2024 Kosci 100km Ultra

Katie, Mandy, and I (aka The Wolf Pack) decided to tackle the Kosci100 shortly after completing the UTA in the Blue Mountains in May 2024. I wasn’t overly keen on a 100km trail run, but FOMO struck instantly, and I signed up.  

Since May we had all trained pretty consistently together, but disaster struck for katie in September when she suffered an heal injury, plantar fasciitis! She continued to train through the pain but an MRI deemed her to be unable to do the race.

In October, I spent three amazing weeks in Canada, indulging in too much food and drink, though I did summit some epic peaks. Needless to say, my training kilometers fell short.  

Three weeks before race day, a sharp pain shot through my left knee during a short run in Cronulla. Days later, an MRI revealed chondromalacia (runner’s knee), leaving me torn: run or quit. I chose to run.  

I did feel apprehensive about doing it, Mandy had followed her training plan religiously, and I feared holding her back. 

On 27th November 2024 we all set off for our road trip down to the snowy mountains. We all collected our race bibs at Jindabyne and took the  obligatory photos. 

Amanda, Kathy and Jo entered the Kosci30 and the Kosci50 on the Thursday. The conditions on their race day were hot, like really hot. Mandy, Katie and I waited on the finish line for them, competitors  finished looking absolutely depleted. All three, completed their races, red faced and exhausted. A dip in the chilly river helped to cool them down post race.

When we were relaxing that afternoon at the house and getting our packs ready, Katie was struck with a serious case of FOMO! She wanted to join us for he 100km. So we tried to locate a ticket. Incredibly there was someone unable to complete and they were happy to transfer the ticket to Katie. So we jumped in the car and raced to the check in to transfer the ticket. Unfortunately management refused to allow it. It was not to be. Only two wolves would start the 100. 

Finally race day was here for Mandy and I. We made our way to Perisher, with foggy conditions driving up. All kinds of weather was predicted for the day.

Mandy and I were in good spirits as the race started, with our support crew cheering us on and other spectators lining the area and hanging around for 2-3km look around Perisher Village. We were soon on a single-track part of the course, being mindful of the illustrious cheese grater. Especially after seeing a few had already sustained injuries to hand and legs, so early on in the race. This part of the course I really loved, the scenery was beautiful, the weather was good, with overcast conditions and not too hot.

We got to the checkpoint one, I felt good. We weren’t at this checkpoint for long before we were on our way again. On the way out of check point one I thought I would grab a cheeky chocolate for the road, I did actually end up picking up a peanut chocolate, not a good idea for me at all! (Peanut allergy) I did consider actually eating it anyway, thankfully I didn’t or I may have been a lame wolf! From here we made our way to Charlotte Pass, which was the stretch of 23.6km without a checkpoint. Here we were on a fire trail for quite a few kilometres before heading to the peak of Kosci, The Summit. Before we made the final climb, Mandy used the bathrooms at Rawson’s Pass so I sat on a rock and got out my phone. Then we took off for the summit. A few more uphill kms and we were at The Summit. The views were spectacular. At this point I realised that I had left my mobile phone on a boulder at the last toilet block. When we made our way back down, one of the wonderful volunteers helped me to get my phone back. The catch was that while she was rescuing the phone we would have to pop in our high vis gear and volunteer. The phone was returned, some celebratory photos and we were back on the trail. 

A bit of a delay here before we were on our way again. 

About 15 minutes into this section, we could see a dark storm cloud in front of us. We were on a peak at the back of Main Range. No shelter, no trees, a few small rocks and no where to hide. The only option was to get out rain jackets on and push through the weather that was about to hit us.  Moments later we were hit. Hail flying in all directions, hitting our bodies and heads. Others had tried to seek shelter next to the small rocks but the rain was so heavy it ran off the rocks like waterfalls drenching them.   About 15mins later the hail subsided but the lightning continued. This was an issue as we were on the highest peaks with no where to shelter and running on the cheese graters (metal walkways). We had to push on and get to the next check point as soon as we could. 

This is where we separated for a moment. Mandy went ahead of me, as we were nearing the next checkpoint, the terrain was large rocky and a bit technical, my knee started hurting at this point and used my poles to try and take to pressure off the knee. I finally reached the crossing of the snowy river and made my way to checkpoint two. Greeted by Katie who informed me that the race had been held up at this checkpoint due to the storm.

There were hundreds of runners at the checkpoint. The milers had been prevented from heading to the summit due to the lightning so all the runners that were meant to complete the main range loop were held at Charlottes pass. 

I really enjoyed this extra time at the checkpoint, the support crew bought me chips and gravy and I had a few ham rolls and some anti-inflammatory to help with the knee pain. I still felt positive at this stage with a change of shoes and positive vibes from the crew. 

We set off for the next section. 

The race directors finally made the decision to continue the race so once the milers had hit the trail we followed.  During the next section of train to Guthega there were a lot of discussion and disappointment for the milers who had had their race shortened. However this is trail running and anything can happen on the day! 

