WHAT IS THE CLINT EASTWOOD LAST ONE STANDING (LOSER) EVENT?
The race format is a 6.7km lap that starts every hour. You have to finish your lap within the hour and be in the starting corral when the whistle blows to start the next lap, or you are out.
WHERE AND WHEN IS THE RACE?
The race was held in Oxley Creek Common, Brisbane South, on August 14, starting at 1.00 am
WHAT ARE THE RULES?
Starts
- Each lap starts precisely 1 hour after the last.
- A warning will be issued 3, 2 and 1 minute before the start of each lap.
- All participants must start at the bell/horn from the corral (no exceptions).
Laps
- Except for restrooms, participants may not leave the course until each lap is completed.
- No non-participants (crew) on the course, including eliminated runners.
- No personal aid during the lap, except at the aid station at the turnaround checkpoint.
- Each lap must be completed within the hour, including the final lap.
- No artificial aids, including trekking poles.
- Participants may utilise the assistance of the event crew or other participant crews if available between laps.
Once we have a single participant ‘standing’, they must complete a lap alone within the hour to win.
If no single runner can complete a final lap, there will be no winner, and thus, all participants will be recorded as a DNF with the number of full laps completed against their name – if this is the case, the ‘Last One Standing’ will be recognised as such but will be a DNF.
HOW DID THE RACE GO FOR YOU?
One hundred eight starters took off on the first lap at 1 am Friday.
This event becomes more mental than physical the further you go.
I started the event on about 2hrs sleep which wasn’t ideal, and I had to adapt my sleeping plans significantly – I originally planned to stay awake for at least the first 24hrs. On lap 3, I started trying to get 5-10mins shut-eye per lap.
From a PREPD point of view, I followed the advice I got from Tony. Double dose of the Prime the night before, and during the event, have a Recover every 5 hours. Throughout the event, I alternated between Tailwind and plain water, and this setup seems to have worked perfectly for me. Once again, not one cramp throughout the entire event!
Cold nights, hot days and even a few laps with rain towards the end. Round and round, we went until around lap 22, and the numbers began to thin out. Then over the next couple of laps, the group quickly dropped to 9, 8, 5, 4, and then only 3 of us left.
I was struggling badly from a mental point of view and was hoping for any justifiable reason to stop – but my lap times were still consistent despite taking about 500m each to get the legs moving again. I knew my wife would stick to my plan of not letting me stop unless I had a bone sticking out.
As I completed lap 30, I was done mentally and felt like a broken man, despite the body still moving forward. I started lap 31 with the expectation that I would take it slowly but potentially not make it back in time. But once again, I was moving well enough. Until about 1.6km into the lap, a toenail brought everything to an abrupt halt. I sat down and took my shoe off to find that I had blisters around and under the toenail, which had caused it to start moving around way more than it should and now I couldn’t put weight on that foot in a shoe. Finally, having a reason to stop, I walked back to the start line barefoot with my shoes in hand. It was finally over.
In the end, I had been running for 30 hours and completed 30 laps for a total of 201km. I was leaving the two guys to continue without me.
WHO WON IN THE END?
In the end, Ryan Crawford was pushed by Cam Munro to complete 37 laps (248km) for the win in an amazing effort by both these guys.
WILL YOU DO IT AGAIN?
Yes, a cool update following my good result at the Clint Eastwood LOSER. I’ve been included in the Australian team to participate in Big Dogs Backyard Ultra World Championship on October 17.
Due to COVID, they can’t have people travel to America for it. Instead, they are having about 20 countries hold their team events simultaneously, and all events will be video linked… and the last one standing overall will be crowned the world champ. The Australian event will be held in Brisbane again with a 15-person team. I’ll be using PREPD again and hope to go significantly further this time.
WHAT WILL/WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?
Having learned a lot from this one, there are a few tweaks to the plan. The first is to get a better night’s sleep before the start. Then obviously take better care of my feet during the event with more regular shoe and sock changes. A simplified nutrition plan to make things easier between loops and a few strategies to help deal with the midday heat.
My strategy for using PREPD before, during and after the event will remain the same. It was simple, and it worked well. All this will hopefully set me up to go further during Big Dogs Backyard Ultra. But I won’t put a prediction out there other than I’ll always plan to run one more lap.
