UTA50 2026 Reflection

The 12 months between the 2025 and 2026 editions of UTA were the most productive months of running I have had to date. One would hope this would be the case for an individual who is still relatively new to consistent training. That being said, this felt like an elevation to a new level of ability. These months were not without hiccups. Regular setbacks and constant load adjustment are all part of what I’m starting to realise is simply being a runner. Better to accept this than live in constant stress. Still, the year was consistent and motivation was never really an issue. For someone who honestly did not enjoy the training side of any sport as a youth, things have really done a 180. A full year between any real competition, and motivation never dwindled. I suppose this is a reflection of finally finding the right endeavour.

My main goal for this UTA training block was having real specificity built in, aiming to arrive on the start line sharp and ready to run hard. A task made a lot easier by my experience from the previous year. This was a big reason for choosing UTA50 again. It would allow me to add this next layer of complexity into my programming, with confidence that it was preparing me for the demands of the chosen event. The event might have been a known quantity, but the training was very much novel. Track sessions, hill strides, threshold efforts, uphill treadmill, and long runs with purpose: this programme had the lot. Quality of all this… questionable, but valuable nonetheless. I really believe that quality has a linear relationship with experience. This may seem obvious, but what I’m getting at is that I’m not sure it can be taught. I think it needs to be earned.

Okay, let’s get to the juice. About a month before UTA itself, Liv and I took a trip down to the Blue Mountains for a final weekend of training on the course. First 30 km Saturday, second 20 km Sunday. This weekend would prove extremely productive. It allowed me to achieve two main things. Firstly, I was really able to dial in pacing over the first 30. Despite several wrong turns and closed sections of track, I was still able to come in under my goal pace for this section. Sunday was a stark reminder that any spare minutes made in this first 30 would be immensely valuable, but overdoing it would spell disaster. The second benefit was simply building confidence in my ability. Pacing aside, this weekend was a chance to show myself that all the training was making a difference.

So, race weekend rolls around and there were some familiar characters making an appearance. Organisational fatigue, mild nausea, and another shit night’s sleep. One thing was different this time, though. My mental state. Don’t get me wrong, I have every intention of dialling in this pre-race process in the future, to one filled with relaxation and good vibes, but I am just not there yet. Nevertheless, this time I wasn’t going to let any of this shake my confidence. I’d worked too hard, and this time I knew what I was capable of. I was lucky enough to be joined by not only Liv, but several of my closest friends, who had all given up their weekend purely to come and support me. This would prove to be of priceless value on course.

Thanks to some scheduling shuffling from the event organisers to help deal with traffic, it was a 3:30 am wake-up for a 5:20 am start on race morning. Unfortunately, due to a relatively quiet year of racing, it was another second-wave start for me. Something I was disappointed about at the time but, on reflection, shaped my performance positively. I led the second wave out from the gun. The first 90 minutes of this year’s edition was spent in darkness. I settled into my pacing and yarned with a couple of fellow competitors who also found themselves at the front of the wave. Sunrise provided a helpful boost early on, but this was relatively short-lived. My legs felt fine, but early on I was dealing with significant mental fatigue and an unhappy gut. This is really frustrating when you’ve had several long runs during training where the gut has felt great, but I guess this is the price of a carb load, poor sleep and race-day nerves. Once again, though, my attitude stayed strong. I was in a fighting mood. This was helped by the realisation that at about 15–20 km I was already catching runners from the front wave. This was few and far between last edition and didn’t start happening until over 30 km. This spurred me on and pushed me to grit my teeth even more when I was hit by several waves of intense nausea and the immense urge to run for the nearest bush. TMI maybe, but it’s reality. I arrived at Queen Vic aid station pretty beat up. My only consolation was that I had been dealing with these issues for over an hour now. If they hadn’t stopped me in my tracks yet, then so long as I can suffer, I can get the job done.

Seeing my crew at Queen Vic was a massive boost. They didn’t get much out of me, but their presence was deeply appreciated. A quick bottle changeover, a refuel on gels, and the addition of my poles, and I was ready to descend into the depths of the Jamison Valley once again. Despite my stomach issues, the gels were going in and staying in, so to this point I technically was on top of my fuelling strategy, which would pay significant dividends. I had planned to attack the descent with purpose. This had been a standout weakness in previous events and I was determined to change that this time around. I attacked the descent without fear and backed that my training and fuelling would stave off a blow-up. Hitting some sub-4-minute kilometres this deep into an ultra was mad, but a great feeling. Once I hit the bottom of the valley and the ascending started, the poles came out and it was game time. The poles were a bit of a rogue choice for an ultra of this distance, but I don’t regret it at all. They allowed me to stay upright and lock into a pace that felt brutal but sustainable. This was vindicated by the fact that once I hit the hills, I was overtaking runners from the front wave left, right and centre. The analogy of only having so many matches to burn definitely runs true during racing, but it is also the case during training. Getting to the point where you actually get to burn those last couple of matches is a rarity. This last section was easily more painful than the previous year’s. However, I knew by the very fact that I was still running that I was moving faster. End result… a 40-minute PB and 16th out of the 2272 runners who took the start line. Made all the sweeter by the fact that 15th place was the one and only Hiroki Kai, who just a few months earlier had placed 10th at Western States.

Results aside, as previously mentioned, this effort felt like a level up. For a bloke who has expectations of peaking in his mid-30s, this trajectory looks pretty good. Writing this reflection several months later, I can tell you this took some serious recovery. I am now well and truly into my next training block, but it took multiple months to build back to where I am now. A sign, maybe, of how much I left out on the UTA course that day.