The Revenant 2019

This is a weird race report to write because I didn’t go as expected – I didn’t get close to complete the goals I set for this event and judging from reports I’ve seen from others who tackled this event I’m not alone. Like me, many are still processing this in their heads too hence its taken a while (a month).  Perhaps that pretty much sums up The Revenant 2019. 

It’s an event that had lots of questions before we even began and the answers were either drip fed to us right up until the start or they’re still out there!  The biggest answer is still out there for me and was also my main objective for the event: “how far can my body go, how long can it be pushed and keep going?”

Right from the when it was first announced, The Revenant was something I couldn’t miss. I’d started grumbling about trying to get into Barkley because I reckon the event format would suit me and challenge me beyond anything else I’ve ever done. So, when a similar event was announced in NZ I was eager as!

Photo: Sean Beale

Most of you will know by now the format of the event but a quick summary – 4 laps of about 45km each and a total of 16km vertical climb.  There isn’t a marked trail to follow, you have to navigate to a series of checkpoints. The direction of each loop would alternate.  There was a 30-hour cut-off for 2 loops and 60 hours to finish.  Sounds easy huh? There were just 21 starters.

The 21 “Originals”. Photo by Sean Beale

I thought The Revenant would be a test of the skills I have and bigger still, a test of the body, next level to what I’d already done!! The skills tested would be navigation, logistics and planning (it’s a totally self-supported event), management of body and sleep deprivation. 

It ended up being more a mind fuck and a test of how to manage that! Leading up to the event, I’d been reading up and listening to podcasts on how to push the body past it’s perceived limit so was prepared and very ready to do this. But I’d neglected to have a plan for when things go wrong, things that are out of your control and the impact this has on your head.  When doing a straight trail run or ultra it’s all on you – there’s a fixed course to follow and it’s up to you to pace, follow the course, eat, drink and manage everything. But in the Revenant there is much out of your control. Start time, course, mystery challenges, direction of travel, and stuff we are still yet to discover. Some of this is easy to manage, others you have to learn how to manage as you face them.  I’m pretty easy going and can adapt to change and new information without panicking. But in the end, it was frustration at wasted time on finding the hidden books that got me – not being able to move past this in my head!

Photo: Sean Beale

On each lap there were 14 checkpoints. To prove we got to each of those checkpoints,  we had to rip out a specific page from a book, that was inside a plastic lunchbox, which was hidden in the area. The area was marked on the map, in the way usually seen in orienteering or adventure racing. A red circle. The checkpoint is in the very centre of the circle. We were using topo maps with a scale of 2cm on the map equal to 1km on the ground. The circles are about 6mm in diameter – so 250m on the ground! A big area to search for a lunchbox. This is why it’s common practice to have the checkpoint right in the centre of the circle, to make finding it more realistic. To further help us find the plastic lunchbox there was a clue describing the feature the lunchbox would be on/in/under such as “base of rock” or “fallen tree over fence”. Despite this, for a few checkpoints once I had navigated to the correct area on the map it was a treasure hunt searching for this wee lunchbox.  

Photo:  Mike White

For the majority of checkpoints it was easy enough. But a couple of checkpoints were not in the centre of the circle, one was 40-50m vertically different to where it was shown on the map. We searched high up above a stream where the centre of the circle was, only to stumble across the lunchbox a few metres away from the stream, when coming back down to it to relocate. The notorious Checkpoint (“CP”) 8 took some people 8hrs to find it – I took over two hours. Other experienced orienteers struggled too (funnily Tom Reynolds and I kept meeting each other in the same place over and over again, only to leave and try to relocate off something else) and it would be great to get out to the area again with fresh eye/brain, to work out what was actually happening – we all couldn’t be that wrong.  In the end, on my final successful attempt it fitted perfectly bearing wise – I just had to travel 200-250m further to get to the feature than was shown on the map. It seems to me that the clearing the checkpoint was in was marked in the wrong place on the map.

I have to admit, after this my mojo was really down after this – how can a race I’d trained hard for, sacrificed family time, spent money to enter and travel to come down to a seemingly lottery search rather than a true test of nav and body?

Water stop at a hut not long after finally getting CP 8
Photo:  Mike White

Photo:  Mike White

I won’t go into course details or anything to save some of the surprises and questions for those that enter next year.  But I can explain the challenges, the terrain and my race. 

