(clock ticking)
- I'm Jackson Holtham, I'm 24 years old.
I'm a snowboard coach from Adelaide, South Australia.
I'm a performance coach,
and an amateur ultra marathon runner.
(intense music)
(people cheering)
(Jackson breathing loudly)
My first recorded run on Strava was on the 15th of April.
It was a five K at about a six minute pace.
And I just remember being absolutely shattered by this run,
but something sorta happened.
I got a little bit hooked on it.
And slowly through the week,
I started running a little bit more,
and running a little bit more,
and then typically with my personality,
is I get a little bit hooked on things.
And I think the reason why I took to running so much,
was that there was no where to hide in it.
If there's something going on that you need to think about,
it comes out,
and that's what hooked me to running.
It made me realise, all the things I was doing great,
and the things that I wasn't so great at,
and I had to work on.
(upbeat stringed music)
Once I started running,
this thing kept coming up, when I was running,
well, what's the hardest thing I could do,
that would require me working on myself,
to become a bit of a high-performance athlete?
And how can I go about doing that?
And then that's when ultra sort of came to the forefront.
To me, the thought of running 50k, 75k, 100k,
a 100 miles,
seems like this almost unachievable task,
but I knew that if I could refine myself,
in the way that I went about things,
I could treat myself as a bit of an athlete,
and then put myself through those steps,
and I can become a high-performance athlete,
and then that increases the level of my work.
That's why I picked ultras.
It's been good.
I didn't like the week coming in.
Where you have to hammer a lot of carbs.
And I don't like the way it makes me feel as much.
I feel a bit lazy because you're not doing as much running,
you're not eating the same, maybe as you were,
on your training weeks, sort of slamming a bit more carbs.
I don't like that feeling, but I feel like I'm nailing it,
in terms of what needs to be done,
to make tomorrow as good as possible.
Tracker, some maps.
- Do you have to orienteer as well?
- My first ever ultra, I ran with a really,
good friend of mine, Sharpie.
We ran in 75k from Cape Jervis to Victor,
with almost no planning.
I planned all my nutrition, but basically,
he was gonna follow me on a bike and I was gonna run.
And from there, I sort of learned,
that the next ultra I was going to have to do,
I had to have a bit of a team,
that was going to help me plan.
And the first person that's sort of taken,
the big-time role in that team, is my dad.
He's sort of become a bit of a manager,
and has taught me how to think about these things,
a little bit more clearly and plan all aspects,
not just how I'm going to run it,
and what I'm going to eat.
- The track's sort of not quite the same,
but this bit here is just out the back.
We say, you're going to take that long to get there,
they're going to take that long to get there.
- My mom, who's I guess like my rock, she's always there.
She's the one who allows me to sort of,
do the things that I do.
And like all mothers, she's the caring one,
and the Messiah.
I have my little brother, Tommy,
who's coming over from WA
but he's gonna run some parts of the run with me.
He's a unique character in himself,
but he's my buddy runner.
I'm going to have one of my best friends, H.
He sorta crew on it.
He's gonna drive my filmer around, Alex.
And we've been friends for so long,
that he's going to be a great face to see at eight stations.
So that's my crew.
(crows cawing)
(soft relaxing piano)
(rain pattering)
I love the wet, I love the rain, I love running in the rain.
As long as it doesn't rain late at night,
then we're sweet.
This is mint, man, this is the best.
This is the best conditions.
I mean, people might not profit as much.
I'm going to be prepared about the rain.
A few people might not enjoy it,
but it's definitely, my thing, we'll see what happens.
Thanks so much.
(people chattering)
- [Mom] Oh! - [Cameraman] Give it to her!
(crowd cheers)
(guitar music)
- Yeah, I think he'll be all right, just pace.
- At the end of the day, it's all pace.
So if he can hold it then he's sweet,
just doesn't wanna blow up on the first hill, I think.
- He's in the leading pack.
- Where's the other two?
- Here we are.
- This first hill, I hope he doesn't work too hard up it,
'cause you can blow up.
Everything is so much harder than it needs to be.
(person cheering)
(electric guitar music)
- It's nice out there, hey?
Nice temperature.
Perfect temperature, man.
Is my tracker working?
I kept moving it around, I had no idea.
What was it working at the start?
- [Dad] Yeah.
- You got in pretty quick.
- I felt I was moving really, really slow,
and really controlled.
- [Geoffrey] Thanks guys.
I made some friends, that's Geoffrey.
- [Dad] The solution would be at leaving it unlocked.
- It started left from Wilpena Pound,
up over St. Mary's for the first seven, eight, K.
And I was sort of sitting in the the top three,
over St Mary's and I think I was feeling really good,
and really in control.
(crows cawing)
But in hindsight, I just went over there,
a little too quickly.
I got to checkpoint one and I was feeling really good,
and in control, but I could feel a blister,
coming on, on my pinky toe.
- Hey, how are you feeling?
- That was tough, that last two kilometres.
So that was a concern.
And then I left from checkpoint one in a lot of control,
to head to checkpoint two and checkpoint three.
And from one to three, I felt great.
My legs were good.
I felt like I was putting enough food down,
and really in control.
I was running with Jared for a lot of it.
And that dude's amazing.
He is a savage, it's his first mile earn,
the fashion in which he ran in,
and how well he did across the whole event.
It was just amazing.
So it was epic to share some kilometres with him,
and some kilometres by myself and some creek beds.
