Moab 240 Recap

What is Happy Trails Podcast?

A trail running podcast for all runners' ether you're at the front, the middle or the back of the pack. Hosted by Benn Coubrough, an accomplished ultra-endurance athlete and Mitch Clark an everyday trail warrior, gear nerd, and an unapologetic trail running fanboy. This show dives into the raw, ridiculous, and rewarding world of running wild.

Benn Coubrough (00:00)
I ran this morning and tonight, so yeah, fine.

Mitch (00:00)
Yeah.

Yes, wait. Nice. You'll be at Coszy.

Benn Coubrough (00:06)
Mm. Maybe.

Mitch (00:08)
I love it. Alrighty. Welcome back to another episode of the Happy Trails Podcast. it's a bit of a much awaited one this one after your big or your latest big adventure over in Moab. So, ⁓ yeah, really pumped to to get into this and you only flew back in a couple of days ago and you and I have barely had a chance to actually debrief on it. So this ⁓ and you went missing in a Vegas hole while you're over there, so we haven't

Benn Coubrough (00:21)
Mm.

Yeah.

Mm.

Mitch (00:38)
actually had much time to really run through it. So a lot of this is new to me as well. So I'm I'm excited to hear hear all about it. But mate, welcome welcome home, welcome back. ⁓ congrats on a big effort over there and and look we'll certainly dive into it all. But yeah, how's how's it all going? How are you feeling?

Benn Coubrough (00:52)
Thank you.

Yeah, no, good. I've ⁓ yeah, arrived back yesterday morning and ⁓ straight back into work and yeah, into the swing of things really. But yeah, I had a it was a good just to have that week after the race the sort of process and holiday ish, party ish and soak in ⁓ Vegas and a little bit of LA and ⁓ spend some time with the crew and a little bit with Nicole.

⁓ didn't get into ⁓ I did get in a little bit of trouble. Well we didn't quite make the the spend too much time at the pool, unfortunately. So yeah.

Mitch (01:28)
Of course you did.

⁓ really? And it was pretty hot, wasn't it?

Benn Coubrough (01:39)
Yeah, it was. It was beautiful weather. It was a little bit cooler than we I mean, the whole time we're in Moa besides the first two days we arrived in Moab it was beautiful. ⁓ like thirty thirty odd degrees and sunny and then as soon as the ⁓ the race the day of the race basically the weather just turned and then and then the days after the race we just it was just bit chilly and a bit windy and cold. not too bad though. Like just sort of like our sort of

Mitch (01:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (02:09)
spring a little bit, but then once we're in but yeah, but Vegas on the way to Vegas it snowed.

Mitch (02:10)
Yeah, okay. Yeah, up and down. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I saw that. That's crazy. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (02:17)
So so that was cool. We went stock at stopped at Bryce Canyon and Bryce and went and looked at the canyons. I didn't get I didn't do too much exploring. It just my ⁓ I my feet were really blistered so I d wasn't doing too much walking but ⁓ been a cool cool guide. Shout out to Johnny Donohue who's doing ⁓ three hundred Ironman's back to back.

Mitch (02:41)
yeah.

Benn Coubrough (02:42)
So yeah, he's got an incredible journey. I think he's only up to like day twenty ish now. But but yeah, he's ⁓ from Hawaii originally, the big island, so he's familiar with the the I man and he's yeah, so he was one he was our server and at the smokehouse in Bryce. And ⁓ yeah, so shout out to

Mitch (02:48)
Okay. Diseases.

Okay.

Yeah, right. There you go.

Benn Coubrough (03:05)
Johnny, don't know who if he listens to this podcast, but ⁓ thanks for the thanks for the ⁓ the cuisine. It was the s off ⁓ I mean Ben, Brooklyn and Brett had their f nice fair share of their full rack of ribs. And ⁓ yeah, but but yeah. But no, it was yeah, it was it was a good trip. Vegas was good. Sora sort of

Mitch (03:08)
Nice.

Yeah, nice.

Yeah, good. Awesome.

Benn Coubrough (03:33)
show, a balesque show, which was good with Nicole. So that was g that that was entertaining and ⁓ but yeah. And then yeah, we drove round LA looking for Britney Spears.

Mitch (03:36)
good. No.

You might have more chance finding her at three AM, four AM in Vegas.

Benn Coubrough (03:51)
Mm. We tried.

Mitch (03:54)
The beautiful train wreck that that girl is.

Benn Coubrough (03:57)
Hm.

Mitch (03:59)
Very good. Well, yeah, welcome back. glad to see you know, you're already back running, which is good. you've had your little break, you've had your rest, and now it's he's back in, I guess. But no, excited to dive into it, excited to hear certainly about the about the race. there's tr tr and try very hard, I suppose, not to get to the ending before the beginning. ⁓ as er as everyone knows.

Benn Coubrough (04:00)
But yeah. Cue.

Yeah.

Yeah, yes.

Mitch (04:28)
Or a lot of people would know obviously. you know, what what transpired. But take us through yeah, take us through the the the just before, I guess. ⁓ there were some changes that had to be made and and then the you know, a short version of getting over there and getting getting settled, getting started so we can spend a bit of time on the actual race and I'll pull the course up so we can sort of track it as we go and you can go stage by stage basically.

Benn Coubrough (04:55)
Yeah.

Yeah, that sounds good. Yeah, well, ⁓ we did pull we did try and get an episode out there before I left, just a bit of a recap of where I was at and what was happening. But yeah, like everyone would have known, I like my build was pretty good. had a good six weeks after bad water back into it. Hip was fine with the bacitis, calf pulled up well

And was in good yeah, good t and I yeah, I had a good couple of weeks. Like we were basically hitting hundred and yeah, hundred and thirty-seven, hundred and sixty-four, hundred and seventy three, and then started to taper down for a hundred and thirty one and then seventy eight Ks a week a week before the race. so I was doing really well. ⁓ we had Nicole, who's ⁓ crew chief and crewing. ⁓ her job was to basically

give me give me a kiss and cuddle at every checkpoint and ⁓ be there for emotional support and just ⁓ be that ⁓ that person to that really believes in me and just keep me pushing and just make sure everything else the crew and everything else was operating well and driving around and making sure that they were comfortable in the accommodations and whatnot. And then Brett came over to be one of the main paces.

⁓ and his role was did get shifted purely because of Ben, who, ⁓ I think we had sort of mentioned had ended up in hospital two weeks before the race and with s ⁓ cellulitis and an inflamed bursa so was taking him out of action.

so he hadn't been running for like three weeks, two weeks. and it was a bit touch and go whether he was actually gonna come or not. He'd been advised not to go. So I do thank him so much for yeah, taking taking one for me again.

Mitch (06:58)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (06:58)
and still tr still travelling at a high risk and I'll get to what actually happened over there with Ben but I can't think of enough for doing that. And Brooklyn that shifted his pacing plans around a little bit as well.

But he was yeah, he was fine. He was all fit, ready to go and ⁓ yes, I just shifted the chains with Brett and then ⁓ but yeah, Nicole wasn't obviously running, she was gonna be organizing all ⁓ everything behind the scenes and driving and making sure everyone was comfortable and just doing all the logistical things. ⁓ the boys got were getting all my nutrition sorted. ⁓ but yeah, we flew out on the Monday morning and ⁓ arrived

Monday morning and then yeah. And then got the short little flight to Salt Lake City where we yeah, hired some line bikes and toured the city and soaked it all up and just just got used to everything and hit Moab.

Mitch (07:46)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (08:02)
But ⁓ but yeah like otherwise everything was all good. But it my I for my end I was all ready in to go and felt felt good. I'd been trying to get a little bit of extra sleep in leading into the race. I slept right on the flo on the flight, had a few hours' sleep, not much, but once I arrived in Salt Lake City, had a good night's sleep. and then yeah, we we had a first we had a couple issues on the trip with the high car. ⁓

booked booked the book the suburban, the ⁓ with with Hertz and

got over there and we he said, well you've got an upgrade if you like and la da da da and it was like okay and then the price just started going up and up and up and up and up and then and then ⁓ then and so it was almost gonna cost us six six six and a half grand for the car. So luckily ⁓ they don't take credit they don't take ⁓ debit ⁓ our visa debits or our MasterCard debits. ⁓ it had to be credit card only. So thank God that happened anyway, so we

Mitch (08:52)
⁓ Jesus.

Benn Coubrough (09:06)
We basically had to reenigne the whole thing and we were there at the Salt Lake City going We've gotten a car. What do we do? So we jumped onto booking.com and found yeah, luckily Nicole got onto that straight away and we booked a car, the same car for a quarter of the price. And ⁓ the only issue though was that we

Mitch (09:14)
⁓ god.

That's crazy.

Benn Coubrough (09:35)
'Cause we were flying return out of LA and the trip that we were gonna go to Vegas, ⁓ we put the drop off at Vegas, not LA. So 'cause it was so last minute quick thinking lock in dates and then we knew we were going to Vegas so but then we tried to change it but then it was gonna cost us an extra two grand.

Mitch (09:46)
Hmm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (09:58)
So we ⁓ we yeah, we just left it to go to Vegas and then we picked up another we found out we we could get another car from Vegas to LA for like three hundred and fifty bucks or whatever it was instead of two grand instead of two grand. So we just went with that. ⁓ but to extend it a day, it cost us sixteen dollars. To change a location it was gonna cost two grand. So go figure.

Mitch (09:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

That's so ridiculous, isn't it? Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (10:26)
But anyway that's but that so that was our first little ⁓ hiccup. So for those that I don't know if I mentioned w ⁓ two weeks before we left, ⁓ our accommodation cancelled our entire Moab accommodation.

Mitch (10:30)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (10:40)
So that wasn't a little hurdle to get over. So they were very nice. And we stayed the HTR last time and HTR Moab but they're like very accommodating, they're awesome. ⁓ Sean, thank you very much. and th but yeah, so they end up looking after us and we had our first week or half or first four nights in ⁓ Moab cupboard in ha the H T R and then we just I had accommodation booked for Monticello. So the team

a base during the race because instead of driving back and forth from Melbourne, as as you know, you probably drove from Sydney to Newcastle about five times. So so we had that plan to stay at Monticello for two nights during the race. ⁓ so that saved travel and then we stayed at at another location in ⁓ in Melab after the race.

Mitch (11:13)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it was a few. Yeah.

Yeah, nice.

Benn Coubrough (11:33)
But but yeah, so that was all sorted. So those just th all those little logistical things you have when you come over from travelling from another country. And we've got Nicole sorry, are you right on camera, right? Yes you are on the camera. That's right. Nicole's Nicole's come to join in the conversations just to keep me on on and say that I don't say anything interesting. Yeah, I'm trying to make sure you like say the right stuff. Yeah, she yeah, she got credit for the car.

Mitch (11:41)
Yep. Yep. Adds to the stress a bit.

Hi, Dick.

Make sure you're not fibbing. You got credit for the car, Nick.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (12:00)
I say just like three times. Hey Mitch.

Mitch (12:04)
Hey Doug, how are you?

Benn Coubrough (12:06)
Yeah. Sorry, you can't I've got my head through the earphone. But ⁓ yeah, so that was the first little hurdle we got over. jumped in the car and took off down to Moab and yeah, arrived in Moab and ⁓ it was just so good to be back. It's such a beautiful spot.

Mitch (12:09)
Right out, no drivers.

Yeah, it's such a beautiful town, isn't it? Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (12:28)
And it's incredible. So yeah, we did some did just usual. Got around, s booked a couple of things for we were gonna book we booked the eight A T Vs for after the race. ⁓ we're gonna do some go down the river on on some rafting, which we ended up having to cancel because of the weather.

Mitch (12:50)
the yeah, the raft the ra the ⁓ rafting would have been good fun. Would have been a bit hectic. Mm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.

Benn Coubrough (12:53)
Yeah, it would have been. Yeah, it would have been. But but yeah, so we can we cancelled that. But but no. But no got into the race ⁓ there was a few adjustments obviously with the six AM start versus the twelve PM start from last year.

they had sto the hidden not Hidden Valley, Massive Back aid station was ⁓ you can only get a shuttle bus, which I'll get to that. ⁓ so you couldn't drive out to that. So which just meant that I wasn't gonna see the crew well, I was gonna see the crew at twenty five K, but then the next crewing point I wasn't going to get to see them until two hundred and four five Ks.

So it was a long time. And because of the yeah, and because of the adjustments with Ben obviously not pacing, ⁓ was meant that I was gonna run from Indian Creek to Shea Mountain solo. So which meant basically I was gonna do the first hundred and eighty six a hundred and eighty six K solo. Which we'd planned for that. our Tailwind so thank you very much for Tailwind. ⁓ that all arrived.

