INTERVIEW WITH 100KM ANTARCTICARUNNER:DAVE DEANY

Hello Dave or as I refer to you Antarctica man,

Welcome to Adelaide, I know the trail runners and I are happy to have you move here from the Snowy River.

A brief story about how I met Dave

We met indirectly through South Australian Road Runners Club. Dave contacted me first through email when he saw my website and noticed I was looking for a TransRockies partner. Dave mentioned in his email that he was doing a 100km run in Antarctica and would like to catch up when he gets back to discuss sports nutrition, TRR and being potential running partners for this event.

QUESTIONS ABOUT ANTARCTICA ADVENTURE

What attracted you to this event? It seems pretty challenging. Ive always wanted to get down to Antarctica so with the run and climb, as well as the centenary of Amundsen reaching the pole coinciding, I decided this was a good time.

What is your previous experience in ultra-trail running? (training, events) Im fairly new to the sport, having only run my first ultra in 2009. As I like to do, I jumped in the deep end by entering the Marathon des Sables. Since then Ive participated in Deep Space, Bogong to Hotham, 6 Inch, Great Ocean 100km, Kep 100km, Canberra 50km, Bush Capital 60km, Centennial Park 100km.

Training for me is generally 100-130km per week with long Sunday runs 35-70km. I always train in the mornings before starting work at 7am, therefore Im often up at about 4am to get the ks in.

I am always interested in why people take up ultra trail running. Why did you take up this sport? I initially started running with the idea of completing a marathon, simply for the sake of ticking the box. I ran the Sydney marathon in 2007 and whilst it was difficult, I thought that if I really needed to, I probably could squeeze a few more ks out of the legs. This is where the idea of running ultras started for me.

First can you tell us a brief about this event? Marathon 1^st Dec, Ultra 2^nd Dec. Course was run on 25km loop around one of the runways at Union Glacier camp. 34 marathoners inc 10 women. At a guess, average age would be between 40 and 50. Most people were from either USA or UK. The rest were the usual western Europeans or Antipodeans from the colonies.

What was the mandatory equipment and gear for this race? What did you wear clothing, shoes, hydration system? There wasnt any mandatory gear for the run, although an extensive gear list was provided which everyone was strongly encouraged to have as a minimum. A lot of my personal gear requirements were already covered by the colder conditions I would experience on my ascent of Mt Vinson (after the run).

For the 100km event, I wore the following

• Salomon GTX Ultra 2 (half size bigger to handle thicker socks)
• Smartwool socks (2 pairs which I alternated every lap to dry/warm)
• Mountain Designs light weight polypropylene leggings
• North Face Eidilon pants (wind and water resistant climbing pants)
• Ice Breaker long sleeve top (260 grade with length zip)
• Mountain Designs Gore-Tex jacket
• Salomon Skins S-lab (5l) pack (worn under jacket to keep water from freezing)
• 2x Buffs; one for neck/chin and the other for head, both overlapping at ears
• Smith goggles with extractor fan (note: froze at cold section of course)
• Burton liner gloves (2 pairs which I alternated every lap to dry/warm)
• Outdoor Research light weight mitts (worn laps 1 and 2)
• Marmot Expedition mitts (worn laps 3 and 4 as fatigue set in)

In general, I was happy with my gear selection and wouldnt suggest any major changes. However, you must accept that you have to reach a balance between being warm but not so much that you sweat excessively, which can cause even more problems in the extreme cold.

How many days did you get there before the race started? The flight out of Chile was delayed for about half a day, which meant we didnt arrive in Antarctica until early hours of Wednesday 30^th Nov. After some sleep under the midnight sun, we went out for a group run of only about 5km. The marathoners ran the following day and then the 100km event was Friday 2^nd Dec.

So what happened in the race? How did you go? What were your highlights? The race started with the first 25km lap being run essentially together by everyone. But as would be expected, we all split up and some, including me, stopped for food at the kitchen tent. Here we could get proper food, warm ourselves and change gear if necessary.

From that point onwards I was by myself, which doesnt bother me. I enjoyed the occasions you couldnt see anything but the coarse markers, the emptiness of Union Glacier and surrounding mountains. I felt very isolated at times but thats to be expected when youre alone on the bottom of the Earth.

And of course one of the most important questions, how did you prepare nutritionally e.g. what did you eat prior to the event, during the event? Post run e.g. recovery? Im fortunate in that when Im running I can eat whatever I want. I only have to be careful not to eat too much of course. So generally for long runs like this, my primary fuel is gels and lollies as well as water with electrolytes only. However, as is normal for ultras, the aid stations had an assortment of snacks such as chips, biscuits, coke and fruit cake. I nibbled on these as a change from the sugary stuff.

Pre- and post-race nutrition is not one of my strengths, and hence a reason I contacted Steph. We didnt have a lot of choice in Antarctica so it was either eat whats served or go hungry. Fortunately the food was great and due to frequent flights arriving from Chile, there was no shortage of fresh produce. They did cater to our needs as runners with the usual pasta and rice leading up to the event.

How did you recover after the race? How long did the recovery take? After these sorts of races, I always struggle to get to sleep afterwards. I finished at midnight and didnt get to sleep until about 6am. During this time Im not terribly hungry but I will just nibble on whatever available. In this case it was biscuits, and bread and spreads. Probably not ideal recovery foods

And what did you do after this event, I believe that this challenge was not enough and you had more energy to burn which involved a certain mountain? Thats correct, I thought while Ive come all this way, Ill climb a mountain as well. This was Mt Vinson and at 4892m high, its the highest in Antarctica and therefore one of the seven summits (Ive climbed three).

The day after the 100km event, my climbing group flew in that evening. As some weather was closing in, we all immediately jumped on a plane and flew to Vinson basecamp. Fortunately for me, it was this weather that made us stay at basecamp for 3 days before beginning our ascent. This was 3 days of sitting around eating and resting, perfect recovery activities if you ask me. Once the storm cleared, we began our week long journey to the summit and back.

Maybe unsurprisingly, running 100km before climbing a mountain is not ideal preparation. But apart from suffering from mild altitude sickness on summit day, I got up there and back down without too much trouble.

In total, I spent 3 weeks in Antarctica and I would definitely recommend it. The constant sunshine and vast white endlessness of the place will remain with me for the rest of my life.

See below for a few photos of hisrun. To see more and to see some of his trek up Mt Vinson please go to

Image 1The finish, midnight, race time just under 14 hours

Image 2 The start

Image 3 Dave enjoying the sceery and solitude