We were drip fed information first at race briefing at 4pm and then again at our meeting point at 9pm, and then some more right up to the start.  The bigger surprise was the fact we would be meeting at 9pm – much earlier than we’d expected or been told previously (midnight).  This cruelly killed some people’s hope for a wee sleep between the race briefing and the start. 

We gathered up high at an historic ski hut (which was the base for the event – where the loops started and finished) and were surrounded by mist/fog/cloud. So much so, that we couldn’t see the start of the amazing Haka until it was just metres in front of us, but this added to the building intensity of the atmosphere as we each did final preparations

One of the Event Directors performing the pre -start haka
Photo: Sean Beale

At the end of this haka (which was created especially for the event and which event organisers Scott and LeRoy took part in) we had a 2min call. I thought this was until we had another information reveal but no it was the start and so just like that, all 21 of us ran off down the hill to CP 1 through the cloud.  We were instantly drenched from head to toe as we bounded and weaved through chest high tussock grass avoiding matagouri and spiny spaniards. 

Photo: Mike White

When we weren’t in streams/rivers, native bush, mountain bike trails or 4wd tracks we were running through this combination of tussock and spikes. It was energy sapping and you were constantly scanning in front of you for the best path – the path of least resistance. On gentle downs and flats you could do this at a reasonable pace.  On the ups too, it wasn’t too bad but on the steeper downs it was a routine of slide, grab hold of something with your hands and hope you didn’t slide into thorns. The first leg was a 600m vertical drop through this stuff for the majority and then straight back up nearly to the start location again, so we soon learned the best techniques. 

Groups formed of individuals and 2-person teams working together. Then they fell apart  and reformed with a different makeup throughout the first few checkpoints before the pace settled and more permanent, like-paced groups formed. I spent a good deal of time with a bunch of 3 others (Al Shelton, Jean Beaumont and Matt Hamblett) from checkpoint 3 to 8 and then, eventually, we ended splitting up at CP 8 as we all tried different techniques to find this checkpoint, after working as a group to start. I found it at last (as described above) and as I was leaving Al Shelton saw me and we stayed together (off and on) for most of the remaining first lap. 

Photo:  Mike White

Some checkpoints we nailed and a couple we had to take a few goes at it, but accepted this was our poor nav and discipline unlike CP 8 and the earlier one that was marked quite different to its actual location and which were not our mistakes.

Photo:  Mike White

We had an awesome 4km river bash up the Nokomai River, through some stunning bush. It was draining but I loved this section – constantly crossing back and forth through the river, finding wee tracks on the riverbanks, climbing up and over large rocks, waterfalls and fallen logs. I pulled a wee bit away from Al on this leg but promptly made a nav error on the next checkpoint, losing a bit of time. I recovered and ran for the majority of the next leg which was mainly on a mountain bike track to the last checkpoint of the lap and the finish of Lap 1 at the ski hut.  

It was awesome to see the family and others at the base here as I was handed my support bag. We were allowed one bag to have everything we needed for the event in it – food, water and gear.

Nobody could help us with anything – verbal or physical.  I could see that this was pretty hard on Madeleine (my wife) as she is usually awesome at helping me and making sure I have everything. 

Photo:  Mike White

It was weird cause everyone was just watching – unlike a normal aid station it was pretty quiet and people seemed to be whispering amongst themselves, not wanting to risk saying the wrong thing maybe and getting me disqualified?!  So I quickly went through my checklist –  change shoes and socks, eat and drink and restock the pack with more food for the next lap.

Photo: Sean Beale

Funnily the organisers had to reiterate that it was fine to touch me – so I finally got a great hug and kiss to send me on my way!

Photo:  Mike White

I started the second lap with approximately 12 hours to complete it before the 30hr, 2 lap cut-off. I was fired up, prepared to pull out all the stops to push myself to complete Lap 2 under 30 hours. I figured this could be possible given the time lost on the first lap and the fact that we now knew where the checkpoints were (they were the same ones in reverse order). It would be tight but after 18 hours my body was feeling great and physically feeling hardly warmed up So off I went at pace, excited about the good challenge ahead of me.