Checkpoint 3 was Guthegar, the 49.6km mark, the support crew had told us they weren’t sure if they could make it there on time. Due to the delays at Charlottes check point, there were so many crew members trying to make the dash to Guthega. The rain started but we continued without any incident. My knee started to feel a bit better and the food had definitely helped. As we went up a steep hill towards checkpoint 3, Base Camp. I saw Katie with her cow bell and umbrella. I was so delighted the crew had made it. At this checkpoint I had some soup, a muffin, and some lollies. And a sit down. I was still smiling at this point.

The next checkpoint was checkpoint 4, Perisher which was 12.2km away. During this leg the heavens really opened and the torrential rain set in. We soon became soaked to the bone and couldn’t  wait to get to the next checkpoint, from Smiggins Hole we ran pretty quickly so we could get the Perisher. We hit the 61.9km point. I felt the race started getting tough at this point, again the support crew were amazing. Fully changing both of us into dry clothes and wet weather gear. Nutrition wise I was still feeling okay, having a couple more ham rolls.

We left this checkpoint feeling positive and in good spirits. These spirits dampened somewhat as we realised that the trails had become a mud bath and was going to take way longer than we anticipated. We were falling over quite a bit along side our fellow competitors. The guy in front of me looked like he was ice skating and kept me amused for many kms. Using poles was a huge assistance during this part and could not believe anyone could do it without them. We made it to Bullocks Flat, 74.4km in, covered in mud from all our tumbles. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but we were well into the night. Again, it was great to see the crew who were being super positive. I really loved the sitting down for 10 minutes to stretch the back. 

The next checkpoint was Ngarigo, no crew were able to get to this checkpoint. So we had to be prepared. We wouldn’t see the crew for almost 20km. With the conditions it felt many hours away.

We finally got to checkpoint 6. For the first time, I didn’t feel that hungry. I tried drinking some ginger beer but this gave me heart burn, so I  tried a coffee, which went down a lot better.

We left this checkpoint with 11.3km to the final checkpoint meeting the crew at Village Green. I got there and wasn’t feeling too bad. The crew were there ready to change our shoes and give us what ever we needed. I sat down and Katie changed by shoes, the blister on my right little toes was severe and the pain was a lot. This is the point I hit a huge wall, all my enthusiasm was gone . I really didn’t want to carry on. I had no appetite, not even taking the melting moment that was offered to me. The taste of tail wind was also making me feel sick. The crew never told us the time here, but I did manage to clock someones watch which said 3.30am. I just wanted it to be over and contemplated quitting here. Not that the crew or Mandy were letting me do this. 

The biggest challenge of the day was about to begin, overcoming the next part of the course, km’s of uphill stairs ahead of us! With the continued unpredictable weather conditions and the prolonged amount of time that we had already spent on the course, it was becoming increasing hard. We left the last check point and I was in tears, Mandy had plenty of words of encouragement and Katie had put the AirPods in for me, hoping a few tunes would ease the pain. It didn’t, within 20 minutes I had to take them out, the music was annoying me. Mandy took the lead, I slowed down as the conditions continued to be a hard slog. I’m not sure how long we were together from here, but Mandy went ahead of me as we ascended Dead Horse Gap. A few hours of torture continued, the climate became cold, and I could not feel my fingers. I think I was about halfway up Dead Horse Gap when I started to have a few hallucinations, looking down into the puddles, along with the monster sized worms I saw fish swimming and jumping out of the puddles and looking up the mountain I thought I saw a ghost like women at the top holding an umbrella, like a scene from some horror movie, as I got closer I could see it was just a post. Nearing the top I started to hear the birds singing, it was still dark but knew the sun was about to rise. We were coming into daylight.

Finally getting to the top of Dead Horse Gap, into the last checkpoint, there was just a couple of people there,  there was no smiles and didn’t really speak to anyone.I just wanted it to end.  I knew the next part was all downhill, but not the fun downhill. It was huge steps to get down in the torrential rain and by this point my knee was really painful, struggling to bend it fully. Least it took my mind off my toes. 

As I began the dissent down I heard a voice shouting behind me, I decided to ignore it as I thought it was another hallucination, I was now hearing things as well as seeing thing. But to my joy this was not the case, it was Mandy, who I thought by this point had long finished the race. I felt like I hadn’t seen her for hours. She had succumb to the cold going up Dead Horse Gap and had to stop at the last check point for a full change of clothes due to borderline hyperthermia. I was so happy to see her. I was very emotional, she was probably thinking she wished she hadn’t found me with all the whinging I was doing. I was delighted that we would finish this thing together. The final few kilometres felt like a marathon. But at 7.07am we both got over the finish line together. So much emotion. So many tears. I will be eternally grateful to the support crew (Amanda, Kathy, Katie and Jo) and Mandy that managed to get me over the line. 

The hardest thing I’ve ever done? Absolutely.

A couple of months have now past and the biggest recovery for me was my toes, the blistered were bad, like really bad and the toe nails were even worse. Nine of my 10 nails eventually came off.

Am I glad I did it? 100% yes

Would I do it again? Probably not, maybe if I had better toes.

BUT DID WE DIE !!!!