ANZAC Ultra Race Director Report
5 years / 5 weeks – A Long Journey with a Great Conclusion.
It was ANZAC Day 2010 when I was at the Dawn Service at the Australian War Memorial, Kevin Rudd was our Beloved Prime Minister. He was delivering his keynote address and talking about the upcoming ANZAC Centenary set down for 2015. He was mentioning that communities around Australia would be having special events to remember the ANZAC Centenary. My mind started to wander and thinking that " Ultrarunning should hold and do something for the ANZAC Centenary". From that moment, the ANZAC Ultra was born.
A couple of weeks after that, I posted on the Coolrunning Message Board about the idea. I think my original idea was for a Hyde Park to the Australian War Memorial and return race. Someone ( Icant remember who) suggested the route of the original Cooee March between Gilgandra and Sydney. I did some extra research and decided that this was the route for the ANZAC Ultra.
Apart from remembering the ANZAC Centenary, I wanted to raise funds for one of the Ex-Service organisations. It was only fair that as a RSL member I would approach the NSW RSL first and offer to raise funds for them. Very frustrating to deal with and after trying for twelve months, I switched my attention to Legacy. They were very keen to be involved, but there were restrictions and I would be doing all the hard work myself. In hindsight - only fair.
The next two/three years was spent developing this into a fully fledged race. It was going to be a Town to Town Stage race with three distance options which would meander towards Sydney over a week with more and more runners joining, climaxing in a big finish in Hyde Park just before ANZAC Day. I had recced the course a couple of times, completed the risk management plan and other application requirements. Unfortunately it wasnt to be and the NSW Police rightly knocked it back. Back to the drawing board!
This is probably a good time as any to mention the many people that helped on the Committee for the ANZAC Ultra. They were Sally Dean, Belinda Essam, Andrew Butler, Steve Appleby, Billy Pearce, Jesse McCullough, Sandra Howorth, Natalie Watson, Kirrily Dear, Dean Cox, Jessica Robson , Maureen Bronjes , Simon McCann and Cathie Wiltshire. All helped in their own way and at various times to bring this race together. Thankyou. I know I was a demanding , pain in the but RD sometime, but I could never have done it on my own.
Two other burecratic processes achieved in the early days was to get DVA accreditation to use the word "ANZAC" in the race title and also to get endorsement from the Australian Defence Forces. Both important stages and both helped to give credibility to the race.
April was locked in as the month of the race from an early stage. I knew that it was a busy time in the Ultra Calendar and likely to be a busy time in the ANZAC Centenary, but it had to be April.
Even though I have never been a " Trail friendly " Ultra runner /walker, I was aware of the great trails and the Canberra Centenary Trail that had been brought together by the ACT Government. It was always in the back of my mind as an alternative " ANZAC Ultra" route.
When the NSW Police knocked back the " Cooee March" route, I immediately turned our attention to the Canberra Centenary Trail route. Took some discussion amongst the Committee to agree on this strategy, but Steve Appleby ( the Canberra Trail Guru) was succinctly positive that it could be done and the ANZAC Ultra V2 was born and after my quick Recce of the course I could see that there were some fantastic trails with great views and close to Canberra. We also had two possible start/ finish areas right on the route.
I reasoned that the Canberra Defence , Ex-Defence and running communities would flock to help put on this event. Wasn't quite to be , but the Canberra people and stakeholders that did help were fantastic in their own way. I must also thank John Harding for your help in motivating me to succeed with this race. Our conversations drove me to making sure that it did succeed
ANZAC Ultra V2 - The format was decided.
There would be three races. A long one of 435km, a medium one of 290km and a short one of 145km. 3 loops, 2 loops and 1 loop of the Centenary trail with a 6 day, 4 days and 2 days. Set for the 6th to 12th April and would start/ finish from the cycling criterium circuit area at Stromlo Forest Park.
It was time to start dealing with the ACT Government and getting all the approvals in place. That was an Ultra in itself. Dealing with the ACT Government was interesting! I initially thought that having an Ultrarunner as the appropriate Minister in that area would open up doors in the permissions and sponsorship process. But this wasn’t to be and I had to untangle the web of ACT Government burecracy myself. In hindsight the appropriate Minister couldn’t be seen showing fear or favour to one particular party.
