Couch to ultramarathon

by Nicole Dann, Australian National University, Australia

It has been 2 months since I completed Inward Bound and I think it is finally time that I relive it. You’re probably wondering what the hell I am going on about, let me attempt to enlighten you. Inward Bound – otherwise abbreviated to IB – is an activity unique to ANU which is all about running, navigation and torture. Each college has the opportunity to submit 7 teams into 7 different divisions with the top team running up to 105km… this is the torture part. Even the lowest division ends up running 45km which is still more than a marathon. They weren’t kidding when they said Australians are a different breed of fitness. Not only is it an insane amount of distance, but it is also a skill of map reading and navigation. Picture Duke of Edinburgh but imagine being dropped off to your drop site blindfolded with absolutely no idea where you are. Then, based on the clues around you, like tree type and the one chance of a road name, you have to somehow pinpoint your exact location on a map which covers the entirety of the Lake District. Hard to say the least. Oh, and this is all in the middle of the night. It sounds absolutely awful right but somehow, I did it. Not only did I survive it but I’m also here to encourage anyone going to ANU to give it a shot.

Before I start to preach about how amazing and rewarding the whole experience was, let me clarify that I was by no means a runner when I arrived here. The days of fitness at school felt like a distant memory in my 2 years at Manchester where a trip to Sainsburys felt close to a hike. So, understandably, there was no part of me that thought I’d do it. But before arriving here I was determined to give my all to everything and only ever say yes to new opportunities. When else was I going to have the opportunity to run through the outback in the middle of the night? So I gave the first practice mock a go along with the other Brits (Poms) I was with. Before I knew it, I was partaking in group training runs and sacrificing my Saturday nights to mock drops. Each week got significantly longer and more challenging to navigate. There was one week in particular which went down in the history books with one group getting rescued at 4am in the morning! Turns out the trackers that we were told to use if we ever needed picking up were in fact no good at tracking if they were dead. Who knew. 

Skip forward to October and the IB weekend was looming. The two weeks before I was in and out of outdoor shops, dropping bank on proper running shoes, thermals with the correct percent of cotton and so many energy gels (which I can never touch ever again). I was allocated division 6 which meant I was signing up for an approximate 55k run – or so I thought. 

Everyone at the college raved about how amazing the vibes are for the IB weekend and in fairness, they weren’t wrong. The atmosphere for the send-offs was insane. Each division had an allocated walk out time which everyone would turn up for with banners etc (Ursies was the best). As a lower div, mine wasn’t until the early evening and my god was I bricking it. But before I knew it, I was sat on a blacked out bus with 2 blindfolds on making nervous small talk with the stranger next to me. 

The run itself was crazy. By far the hardest thing I have ever and probably will ever do, both physically and mentally. Our team of 4 was dropped off at around 2am in the morning and we successfully made end point around 3pm the next day – 13 hours of hell. Our apparent 55k ended up being a whopping 70k through the Snowy Mountains which if it wasn’t already clear, were hilly to say the least. We placed 4^th overall for our division (woop) but that didn’t even matter, I was just so pleased and proud of myself that I made it to the end (even if I did cry for the last 10k).

The next few days were spent horizontal and in a lot of pain, but if you had asked me if it was worth it, I would have said 100%. If you had asked me if I would do it again, I would have said get the hell out of here!! Now a couple months later (and the taste of pineapple gels well and truly in the past) I would say yes. Inward Bound is a once in a lifetime opportunity which is entirely unique to ANU. While other colleges like B&G and Wright Hall have an intense and thorough trial process for their fittest runners and sharpest navigators, my college was scarping the barrel to make numbers for a full squad. This is one perk (or vice depending how you see it) of being one of the smallest colleges in ANU. All in all, the message here was not just to flex that I had ran an ultramarathon (did I mention it was 70k?), but to encourage anyone going to ANU to get involved whether it is as a runner or spectator. More generally speaking, a year abroad is all about saying yes to new opportunities and adventures so don’t be put off by the running vests and semi-professional athletes, just run an ultramarathon (have I mentioned I ran an ultramarathon?).