But no, The Revenant wasn’t gonna make it that easy – the bastard!  The first checkpoint on the second lap was a new one (I think so we didn’t lead lap 1 finishers into the checkpoint) and despite being on the feature (which was very clear and obvious) I couldn’t find the wee lunchbox and my page. I was by myself and searched all around the feature to no avail. In the end I got so pissed I left and continued on the course. I know I can navigate well. I had definitely navigated to the correct spot only to struggle in finding the wee lunchbox.  The organisers have since said they couldn’t find that one either when they went back to collect it after the event. Small consolation.

Running down to the first checkpoint of lap 2
Photo:  Mike White

It was really hard to recover mentally from that and waves of disappointment would continue for days. I wasn’t ready to call it quits though and decided to continue on my way. By the top of the massive climb out of this checkpoint I was resigned to the fact I could no longer make the cut-off because of the time I had just wasted searching for a lunchbox that wasn’t where it should have been. Because I hadn’t found that checkpoint I was probably a DNF anyway but I wanted some more time on the course. So I continued through some more checkpoints.   

Coming down the Nokomai River bash in the opposite direction was a little bit easier on the legs but as the light started to fade I was seeing all sorts of shadows and bushes that appeared like people just ahead of me.  At one stage I got a hell of a fright when it actually was a lone person coming up the river.  Aussie team member Andrew Charles was trudging up the river and stopped to check if I’d seen his team mate ahead.  I had some awesome auditory hallucinations in this section – the water gliding over the rocks sounded like the chatter of a radio station.  Usually I just have the good visual hallucinations so this was new for me!

As darkness set in, my headlight came out again and I started up a massive hill from CP12-11 which was a monster of a 650m climb pretty much close to straight up. I ended up having a wee sleep halfway up because I was sleep climbing!  I lay down in some bracken on the track, pack still on, just in the race shirt and shorts I’d been running in and fell asleep quickly. Not sure how long my nap was because we weren’t allowed watches or anything electronic with us, but I reckon probably only 5-10mins. I had checked out the position of the moon against a fence post from where I lay and it hadn’t moved too much.  Assuming of course I was still using the same fence post!

I was amazed I didn’t get used to not having a watch at all during the event.  I kept looking at my empty wrist for time and my heartrate which I usually like to keep an eye on. I also found myself regularly going for the hip pocket on my pack to get my phone out to take photos.  I’d see a cool scene or something and think – “gotta take a shot of that to send my wife or put on The Facebook” only to catch myself short and call myself a dick each time. By the end I was correctly just taking a snapshot in my head!

From CP11 to 10 my head exploded and I was going all over the show on a broad ridge. I think my head was mentally exhausted – it’s different to just running a long way because our heads had to be on task most of the time navigating and planning what was next.  Put this with the “brain stress” of searching and not finding a checkpoint, searching and finally finding them – it’s a lot for the old head to compute and energy taken.  I wasn’t really navigating or doing anything it seemed. I was power walking and jogging so the body was working but the head wasn’t really saying where the body should go, so I decided then to call it quits. I already knew I wouldn’t make the 30-hour cut-off and was starting to make some bad calls.  

For some strange reason after making this call and perhaps demonstrating the brain not working properly I decided to head down the main mountain bike track towards the far end of the course to see if I could catch the lead group coming along it towards the last checkpoints to give them some encouragement. Little did I know that that group had disintegrated and all pulled the pin for various reasons at various times. Having not seen anyone I backtracked on the same trail and headed to the finish. 

I arrived at the finish with my body still feeling good and reasonably strong after being out for 29 hours. Admittedly I was a little sleepy with only 5-10mins sleep over the 40+hrs awake. Roughly plotting what I’d done afterwards I ended up clocking about 85km (60km-ish for the first lap with all the treasure hunting) and about 5.2km vertical climb and decent.

Photo: Sean Beale

There was mixed emotions as I tapped the Revenant whiskey bottle to signify my exit from the challenge – frustration, tiredness and already a hint of “next time!”.  This tapping of the bottle is now the “last Post” equivalent from the Barkley and all 21 starters ended up tapping the bottle instead of drinking from it.  Just seven of us started the second lap but only one person, Al Shelton, successfully finished a second lap – well after the cutoff time and after a few hours sleep part way through the lap, but big ups to him for keeping on going! I think less than 10 completed the first lap.