Mitch (13:34)
Yeah, wow. Yeah, it's a big difference in that.

Mm.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (14:03)
at HTR on that on that Tuesday afternoon. So that was so that was fine. We had plenty of time to get that organized. We weren't doing that the night before this year. So yeah, ⁓ we all sat around or Ben and Brett mostly s worked it all out and sat it all down and we had our little baggies going along and that was all good. but yeah, basically yeah, checked in, did a bit of an interview with with the team at ⁓ destination trail. ran into Killian, so hello Killian. If

Mitch (14:12)
Ha ha.

Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Yeah, nice. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (14:33)
listens, ⁓ really n ⁓ gave some nice advice and it's good to see him and good to catch up. And yeah and then just basically yeah got a good night's sleep. I didn't really I slept well but it was ⁓ it was hard to get to sleep. I think I went to sleep at like I tried to go to sleep at about ten but I don't think I fell asleep till about eleven thirty. And then I was getting up at quarter past four I think.

So got up at quarter past four, but I did have that couple hours that I did get to sleep. I woke up once or twice, but I was all ready to go. Six AM start, so yeah, I did get up no, sorry, I got up at quar quarter to four. So making sure that I had ⁓ plenty of time to digest my oats and some and some toast and then yeah, went down to the race start, got ready, picked my

Mitch (15:12)
Okay.

Benn Coubrough (15:26)
tracker up and got that in but ⁓ there's not many toil and just with the different time starting time ⁓ trying to go to the toilet and stuff like that and there's n there's only two toilets in the main hub and then at the back where the pool area that where the accommodation is there's another two toilets. So

Mitch (15:43)
Yeah yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (15:45)
Three hundred and eighty five runners needing to go to the bathroom. It was I was a little bit stressful trying to make sure that I found a bathroom in time, but ⁓ but yeah that that was fine, there was no dramas. ⁓ no rain at that point, it was just a clear night. Yeah, the weather was perfect. Yeah, the weather was beautiful. I did catch up with Andy Glaze and Eli, my best mate.

Mitch (15:48)
That's crazy.

Mm.

Yeah, I mean the start of it the night before the start of it looked really pleasant. Looked really, you know, quite almost perfect. Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I saw some pictures, I was wondering about that conversation. Yep.

Benn Coubrough (16:14)
for a for a social run. that was that was sh that was shocking. ⁓ Nicole made us go. Nicole's like, You've got to be there, you gotta s you gotta be amongst it. Get it. And we didn't get a photo with them at all. We said hello to Andy, but that's I didn't say hello to Eli. I said hello to Andy. not that I got no, no, it's just ⁓ it was just there was that many influences all over all over them hanging off their toes and grabbing onto them.

Mitch (16:26)
Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Was that noticeable compared to last year? 'Cause there was a few there last year obviously, but it was very noticeable.

Benn Coubrough (16:43)
⁓ it was

Yeah. Yeah, but because they did their own little shake out thing, it was just ⁓ my god, it was I just did not wanna be there at all. It was just everyone just hanging on their hanging off everything that they said and not not like not everything that they said. Like and and like I'm not saying they're bad people, it's fine. Like it's great. It's they're really lovely people. But it was just yeah, well yeah, ⁓ Andy ha Andy had the back of his car open up signing books and selling books on the side, so he's gonna make money, which is good. Hats off

Mitch (16:53)
Yeah, yeah.

No, not at all. And look, bless they're getting money out of it and doing what they love. Like, good on but

Ha ha.

Benn Coubrough (17:15)
too. No, I love and I love it, I love what Andy does. That's still got no no issues, but I just I just felt so out of place there it just wasn't me to start like trying to trying to shake hands with everybody and whatnot. Like I yeah not that out there but it was still good. It was good. We just did a little 5k jog out and back and this is when Brett and I did a a run the night before and we we sort of tried to backtrack on the the change of course and we got lost a little bit and ended up

Mitch (17:16)
Love it.

Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's a lot. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep. Mm hmm. I did think that was a pretty long shakeout. It was eight eight K or whatever it was. I was like, that feels yeah.

Benn Coubrough (17:45)
running an extra three Ks, but that's alright. Eight K, yeah, we just yeah, it was meant to be five, and then we didn't realise how far we went down into town, so then we had to come back all the way out. So so but that was but that was fine. But yeah. but yeah, race morning, I sort of

Mitch (17:56)
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. that explains that. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (18:04)
made myself way just wasn't quiet at the front. I was a little bit further back this year just 'cause of I got there. I only got there like two minutes before the start line. ⁓ before the start of the race. And yeah, just sort of was with Ashley and just having a chat with her and then and then boom, took off. And yeah, it was ⁓ it wasn't too cool. It was a little bit chilly in the morning. Wasn't too bad. but yeah, we just took off. I sort of

by the time we got up the ramp and onto the road I was just sitting behind Aaron. There was Aaron, Brogan, Eli and Amy who was leading the triple crown. ⁓ she needed to run seventy one hours to clinch the title.

Mitch (18:39)
Mm. Yep. Yeah.

Yep, okay.

Benn Coubrough (18:52)
As long as she ran under seventy one hours and she was gonna beat would have beaten Ashley, I think. Unless Ashley had like an incredible race in f in comparison time wise, but but she was ⁓ yeah, chatted with Brogan a little I didn't really chat with Brogan too much 'cause Amy was talking with Amy, but I chatted with Amy a little bit and then there was another guy there that I don't know who he was, he was a bit quiet. but yeah, Aaron and Eli were just chatting at the front and then well, yeah, running along the road, saw the crew, they drove past and

And then yeah, we're getting close to getting into the trail and I Elo was in that same position and I'm like going, Well, please don't get in the way this year. I don't want to get behind you again. I was all I was sorta starting to move up a little bit and I was gonna say, Are you gonna jump at the back this time or you gonna try and hold at the front? And he just sort of and then he just drifted to the back and ⁓ then and then slowed down and fell out. So I'm like, Okay, that's that's one problem he l alleviated and then yeah, then basically yeah, hit hit the first climb.

Mitch (19:30)
Yeah, I wanna get caught behind again.

Yeah, okay. That's good. That's good.

Benn Coubrough (19:54)
Go up the tr up the Amasa into the trail and it was Brogan and Aaron setting the pace and I just sort of was I know, fifty or twenty metres, fifty metres behind them a little bit for the all the way all the way into Hidden Valley, the first checkpoint at about thirteen K. and then that's a bit of a climb out of that and ⁓ yeah, climb through that. Wasn't was just trying not to work whatsoever. It was

Yeah, and then I think ⁓ Brogan and Aaron just pulled away a little bit and then I had another three guys sort of come up and close me. actually a big sh shout out to Sean, the other Aussie, ⁓ out there and unfortunately ⁓ yeah, so he yeah, it was he overtook me and I would just sort of ⁓ running through the section. That was the only the only time I pulled out my phone and took a couple of photos was once you sort of come up ⁓ f leading leaving

Mitch (20:35)
Mm. Yeah, he was up there for a bit. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (20:52)
Hinn Valley you run along this little sandy trail and it's just these big massive canyons either side of you and it's just beautiful. It's what you see on YouTube and stuff like that, so I took a bit of a video and a photo of that and then yeah, just you're just sort of doing a bit more climbing and then you then you climb up the top of the first Amasa and then you're basically coming down the slip rock back down to the road to where the canyon Colorado River runs along.

Mitch (20:58)
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (21:19)
So that was yeah, there was about three I think Brogan and Aaron were just ahead and then there was three of us all to all together within, I don't know, twenty metres. ⁓ running down and then we hit the road. But it hit the road and I'm going 'cause there's about five K into the into ⁓ Amassabac aid station and I'm like

Mitch (21:37)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (21:39)
There's no buses. I haven't seen a bus come in or out of that aid station along this road. I'm thinking there's something something's up. I'm like I just had this feeling I'm like, I don't think my crew's there. No, we weren't. I know. So I So anyway, came in, got in and I'm looking around going

Mitch (21:51)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (21:59)
They're not here and had the lady from the one one of the eighth stages, ⁓ have you got a a drop bag? And I went, No, my crew's meant to be here and they're like, there's been a bit of a trouble, ⁓ a bit of a hassle with the shuttle buses and then I had actually I can't remember the other guy's name, I didn't get his name, but Mike McKnight was there. He came running over straight away and he was like, What do you need? What do you need? I've got electrolytes and pulled pulled pulled all these electrolytes out of his pocket and then had another guy and I said, I'm using tailwind and then this other guy goes, ⁓ and pulls out a bag of tailwind. I've got that

Mitch (22:21)
that's good. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (22:29)
And I'm like, yeah guys, I've got electric the electrolytes are fine, but I've got nowhere to store them. And they're like, ⁓

And like my crew were meant to be here with my with my extra tailwind plus my soft las so I could fill the electrolytes up with. Because obviously you get to that aid station and there's only ⁓ twenty five K in, you don't want to be carrying four litres of fuel on you. ⁓ no, y and you don't have to exactly. That's why you got that aid station to then. So the biggest difference from last year to this year is I think I think it was a a capacity of two and a

Mitch (22:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

And you don't have to, that's the whole point of it. Like, yeah, yeah. Hmm.

Benn Coubrough (23:06)
two point five last year, but this year was a minimum of three liters capacity f leaving base base camp to OAS. So because you don't see a crew after a massive back, you had to make sure you had your bottles then and there. So I had ⁓ them trying to give me electrolytes. I'm like, I need the bottles. I've got my crew aren't here and they've got my bottles. So I'd plan to have four litres.

Mitch (23:12)
Yeah.

So what how much did you what capacity did you have at that stage? Yeah, okay. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (23:36)
I I fif fifteen hundred mils. Had so I had two soft flasks and then one empty s one empty soft flask in the p in ⁓ in a ha as a as a handheld. So I'm going, Alright, well, I've got fifteen hundred mils, so even if I had left that aid station and got to base camp, they would have DQ'd me and wouldn't have let me go through. No, they wouldn't have let me go through. So then I'm waiting around and

Mitch (23:41)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Well you can't go on, can you? Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (24:03)
I'm thinking I'm like what am I gonna have to do? Like the ⁓ so meanwhile in the background, ⁓ the team realised that they can't get on the bus 'cause there's one bus. We were on the bus. Yeah. So there's one bus, right? For say thirty th for that many people it would've taken them it w for the one bus they had, would've taken them ten hours to get all the crew. There's thirty people. So I don't know who did the math and who worked that out, but that was a

Mitch (24:15)
Yeah.

For that many people.

Ha ha

⁓ they're not known for over catering, are they?

Benn Coubrough (24:33)
That was a big stuff up from their end. So then apparently once they worked it out they radioed through 'cause Ben had gone around was actually gonna try and hire an ATV You've got an idea. To drive No, he's gonna hire a b a bike. They were gonna hire a bike. They were gonna hire a bike, then they're gonna try and hire a H an ATV outrageous to get out there. ⁓

Mitch (24:47)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (24:53)
But then there was no road works. No, yeah, there was no road works. You could have drove out there. The reason why they did that was because they said there was gonna be roadworks. And there's that much parking as you you know, you've been out there. There's that much parking and campgrounds all along that road. There's so many campgrounds that you can park.

Mitch (25:01)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's a great spot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (25:10)
⁓ so anyway, so yeah, so that was a big stuff up on their end. And apparently once this all went down then they said, don't worry about it, we've we've now found some more buses. Well, my run has already g our run has already gone through with no bottles. but anyway, so yeah, so they'd looked at hiring a bike, hiring a ATV to get out there and just couldn't work. And then then the crew the ⁓ the race director said, well the best case we can do is probably get him give him a empty empty two litre two litre coke bottle to take

Mitch (25:25)
Yeah.

That's so funny.

Benn Coubrough (25:40)
out there. Imagine running a hundred imag imagine running 180k with that and you're holding holding on to that the whole time. And then ⁓ anyway so but Mike McNight and I didn't get the other guy's name.

Mitch (25:43)
That's very a light.

⁓ Jesus Christ.

