Mini-Documentary - Simpson Desert Ultra-Marathon w/ Sam Schroder

foreign 2023 the day has finally arrived in a little while I'm gonna get picked up from my accommodation at the lodge in birdsville and driven about 20 K's out of town to The Race Hub where I'll be running 50 kilometers in the Simpson desert Ultra there are four options for the Simpson desert Ultra 25k is 50 K's 75ks and 100 case and each lupezo start window so my start window opened at 10 pm and closes at 2AM I'm starting at 1am I hope to come in after 25 case for a short break which I hope will include a bacon and egg roll we'll see whether I have time for that or not and then head back out on the final Loop of the event so every competitor from every distance will head out hopefully that's the plan at 7 00 am tomorrow morning and all going well I'll be back at the Hub done and dusted collecting my uh unique mug which is the equivalent of the metal for this event around noon am I being realistic Am I Dreaming who knows we'll find out [Music] supporter camp bumpers the leaderboard admined stop finish on and the cow is very bright aid station some runners soon heading out on their third Loop they've already done 25 or 50 depending medical term the jams I'm going to be climbing a few of them it's pretty cool I'm back here and watch someone come in [Music] nice a nice nice jogging it in getting it it well done okay you're gonna follow the South Loop signs yep yep yeah rock and roll totally ready we've got this you're right once you get out that it's beautiful all right guys five four three two one baby you can do this I'll be back you can do this sorry about the headlamp the 5k's done taking like an hour and five minutes so all time goals are out the window everything being reconsidered the surface is insane so much tougher than I had anticipated I'm not complaining I'm stoked to be out here but being realistic yeah my my dream goal of between 10 and 11 hours is in the bin and we're just going to get this done however long it takes but yeah the first okay in a bit was give a plane and my run walk strategy was working fine and ever since it's been up and over a sand dune on an angle so that was all soft sand but then there's this see if it said I'll show you in a sec you know it's hard to explain but it's like gauts and sand it's not a single foot you put down that is the same angle or or direction as the foot before like it's just I keep thinking I'm staggering along like a like a drunk it's wild but that's five done 45 to go that's one park run done nine park runs as you go and it's bloody magical out here the Moon is lighting the way and I'm having a ball see ya so this is the terrain and you can tell by how badly the camera is bouncing around it it's just a wild ride to find your way these are the markers like a little tube and ribbon and you just look up from the one you've passed try and find the next one and walk towards it it's uh yeah look it's much much tougher than I had anticipated and I think this particular surface is the Balkan course I thought I'd done lots of sand prep but yeah I didn't prep for this wee what an adventure all right quick torch a little bit so you can see my face kind of wood to do that though so that seven and a half k Mark I'm proud to announce just had my first stack sorry for the torch in the camera then so going up this engine super super safe don't even know the footing wrong who knows luckily it was a nice straightforward fall forward onto hands and knees I think I got some sort of prickly thing in my hand but might just be stinging from The Landing who knows hard work very hard-working it's got overtaken by a lovely lady much older than me she'd already had two stacks she's a fast Walker she's golden it's pretty magical out here there's a little crowd cover but the Moon's still really bright and beautiful I feel like you probably can't really see this and I can't turn my torch off because I don't see anything about it this is salt pan and apart from learning to what's happened holes made by the cattle running through this is beautiful running surface so I'm trying to make up a bit of my absurdly Slow Time on me not sure how much of it there is I feel like I'm walking straight out of dungeon they're like you can see give me a distance that's the first aid station I so far I've done 12.3 K's in 2.5 hours I'm taking much longer than I thought I would but I'm about to go way down [Music] not sure how many more in the dark videos I'll make because I know there's nothing to really see but just clocked over 14 caves um the Aid Station was at the 13 Kmart and her lovely volunteer called Courtney plucked out on there she said she thinks about 10. prickles out of my hand there's still a couple of deep ones in there I have I got I go for my baby without question absolutely survive a very mindful and a handful of prickles so yeah so a very cool fine like a caterpillar but white and with the most massive Stinger sticking up out of its bomb I was more than happy to go around that guy anyway 14k is done 11ks back to the hub now and then another 25. so yeah past halfway on the first Loop got to be happy about that apart from how incredibly challenging the terrainism feeling great feeling positive feeling happy love the moon love the light Love The View yeah this is wild [Music] it's seven A.M I've done 23 kilometers two kilometers to get back to the I've been as you can see it's almost my markers though oh my God so much to catch you up on so somehow I managed to get to the end of the 25 days came in at about I don't know 7 30 or something it's just after eight I've had a few bites of the bacon and egg roll and then the rest of the egg I had a coffee that my absolute Legend of her husband had waiting for me at the Finish Line because he is actually the most amazing man