And I go to checkpoint three and I just felt,
I should take 10 minutes to get some food down,
and get on top of everything.
And I think I was feeling good and in control,
but that was when I realised,
that maybe I wasn't running my own race a little bit.
I'm not really into it at the moment.
I'd prefer to have someone to run with.
Jared and Simon took off and I sort of was like,
well, I'm going to stay and eat some food,
a little bit longer and try to get all my kit together,
and then follow him.
And I took my poles after checkpoint three,
and I immediately regretted it.
It was just technical terrain.
From three to four, I had my poles,
they were doing my head in, the arches in my feet,
started to hurt a little bit.
And so my goal was just to get to checkpoint four.
(violin music)
(tin clanging)
It's two potatoes, two baby foods,
and two smoothies and one gel, that's all.
- [Dad] You got it, you got it.
- I got there and picked up Tommy,
who was buddy running with me for that whole section.
And I felt good, I got the food down and I moved,
from checkpoint four to checkpoint six, really quickly.
I felt really good.
Me and Tom were hammering.
And I think I just spent maybe five minutes too long,
up there and I cooled down heaps.
And after me and Tom left that checkpoint,
I just started walking and I was like,
I need a little bit of time to just warm up.
And I just couldn't get back into any form after that.
I was just battling, the arches in my feet,
started to flare up heaps.
That was the thing that got me in the whole race.
From about 86k onwards, the arches in my feet,
would just be in agony.
I felt I couldn't put my foot flat or get any rhythm.
Cause it was just like,
they were getting stabbed repetitively.
(soft cello music)
So from six to eight, I think I took about,
two hours longer than I should have.
And it was just a battle of walking and fighting the cold,
and warming up and then getting cold again.
And I just couldn't keep any pace.
And I got a bit defeated through that.
Maybe I need a massage or I need you to look at my feet.
Mind if I change my socks and shoes?
Like really defeated through there,
And got to 106k, got to the checkpoint and warmed up a bit.
I was sitting there trying to eat some noodles,
and drink some Solo.
And Morgan who came in third, who's a savage,
was just power-chucking noodles and Solo.
It was sorta like epic, just brought me to what,
a ultra is really like.
But he started vomiting and then he was just,
well, it's not going to happen any quicker sitting here.
And he took off and I don't know, I sort of got a bit,
of inspiration out of that and, and got running.
And from there I was good for about 10ks,
and stayed warm and had food.
And then probably at about 115, I started to feel the night.
It was like 2:00 or 3:00 am,
and I really started to feel tired.
And I was tracking probably at about 117,
I was sort of walking and yawning,
and walking and yawning on myself.
And I was just having these thoughts of,
I don't know if I can stay awake?
And I was drifting off and this guy Daniel, ran past me,
and was just like my guardian angel.
And he helped me a lot get through,
about the next 30 kilometres.
It's pretty like, an amazing thing for someone to,
just do that with you,
and to share that experience with someone.
And I'm sure he was battling, but without him,
there's no way I would have finished that race.
(crickets chirping)
I ended up getting to checkpoint 11, 144k.
And it was St Mary's and I sorta knew I was home from there,
and that I was going to finish.
It was just the fashion in which I finished in.
I was sitting there, just brutalised, just out of it,
really emotional, I'd sort of spent,
a couple of kilometres, just walking and crying,
a little bit before that.
Got there and got with Tom and tried to get up,
St. Mary's as quick as we could but my feet...
It was just all my feet.
They just didn't have it in them.
Everything I stepped on was just so painful.
Just the arches of my feet were in agony.
But we got to the top of St. Mary's,
with the most epic sunrise behind us.
(soft piano music)
(camera clicks)
(watch ticking)
(crowd clapping)
(uplifting music)
And then, yeah, we slowly made it,
to the finish line and I was an absolute shell of myself.
But when I got there, it was amazing to see all my family,
and friends and support crew,
and knock the first miler off.
Cause it was an absolute soul-searching journey,
from kilometre 1 to kilometre 160.
So that's sorta how it went.
Everyone says that maybe it takes a few days or a few weeks,
before you decide you're going to do your next one.
And I think I decided during the event,
that I was going to do another one.
I just want to take what I learned from that one,
all the pacing, the food, the stops,
what it does to your mind.
I just want to take what I learned into another one.
I just want to keep building on them and building on them.
Cause I think a few small changes would have definitely,
helped me with a lot of things.
And I think they're just experiences,
that you need to go through.
I hadn't done any long events.
I hadn't done a 100k or anything like that.
The most I had done was like 10 or 11 hours on my feet.
And I noticed that.
So I just want to have put this one,
as a huge learning experience,
and go out and do another one.
Cause for your first miler,
I think it's sort of a learning experience,
unless you're Jared, that guy's a beast, he's unbelievable.
I have a problem with going out,
a little bit too hard and I felt,
I wasn't going out too hard,
but I was, in hindsight.
I wouldn't spend as much time at checkpoints.
It was amazing to see all my crew at checkpoints,
but the amazing thing about it was,
I just got battled down to my core,
and was just in the worst place.
And it's amazing how many times you can go to a low,
and then pick yourself back up,
and then you go to a low.
And to get that feeling of raw emotion,
where you're just crying,
just feel you're absolutely beaten,
it's a pretty amazing feeling.
And it's what you grow from.
So you have to go through those things to,
to come out the other side, a different person.
So it was brutal.
(keyboard taps)