In the van after finishing
Photo:  Mike White

So the big question?  Will I go back? …

Yes, I think so.  Despite the frustration this year, after speaking with the organisers about this and hearing good things back, some of the frustration will be dealt with, thus hopefully making the great event even more like what I wanted – a test of skill, fitness and pushing through a perceived limit!

This event is a great challenge to keep striving for.  I think it’s doable for someone to do the 4 laps in under 60 hours but it will need everything to go right – navigation, fueling and sleep strategy and fitness.  I’m up for that challenge again next year and as an “Original” as the organisers have coined us, number 5 may just be back to try and finish it!  A cool touch we were told at briefing was our race number was ours for life so I’m number 5 every time I do The Revenant!

What have I learnt in order to make it further next time – that’s a secret!  But coming back to my decision to quit and the frustrations playing a big part in that,  I need to find out about training for brain fatigue and I will focus on more of the bad thoughts/brain training stuff – pushing through fatigue for when that comes, but also how to process when things (both in and outside of my control) go wrong!  Jeepers, maybe even some mindfulness would work! 

Photo:  Mike White

Massive thanks to my family for being so supportive in the lead up and at the event – it was amazing and I don’t take it for granted! It was a long time for Madeleine and my girls to hang out on the top of a foggy mountain, but it was magic to know they were there and cheering me on.  What better way to spend our 20th Wedding anniversary aye – I need to remember to make that up, me things!

Thanks to all for the encouragement on social!  It was cool to hear snippets of it before the start and as I came in for the end of lap 1.

Scott and LeRoy – you have created a legend that will only gain in notoriety. From experience in organising events this would have been a huge undertaking I know – thanks! 

Thanks also to the landowners Tom and Katie O’Brien for allowing us to play on your land – its was stunning and epic! If any of you are ever in the area make sure you head to Welcome Rock Trails. Enjoy a run or an MTB and soak up the history and the hospitality.

To Kevin and the team at VW – thanks for sponsoring the event and supporting Scott and Leroy in their crazy idea!

To the other “Originals” hopefully see you in 2020!

So what’s next?…

The Riverhead Backyard ReLaps Ultra to truly see how far I can push the body and mind and get my biggest distance yet, to hopefully win a golden ticket to the Big Backyard Ultra in the States!

Positives

The body felt well prepared
It was an awesome adventure in some stunning and epic terrain 
Fuel (liquid and solids) felt really well managed
Gear was all good (although the course claimed a drink bottle and a compass)
Met a great bunch of hard-out like-minded people, all taking a chance on an unknown event to test their limits
Totally enjoyed all the theatrics of leaking race information to us slowly and surprise changes, timing, task etc 

Negatives

Lottery treasure hunt-like nature of a couple of checkpoints costing everyone the chance to meet cutoffs
The above, meaning I couldn’t get to achieve my goal of pushing the body really hard and managing to keep going beyond perceived limits

Gear

Pack: UltrAspire Epic (25litres) which was ideal – lots of pockets for food and stuff, great size to fit all the compulsory gear and food etc for each lap, but could also compress down as it emptied.

Shoes:  Altra Lone peak 4.0 – perfect show for this endeavor.  Grippy, light and roomy but strong and comfy!

Nutrition: Tailwind and Tailwind Rebuild together with a bunch of real food and some Spring Energy gels.  A bottle of water and another of Tailwind the whole time (plenty of natural water sources throughout the course, which for the majority was delicious – except once when we took some water, only to come around the corner and discover a bunch of cows shitting in the river .  Each 10 hours or so I had a Tailwind Rebuild recovery drink which was amazing!

Race Shirt: Vylka running shirt – exclusive Peruvian high-tech microfiber.  I got this in January from an Argentinian Insta friend who makes and sells these.  I wore one shirt the whole time and it was amazing.  Cool when it was hot, warm when it got wet and super quick to dry.

Arm sleeves: CEP – ideal for me.  I’m lucky in that I naturally run hot so didn’t use jacket or any other warm gears at all.  For the whole thing I wore one set of a t-shirt and shorts, only supplemented with the CEP arm sleeves when it got cold!

Trimtex Gaiters – which helped heaps, but spainyards could still get through these, our shoes, and everything else.  Hard to combat them really!

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This report originally appeared on Shaun's own Running Beast website. Thanks to Shaun for letting us share it with the Wild Things community.