Well they say trail ultra running is a team sport but they are usually referring to all the friends and family that spend all day and night following your sweaty, whingy bum around the course feeding you snacks and stopping you from making decisions you will regret later.

I have so many mixed feelings about the “team” concept, but that’s for another day.

But Surf Coast Century 100k this year really was a team sport, a relay, 100k split into four legs, with snacks and a support crew and lots of laughs. And I’m not going to lie, it was an entirely different beast.

It was way back in February that our team leader proposed we run the race as a team. She’d pulled together a group of four ladies, started a group chat and we were off.

I was still in New Zealand after finally competing Tarawera miler and at that point had no plans for the rest of the year. “Sure” was my reply to the proposal.

I’d never done the relay before but I knew the race, I knew the course and I wasn’t planning on running the entire thing again (this was all before they changing the women’s stein standard) so it wasn’t a hard decision.

But I was nervous for my team mates who didn’t know what they were getting themselves in for. I figured I would try to keep their focus on the snacks and finish line pizza and less so on the hills and mud!

And to be honest, it wasn’t until the night before that I realized I had committed to running the team event, crewing 100k runners and supporting my mate doing the 50k as well. I should have bought more snacks!

The 100k course is split into four legs.

Leg 1- Anglesea to Torquay via the beach- 21km

Leg 2- Torquay to Anglesea via the Surf coast walk and inland trails of the Great Otway National Park – 27km

Leg 3- Anglesea to Moggs Creek- 27km

Leg 4- Moggs Creek to Anglesea- 24km

None of the legs are easy and each has their own challenges to overcome, whether that’s soft sand and slippery rocks, peanut butter mud, the undulation of mountain bike tracks or the mental struggle of beach running.

I was stoked with my leg and looking forward to trying to push the pace and treat it as a good test run of some gear leading into Taupo Ultra in about 3 weeks. I had some new shoes and a new pack to make sure met the A race standard.

The day kicked off super early with the race starting at 5:30am in self seeded waves. They started half an hour later than last year and still made a last minute course change to accommodate the giant swell, a hazard for race organisers trying to put on a race on one of Australia’s most popular surfing spots. I’ve been extremely wet on previous years and I can understand them making the change if they are marketing to new runners.

Once we dropped off Jenelle, our leg 1 runner, it was off to Torquay and the first main checkpoint.

She came through in a blistering pace and by 8:30am, I was out on the trail.

A big improvement on previous years Surf Coast was actual moderation of people at the checkpoints. In previous years it’s been impossible to navigate as a runner because there were so many crews and relay runners in the checkpoints. I spent 5 minutes looking for my drop bag at Anglesea last year which pissed me off to no end because there was no control of the aid stations. Not this year, well played to the folks at Rapid Ascent.

Having found some good spectator spots, we took note of some of the other runners around ours. The overzealous man with no shirt on (it was bloody freezing!), the really perky ladies in bright blue shirts on. The hunt was on, I chasing them down. I was gonna get them.

I was also spurred on by the idea that my husband and his mate were about 10 minutes ahead of me, or so I thought. I wanted to catch them, and pass them. Pass, gap, bury, as Sally McCrae would say.

I ran the hills and pushed on the flats, with the advantage of knowing the course so well, I knew what was manageable for me, but I was also extremely cautious of being “that relay runner”.

As a 100k runner, having the 50k and relay runners come up fast behind you is extremely demoralising and frustrating especially on the single track sections. You are busting your balls to run your best race and someone with fresh legs is right up your arse, breathing down your neck, wanting to pass you. The time it takes to jump into the scrub to get out of their way isn’t so much of the problem as it is the mental load and the break in your own momentum and rhythm.

I wanted to avoid being the cause of that if I could.

I was pretty chuffed with how I was feeling and running up the hills.

Maybe it was the new super shoes I was trying out (jury is still out).

I saw so many folks I’d run with at races before or seen at events.

There was even a minor jump scare when the event photographer turned out to be my former running buddy (she ditched me for the camera and the trail running world is so grateful!)

I finished my leg in 2:59, which for 28k I was pretty stoked with.

I shoved my very chiselled leg 3 buddy out of the checkpoint and my crewing duties began.

I waited around in the chaos of the finish line, waiting for my mate to finish the 50k and hubby to come through the half way point for this race. All whilst trying to find food and get out of my cold and wet running gear.

It was a bit chaotic, but I managed to cheer on everyone and make it to the local hipster cafe for lunch before the crew duties continued.

Surf Coast is great for spectating and supporting your friend or family member doing the event. I’ve done quite a few races where you drop off your runner at the start and don’t see them again until the finish.

You can download the Capra app and if you are organised head out to check points or vantage points just outside the checkpoints to cheer (don’t give aid to your runner outside the checkpoint, this is cheating and can get them disqualified, cheering and saying hi is ok, just don’t give them anything)

Unfortunately for Bec, our leg 3 runner, there isn’t really many places you can see her before the swap over point.

We hoofed it into the Moggs Creek checkpoint, which was a bit of an effort for Megan after her 50k Pb, to send our leg 4 runner Alicia off on her leg.

Alicia flew through her leg. We almost raced her to the finish line.

But not without a mid run group photo at the lighthouse.

Then we had the first world problem of eating our way around the food trucks as we waited!

Alicia came around the bend and as promised we all ran through the finish line chute together.

We finished in 12:05:33. Pretty damn good even if I do say so myself. Also makes me even more impressed by the folks who do it in 9 hours all on their own!

But the day wasn’t over for me.

I still had folks on the 100k course.

So after a quick McDonalds stop I headed out to the lighthouse to try to catch them coming through there and then it was back to the finish line.

It was around this point that I regretted not ducking home for a shower and to feed the dogs.

I put all my clothes on and cheered runners as they finished off their day.

I shit you not there was even one chick running up and down the finishing chute to round her watch up to 100km.

The food trucks and merch vendors slowly packed up as the crowd got smaller but more enthusiastic.

At around 10:30pm, after almost 17 hours on the trail, they crossed the line in 16:54 and I absolutely shanked my one job of getting a good video.

Lucky the official photographer was paying attention.

It was a bloody long day for everyone involved but there is something super special about this event that I keep coming back to. I think it’s the virgins. The folks that are trying something hard for the first time and getting it done that is really inspiring and fun to be a part of.

This year they made the decision to make the finishers token, the famous beer stein, more equitable between male and female athletes. It used to be a blanket sub 12 for the big stein and sub 16 hours for the smaller one. Now women will have longer to achieve both.

I think it’s fantastic to recognise the biological differences between the genders and make the milestones feel more achievable for women.

The announcer at the finish line calling it a female only stein was bloody insulting though.

So maybe I’ll be back to Surf Coast Century. After a great day last year, I said I wasn’t going to come back, but maybe I can achieve the big stein now, so there is a new spark to push the training.

And don’t even try to give me shit for using the bling as motivation.