New risk management plan was completed, insurance gained, applications completed, many meetings and emails with one of the Legends of ACT Government Event management and I still wasnt sure if the process was gaining any momentum . Add into this the sponsorship application for $20 000 was submitted after the CBR 100 getting $ 50 000 and the burecracy started to unravel into the uncut episodes of the "Hallowmen" more and more! For the record our sponsorship proposal to the ACT Government was unsuccessful. I will be willing to work with the ACT Government Roads department if they ever have a working party to improve their practises and procedures.
It was about this time that we had to organise ourselves as a Business. A group of enthusiastic amateurs trying to organise all aspects of a running race weren’t going to cut it into today's modern corporate world! We ended up becoming a company limited by guarantee, appropriately called " Helping Ultras LTD"
At the same time, I was organising my Committee to look after the broad areas of the race. This included course management and route, logistics, web site and social media, finding volunteers, finding sponsorship and many other jobs, tasks that had to be completed.
June 2014 came around. The new look website and the online entries were ready to go. Entries opened and very slowly! It took quite a bit in the social media department for this to improve over the coming months. We had a set number of entries in mind to make the projected budget break even and it just wasn’t happening! Spending more time on the social media side probably prevented me from doing too much on the operational side of the race.
During the second half of 2014, we took a quick family holiday to Tasmania. During that time I was able to catch up with two runners from my old Home town, Burnie that were entered in the race. They were Vlastik Skvaril and Shane Hanson, who I had never met before. We had a great chat and were able to garnish some publicity from the Advocate.
2015 came around and the committee did some quick readjustment in the facts and figures. A new goal was set for the entries along with a quick reassessment of the volunteers we had on board and the other logistics needed to put on a race. Entries closed at the end of January. We just had enough entries to put on the race, but we were way short in the Volunteer department and we didnt have the resources to be able to provide the race as planned on a 145km circuit of Canberra.
Two/ three weeks of frantic email and phone call discussion followed. What were we going to do and how are we going to do it ? One of us came up with the idea of cutting the race to a smaller loop and therefore reducing the amount of volunteers /logistics that we would need. This was floated, discussed and agreed that with the smaller numbers, small volunteer pool and not having the logistics we needed it was the only option available to progress the ANZAC Ultra to its only agreeable conclusion.
Version 3 of the ANZAC Ultra was born.
We only had about 5/6 weeks till the race was on. The new course wasn’t popular with everyone and we had one well known female runner wanting her money back because of the course change. Both sides sticking to their guns on the discussion which was only resolved when she was able to sell her entry to a latecomer. Steve measured the course which ended up slightly increasing the distance of each race by 15km, 10km and 5km. This was sold with the slogan " More distance at the same price". Not really appreciated in some parts.
The next few weeks was a blur until the week before the race. All aspects were quickly organised, problems overcome such as finding a new First Aid provider three weeks before the race. St John's Ambulance were always going to be the First Aid provider, but weren’t committing to actually doing the race and weren’t committing that they would keep the price for under $ 10 000. Quick phone call to Friend and Mentor, Keith Hong and I was introduced to State Medical services who got us out of a real bind. This wasn’t the first time that Keith was a good help in providing solutions in the six months leading up to the race! The 1kg Nutella is in the mail my Friend.
We also had to change shirt providers in this time. It was our fault as we had mistimed our communications with the shirt provider! Keith to the rescue again and a new provider was obtained. Buzz – the 1kg Nutella awaits you here in Canberra.
Yes there has been a lot of negatives in this race report, but it was an uphill battle from time to time. The good thing is that the negatives were overcame. They might have left me occasionally battered and bruised, but essentially they were kicked into touch.
One of the great things that happened in the new Year was the fundraising efforts by all the 48Legacy fundraisers. By the end of the race they had raised over $77 000 which is absolutely fantastic in the big scheme of things. Some had raised a lot more than others which is immaterial as it wasn’t a competition.
It was about twelve months ago when the insurance was sorted for the race through the Athletics Australia insurance provider " Irun". The certificate of currency was set to expire on 1st April 2015. I was advised by the relevant Athletics Australia official that it would be renewed when the time came as a matter of course.
It got to 1st April and no Certificate of Currency had been received from AA. Even with a couple of email reminders. I sent another email, explaining that Easter was coming up and the race started on Easter Monday , being 6th of April. It was a couple of hours later when I got a phone call from the AA official in question, stating that he had just looked through the initial paperwork and found several problems with what I had submitted. I was to be frank very incredulous with this and a full blown argument was soon in progress over the phone.
