. The last leg was really enjoyable as it was a section I had run before in one of the recon runs so I knew roughly where I was. I crossed the line in 3:20:28 for first place ahead of Tom Bakowski in 2nd and Brendan Davies in 3rd. I was over the moon with the result and it has been a timely boost of confidence before I head over to Hong Kong.
Thanks must go out to race director Dave Kennedy for putting on a fantastic race and all of the volunteers for their efforts and support during the day. Special thanks to my good mate Adam for partnering up with Liz to make a pretty formidable support crew for me. As always Liz was a massive boost whenever we crossed paths along the course.
As always I wore my Hokas, choosing the
Rapa Nui trail shoes for this race. I used Injinji performance run 2.0 socks. My new Compressport Trail Shorts and trusty Compressport calf guards were awesome as always. Nutrition involved 7 Gu gels and some Hammer Endurolytes. Hydration was some quality H20 in an Amphipod HandHeld and an Ultimate Direction AK Race Vest.
Congratulations Scott!!! Wise racing, fantastic gear. Kep Ultra Champion and now Six Inch Champion. As Brendan says what a bright future. All the best in the international races ahead.
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