Bruny Island Ultra Part II

Saturday, 1 December 2012

So Jon and Tom got of to an early start, without the BEST EVER SUPPORT CREW (BESteC).  You might think this would make us not the BESteC but in fact all BESteCs know that you need to give your runners a bit of space at the start to they can get into their stride (and so that you don't have to get up at 5.30am and risk being below par for the rest of the day).  Jon took these photos and as you can see my plan was working perfectly. They set off at a comfortable pace and breezed through the first 20k, past the drinks stop they had set up for themselves the night before. .. 

then as they ran over the Neck, they saw what would have been the best sight ever...

Yep - us!  That's Zali with the box full of energy gels & bars and me with sponges. Yep sponges. Why? cos we're the BESTeC that's why.  Jett is sitting next to the 60+ litres of water we were carrying, you know, just in case Tom or Jon needed a bath.  Or both even. probably.

And on they went..  we got into a rhythm of driving 5-10km ahead of them and setting up our support station, and they continued their rhythm of steady running with some more running thrown in. 

And on they ran right through to the marathon mark..  where they were both looking decidedly worse for wear. I should also mention that they were generally running together or a couple of hundred metres apart the whole way so that made it fairly easy for us.  In fact they were also part of a pretty consistent set of runners (although they never saw them) but basically Boardshorts Guy would run past first - thus giving us the heads up, then a few minutes later Pink Socks Girl, then just a few minutes after that, either Tom or Jon would appear with the other of them generally close behind..  This allowed us to set up perfectly - in a manner befitting a BESteC. Behold..

At our Number 1 rated mobile support station we had: water, a chair, energy food, two eski s with real food, a bucket with ice and sponges, sunscreen, scissors for toenail clipping (ugg yes - it's not all beer and skittles for a BESteC), band-aids,  towels, and Jon's new secret weapon Stroopwaffles (which having read the ingredients I'm sure wouldn't comply with australian food standards!).

Anyway - after our last stop about 6-7k away from the finish it was time to leave them to themselves for the run home. I'm sure they would have both been thrilled to come out of the trees and see this view in front of them.. (the lighthouse was the finishing point)

 Hopefully the views of the sea distracted them from the climb and the howling winds!  The last hill was steep but it takes a lot of wind and hills to defeat the BESteC so we parked and climbed up to the top, ready to welcome them home..

and home they came - yay!

 Hang on, what's going on in that photo on the right..? let's have a closer look:

Yep -  in this weirdly angled photo taken in gale force winds, it looks like all of Jon's hair has blown off onto Tom's head! ha!  

All things considered though, in real life (if not in this photo), they finished in pretty good condition.  Largely due to the BESteC's efforts no doubt :).

So after giving them time to cool down (took about 2 seconds due to the wind), and each have a little turn sitting in the chair, we all hopped back into the car and drove back to the ferry via Tom's car. Narrowly missing it due to it being full. dang.  Not to worry - as that gave Zali and Jett time to sponge down the dusty car with some of our remaining water, much to the envy of the other waiting passengers!