Benn Coubrough (25:57)
⁓ but like he was a great they came back and they he gave me a a basically a a seven fifty mil drink bottle. So I had that. Which I then I'm like, so I had to carry that whole way. ⁓ but then he found me another five hundred mil bottle. So I had a five hundred mil bottle. s ⁓ sorry, I had another yeah, so I had a five hundred mil bottle and this drink bottle, ⁓ handheld thing, so so I had my th just had my three litres, so that was good. But I was still a litre short than what I wanted to to have because I knew that I was gonna

to be at the top end and I was gonna be in the heat of the day. I knew I was gonna need more hydration. But anyway,

Mitch (26:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So just on that then, on that, so your plan was to leave with four litres and then there's there's a water station in between, a fairly short distance, and you can top up a maximum of of one litre there. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (26:40)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, so that's that's right. So once you yeah, once you left base camp, six miles after that there was another ⁓ Lockard Lockard whatever eight station. And y

Mitch (26:54)
Yeah. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. And what was the what was the commentary beforehand? Was there much was there much talk around, look, it is heating up. I know we've got a minimum of three. You recommend it to take is take more? Or was there any conversation around that? Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (27:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, they did say that. They said, Yeah, look if y minimum is three, but we recommend you take more.

Mitch (27:16)
Yeah. Okay.

Benn Coubrough (27:18)
And so that was we're a bit stressed. I'm like, alright, well, and and I'm like I got my new fusion shorts which have the pockets of the back and the front, so and on the side, so I'm like was the night before like practicing, okay, I can put my handheld at the back here, I can put another five hundred mil at the front. I can either I had two two hundred mil bo ⁓ soft glasses as well that I could put down the side of my the shorts on the side pockets, so I'm like, okay, well there's the extra capacity, I'll I'll be fine.

Mitch (27:31)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I agree.

Benn Coubrough (27:47)
But yeah, so I left so meanwhile the group that I had come in with had already gone. I waited around for about fifteen fifteen minutes by the time I got out of there. but then the next group that were behind me, they'd only just sort of come in. So we had a like I was way ahead of the next group. anyway, so I

Mitch (28:04)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (28:11)
Continued on. ⁓ it's so beautiful that next section, just running along the edge of the you got a little bit of climbing, ⁓ but then once you're up the top you just got the Colorado River running below you, you can see the road. And even I'm running along and I'm like I'll I'll s I'll look out for the bus. I'll see the bus coming and they're gonna like I'll be running along up here and I'll see the bus coming. And I didn't even see a bus. I didn't even see a bus that time. No, 'cause we were behind you. Yeah. So stressful.

Mitch (28:29)
Yeah.

Crazy yeah.

Benn Coubrough (28:37)
So quite stressful for the team, so I was ⁓ I wasn't I was just trying to stay relaxed. I'm like there's nothing they can do was that I'm I could just I could d I could feel for them 'cause I could say I knew they would be so stressed and filthy that they missed me. And then I'm there going, Well, I'm not gonna now see them until Monticello like

Mitch (28:45)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a long way in, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (29:00)
So it's a long, long time in the race and that was quite sort of a little bit stressful just ⁓ because yeah, you just want to see you just want to see some people.

Mitch (29:10)
Yeah, and it's funny that you could almost sort of brush over that first one because it is so early. Like it's you know, in theory nothing's wrong by then, all that sort of stuff. But I think it's for someone who's racing it, I think I loved that last year because I think it was that first you know if your shoe's not tied right, you know if there's a little niggle you didn't expect to have. You d it's long enough in but short enough that you can quickly reset.

Benn Coubrough (29:17)
Mm. Yeah.

No.

Mm.

Yeah.

Mitch (29:39)
You go, you I know I'm gonna need more of this today, or I'm gonna need whatever. Like you can already tell. So not having people there, I could see how that would sort of just kind of throw you a little bit.

Benn Coubrough (29:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm. Yeah. But the but yeah, everyone at the aid station and can't think my Mike me like me and the other guy. They were great. Anyway, so yeah, got along, got alright, got through. had this bottle which I was just drink I was trying to

Mitch (29:54)
Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (30:04)
It's like, okay, well when I empty this out, how am I gonna attach this to am I gonna have to hold this the whole entire time? How am I gonna hold my other handheld with my actual five hundred mil hand? So I ended up working it out, I could attach it to my pack. So it was just bouncing along my on my pack while I was running.

Anyway, so I worked that was just one little thing which I sort of just laughed at and pushed it off. But then so I left Amasa, got all the way through to base camp.

'Cause think that's another it was it like a sixteen K section before you get to Oasis. sorry, ⁓ Base Camp. So then ⁓ come down Jacob ladder ladder and that's just a steep descent off the canyon. That's amazing out there as well. And then by that stage I had another I had another I had two runners sort of get up on me and we're sort of sort of keeping I was sort of keeping in tabs with them a little bit. And then

Mitch (30:39)
Yeah. Yep.

Benn Coubrough (30:59)
And then sort of when it flattened out a little bit I got past them again and then came into base camp and ⁓ basically just was like, Alright, I need I don't have any tailwind, I just had to use the Never Second. And that was again the risk because I was running on about seventy five to eighty grams carbs of tailwind per per bottle. But that's when you get to the aid stations and you're not using their fuel again at

Mitch (31:13)
Mm, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (31:29)
a massa I had to use Nevosecond so I knew it wasn't strong enough. So then my whole carb intake was all already mixed up going into base camp. Got to base camp and I'm like I had some bit of Coke ⁓ just to get a bit more calories in. I had ⁓ I did have the precision choose so I did have a couple of those to get some extra energy in as well because I knew the Never Second was diluted and wasn't strong enough. but yeah basically filled my three litres up

Mitch (31:34)
Yeah, yeah.

Mm.

Benn Coubrough (31:58)
And took off. ⁓ ran the had my drink bowl in the hand, drank drank that on when we got to Lockhard. Got to Lockhard. which again seeing it during the day, I was 'cause by the time I got to Lycard look out, halfway through on the way to Oasis it went dark. So I again I had daylight all that section and the next section anyway, but ⁓ but yeah that's w but it was hot and I s I stopped f drank I think I drank five

Mitch (32:24)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (32:28)
of water quickly before I left the aid station just so I had extra to fill up and then filled up that bottle again and ⁓ took off on the trail with my three litres on the way to Oasis and it was just hot but I just didn't have the calories either. I had I had a few I had I'd

Mitch (32:46)
Yeah. And you're not someone who has g goos and gels and that sort of thing to Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (32:49)
No, well I took I took two gels I took two gels with me. I tried to have one and it just did not sit well. and then yeah, so I just tried to yeah, I just kept moving and tried to paste the drink the fluids out. and then I got to yeah, I got to about twenty K's out and I basically had half a bottle left half yeah, ha basically had two hundred and fifty mils left.

Mitch (32:55)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

For how long? fun I don't know whether you're whether you heard from ⁓ Aaron at the end of the race or or anything, but I like he d I I saw a video of him coming into Oasis and him saying something it was either five or five and a half litres and he said, Yeah, five and he said he ran out and he it was he he's like I I ran out ages ago.

Benn Coubrough (33:19)
and for about twenty K and I just walked.

Yeah, he had five leaders. He had five. He had five, five and he's and he went through it.

Yeah. So I knew h only having three I was gonna be short. And

Mitch (33:48)
Yeah, that's fucked almost off.

Benn Coubrough (33:50)
That's when Ashley came up on me and she's like she said, do you need some electrolytes, you need some salt and I'm like ⁓ like I said I'll take it but I've got nowhere to put it. I've got like I've got no you know, liquid to put it in. I've got nothing. So I ⁓ had another guy, another guy called Aaron came up behind me and he caught I could see him slightly catching me and then he caught up with me and then we walked for a couple of K together because I just needed just wanted some company so I knew where to catch her and ⁓ he knew where I was and he listened.

Mitch (34:02)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (34:20)
to the he listened to a couple of podcasts I was on and and yeah so we were chatting for a bit he'd really nice guy and ⁓ he saw his mate Tyler which is another American dude that I ended up spending a bit of time with later in the race. he ended up running up with him but it just

Mitch (34:28)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (34:38)
it was hard to take 'cause I everyone was just pulling aw looked like like ⁓ Ashley just caught me and then just pulled away in no time. He caught me and then by the time he left me he was pulling away. had Bert the the swish guy. Mm.

Mitch (34:43)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (34:58)
B Ban Bant Bert Bert. ⁓ Beat. Beat Beat sorry. Beat. Beat beater. Beat hitter. Big hitter. Unfortunately I think he DNF. Yeah. ⁓ but he ran past me and he was like, I dropped my bottle, I got no bottle. I I I he apparently ⁓ left ⁓ left Lock Lockhard and after having s water and then went to change his bottle over and dropped the whole bottle and it spilled everywhere. He's like, I've dropped my bottle, I've got I'm and he so he I think he intended to have

Mitch (35:10)
Ha ha

⁓ no ⁓

Benn Coubrough (35:28)
I think he said he he had four litres but then he lost he lost five hundred mils. ⁓ so he was a bit light but he still moved way past me and I was just just so depleted. I was dizzy. I ⁓

Mitch (35:31)
yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (35:42)
It was dizzy, my quads were just aching. I just could not I felt s like just sick in the head. So I just couldn't run. And I just walked. So I walked my way into Oasis and sat down and I they had like they greeted you with ⁓ ice water. So that was so nice. I just threw that over my face and just tried and then grabbed another one and and drank that and then I just sat in the chair and I saw Sean, the Aussie guy, he was there, he's didn't look that great. He was setting

Mitch (36:02)
Mm, sure.

Benn Coubrough (36:12)
He was not in a good way and the the ⁓ lady at the aid station was attending to his feed. He had some really bad blisters. So she was looking after his feed and I just sat there and I ⁓ had some coke. So I sat there with ice with with coke and ice and just had three cups of coke and ice and then I sat there and had another three cups of w of ice water and I'm just like pulled out my phone and there's no reception and I was like I'll try and I'd try to

Send a text message, I've thought, I've got no reception, how's it gonna work? And it came up with, Do you want to use satellite? I went, Yes. So I text ⁓ text Nicole saying, ⁓ I'm not in a good way, I don't know how this next section's gonna go, but I think I'm gonna need help at Indian Creek because that stage you could it's a it's a non-crue point, you can only have a pacer drop in, drop out. So which meant that if I was gonna get help, I needed to have a pacer. Well Mitch was your pacer there, like, and that's it. Well, you were my pacer.

Mitch (36:48)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (37:12)
So ⁓ so but this year I wasn't running with a pacer because we have to change it. But anyway, I'd We we already made the decision. Yeah, so they already made I think they were talking about it and then Nicole got the message and then they're like, Yeah, that confirms it. So we're gonna Brett's Yeah. Yeah. We s

Mitch (37:26)
Yeah, there was a lot of messages going on because I obvious obviously still on the group. so there's a lot going back and forward and I was listening to I think I'd driven down to Sydney or something the the morning of. So I'd listen to Distance to Empty and they were talking about that aid station and how like sometimes you could you might be able to do a little bit more there and take a massive bag just in case 'cause that could be your drop bag. So you could essentially use it for a crew thing.

Benn Coubrough (37:37)
Hm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mitch (37:53)
So there's a lot of back and forth. I was trying to sort of say, d did you hear this, you can do this and then these guys are like, Yeah, we're gonna have a pacer

Benn Coubrough (37:59)
Yeah, so so yeah. ⁓ so I sent that message off and then I was just sat there and I drank yeah, the c coke and the water and I'm like got up and I'm like, I've gotta go. I've got I and I there was watermelon. I'm like, I'm just gonna I my mouth was so dry. I could barely t like I could barely talk. ⁓ couldn't like my I was like so croaky and dry. ⁓ had some watermelon, then I grabbed some more ice

Mitch (38:08)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (38:26)
threw it over my neck and then I gr I grabbed my two hand hand the the hand bottle I had which I filled that with ice and water as well and I was like, All right and spoke to the lady. The lady was she's like, You got plenty of time in the race, you'll bounce back. You go, You're you're an experienced runner, you've done this before. it's early on, just just get through yes you've you've reset. This is a reset. So then I I still felt really dizzy and a bit off. So I just sort of well I'll just drink this

this bottle, I'll I'll just walk and walk and drink this bottle. So I thought I'll walk three K's, drink this, because I t I filled up everything, so I made sure I even though it was only twenty K, I filled I think it was twenty two K or twenty one K. I filled up the three litres and I'm like, I'm just gonna keep get back on top. so I walked, drank that, and then I'm like, okay

I'm gonna start running. So I ran thirty seconds, walk thirty seconds. Ran thirty seconds, walk thirty seconds, and my quads still just ate.