After things settled down , a phone meeting was arranged that afternoon, between ourselves and one of the AA Managers. More questions were fired and an agreement was reached. The only major change was that all runners will have a head torch and safety vest. This was easily accepted. The other AA stipulations were penned as suggestions, so were easy for me to risk manage. New Insurance Certificate of Currency was received at 4.10pm on Easter Thursday. The final permission from ACT Roads was received at 4.30pm after quick confirmation via email. The race was ready to go...... Almost.
Easter Saturday came around and the emails from AA hadn’t quite finished. I received an email from the AA Official in question saying that he had a sleepless night and he thinks that the runners should stop every night at 11pm and start again at 5am in the morning. A few different thoughts went through my mind then including the vision of 100 plus runners chasing me down Cotter Road and beating me half to death! Alzheimer’s then kicked in and I promptly forgot about the email in question for the next 48 hours. We had a race to run!
Race week Highlights and Lowlights:
In no particular order here are my highlights of the week.
The minor climatic event that tried to engulf the event in the first two days. As we all remember the weather was shocking the first two days with lightening and the first decent amount of rain hitting Canberra for the first time in over twelve months. I remember doing my extra Volunteer Checkpoint shift on the Monday / Tuesday night racking my brains thinking that this weather cant go on for much longer and what do we do if it does ! Thankfully, the weather did improve from the Wednesday morning.
Catching up with Old Friends and making new ones. Even though I have been involved in the sport for over twenty five years I don’t get to too many events due to my current job and previous career in the RAAF. Hopefully that can change in future years. One of the things that endeared me to the sport at the start was that Ultrarunning is a family. Good to see that it still is !
Entering Zombie mode by about the Wednesday of the race. To be expected with lack of sleep and working eighteen hour plus days.
Shaking the hands of the Leaders on the first day whilst they were running up Gunbarrel Hill at the Arboretum ( English word of the week). Wish I had a camera that afternoon and took a photo of Peter Thompson from the Vets team running with his Australian flag up the hill! Awesome sight !
My fantastic Wife, Belinda being able to perform some kind of magic and able to find the Volunteers we needed to be able to function as a race. After the first twenty four hours of the race we still didn’t have the Volunteers needed to be able to continue the race in a safe and reliable manner. But somehow she was able to find the Volunteers we needed for the rest of the week. These included three runners from the 150km and their families and my extended family, the Cullis’s who were just fantastic in their support with the many extra shifts that they did during the week. All of the Volunteers were responsible in some way for helping ensure the success of the Event
As an Ultrarunning tragic of many years, I was very impressed by the GREAT clinical running performances by Sam Weir, Kevin Heaton, Martin Fryer and Shaun Mulholland. Had a game plan, changed it when they needed to and basically ran.
GREAT crewing by the crews in the race. I have crewed at the Westfield and 6 day level, so know what is required. Many examples of the 6 Ps being put into place and working well.
Meeting as many as I could of the GREAT Legacy fundraisers competing in the race and ,meeting Canberra Legacy members who helped when they could.
Reading the online Facebook updates and seeing the effect that the race was having on some who were truly being the ANZAC spirit. Facebook was also a great way for the Race Director to fill in any gaps with what was happening in the race!
The traffic management plan for the race didn’t quite go to plan, but at least the Company involved haven’t billed us for that part of the plan and have since apologised for their lack of action in that area.
Seeing the LEGACY fundraising total growing past $ 77 000 during the race.
Walking with Ben, Ian and David at the finish of their races. Would have loved to have spent more time with different runners during the race, but it wasn’t to be.
Presenting Finisher Medals to as many runners as I could. The look of accomplishment on each Finishers face was priceless for me.
I met Tailwind sponsor and entered runner, Gavin Markey for the first time before the race. Lovely Guy who treated me like a long lost Friend and Brother. Unfortunately his race wasn’t to be and by the 270km mark he was in absolute agony and having an extended break. He surprised Everyone including his own crew by going back out on the course to bring up the 300kms. It wasn’t pretty and definitely up there with Guts and determination. I didn’t see him finish , but found him on the course with his crew with about 2km to go ! Pretty random for 2am in the morning, but you had to be there to appreciate the moment.