Anzac Day 2013 (Thursday 25th April) we jumped on a plane bound all the way from Melbourne to the sunny state of Tasmania. The occasion? To celebrate my brothers last weekend as a single man since he was getting married the following week.
This post isn't about the Tassie trip because we all know the rules.... what happens on a boys trip stays on the boys trip :-)
On the plane over I was reading the Herald Sun and saw an advertisement for something called the "MCG Stadium Stomp", although there wasn't a lot of information it seemed like a "fun" run up and down the MCG. Knowing that I needed a challenge to train for, I instantly asked Andrew, David and Jamie if they wanted to do it. Andrew was the only one who was interested, it was going to be done..... well if we remembered about it after the massive weekend.
The Tassie weekend went by and then Andrew and Gemma's wedding finished. Somehow a few weeks after that, on the 25th May both Andrew and myself signed up for the full course. The full course included a whopping "Seven Thousand Three Hundered and Forty Three Steps" (aka 7,343 but writing it makes it sound so much bigger).
Signing up is obviously the easy part, training... well that's the hard part. My plan of attack was to do as many stairs as I could leading up to the event. I'm no expert coach but I figured this would be the best way to train for a stair climb.
My training ground was going to be the 1,000 steps in the Dandenongs. Conveniently located within 30 minutes from work and just around the corner from my brother and parents. Although it's called the 1,000 steps I believe it's roughly 800 steps up the mountain. My goal was to be able to do this 4 times in a row just before the event (which is then roughly 6,400 steps done).
So once every weeknight and then on weekends I ventured over to the steps. Winter obviously is the worst time to train because it's cold, dark and did I mention cold? The first 15 minutes was always a struggle but by the time you reached the stairs (which is a 1km walk from the car) I was usually pretty warm.
Doing it in the dark was an experience, it's just you, the steps, occasionally possums and your weird imagination. Usually as I got tired my mind started wandering. One night I heard dogs barking and then I became paranoid that a fox was going to jump out and bite me. Please don't think about this with any common sense, yes foxes are scared of humans and probably wouldn't do that, I was tired and not thinking straight. Luckily the Walking Dead season had finished so imaginations of Zombies popping in my head didn't occur.
By the last week before the stadium stomp (Queen's Birthday weekend) I managed to do the steps 4 times with 4kg in a backpack. I was pretty certain I was ready, ready for what I wasn't quite sure. Below is my tracking of that day
Finally Sunday 16th of June arrived.... interestingly exactly a year since I was first released from hospital, way to celebrate. I arrived at Andrew's nice and early and we made our way into the "G" ready for our 10:30 start.
For anyone that doesn't know what the MCG is, Paulipedia** describes it as a "Stadium on steroids". Effectively it's a stadium with a capacity of 100,018 people, it's huge.
** Paulipedia may or may not be an actual source
We picked up our race kit from outside the stadium and ventured inside to see what we had signed up for. Since we were 30 minutes early we got to see people who had started before us. It really sinks in how big the MCG is when you realise you are going to be running all over it.
Soon after it was nearly our time to start so we took off our jackets and dropped our bags at the baggage check. We then queued up in a massive line ready for the 10:30 wave of runners.
Before going into the event I had a goal of completing it under an hour. My rough logic was if I could do 1,800 steps every 15 minutes I was roughly there. What I didn't anticipate was the amount of running that was also involved.
After a short wait and after familiarising ourselves with the rules.... No running down the stairs, no overtaking people going down, hit every step on the way down and no music...... we were ready.
Below is the course map:
At the front of the queue they were sending off people in waves of 30 seconds. In my group there was Andrew, some random stranger and myself. Suddenly we were running, the start involved running around just over a quarter of the MCG before you finally hit your first step. Soon enough we hit our first step and ran into our first obstacle.... a runner from the previous group. Obviously following the instructions we painfully followed that runner down the first set of stairs and after 30 seconds before we could finally sprint past him when we started going up the stairs.