And on that's what I'm like, you know, if they don't come back, I'm like, there's no point me well, I could continue, but there's no point me dragging the crew out for so long, because I'm like, this is gonna be torturous. So anyway, I just thought just keep going, just see what happens, and then I was like, okay, 30 seconds, I'm like, okay, now you gotta go 60 seconds. So at sixty seconds, walk thirty, then I went 90 seconds, walk thirty, and then I went two minutes, I was counting actually and then I sort of s instead of I didn't want to keep looking back and forth on my

Mitch (39:40)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (39:59)
watch. So and because that always slowed me down by looking at the time. So I was just counting steps. So I was so I was counting 120 steps. So I'm like, okay, 120 steps, 30 st 30 steps walking, 120 steps, and I just kept doing that. And I was doing that, doing that, doing that, and then I think I got through about two or three K of that and then I could see it was sort of starting to get a bit dark, but I didn't want to put my head torch on because I wanted to save the battery for as long as I could.

And I sort of it was a long big straight and then I eventually sort of head torched behind me. And I'm like, shit, that could be I and that I'm like, that could be sh that's probably Sean.

The other Aussie dude. So I'm like, alright, I'm like, okay, let's just run. Just so I just went, I've got fifteen K to the aid station. Let's get to the aid station. So I was make sure I was drinking and I just started I pulled the pole I at that stage then I pulled the poles back out and I pulled the poles out and I'm like, okay, just keep running and I was just counting steps, running and just basically nonstop ran for the next fifteen K.

Mitch (41:01)
Yeah, nice.

Benn Coubrough (41:01)
had a bit of a stumble in the sand. There was a couple of little like 'cause it was so sandy, but there was a couple of rocks under the sand and I just clipped one rock and just went into this this sand. I just did a little roller poly in this in this sand and I was just covered just covered in this dirt and this red this red sand, this red dirt and it was just all over me. So I'll come into the Indi Indian Creek and all my hands are just covered in this sand, my shoulder, everything's just s sandy. And then yeah so but then

Mitch (41:09)
Mm.

Fuck, you must have looked like a wreck.

Benn Coubrough (41:31)
And I as I sort of got in I could see Brett with one of the aid aid station guys who remembered me. He goes, Ben, hey And ⁓ yeah and it w so ⁓ basically just got into the aid station, had the heap of water again, grabbed more Coke, I got some wipes and wiped myself down a little bit and and it was just a really good feeling to see Brett.

Mitch (41:45)
Mm.

No, I'm sure. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (41:56)
and I just had but I but that gave me more confidence like after running that like my legs feel okay. Okay, I've got back I'm back on track. So yeah, we ⁓ mucked around a little bit in the aid station just getting making sure I I had like ⁓ just the all the ev all the tailwind was filled back up so then I had my tailwind so I was back back on track with Tailwind so I knew I was gonna get the energy back in. yeah we just ⁓ got out got back out there, started running up

the hill and that's when we saw the crew. The crew were parked on the side and one of the camp in the campgrounds and th so they were cheering and yelling so that again that's another big boost, another good lift. but then we knew yeah it was on the way to the island after after that so it was night time by then so we yeah basically just ⁓ ran most of the hill up up up there and anything flat while running

Mitch (42:35)
Yeah, it's another boost. Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (42:54)
⁓ got to a couple of little hills where you ran and hiked but then ⁓ going through just trying to f f follow that navigation but ⁓ it was like I d I didn't really remember a lot of that because last year when we did it was just muddy. And yeah, yeah. So this was a lot faster because you could actually solid ground and you could actually find the trail a lot easier. It was it wasn't underwater.

Mitch (43:08)
shocking. They were you were just looking at your feet the whole time. Yeah.

Yeah. That was all fine.

Benn Coubrough (43:20)
And there was yeah. So we found like the same sort of trenches were there but obviously the trenches you could run the tr in the trenches, it wasn't covered in water. And we didn't go off track.

Mitch (43:28)
Yeah. Yeah. Well just before you before you roll on too much more, but being that you've got you've been through that shitty bit, and pretty down, like, you know, b having to to convince yourself to run 30 seconds at a time and that's when you're actually moving again. you start feeling better, you pick up Brett. I've seen you get a little bit sort of

Benn Coubrough (43:40)
Yeah.

Mm.

Mitch (43:54)
Let's get it done. Like the you know, a almost antsy around, well, now's when we make it up sort of thing. Like did you start getting a bit 'cause that's you're only sixty miles in, sixty five miles in. So like you've got s a long way to go. Like, did you start how did you control that? I guess, like let's let's quickly catch up now, we're back.

Benn Coubrough (43:55)
Hm. Hmm. Yeah, I was a little bit like that.

Yeah.

Well

⁓ no, I was I at that stage I th I thought I was out of it still. Like I'd r but when I left Oasis I thought my race is gone. Like taste that Well I thought I thought I thought I was too far too far gone. I was too far out of it. ⁓ like the way the other guys had passed me and they were just pulled away and

Mitch (44:21)
Yeah, okay.

Mm.

Benn Coubrough (44:34)
But Brett did say like there was two of the other like Aaron who I ran with earlier, he said he'd only just a little left. So not long after we left on the way to the island we left when we left Indian Creek, ran into ⁓ Aaron and he was like, See, I knew you're gonna you're gonna come back and you'll catch him you'll catch him. So so that gave me a bit of confidence. But I w I wasn't ruled out by that stage. I did have confidence that I was feeling better, but

Mitch (44:41)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (45:04)
I still didn't realise I th I still d thought I was way too far back by this stage. But we just kept it controlled, kept it ⁓ yeah, kept the pace sustainable and we had the Tyler who I think we over left in the aid station. he came

he came up on us a little bit and they were ⁓ we they were moving pretty good. They were moving yeah, they'll they're moving pretty well and they were sort of we sort of ran with near them for a little bit and he pushed they pushed the but I could tell they were working the hills a little bit. And we we were just keeping just keeping it consistent.

Mitch (45:40)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (45:44)
So then by the time we came into the island they were they were just there, they just arrived and w the but they were chilling out in the eight station. So it was taking a long time in the eight station. So we just we just basically topped up our tailwind everything else and ⁓ got out got out. But then we so we we got a we're a bit ahead of them. And then

Mitch (45:54)
Yeah, okay.

Benn Coubrough (46:10)
⁓ but then yeah, we got another on the way to Bridge of Jack we could see the head torches just getting closer and closer and they were charging.

Mitch (46:19)
Yeah, right.

Benn Coubrough (46:19)
So we're like and then so I breath's like they can't sustain. Look at their just pulling. Pull they're just and then as soon as they got past us up the hill, we then caught them again. And then we're just ⁓ we're just yeah, we're just running back and forth with them a little bit. They knew the course, so yeah, they were very familiar with it, so we just sort of tried to sort of follow their line a little bit 'cause course the course markings throughout weren't that great. Especially ⁓ those stages weren't too bad 'cause it was fairly straightforward. ⁓

But no, at that stage it was good to have Brett. he kept me in good nick. I was yeah, working but not working too hard. I was r I was running running a l running ⁓ a lot because it wasn't too hilly. It was only just the real steep climb so we sort of pulled the poles out and hiked. but yeah, got to Bridget Jack and it was starting to get a bit cold and the rain was start was the r it started to rain a little bit, so I pulled my

Mitch (46:52)
Yeah, sure.

Benn Coubrough (47:18)
my jacket out, but by the time I gave Brett my poles my took my pack off with my jacket on, by the time we did that and I've got my poles, we'd run about two hundred, three hundred metres up the hill and missed the turn. Now I think we did that last year as well, leaving Bridget Jack. There's like a turn and you go down the r like you climb down these rocks. I think

Mitch (47:31)
⁓

Yeah. We missed one around there. Only just though, like yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (47:44)
Yeah, I think we did this yeah, only j I think we only just missed it but we'd run 'cause I wasn't con we both weren't concentrating on the course 'cause I had my head trying to get jacket on and put my put my head 'cause we the head it was still night it was night so we had no head torch or whatever. Well, I think when we did it was a bit daylight, so it was a bit easier. But anyway

Mitch (47:55)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (48:05)
wasn't too bad, but then we lost obviously lost time pulling away from Tyler. Anyway. ⁓ did that, got back down and then, all that section that we ran to from Bridget Jack that was underwater where we were trying to we're bush bashing through the cactus instead of, Well, we could actually see the trail this time. So we followed the trail. So I was a Yeah, yeah.

Mitch (48:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, that would have made w was it really obvious? Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (48:28)
It was a lot f not totally, but ⁓ the course markings were a little bit different again, but but yeah, we basically knew where to go, so we followed it all aro all the way around then up the up up on the other side. Anyway, that was all fairly straightforward, ⁓ getting closer to Shea Mountain. But this is when ⁓ obviously when we ran Shea Mountain, ⁓ there was a bit of a course. Now this year they had the bushfires and that was what's affected Shea Mountain. So where we had the like we'll switch back

Mitch (48:31)
Yeah.

Yeah, ⁓

Mm

Benn Coubrough (48:58)
Up and down, you had the wooden, you had all the wooden things and stuff. Well, this was completely just ash.

Mitch (48:59)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, right. 'Cause that's a really beautiful section. That's a really nice section.

Benn Coubrough (49:07)
Yeah, well and then you look when you remember when we had the sunrise and we looked back and you could see all the pine forest? Well half half of that's been wiped out. So it was yeah, it was still beautiful but it was you could just like it was just amazing, like looking at it going, my god 'cause this time the the sun had just sort of starting to rise at this time and

Mitch (49:13)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that yeah, wow, okay.

Mm.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Benn Coubrough (49:30)
And the course markings were terrible. We were trying to we were trying to work out we like both our watches were sort of a fraction off.

So we're trying to work out and then all of a sudden we're trying to cross over, we could see we had to get onto the other side of the road and we're trying to work out where it went. Anyway, we climbed up, we got out, and then all of a sudden I see Tyler and his pacer with the head torches up on and I'm like, shit, it's on here this section here. So we're r running up there, we're running with them and then we got to that that where that where we'd like just that the trenches started and was all muddy and we just climbing up. So we just did all that and I was leading I I led that and I was leading and

Mitch (50:04)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (50:09)
And the like I could hear Tyler and his pacer yelling at it yelling at me going, Great pace, keep ⁓ you're setting a good pace, keep it up and I was so I was just charging up the hill.

Mitch (50:21)
Yeah, nice.

Benn Coubrough (50:22)
⁓ feeling pretty good. F ⁓ worked up well but then when you get to the like then we got up to the top where like the bit where you actually climb all the way up the top of Shea and it's basically instead of you just it was you could see the flags up ahead. So you basically just trying to find follow us the steepest line up the hill. Like going yeah, that is probably the steepest part of the whole race.

Mitch (50:31)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's steep too. That's a tough section. Yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (50:45)
So we're basically just trying to climb up just hiking away up that, just as steep as we could, just f just looking at the flags and just picking them off. And then Yeah, then we got all the way up the top and Tyler and his pacer just pul they just pulled ahead on that climb just because of the navigation in that in that section around the trees. They again we missed it and they they found it. Anyway, as soon as I Yeah, yeah.

Mitch (50:53)
Yeah.

Yeah. And that that is the first real pinch in elevation as well. Like that that I remember that getting us last year. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (51:15)
That still gets to three thousand Yeah, th still gets up over three thousand one hundred metres. ⁓ but yeah, so we got up through that and then we got onto that road where it just you just descent and then you come back up. So as soon as we got to the downhill I was rolling. And ⁓ yeah, so I was running really well. Like we're running like four minute pace down the hill sort of thing. ⁓ trying to slow down to four thirties. ⁓ but as soon as we got on the downhill

Mitch (51:28)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's a good section. Yeah.

Yeah, it's good.

Yep. Yep. That's much quicker than last year.

Benn Coubrough (51:45)
Yeah, I was just rolling and we overtook Tyler and his pacemaker within no time going down the hill and then then started the big climb up and then just started hiking up that on the other side, just hiking up the hill and ⁓ yeah, felt fine hiking. ⁓ then yeah, then basically that's when ch ⁓ Brooklyn was gonna jump in pacing. So from Shea we got into Shea was

Mitch (51:51)
Okay.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (52:13)
⁓ and I didn't realise that I'd got back into fourth, I think, at that stage. So it was Tyler and I in f ⁓ third and fourth. In the male side, there was obviously two females ahead. ⁓ so we're basically fifth. And then yeah, so basically got into Shay,

Mitch (52:19)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (52:35)
didn't didn't change shoes or anything like that. New I could feel I could feel a couple of blisters but I thought they're fine. And then, ⁓

Beat had only just he was in second, he'd only just left. Shay, so we're like, Alright, I I think I I I ordered my pizza again. But I f I said no cheese and pepperoni. They remembered. They did remember. Yep, we know no cheese. But they put s I've forgot say no sauce and they put sauce all over it. So there was just heaps of sauce. So I only had a couple I only had a piece or so and then I think I think ⁓ Brett ended up no, Brett no no gluten, so Brett didn't eat it. I think Ben ended up eating it. But anyways.