in the universe I changed my shirt I decided investor pressure with my feet is to just ignore them and not look at them you know healing is for later right pain is temporary quitting is forever and other cliches so there's the Hub back there I've just left I'm heading out I've done the South Loop 25ks time to go out on the North Loop last night was a pile of crap let me tell you it was jammed hard super super hard but it was very reassuring to get back to the hub and have the harbsters team Malcolm and Luke the two amazing husbands who have been now cheers Gordon support crew tell me that everyone has said that as they've come in so even though I was one of the last people in which was because I was one of the last people to leave I feel reassured that I didn't do it any tougher than anyone else so it's just after eight I've got till 12 o'clock to make it point at the they say halfway but it's not halfway of the north loop I am reassured by the news that there are no Giver planes between here and the checking point they have to work on something so that was a lie I'll show you in a minute um but the checkpoint is 11 K's into this 25k Loop and you bet your bottom dollar I'll be counting down every k by K it's complete utter of the surface it's called Giver planes and in my stupid training brain for the last six months I thought oh yeah just like Pebble Creek you know there's driveways that are stones LOL you cannot walk on this you stub your toe every second stab you take this is an insane surface and The Hectic just after I left the Hub and talked about how I was determined to finish the 50. this Legend Bindi caught up with me and we've been walking together and we have quite a few things in common one of which is we're both crazy enough to think walking 50k's in the desert was a good idea was it a good idea of Indy yes yes yes she is my happy positivity um Guru and we are happy and positive and having an adventure it's the best so this is the emergency checkpoint it's got a radio some water and first aid and we only need to use it if we need to obviously it's halfway between the Hub and the checkpoint that's Middle East of the loop although we believe it's about 11 K's around on this Loop oh yeah doing a slow climate it's slippery sand right now [Music] so we just climbed out of this bowl of hard sand spectacular just three two one [Applause] [Music] foreign another gin there are so many Gins I just passed 37 K's I'm in PB territory now my previous longest distance was 35.8 K's in the light horse Ultra a few weeks ago and we've been through I've been through the checkpoint which was at the 11k Mark I'm a cabin K Over wow can't talk a bit over a k past the checkpoint where Bindy and I arrived together and Bindi decided to call her today so I'm gonna get these last 13 case standalone it was fine because I came here to do this for me uh I read some beautiful notes at that checkpoint and I'm gonna nail this you watching me it's really quite difficult to explain to you just how difficult this terrain is I mean sand dunes are much worse but this is every single football Pebbles under your feet or bigger rocks that you kick everything is hurt a world of hurt all the things hurt but nicely my God my feet hurt so much and I am really struggling as for running slow there'll be no running I've been through the final checkpoint which is normally just a little emergency checkpoint like the video earlier with water radio and first aid but because it's so hot they actually had a full aid station with Coke and ice and water and a nurse which was nice and we had a bit of a chat and lifting my neck because it's hard to find the ribbons and find your way with the black gauze in front of your face and I don't know pink should stand out but for some reason it's just not it could be my sunnies anyway six K's to go [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] and so it's all done 60 kilometers of the most ridiculous Terrain I weren't expecting 20 sand dunes and a combination of keep a plane and salt pan in the two Loops I did a South Loop and the north loop I'm going to say there was no salt pan at all and it was about 80 Sand Dune it's not true but it felt like it toughest most challenging terrain every competitor said it was harder than they expected people who'd been before in previous years said it was the toughest most challenging version of the event last year it had been rain lots and lots of rain and floods which is awful but it meant the sand dunes were up solid this year they're saying sand was incredibly soft if you've ever been to the beach and done that kind of try to walk up the Sand Dune to leave the beach thing and your feet have slipped back so than where you were to start with yeah there was a lot of that there's a lot of very uneven surface a lot of the sand bowls and Sand Dunes were full of prickly gorse bushes so you know you were sort of trying to walk around bushes or between bushes and getting prickles in the legs and stuff like that it was this is the the most insanely difficult thing I've ever done but then it is I'm very proud of what I achieved I'm very proud to be able to call myself an ultra marijuana if it took me a really long time there were 22 people in my team who made it to the start line Sorry 23 including me and the twin out of the 23 all this nine we're not able to finish the distance they signed up for I was the last person to cross the finish line at the end of the day but I started later than some other competitors and so I think in terms of time possibly um a bit quicker than some people of any though I mean not that it matters I didn't come there too beat people or be quicker than people are came here to do the Simpson desert Ultra 2023 and that's exactly what I did [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]