Andrew soon managed to get away from me.... well roughly in the first minute. So I was pretty certain I wasn't going to catch him very quickly but at least I had motivation to not let him beat me by too much.
For the next 20 or so minutes we sprinted up the stairs and slightly jogged down the stairs on the lower level of the MCG. This was a fairly easy process but did start to get frustrating not being able to overtake someone going down. Mainly because the stairs on the bottom level are massive, I understand level 4 is more of a risk but serious no overtaking on the bottom level?
After completing a full circle of the MCG we had to run up the internal stair cases to level 4. I was pretty puffed from the internal stairs but I bolted out on level 4 and started sprinting up the stairs. Level 4 steps are hard work, not only are they steeper but there is a lot more of them. I usually found that I could sprint up 3/4 of the steps then for the quarter I struggled up like an old man.
On the way down I didn't mind being stuck behind people as much as it gave me a chance to catch my breath before I tried to overtake them on the way up. At one point one of the staff informed us that we were half way through the course, I looked at my watch and it read 28 minutes. I felt pretty good at that stage, interestingly speaking to Andrew later he told me he doesn't often have violent thoughts but when she told him he was half way he wanted to throw her off the railing.
I just kept going along, not paying too much attention to how much time was left in the course. At one point and I looked up to see Andrew not really that far away from me. Typically we always had about 2 bays between us but at this stage it was less than a bay. Nothing like a bit of brotherly competition to inspire you through the pain.
Unfortunately for me Andrew is also quite competitive so when he saw me he put on the boosters and increased the distance. Eventually I turned a corner and the staff member informed me that this was the last "up" part, I looked at my watch and it read 53 minutes. I was pumped, I may actually reach the goal of under an hour.
I sprinted up the last steps and then bolted down the internal stairs to the lower level. From there I got stuck behind a few people running down the last stairs but when I hit the MCG turf all I had left was to run around half the ground. Somehow even after 7,343 steps I still found the energy to sprint that last distance. Finally crossing the finish line with a total time of 56:40.
Andrew was waiting at the finishing line after narrowly missing defeat by getting a time of 55:45. Both our legs were like jelly after that and they wouldn't stop shaking. After picking up some free food, a drink and a drink bottle we headed into the city for a well deserved lunch.
This post isn't about the Tassie trip because we all know the rules.... what happens on a boys trip stays on the boys trip :-)
On the plane over I was reading the Herald Sun and saw an advertisement for something called the "MCG Stadium Stomp", although there wasn't a lot of information it seemed like a "fun" run up and down the MCG. Knowing that I needed a challenge to train for, I instantly asked Andrew, David and Jamie if they wanted to do it. Andrew was the only one who was interested, it was going to be done..... well if we remembered about it after the massive weekend.
The Tassie weekend went by and then Andrew and Gemma's wedding finished. Somehow a few weeks after that, on the 25th May both Andrew and myself signed up for the full course. The full course included a whopping "Seven Thousand Three Hundered and Forty Three Steps" (aka 7,343 but writing it makes it sound so much bigger).
Signing up is obviously the easy part, training... well that's the hard part. My plan of attack was to do as many stairs as I could leading up to the event. I'm no expert coach but I figured this would be the best way to train for a stair climb.
 |
| 1,000 Steps at night |
So once every weeknight and then on weekends I ventured over to the steps. Winter obviously is the worst time to train because it's cold, dark and did I mention cold? The first 15 minutes was always a struggle but by the time you reached the stairs (which is a 1km walk from the car) I was usually pretty warm.
Doing it in the dark was an experience, it's just you, the steps, occasionally possums and your weird imagination. Usually as I got tired my mind started wandering. One night I heard dogs barking and then I became paranoid that a fox was going to jump out and bite me. Please don't think about this with any common sense, yes foxes are scared of humans and probably wouldn't do that, I was tired and not thinking straight. Luckily the Walking Dead season had finished so imaginations of Zombies popping in my head didn't occur.