Mitch (52:58)
that's funny.

⁓

Benn Coubrough (53:15)
It did go to waste. ⁓ but anyway, so we left

Mitch (53:18)
Did you give the Australians a bad name? You've got someone who can't eat gluten and someone who won't eat cheese or so.

Benn Coubrough (53:22)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

⁓ but yeah, but no, I was still feeling good coming to that section. The sun had come up and I was ready to r and I had Brooklyn so that was really good just to knowing that I was gonna be able to share that with him and ⁓ I knew he was gonna push me and and so yeah, we took off, he set off at a good pace and just followed him along. I was just basically following him, ⁓ and he led the way and then we caught up to beat in no time. We didn't we it didn't take us that long to catch up with him and caught up with him, had a chat had a chat and I was and he started goes, I

Mitch (53:29)
Yeah, nice.

Yeah, that's cool.

Benn Coubrough (53:55)
I didn't I didn't know where to go. It came out and I got lost about five times and I said like so did we. I we we did the same. He goes, I just kept going up. I'm like, yep, that's exactly what we did. anyway, and yeah, then yeah, pulled pulled away from him and then we there was ⁓ there was a sign. Looked like it'd been pushed onto the ground.

Mitch (54:04)
Huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (54:14)
and it was leading straight down this hill, so we just started darting down this hill. And then Brooklyn goes, ⁓ shit and my watch dipped at me I'm like, shit and I by the time we turned around it was so steep to run back h uphill. Ran back up the hill and ⁓ Beat had already gone p gone through so then it took us took us another K to catch him.

Mitch (54:17)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (54:34)
So went past him again and and he's like, you went the wrong way So caught yeah, caught caught him. no, well he didn't know. He goes 'cause he c we came up from behind him, but he's like, ⁓ you went the wrong and ⁓ anyway, caught up with him again, went past him and then we saw Killian on the top at the and when we got off to the first when we got off the the climb and then it's sort of you switch back down, coming back down to the other side to head towards the mon to Monti Monticello. And saw Killian, had a chat with him, he goes, you're looking really good

Mitch (54:38)
No shit, dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's

Benn Coubrough (55:04)
looking really good and la da da and obviously then I knew that I would run into second place male and fourth in the race I think at that stage or third maybe. I think I was third. Yeah, I think I was I I think I third, yeah, I'd overtaken Brog that's right, I'd overtaken Brogan as well. yeah, so I was in third and I was okay, we'll just we're gonna we're gonna try and now keep building and catching and

Mitch (55:10)
Mm.

Yeah, I think it was the I think you could yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (55:32)
And Brooklyn was full of energy, was awesome and we did Shay, ⁓ really good time, felt really good, got on downhill, hit the road, hit to Monticello, and then we could see the storm coming.

Mitch (55:44)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (55:45)
And Monticello was my crew station because obviously they split between Shea and Monticello. And Monticello was where I could see my crew and I actually have a proper crew spot. So got down there, I'm like I finally was able to take my socks off and clean my feet and put new shoes on. So I wore wore the Salamon S Lab. Same shoes that I wore last year.

Mitch (55:51)
Yep. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (56:11)
⁓ so I'd ran two hundred and two hundred and three K's in those, ⁓ without changing shoes or socks. So that was a long time without doing any feet care. so I could feel ⁓ and then when I was coming down into Monticello I could feel

Mitch (56:21)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (56:29)
There was a blister under underneath my heel. I'm like, ⁓ that feels like it's covering the whole bottom of my foot. That does not look feel good. ⁓ and I could feel blisters all around my toes. I'm like, this isn't g this isn't not really good. ⁓ anyway, got into Monticello, but there was a storm coming, it was quite cold and windy and ⁓ took off my feet, my shoes, socks and all that looked at my feet and like, ⁓ and Ben's looking at the bottom of my foot and the skin had like pushed all the way back.

to my heel and he's like, ⁓ my god, there's not gonna be I don't know what we're gonna be able to do with this. This is like my feet looked worse than last year. And ⁓ and I had a massive big blister on the top of my big toe on my right foot and then he so he's put a little compressed blister pad on the top of my ⁓ top of my big toe which

Mitch (57:10)
Yeah, okay.

Benn Coubrough (57:26)
then later on I've got a blister on the on my second toe from rubbing on that. So ⁓ so I had a couple of blisters on my on the outside of my other foot and then I've changed into the Salmon ⁓ Genesis two. So I put the the version two on for this section. the idea was if I needed it to have a bit of a sleep 'cause we're gonna get there at lunchtime. So meanwhile on this as far as my race plan, my race plan had blown out. ⁓

Mitch (57:30)
Yeah.

Mm.

Benn Coubrough (57:56)
⁓ but I had sort of with Brooklyn in that section I'd caught back up. So I was only about 45 minutes off my goal time. So it sort of bridged it back a little bit. So we're like, alright, the storm's coming. And last year we got stuck at Monticello for an extra 90 minutes sliding and slipping and sliding in the mud. So we're like, we've got to try and beat this. And for those that had seen the photos of the storm coming through

Mitch (58:04)
Okay.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (58:23)
So we'd ran the first fair few K through that section and at a good pace and ⁓ we'd then but then the rain started and within the rain starting within five minutes the trail just turned to mud. So Brook Brooklyn sent a message to the team ahead at

Mitch (58:37)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (58:44)
drive alley saying, I'm gonna need new shoes 'cause I'm like my feet were just c covered in mud again and I'm just like but it wasn't we were just sort of ahead for it to get too bad. So we were sorta slipping and sliding for a bit, but it wasn't too bad. And then we got to this other section where you start to sort of wind yourself your way back down and that you could see you could see Aaron and

Ashley's footprints. So like it's still quite fresh. But it you could tell they probably had a little bit of rain but not much. And then it wasn't that cla it was but it wasn't clay, so that w we got through that and it wasn't too fine and then ⁓ so we still did that section quite quite well. And then Brook then we get down onto the road and Brooklyn goes 'cause Brooklyn had done ⁓ fifty K at that stage I think or s

maybe sixty, almost he was coming into close to sixty and he stands and says to me, he goes, I'm really cooked

Mitch (59:46)
Mm-hmm.

Benn Coubrough (59:46)
⁓ my legs are sore, I'm not gonna be able to run the next section with you 'cause at first when I saw him at Shay, he's like, Yeah, I'm gonna run the ninety K, I'm gonna do the next section as well, my he's all bumped. I'm like, ⁓ well mate, only if you can. Like I don't expect you to. If only if you can and then we got to he's like, I'm like, mate, you just look after yourself. You and he didn't drink much. 'Cause after we left Shay, Ben gave him the same concentration that I drink.

Mitch (59:59)
No.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:00:14)
in Tailwind. So it was too strong for him, so he wasn't drinking much. So no wonder he was so ⁓ flat because he wasn't really drinking much. And anyway, like the paces that we pushed through, we actually ran faster in those sections than Killian did last year.

Mitch (1:00:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, right. Wow.

Benn Coubrough (1:00:32)
So I got some we got some he was really ⁓ I think he was a bit down because he didn't quite run well didn't run the next section. But ⁓ but after seeing how fast we actually ran and the ground that we made up in those sections was awesome. And Yeah. And he was so good.

Mitch (1:00:48)
Well that's a lot better for your race pushing in that section there than than slowing that down and dragging out ninety K. That's yeah, that's awesome. I should yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:00:54)
And yeah, he's such a legend, Brooklyn. Like he's just just he was just just gets it done, doesn't say anything, just was there to like make sure I was okay and always just kept kept me moving and just knew what to do and he was just so good and then we had a pulled in and I was getting ti I'm like, okay, now it's like I don't know was I don't know how many hours into the race but I was at two hundred K so I'm like I need to I need to have I need to try and have a sleep. ⁓ n now no

Mitch (1:01:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:01:26)
Brooklyn wasn't gonna I was gonna be running the next section so I could hear Ben in the background saying I'll ⁓ I might I might try and run it. I might try and run and then he was like, ⁓ I wonder if I'll be able to pull out at at ⁓ at the needles and not continue through but they're like, No, if you start you're gonna have to go through the whole thing and he's ⁓ and then I anyway I I went and tried and have a bit of a sleep. I tried to have a sleep, but I didn't have an Asian man yelling at me this time. I just had I was just just my head was just spinning, I could just trying to switch off and I

Mitch (1:01:51)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:01:56)
I didn't think I f could fall asleep and then next minute knock on the wall on the window and I'm like, ⁓ I did fall I did fall asleep. So they gave me twenty minutes, so I had a twenty minute nap. ⁓ had a pull I had a pull pork roll before that and then I woke up, yeah it was nice. And I woke up and I was, yeah, didn't have no no they said no sauce. And I'm no no just just as just a ro just bread roll with pulled pork. Anyway, I woke up and I was starving and I'm like, can I have another pull pork roll? So I had another pool.

Mitch (1:02:01)
Yeah, yeah.

Nice. It's adventurous.

Hmm.

I mean it's kinda perfect. Like nice, salty, proteiny with a bit of carb on that. Yeah, that's good. I want one now.

Benn Coubrough (1:02:26)
Yeah. So y yeah. Yeah. So Nicole was watching them cook it and it like I'm pulling out of like a frozen log and then just throwing it on the burner. And Nicole's like, I don't know how that is gonna Anyway, had that. And had that again another one of those and Nicole's like, You're running solo, you got the next two sections solo, you've got to run at forty K and I'm like on I know that section last time I got really tired and I was a little bit earlier.

Mitch (1:02:37)
Nice.

Benn Coubrough (1:02:54)
but I still was gonna be running into the night. So I'm like I'm like, ⁓ shit. I ⁓ so I made sure I had more Coke and I had I just went, like, just give me caffeinated tailwind. so I had that, had coke, tailwind, and then I'm like, alright, so I've got twenty c twenty one K to the next section.

And I just kept pushing, I just rolled rolled out there and I'm like it is quite it you the start's quite flat and then there's a little bit of a downhill but then a lot of that section on the way especially once you turn on to the like you get to 19k and then you turn on the road and it's all uphill on that on that on that asphalt. So it is I was trying to run it but then I had my poles out so I was using my poles offload a little bit because it is quite uphill for a lot of the way.

Mitch (1:03:31)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

Benn Coubrough (1:03:43)
but yeah, but I was still I just just focused on staying alert and staying awake. So I was ⁓ making sure I was having my caffeine. I think I maybe cracked a no dose then and then pushed on through, got to the ⁓ got to the needles and the guys at the aid station were awesome. ⁓ they kept offer offering everything. I No, no, I'm all good, I just want

Mitch (1:03:49)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:04:08)
Just just yet. And they said, Ashley hasn't just Ashley hasn't l left too too far away, so I'm like, Alright, that's good. And then the guy goes to me, the weather's looking like at that stage there was a couple of sprinkles but not much rain and the guy says, no, the forecast is looking really good, the rain's gonna be the rain's you you're through the rain, it's gonna be fine, ⁓ it's gonna clear up and you'll be you'll be you'll be laughing all the way to road forty six. I'm alright. So I got out there and had some more had some more coke.

Mitch (1:04:24)
Mm-hmm.

Benn Coubrough (1:04:37)
⁓ then I realized that the when we packed my bag then on my drop bag there was no caffeinated tailwind, so I'm like, great. So I but I had a but I put a but I put a can of Red Bull in there.

So I'm like, I threw threw a can of Red Bull in my pack and I'm like, alright, I'm gonna save that for when until I've got 7k to go in the next section. So left left that and then as soon as I walked like it's I think it's about 2k up the road before you turn right and then you're basically following that dirt road all the way through to road 46 and ⁓ as soon as I took the turn the rain just started and I'm just like and I I had my thermal hooded hood

Mitch (1:05:14)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:18)
fusion jacket in my backpack ⁓ and on my gloves I pulled out my gloves with my gloves on and then it wasn't raining that heavy but I'm just like alright I just gotta keep pushing through and then it got really cold and then the rain just picked up again and got heavy and I'm like how am I gonna take there's nowhere it's just and then that dirt just turned into mud.

