Northern Gold Coast Run Club

Kokoda weekend coming up good luck teams.

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SORTIDA VIELHA

Kurtis Stirling’s account of last weekends brutal 100mile race in Spain.

I don’t think my training in Aus could have gone much better, I felt strong on the hills and being on them for hours didn’t stress me out and I felt pretty comfortable.

Getting to Spain. Flights went as well as they could have with a baby. 14 hours for the first one, where we all sleep the first half off. 2nd flight was 7 which we were all awake for so when we landed in Barca we were all very tired. We got to enterprice hire car desk and they informed me that they had not got the 7 seater car I had booked and because I was over 1 hour past the pick up time that it counted as a no show and they had no cars for us. We argued with them for an hour or so until we basically gave up with Zola starting to get upset. We managed to get a car from a different company. Being double the price and on a 5 seater. Driving around the CBD of Barcelona is very stressful and not to mention parking. I have to stay all the locals have been amazing and helped so much with Zola.
My brother missed his flight but managed to get onto another the next day and he just got a bus to the race instead of coming with us.

We arrived in Vielha which is amazing, with so many great views and it is one of the most amazing places I have ever been.

I didn’t seem to settle in well and sleep was all over the place just like my stomach.

On the morning of the race, I woke up at 6am after going to sleep at 10pm I thought I would have slept in longer but unfortunately my mind wouldn’t let me. The race started at 4pm so being awake for 10 hours before a long run like this was very concerning. Which probably seemed to make my stomach worse.
I took some Imodium which seemed to help and I got to the start line and dropped off my drop bags. There are only 3 aid stations that support can get to 30 mile 70 mile and 94 miles.

The Race starting.
Very hot! I actually started with the ice bandana on which was a choice. I was in wave A so pretty close to the front a lot of people overtook but I figured they would regret that later on.
The race had 4 big climbs first up is basically straight away which I went pretty well on but seeing how narrow the path is to the end drop was scary. From memory i believe it was around the 20-mile mark I got myself into a terrible mental state of stress very close to a complete meltdown I remember thinking I wouldn’t wish this for my worst enemy. And how I will never do another miler again in my life after about 6 hours I finally came out of it. Definitely up there with the worst I’ve ever felt in my life but luckily a feeling I have gotten through before. Being in your head is a very scary place and what I can only describe as hell on earth and possibly the worst torture you could ever put a human through.

I got into the aid station at mile 30. My feet were starting to hurt both baby toes were very painful to touch but my mind and time were much better so I was pretty happy overall.
Another setback when I was informed that the drop bag had been misplaced and both taken to the next aid station all my Gel and nutrition powder for my water, and new clothes.
The staff managed to get me some gels and apologised for their mistake only problem being it was all different and nothing I had before. The powder was Noak, you need a lot of it to make up 1 x 500ml bottle so I had to carry 4-5 kg of it as my next personal aid station wasn’t until mile 70. And I don’t think they ever put enough in the tanks at the normal aid stations.
The next
I left that aid station around 1/2am and went through the night ok I got talking to an Australian guy. We paced each other through the night we’ll probably be a bit slower but I didn’t mind considering how I started the race and was happy to have the company. The 2nd big climb was as hard as the first one and seemed to last forever but so many breathtaking mountains that I put a jacket on but it was too hot so I went the first night in a t-shirt. The fog was so bad at the top
Of the 2nd mountain that you could only see 2 feet in front and you could see heaps of people lost and shouting. The course markings were difficult to see and they were different from the GPS on the watch. But the staff had red lights which helpes and they told everyone to use GPS on watch.

Morning came and it really started to heat up getting into the aid station you could see the effects of it on people DNF plus lying in a mess. The biggest positive I could take from this event gear-wise was the ice bandanna I felt like a new person physically and mentally with it on I was calm, confident, aggressive and started to enjoy the struggle/ run , the impact of having it was what I would imagine having a shot of he**in must feel like. My Australian friend started to struggle a lot so I decided to walk with him to a few aid stations. We arrived into beret aid station and it was cooking around 2pm and high 30s. I used the bathroom here which I thought was good and wouldn’t be an issue. Oh how wrong I was. The next aid station was 6K but it was the 70-mile mark where I could meet my brother and get all my gear back. I felt ok but hammish that had helped me through the night was in a bad way. I did the right thing and stayed with him encouraging him to just make it to the 70-mile aid station, where he could sleep and see his wife
When we arrived there my stomach wasn’t good I used the toilet again got all my own gear new tape for feet new clothes and shoes. Other than the stomach issues I was feeling really good leaving the aid station. I had eaten well and felt fresh. The next climb was probably the hardest of the lot didn’t seem to want to end and my stomach was starting to hurt really badly. I had to stop regularly to drop my guts and even had to start to count how many wipes I had left ( I was scared to fart while running ) the chafe I experienced in my but was extremely painful and would last for the rest of the run, it was probably more impactful that the pain in my feet.
The terrain was getting extremely tough with huge rocks slated rocks river crossings and declines which were killing my feet. Slow going to say the least.
I had a few more funny feeling moments and started to become forgetful and a small bit of confusion but I could quickly snap out of it at this stage.
I had a few people overtake me without using the pole so I put my poles away and seemed to make up more time starting to pass people myself. I came across a very panicked woman from Argentina who had become lost I told her I didn’t speak Spanish and she clearly didn’t speak English. I helped her to the next aid station I later found out she DNF.