By the last week before the stadium stomp (Queen's Birthday weekend) I managed to do the steps 4 times with 4kg in a backpack. I was pretty certain I was ready, ready for what I wasn't quite sure. Below is my tracking of that day
Finally Sunday 16th of June arrived.... interestingly exactly a year since I was first released from hospital, way to celebrate. I arrived at Andrew's nice and early and we made our way into the "G" ready for our 10:30 start.
 |
| The outside of the MCG |
** Paulipedia may or may not be an actual source
We picked up our race kit from outside the stadium and ventured inside to see what we had signed up for. Since we were 30 minutes early we got to see people who had started before us. It really sinks in how big the MCG is when you realise you are going to be running all over it.
Soon after it was nearly our time to start so we took off our jackets and dropped our bags at the baggage check. We then queued up in a massive line ready for the 10:30 wave of runners.
Before going into the event I had a goal of completing it under an hour. My rough logic was if I could do 1,800 steps every 15 minutes I was roughly there. What I didn't anticipate was the amount of running that was also involved.
After a short wait and after familiarising ourselves with the rules.... No running down the stairs, no overtaking people going down, hit every step on the way down and no music...... we were ready.
Below is the course map:
At the front of the queue they were sending off people in waves of 30 seconds. In my group there was Andrew, some random stranger and myself. Suddenly we were running, the start involved running around just over a quarter of the MCG before you finally hit your first step. Soon enough we hit our first step and ran into our first obstacle.... a runner from the previous group. Obviously following the instructions we painfully followed that runner down the first set of stairs and after 30 seconds before we could finally sprint past him when we started going up the stairs.
 |
| The task ahead of us |
Andrew soon managed to get away from me.... well roughly in the first minute. So I was pretty certain I wasn't going to catch him very quickly but at least I had motivation to not let him beat me by too much.
For the next 20 or so minutes we sprinted up the stairs and slightly jogged down the stairs on the lower level of the MCG. This was a fairly easy process but did start to get frustrating not being able to overtake someone going down. Mainly because the stairs on the bottom level are massive, I understand level 4 is more of a risk but serious no overtaking on the bottom level?
After completing a full circle of the MCG we had to run up the internal stair cases to level 4. I was pretty puffed from the internal stairs but I bolted out on level 4 and started sprinting up the stairs. Level 4 steps are hard work, not only are they steeper but there is a lot more of them. I usually found that I could sprint up 3/4 of the steps then for the quarter I struggled up like an old man.
On the way down I didn't mind being stuck behind people as much as it gave me a chance to catch my breath before I tried to overtake them on the way up. At one point one of the staff informed us that we were half way through the course, I looked at my watch and it read 28 minutes. I felt pretty good at that stage, interestingly speaking to Andrew later he told me he doesn't often have violent thoughts but when she told him he was half way he wanted to throw her off the railing.
I just kept going along, not paying too much attention to how much time was left in the course. At one point and I looked up to see Andrew not really that far away from me. Typically we always had about 2 bays between us but at this stage it was less than a bay. Nothing like a bit of brotherly competition to inspire you through the pain.
Unfortunately for me Andrew is also quite competitive so when he saw me he put on the boosters and increased the distance. Eventually I turned a corner and the staff member informed me that this was the last "up" part, I looked at my watch and it read 53 minutes. I was pumped, I may actually reach the goal of under an hour.
I sprinted up the last steps and then bolted down the internal stairs to the lower level. From there I got stuck behind a few people running down the last stairs but when I hit the MCG turf all I had left was to run around half the ground. Somehow even after 7,343 steps I still found the energy to sprint that last distance. Finally crossing the finish line with a total time of 56:40.
Andrew was waiting at the finishing line after narrowly missing defeat by getting a time of 55:45. Both our legs were like jelly after that and they wouldn't stop shaking. After picking up some free food, a drink and a drink bottle we headed into the city for a well deserved lunch.
 |
| After the climb enjoying my free banana |
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