Mitch (1:05:39)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:05:40)
So I'm running along just trying to find a line in this mud and just like just my feet are just getting drenched and I'm just like all right then I can hear this water rushing and I'm like and so and I remembered it from last year but I've got into this section and there's a cattle grid but I was all underwater and I you just hear this water rushing through so I'm like looking around like there's no crossing so I'm just like walk straight through and it's like over my knees deep in this water. So I'm walking through

Mitch (1:06:09)
Mm-hmm.

Benn Coubrough (1:06:10)
for about I don't know, maybe three metres or so through this through this rushing rapid they'll call it.

And then it was just from there on it was just mud. And I just was so cold. I had always like I'm like I've got shit, I've got fifteen K's to go. I've got four I was just counting K by K and I was like moving as fast as I could because I was so cold and like I've just got to get to road 46 to get warm. I couldn't stop to I was trying to stop to take put my other jacket on but my my salmon jacket was just drenched and on my packs drenched.

Mitch (1:06:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:06:48)
And I'm like, there's no point me trying to take off clothes to get wet underneath. So I'm just pushing and I stopped and had the Red Bull with seven with 7k to go. And I'm just like just pushing and pushing and pushing. And I knew I was working really hard. and then I just but I just had to get warm. I just kept like I was just ticking off the K's and the Ks and K's. And then they I see the road and I see their trucks going along the road, and I'm like, it's like 2K.

Away, this is awesome, I'm like so close. And then I realized that they moved the aid station this year to further down the road. So they moved the aid station to where you actually turn to go up towards Pole Canyon.

Mitch (1:07:24)
Ha ha ha.

Benn Coubrough (1:07:31)
So anyway, got to the where the where the aid station was, ran past that and then crossed the road. I got to this there's a car waiting on the road on the corner. I said that w because there's no signs. There was no sign like saying so I'm like I'm guessing it's down there. And the guy goes, Yeah, and he and so I'm running along and I'm like, I should probably cross the road 'cause obviously being in the US I'm on the wrong side of the road. Anyway, I was running along and then I hear this car come up and there's the crew and they thought I was a they thought I was a deer because it was so

Mitch (1:08:01)
Huh.

Benn Coubrough (1:08:01)
dark.

And all they saw was the back of my head torch, the reflections on the back of my head torch. So they thought I was a deer. So anyway, they've gone, Shit, it's Ben and I at that stage I was just pumping down the road, had my poles and I'm just driving as fast as I can 'cause I was s shivering and I was so cold. So I'm just like I'm so cold, I'm just trying to get then I see the car just fly off down there. I'm thinking, ⁓ they're out of sight now. Shit, is it the aid station that far away? I'm like

Shit.

And I'm so cold, I'm just shivering and shaking and I'm I just but I was just like working so hard to get to that aid station. ⁓ roll into the aid station and I was just s shaking and shivering s and I just sat on the fire and I'm took my clothes off and put a blanket over the top of me and then I'm like I need I probably should have a sleep so I'm like sh sitting there in the car and I'm just shaking a blanket around me and eventually I did fall I did fall asleep fairly quickly.

Mitch (1:08:39)
Yeah.

⁓

Benn Coubrough (1:09:03)
but yeah Nicole gave me twenty minutes and then Brett was ready again so Brett was coming out. ⁓ I think I had this had they had hamburgers and my and they gave me a hamburger on a wrap and I shouldn't have had it because it was just so you know when you bite something you just know it's not right? Something in the something in that meat patty just did not taste good. So then I had an upset stomach for for the next few hours. And anyway, so we left the A station but it was so muddy, like they

Mitch (1:09:19)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:09:33)
They basically Ben had to floor it up off the road into the into the paddock so they didn't get bogged. So he's like hammered it in there, like the there's just mud everywhere. The car's like sliding everywhere. So ⁓ they've gone they've I've put some extra gloves on. I put a ⁓ I've got some dishwashing dishwashing ⁓ gloves just to keep my hands warm from the rain. Yeah, yeah. So I did that, but then the

Mitch (1:09:39)
Yeah, ⁓ Jesus.

Yeah.

Insulate a bit, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:10:03)
The the crews drove drove past and my head torch was on reflective mode. So my head torch went out and then I took a step and just went straight into the mud. So I'm just covered in mud. And then ⁓ anyway, the butt the guy at the aid station goes, Yep, you go on the on the fence and you go out this way. So we've taken off over the fence, running down. We hear this guy yelling back at us, going, You've gone the wrong way, you've gone the wrong way. He sent us he sent us on the wrong side of the fence. So we've had to come back, go back through anyway.

Mitch (1:10:27)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:10:33)
got on track and then but it was still f pretty cold but I had like a thermal hoodie on a beanie on had the two gloves on had I had my thermals on at that stage I'd stopped shivering finally

Mitch (1:10:41)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:10:48)
⁓ but it took me I was shipping like fi and for forty minutes or so anyway. And but apparently Brogan was a little bit behind me, I think still. But apparently well for what I found out I had made up a lot of ground, especially in that in that last two sections. And I knew I'd pushed, I knew I'd worked really hard. ⁓ but it did make a massive difference in the race. I'd caught right back up on Ashley and Aaron.

Mitch (1:11:07)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:11:18)
in that in that section. but I just but then I was worried because after that obviously you go through Pole Canyon and into Geyser Pass, that's where all the climbing is. So I was a little bit worried on that section on how my legs were gonna be

But anyway I left that section and I was really tired still. I I just felt off. Like my body was fighting something, so I had a cold and flu tablet. But I just felt sick. I tried to go to the bathroom but it just didn't couldn't go, didn't work. But I just felt really off from that burger.

Mitch (1:11:48)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:11:49)
but anyway, the because they had so much rain earlier, ⁓ all the sand had rushed had been washed all the dirt had been washed away and it was all rocky. So that whole section all the way up to Pole Canyon, if we weren't climbing through like running through rock like creek, rock rock bear, it like sort of running through like the elephant trail.

Mitch (1:12:10)
Yeah, okay. Jesus, yeah, right.

Benn Coubrough (1:12:11)
It was just that whole section was like running through that and then we were trying to like get around the water like there was just massive big water puddles blocking the path, so we're trying to climb around the trees to get through it. ⁓ so that section was quite slower this year just purely because you couldn't run. It wasn't smooth dirt. It the dirt had been all washed away and it was just all exposed rocks. ⁓ but anyway, that was f took me I wasn't in a good way for the first probably ten K. I just was f sick and I could

Mitch (1:12:21)
Yeah, okay.

Benn Coubrough (1:12:41)
barely keep a keep awake. I actually stopped. I think there was a section where I stopped and I said, Brett, just let me sit on this rock and close my eyes for two minutes. So I sat on this rock and I could feel myself falling asleep and rocking and waking up rocking on this rock.

Mitch (1:12:49)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:12:58)
But I only stopped for two minutes, slept for two like I didn't really fall asleep but I could it just sort of reset me and I I think I and then I had a can I had a red bull because I kept packed a red bull with me so I a red bull and then yeah then perped back up a bit. We came into just by the time we got to Pole Canyon the sun had just risen. Saw some deer. had some ramen at the ⁓ at the aid station.

Mitch (1:13:04)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:13:25)
⁓ stopped at the portal and finally was able to go to the bathroom. And then yeah, then I checked to see I checked my phone and I put it down and then meanwhile Brett's soft flask had sprung a leak and was pissing out tailwind everywhere, so then they've got some gaffer tape to try and tape the bottom of it 'cause Brett Brett had already left one he lost one soft flask.

Mitch (1:13:49)
huh.

Benn Coubrough (1:13:54)
I got a I got a cactus in my foot and I was j jabbed jabbed into my toe so I had to take my shoe and sock off to try and pull this thistle out. Anyway, so the when he we we did that he left his soft glass laying on the ground.

Mitch (1:13:57)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:14:08)
⁓ so he's already down one, so then this other one's got a a leak in it. So we've gaffeted that. So meanwhile when he was doing that, I've left my phone at the aid station, we've run up the hill and we've seen Brogan start to come down. Meanwhile, Brett's had to run back to get my phone, come back up. So then by that stage we've seen Brogan, so then we're like, she's not hanging around at the aid station. She's gonna be getting out as quick as she can. So

Mitch (1:14:30)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She was really running well. ⁓

Benn Coubrough (1:14:33)
Yeah. So we took off and this is where the the fun started with trying to find the course. Like in meanwhile when we're going up through Pole Canyon, we just kept finding these course markers just pushed the ground. Like it's like someone had knocked them over. ⁓ they'll but they were just sort of pushed and facing the wrong way. So it was just weird. They were just like laying on the ground but facing the wrong way. Like, it's weird. And

Mitch (1:14:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Benn Coubrough (1:15:03)
Anyway, so we've we've then got this other section where Ben and I both got lost there last year and ⁓ so we got lost for like ten minutes. We're trying to

find the way around. Eventually found it when we're stressing about I was stressing about Brogan catching us. I'm like, she's from Canada. She's gonna be a good climber. She's gonna she's gonna know how to climb. She's gonna catch us. So we're wasting we've lost all this time. We kept going. Got to the next section and we just kept getting we just ⁓ so we found out that during the race when Brett was talking to one of the head

Mitch (1:15:24)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:15:45)
⁓ captains at one of the aid station they said, yeah, they had ⁓ heaps of issues with course marking this year. They had a bunch of previous course markers pull out in the last minute. So they they didn't have enough course markers and then they got c the people they got volunteered at mark the course had never marked a course before. So

Mitch (1:16:05)
Ha perfekt.

Benn Coubrough (1:16:08)
One, there wasn't th there w there was that the course wasn't marked as much as it should have been and they had inexperienced people marking the course which ⁓ we just got w our like trying to follow our watches as well and it just wasn't quite leading up with the course. So we got lost that time and then we got lost again where we were that far off were that far off course that Nicole

Mitch (1:16:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Benn Coubrough (1:16:35)
Like Brooklyn goes, ⁓ they're off course. They're that far we're like we're like two K's off course. And and I'm like me and Brett and talk well Brett actually ran further than I did. ⁓ because the course markets were so spread out, you wouldn't you'd have you had to basically run two K to actually find out if you went the wrong way or not. And there's one section that looked so familiar and I'm like, I think but it did look familiar, but it was a section

Mitch (1:16:41)
⁓ Jesus.

Yeah, wow. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:17:03)
5k down the road that I was thinking of. Anyway, so Nicole's rang Brett and like Brett's like he's like, You're off course, you're off course, and I goes, I know I know, I thought we were. So he ran back, got me in, and at this stage I'm freaking out. It's like Brogan's gonna catch us. Anyway, eventually got on course and we f found it and there was like trees there was a few trees down. We're thinking I'm like, shit, there was a few trees down last year, but it wasn't this bad. And we can hear the wind. We could hear the wind and we could see hear the trees cracking in the background. Anyway, we

Mitch (1:17:27)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:17:33)
Getting closer, we're about 8k from Geyser Pass. ⁓ done most of the climbing. I felt my my quads and my glutes were pretty sore, but I was just pushing and working hard as I as hard as I could. There was one section where we got through the first climb and you're sort of descending down, and I was falling asleep. I couldn't, I could have quite easily just fall fallen off the edge. Brett was just ahead of me. He's Are you alright? And I yep, yep, yep, I'm right, I'm right. And I stopped and had another red I grabbed another Red Bull from the check.

Mitch (1:17:52)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Benn Coubrough (1:18:03)
point. So I had ⁓ had the Red Bull and that pet me back up again but there was a section for about a K that I I I c I almost I couldn't balance myself. I couldn't keep myself upright. I kept falling to the left off the edge and I just could not keep myself to the right. And it was I could have fallen I've almost fell asleep like three times and like fallen off the edge. It was yeah, pretty bad. Anyway, so I got had the Red Bull and I got back up again. And

Mitch (1:18:07)
Yeah. Wow.

I so sketchy.

Benn Coubrough (1:18:33)
And then, yeah, we eventually start w getting closer and closer to Geyser Pass. We're back on track by that stage. We'll still there was no sort of course marking, so we're sort of then we started to find a couple and

Then there was the trees were down. We're like we're to a path and there there'll be a tree down and then we're like trying to climb under this one and we're climbing over that one and we're like there are so many trees down and then we're about a couple of K or probably four K from the checkpoint and then we it's like we see a tree like a massive tree just come down right next to us and like shit Brett's like going, Ben, you look up, if you hear a noise you look keep looking up, you've got to be aware there's a tree's gonna come down and as soon

Mitch (1:18:48)
Mm.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:19:16)
As he s as soon as he said that, these three massive trees just collapsed right behind Brett. And we're just like, shit. We've got to get out of here. And we'll sort of had like three then we then we s we every every path we got to we turn a corner and there's trees down covering the path. So we're like

Mitch (1:19:21)
⁓ Jesus.