I made it to the last personal CP and in all honesty, I felt worse than I expected. I kinda wanted to go under 30 hours but that was gone after about halfway so I was just focused on getting it done and not pushing too hard so I was surprised how bad I started to feel. I think it was around 2am and I had been going for 34 hours and awake for 44 hours

The last 10 miles were the last big mountain ( the wall is what it was called ). I decided I would try to finish strong getting into my own head on how I can do the climb easily, I was very pumped. I believe I did them very well, however I did start to hallucinate pretty badly, I was thinking that large boulders were pandas and I was becoming very confused about what I was doing and that I thought I had gotten something or someone. I knew what was happening so I kept progressing through the large group of pandas/ Rock 😂

I got to the last aid start half way up the last climb and felt better being around people. Refilled water and had about my 100th Nutella sandwich. I set off it was so dark I could only see the little reflection on the course marks I could see them go right up into what I thought was the sky. On the final climb I had to take a few stops put all my weight on the poles close my eyes and let my head spin for 10 Seconds come back to earth and keep moving.
When I finally made the top I began to try to jog down the hills my feet were so banged up the pain was up there with the worst I’ve felt in an ultra. I’m not really sure what happened on the downhill as I think I was micro-napping for 5 seconds at a time thankfully I didn’t fall. With 3 miles to go I stoped took off my jacket and snapped my head back into the game and finished strong.
Thinking of Zola made me very emotional but motivated me to finish running hard. It was around 6:30am and the village was very quiet and had about 5 people at the finish. Even removing the bell from the bell.

Overall I believe I’m happy. I know I’m better than the time I got it done in but I know how close I was to DNF and how many things went against me.
I think this result will age well and I will become proud of my effort and how deep I actually had to dig to get to the finish

For a runner to leave Australia or NZ and come to Europe and do well I take my hat off. I believe my training could not have been better but the week getting here sleeping and eating could not have been much worse which is my own fault, I think I just overlooked it a bit. In reality, you can’t have a holiday and fit something like this in you have to be all in and not have any other plans.

I am on the fence if I will ever do another miler again when I was in a bad state I said I wouldn’t but I believe I am yet to nail a hilly 100m race.
I’m not sure if I’m cut out for this distance perhaps it’s like a Middleweight boxer fighting at heavyweight and I’m just not sure I can take the hits any more.

Running and endurance has made me the person I am today and I wouldn’t like to know what I would be doing with out it how far of the rails I would go. I’m just not sure I can have a healthy relationship with it with out becoming completely obsessed to the point that it becomes damaging to myself or my relationship with my family. Maybe not working 60/70 hours a week isn’t healthy also.

Body wise I feel pretty good not much to complain about just the conditions of feet but nothing I havet had before.
I will enjoy my holiday and have a serious conversation with acacia and myself and see what I wanna do next.

What a cracking weekend for NORTHs and friends at GCAM. So many PBs and happy faces and legends having fun running and being positive.

Paradise Point Norths 5K Run club champs. Well done Rikki, Dave and Tom on winning the Female , male and master’s categories.
Paul Manning's - thesundaylongrun
Took some amazing pics.

https://gallery.thesundaylongrun.com/norths5kchamps2026/

Congrats to the 2026 Norths crew that took on the Redbull race the sun race 355k from GC to Tenterfield in just over 24hrs. 5th team overall. Only 40 mins behind first place.

Check out one of our partners goldcoast physio & sports health .
One of the best Physio groups on the Gold Coast with many amazing physios and massage therapist The best people to see about running related issues.

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Let’s go K2D 50k is back baby. 🎄😛🔥🙌

Great fun with the Northw crew this weekend. RECC relay and Beer 🍻 mile. ❤️👍