Yeah, the photos looked incredible. No

Benn Coubrough (1:19:36)
⁓ w breaking branches down, pushing, ⁓ tryna like Brent almost impaled himself on a on a branch and then we just kept pushing through. It took us half an hour to go ⁓ two K because we were just having to climb over all these trees and and there was just no there wasn't just like one big tree, there'll be like three big trees in a row so then we're like climbing through the one and then climbing under the other and then it was just a nightmare nightmare. It was just trees

Mitch (1:19:46)
Hmm.

Yeah, well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:20:06)
and we're just like petrified of these trees coming down. So it was quite scary and we're just like and then we sort of got to about ⁓ 500 meters from the checkpoint finally. It just simply it obviously took forever because we were judging trees. I think Brett counted in the last K we went through 15 trees.

Mitch (1:20:09)
Yeah, I reckon. That's crazy.

And it's it's it's funny, but like on the pictures and the videos and everything that you saw, because they're those pencil style trees and it was grey, it was really I mean, obviously why I wasn't there, but it looked super eerie. Like, you know, that that it was that darkness and the little there's no leaves around. It was kind of just this dip like, yeah, it just looked haunted.

Benn Coubrough (1:20:38)
Hmm. Yeah, yeah.

it was.

Yeah. Yeah it was. It was just and we you could just like when we're getting close you just hear the cracking of the trees collapsing. And then we could just getting and we could just see them falling all around us and then like we had those two really close calls. The rest of them were just sort of a little bit away from us but like they were big they were big trees as well. They weren't little ones. And

Mitch (1:21:00)
That's not

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lucky no one got hurt. Really.

Benn Coubrough (1:21:19)
⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. And then ⁓ Brett's phone was going off. And he could see on his watch and he's like the he could see chatter. And he's he's like, We've just got to get to this aid station and then we'll sort of getting a little bit closer and he goes, Something's not right. my phone he goes, I'm not I don't wanna pull my phone out, but

Mitch (1:21:32)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:21:40)
the chat, there's something happening in the race and then we sort of got closer with like by the time we're sorta going through all these trees, he's like, I reckon they've cancelled the race and I'm like, fuck.

So yeah, we got to about five hundred metres out and that's when we ran into Brooklyn and Nicole. Nicole and Brooklyn and Bro Brogan and Brogan's mum. They'd gone because we they could see us so close but we weren't moving. And they were getting worried that like a tree had like a tree had come down on us or something. so anyway we've come out, ⁓ seen them and they've like just they said, just yeah, it's up here, just get through the get get to it get through it. And then Brogan ⁓ Brogan's mum was there as where's have you seen Brogan?

Mitch (1:21:54)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:22:23)
seen Brogan and they're No, I'm like, no, she's still behind us, we haven't seen her. So I think her and her brother went down further or they went on the other side or something. They've pulled her out anyway. She got pulled out. But we were by the I didn't see her. I was sort of we came out and I'm like we got to this aid station and I'm like Nicole's like

Mitch (1:22:39)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:22:45)
you're gonna have to yeah, you're gonna have to hand in your your your tracker, that's all you gotta do. And I'm like, What do you mean? Then she's like, No the race is off, the race is cancelled And I'm like, Yeah but where's the aid station? And I go and she was there's no aid station and got blown away and she's like there's no one here, they're all gone and I'm like she's like she said

Mitch (1:22:59)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:23:07)
She said, ⁓ Ashley's Ashley only just left. ⁓ she's been ta she's just gone taken down the mountain now. Aaron Aaron apparently w said was talk of the him if he was gonna be able to continue or not, 'cause he got stretched out stretchered out of the out of the trail into his car 'cause his feet were that bad. And then he was s and then he apparently then I think he must have got wind that it may have been cancelled, so then he pushed on and left.

Mitch (1:23:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, I w I you never know how much of this is edited before it goes up on video, but he look 'cause I I saw one video, he looked really crook. And then by the time he left, he looked he obviously looked a little bit better. But I think there was an a there was an absolute urgency. So you might be right that it you know, it was a case of you've got to leave this aid station before they kill it, 'cause he did just get up and go. Yeah, maybe, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:23:39)
Not sure. Yeah. Yeah.

⁓ yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that was the sort of case but yeah, but like a bit I think I was moving like for that last ⁓ last I don't know, ten K, twenty K, I think I was moving like twice two two times fli I was and then and same as ⁓ Ashley, but I know Al Ashley can rally, so I know she can always rally and pull pull something in. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Mitch (1:24:12)
Yeah, you picked up heaps on him. Yeah.

Yeah. You probably put from what I remember you put a lot more into Aaron. I mean you had a lot more to gain on him, but you put a lot more into him. ⁓ but you were definitely closing on Ash, for sure.

Benn Coubrough (1:24:27)
Yeah, 'cause I think ⁓ he had a 'cause he had a twenty four mile lead apparently at one stage on me.

Mitch (1:24:34)
I didn't see it that far, it could have got that high, but I think I when I saw it was eighteen or twenty.

Benn Coubrough (1:24:36)
I think that's what Ben I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure Ben said he was like over twenty miles ahead of me.

Mitch (1:24:42)
Yeah, okay. 'Cause I think I saw it just below twenty and then that might have been when I went to bed or whatever it was and I got up and you were maybe eight or nine. Like it was r it was actually like it was one of those all we're we're on here, but that's you know, and then you know, I think you were maybe four or five behind Ash for quite a while. It seemed to go between a mile and then you were only three and a half or whatever it was. but yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:24:45)
Mm.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so we got of got pulled like got out and then I'm like these g and I s and they're sort of the two people from the race were there and they're like, grab a tracker and he's like, ⁓ yeah, the race is over, it's been cancelled and I'm just like, well, I'm for what we just went through I'm guessing it's a fair call. Like it's

Mitch (1:25:30)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:25:31)
pretty dangerous out there but I'm like but we're out of the woods now. I said like I didn't I I didn't say that to them. I just said yep, no, I accept it it's ⁓ it is what it is. And then when I sort of got out, like was sort of gave my tracker back and I'm just sort of with the coal Brett in Brooklyn. I'm like but we've only got sixty three K to go. Like it's just basically out of the woods now. Like we're not we're away from the trees. It's

Mitch (1:25:37)
Yeah.

'Cause it's only that one section, like you go up the road, there's a long r nice road climb, and then you cut through that beautiful needle pine. And that that might have been the only sketchy section, but then you you down the other end yeah, it's sort of facing the other end of the mountain. So you're probably protected. ⁓ but anyway, like yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:26:01)
Yeah. Yeah, you go up the road and then Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then you

That's it, exactly. Yeah. So so and that didn't sort of hit me at that stage. And like obviously with a position that I'd been in and worked my way up to and ⁓ like we saw Brogan get into the car and she was bawling her eyes out and you could hear her saying, But we're out of the trees, we're out of the trees, there's no more trees

Mitch (1:26:27)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:26:40)
⁓ and like the poor thing, like she'd twenty five years old, lived in a she'd lived in a forward focus, I think, for two months. Two months before the race lived in a forward focus d on the course. And so she had in invested a lot into that as well. And

Mitch (1:26:48)
⁓ Yeah, right.

Jesus. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:27:01)
Yeah, and like the Nicole and the crew spent a bit of time with the brother and the mum for a bit and she did a lot of the race solo as well. She her brother paced her for a section and he was too slow. And she was vomiting and she was vomiting violently at road forty six, I think. She was struggling to she's a battler.

Mitch (1:27:05)
Yeah, okay. Yeah.

Yeah.

⁓ That's I wasn't getting

Yeah, okay. She was she was probably Yeah, and just ran such a good race. Like there was you know, like when when you were closing, it was one of those things you you could tell you were closing on first and second. But that's what it was like I was I was saying like it was almost setting up perfectly for you because you were catching first and second, but there was no give. You couldn't go, all right.

Benn Coubrough (1:27:25)
Yeah.

Yeah. And she was

⁓ it was.

Mitch (1:27:46)
I'm catching him, I'm gonna save a bit here or anything like that. Cause she was she was hot on your tail for ages and didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Benn Coubrough (1:27:49)
Yeah. No. Brogan was on my towel. Yeah.

No, and she worked her ass off 'cause she I think she said in her post that no matter what she did, she just could not catch me, but we were still staying that just that little bit of distance. But I I really think it was gonna be if we had been allowed to race the top four

Mitch (1:27:58)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:28:12)
that last section. Like I know they said they they had not th I mean obviously ⁓ geyser past they had no aid station. But Pole Canyon, even if they didn't have an aid station, they could have had something set up there left for us to do. 'Cause there was a drop bag there as well. And and if we had crew, like only four runners, I'm sure they would have let four crew runners, like crew, get to that aid station to help their runners if need be.

Mitch (1:28:39)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:28:40)
I'm just looking, thinking of like a contingency if they had the option. Like there's there would have been an easy option for the crew cars to get to that location if they weren't prepared to set up a ⁓ their marshals there or ⁓ crew.

Mitch (1:28:54)
Yeah. Yeah. And there's no there's no difference. Well, I mean, look, there might be a difference, but it's not like they haven't already done it, you know, 'cause they they they cut people at the seventy mile mark or whatever because they hadn't got through there and it was going to be dangerous. So a hundred people were already gone, or seventy people, whatever it was, who were already out of the race. So you could yeah, I'm with you. I think it's you know, you've got to that stage, you look at it and go, All right, well, everyone behind here, there's no way they can go through that section.

Benn Coubrough (1:29:01)
No.

Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Can Yeah. Yeah.

Mitch (1:29:23)
That's disgusting and dangerous. So but anyone through here at this point, you gone. Off you go. Keep going.

Benn Coubrough (1:29:28)
Yeah. Well that's it. Like yeah. Like

You could have like I'm I'm just I mean just saying like they I you could have I could w I'm I mean obviously just I'm saying this obviously too because I I I was very confident that I was gonna catch and then hopefully win. ⁓ and it was gonna be I think it really was gonna be Brogan and I to fight it out 'cause we were gaining and I mean I think I I just looking at w the way Aaron looked, he didn't look that great. I know Ashley can just pull it as well. So

Mitch (1:30:02)
Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:30:02)
she can turn it on when she needs to and she's a fighter, so and n I know I know and I know Aaron is as well, so who knows, Aaron could have, but for four people that were so close, what a battle that would have been for the last forty miles. And I just I wish I just wish that they would have maybe have just made that call a little bit and salvaged a result, I suppose. At least then they could have

Mitch (1:30:06)
Yeah, she is, yeah.

it would have been awesome. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:30:31)
a podium, so to speak, because it was two males and two females.

Mitch (1:30:37)
And have like in a way, it's such an Instagram as race and like or or whatever. Like they you know it's there's there's a lot of elites get out there, but you know what I mean? Like it's all about the the spectacle and stuff like that. Like that actually makes an incredible story, an incredible drama that the whole race goes to shit and all you've got is the four blokes who were or the four people who were fast enough to get there, two males, two females.

Benn Coubrough (1:30:41)
Yeah.

Mm.

Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, to get through it.

Mitch (1:31:05)
It could have easily been two females first and second. You know, like or two males first and second, or you and Bro, like you say, third and fourth get first and second, and like there's so much drama to be had in that last 50k, 60k, but feels like an opportunity missed it when it was just like, well, it's all gone to shit, let's just call it.

Benn Coubrough (1:31:08)
Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It could have been, yeah. That's it, exactly. And like yeah.

No, that's right. And I think ⁓ I can't remember if Tyler made it through

to Pole Canyon or I can't remember. I think he may have. But no, I don't think he d anyway, I'd I'd have to look I'm not sure. But anyway, but Amy was the only one that left Pole Canyon. So that was the risk for that the worry. I think they actually sent people out to pull her back in from Pole Canyon. Because that would have been like if she'd been there by herself, going through to that would have been and that would have taken her so long as well. ⁓ well yeah it just would have been that spectacle to just have that

Mitch (1:31:32)
Mm.

Yeah, okay. Yeah.

that would be a sketch. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:32:00)
that close closure and I mean and do we have to refer to our little motto our little claim that we say at the start of the race? ⁓ if we die it's our own damn fault.

Mitch (1:32:14)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:32:14)
Like we do that you you do that what do they c whatever they call it, the mantra the oath the oath. The oath before the race about I know that's been I know that's been thrown in around the internet a few times by ⁓ your boy Scott Jurek and Dillisms about ⁓ what's why why you'll bother with the oath if you're gonna

Mitch (1:32:18)
The yard. The earth, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:32:35)
⁓ if I get lost, yeah, if I die, then it's my own damn thought. But I mean it just yeah, it just I mean, I know they can't really give you that option to say as a runner, 'cause the runner's probably gonna say yep and then then if one runner says no and then they finish and then you ha you finish you you finish right. And that's gonna then go well ⁓ but yeah. It's

Mitch (1:32:55)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:33:00)
It was just yeah, it was just ⁓ once we sort of like I closed my eyes. I didn't really fall asleep but I just closed my eyes on that drive down. It was about a twenty minute, half an hour drive back into town and I was just like, that's when it's ⁓ we sort of got out of the car and I'm like and I'm like, that's it, isn't it? Like they're not doing like a they're not gonna do any r there's no results now, is it? It's just wiped and then they're like, Yeah, it's just gonna there's no real

Mitch (1:33:14)
Yeah.

Never happened.

Benn Coubrough (1:33:29)
anything now. So that's when ⁓ I could see Br I was looking at Brett and Brett was devastated and I saw his face and his eyes and I just that's when it sort of clicked and hit me fully, I'm like, shit, we've come this far. Again I again I was so close. Had this opportunity to

Mitch (1:33:44)
Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:33:48)
make a break in the in America and the two hundred mile scene and then it's just sort of get sort of lost. And I was like, well they're gonna still do like a a closeout, like they were supposed to do a big close on the Tuesday night where they have all the crew. I'm like, surely they can still do that but they didn't. ⁓ I was thought that would have been good just No, I thought that would have been good just to bring all the runners together and just celebrate something of the race. Like everyone's everyone's in town.

Mitch (1:33:52)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Didn't they even do that?

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:34:19)
⁓ I thought I just yeah, I thought that would have been good.

Mitch (1:34:20)
That's a bit bizarre. Like, do you think it's just a case of I'm gonna cop too much criticism here or I'm not fronting up to it? Like, I don't know, like

Benn Coubrough (1:34:26)
Yeah, I I I d I I don't know. I know like I know I know they've obviously there's a lot to pack up and a lot to do, but I mean that's normal f for the race anyway to be done and they basically had twenty f twenty four to thirty six hours before to do that. So then like we then we got an email finally on the ch for Tuesday lunchtime that the the drop bags were gonna be collected except for Indian Creek or

Mitch (1:34:40)
That extra time. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:34:56)
think it was Indian Creek. Can't remember. Or Bujijak, one of the two. There was one of the aid stations that they just could not get access into. I I I only think they've only just got access now. Like two weeks after the race, I think they've only just got access to it. so we obviously didn't get the stuff in our drop bag from there, but I don't think I No, there there wasn't.

Mitch (1:35:06)
Yeah, yeah.

Has there been much communication to the runners or anything after it around this is this is why?

Benn Coubrough (1:35:20)
Though there wasn't ⁓ there wasn't ⁓ basically I think there was a message last message well there wasn't that we g did get one today, but there was one the last one was basically that you won't be classified as a DNF. ⁓ you'll you they're trying to work out how you're gonna get rewarded for the case that you that you made, sort of thing. Like you you would r you ran a hundred and forty six miles or whatever, or you ran two hundred miles or whatever it was. So we're trying to work out that but

But apparently as of today we are getting sent out ⁓ buckles ⁓ on how far you ran. So they've got a 202 buckle, they've got a hundred and eighty-eight buckle buckle, ⁓ a hundred and forty-six buckle

Mitch (1:35:57)
Okay.

Benn Coubrough (1:36:07)
⁓ an a hundred and sixty old buckle, whatever it is. So basically for the people that got pulled at Bridge Jack we'll get the hundred and forty six buckle. ⁓ for those that got for those that ⁓ for like Amy that made it to Pole Canyon she'll get a one eighty eight. ⁓ for the four of us that made it to Geyser we'll get the two two buckle. ⁓ so they're gonna send out the information but we'll get sent out a Pacific buckle which is good 'cause I was feeling like felt that ⁓ like I think Nicole would messaged destination trial

Mitch (1:36:14)
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

That's cool, I like that.

Benn Coubrough (1:36:37)
asking what's the process? Like d is there a buckle? Do they ha do they get rewarded for where they were where they finished like do they get do they get like do we get rewarded for like for me finishing second male or four or third third overall in basically when the race was cut off, but they said no. So ⁓ but yeah, so I don't I don't know exactly what they're gonna do, but being rewarded with a ⁓

Mitch (1:36:45)
Yeah.

⁓

Benn Coubrough (1:37:05)
Yeah, with a two two buckle I suppose and I don't know what sort of result it will mean or will st it'll state, but

Mitch (1:37:13)
You would imagine and I think that look, that's great. I think that's nice. I think it's funny that the the email sent back from Nicole to destination trail after probably dropping twenty grand is is there do we get a buckle? but you'd think branding is big, right? You like and and she's copped a bit of slack over the past few years for different races and whatnot.

Benn Coubrough (1:37:24)
Yeah, well that's it.

Yeah.

Mm.

Mitch (1:37:39)
I would imagine if I'm in that shoe and you just if she's made every right decision, let's say that's the case, right? And and if that's and there's that she didn't have another option, why wouldn't you jump on a video, record a video and send it out there to the masses and say, Look, we had a really shit time. We had a we had to make a tough call.

Benn Coubrough (1:37:45)
No. And it was the right call to make. No.

Yeah, w well yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mitch (1:38:04)
And this is why or that's why we or this we could have done that differ whatever it is, but just front up to something instead of going missing, right?

Benn Coubrough (1:38:08)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, she wasn't there at all anyway, so

Mitch (1:38:15)
Well it was raining. Back in a that's what I mean, she would have been back at the mansion.

Benn Coubrough (1:38:16)
No, no, she wasn't even at the race.

Yeah, yeah. No. But yeah, I don't know. Like I it it was I mean, it's it's such a tough call to make when you're going through so many and there was I mean, they made the call. Like they made the right call for mo most most of the cases and I but yeah, it just I think y the Yeah.

Mitch (1:38:36)
Yeah. For sure, but I just don't see why you don't fun up to it and go on a go like regardless of whether it was right or wrong or or whatever, get on there and just just discuss it.

Benn Coubrough (1:38:43)
Mm. Yeah. Yeah. There would have I mean that's the thing that's the thing that was lacking, just a little bit more s sincerity or of the occasion and the ⁓ yeah. And but it just if you I mean just explain it, like then they could have yeah, just put it out there and you're sort of explaining the situation and everything it is and yeah, it just there was just that bit of a gap in in that sort of stuff, but

Mitch (1:38:53)
Yeah. Empathy, understanding, like you know, for e everyone.

Yeah. I mean to the it's it's on the contrary, like you've all you've really done is gone well, you can pick your eight you can pick your eight station bags up, your t your drop bags, but we won't do a dinner anymore. We're gonna cut that as well.

Benn Coubrough (1:39:25)
Yeah, well that yeah, that wasn't even mentioned, so I'm just that was assumed. But yeah. Anyway, we ⁓ what did we do? We had a bit of a s sleep and then went for went for a feed and had a couple of beers and we end up catching up the next day we end up catching up with ⁓ with Nick. Woody Woody.

Mitch (1:39:27)
Yeah, like

No, Woody, I saw that.

Benn Coubrough (1:39:45)
and and and and his crew. It was really good great so good to see him. Like we were at the the race briefing and he c and he found us and he's he come up and we so we introduced it to his crew and and he got pulled unfortunately after Bridgie Jack. He was him and his pace were on his way out and they were like ⁓ then they see this police car come flying down they rescu rescued them. There's a r a ra officer a sheriff rescued them and took them back into town. ⁓ but yes

Mitch (1:39:52)
Yeah. Yeah, nice.

Mm.

Yeah, wow.

Benn Coubrough (1:40:15)
So yeah, so we end up going temping bowling and then we went to the went to proper brewery. So remember we it was close. Yeah, it was closed when we went to went to go there last time. So yeah, went there, had a good feed and Brogan end up and her Brogan and her mum came along and joined us, so we had a a couple of drinks with them. turned out to be a fairly big night on my behalf and ⁓ yeah

Mitch (1:40:24)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah nice

sweet. Yeah nice.

Benn Coubrough (1:40:42)
there's a couple of videos that may have may or may never see the light of day but ⁓ Nicole and Nicole and Brooklyn have plenty of videos of me in a good mood. And no dan dancing and singing and I don't know, I think when Ben mentioned to me the next day said, when when is when are you opening your new choreography business?

Mitch (1:40:48)
Yeah.

Okay. I haven't even seen those yet, so there might be some bribery or whatever. Yeah, good.

Ha ha ha.

Benn Coubrough (1:41:12)
and ⁓ yeah, so then we went and the next morning was very dusty and went on some ATVs and in the pouring rain and it was freezing cold. But but yeah, that was the race. That was that was Moab two forty or two hundred and two twenty twenty-six. ⁓ will there be twenty twenty seven?

Mitch (1:41:20)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Two hundred and two. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:41:39)
The more I think about it, the more it gets real. Yeah. Yes. Nicole's already booked accommodation.

Mitch (1:41:43)
Well for my

See, this is what this is what I find interesting, 'cause it's so many people are gonna go back in. And I I find it incredibly poorly run. I

Benn Coubrough (1:41:50)
⁓

Yeah.

they will. they've they've offered they have they have ⁓ they have offered ⁓ you priority. Anyone in the race issues get a priority entry.

Mitch (1:42:07)
So they'll take their money they'll take your money first. That's big of it.

Benn Coubrough (1:42:10)
And ⁓ and you'll get I think there's a twenty five credit, twenty five percent credit or something like but ⁓ discount. But ⁓ but I mean I look at it and go, I was so close two years in a row. It's hard not to it's hard, it's hard. I get it. I get I get w you're what you're saying, but it's it is hard for me to not to wanna push that button and go, Do I just have one more crack?

Mitch (1:42:21)
Mm.

Yeah, look I get I do get that. I get that.

Yeah. It's just funny, like in any other business, if you if it was this if I open a cafe and run it really poorly, people aren't fucking coming back. Whereas she runs this she runs a company like this and it's just got to the point now that it's there's so many people getting in there and you've had like, you know, no I wouldn't say the the worst experience, but not the best. There was a lot of people that got stuck at aid stations for hours and hours and hours on end.

Benn Coubrough (1:42:40)
After I mean

No. no.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Mitch (1:43:09)
Half of them will still come back. It's it's it's bizarre. Like she'll sell out again like that. So what like what's she what is she learning? Everyone's gonna kick up a stink and go, Well, there's there wasn't enough food and water at the aid station, she didn't take enough safety stuff, there wasn't enough blankets, we knew it was gonna be cold, all that sort of stuff. Everyone's gonna whinge and bitch about it and then still sign up.

Benn Coubrough (1:43:10)
Yeah. Yeah. It's yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, but yeah. Yeah, well that's it. And I I mean, I think I really, really do think they should move it back to a twelve PM start. It'll make it like

That section, the heat of the day for the top it's just it's just a lot of risk. It's a lot safer, I think, to run at early. I know they went they they f well they basically I think from what the comments were that I heard was they did fold to the min min minority of the American runners wanting to just start and get the race. They didn't want to start at twelve because they're w they're hanging around the day, like hanging around the the morning waiting for the race. They just wanna get to the start one.

Mitch (1:43:49)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:44:12)
to wait but I think no it's only midday. No exactly i i exactly. I think I think they should just look at that and make make the call back to twelve. Like I mean the whole thing though people were saying there there was heaps of DNFs last year be last two years because it's been at twelve and well they hadn't everyone DNF this year because they started at six AM so what are you gonna do?

Mitch (1:44:14)
⁓ But it's only midday. It's not ten o'clock at night like bad water. Like you just you know

Yeah, I agree.

That argument's gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:44:37)
So I think ⁓ I think they should really look at that and maybe push it back to twelve PM. I know I will be commenting that I think, you know, if there is a survey that comes out asking for feedback. Yeah. ⁓ well we'll see, but yeah. But besides those things there was yeah, I mean the aid stations are always pretty good and

Mitch (1:44:47)
Yeah. I don't think she gives two shits about your feedback, to be honest.

Yeah, okay.

Benn Coubrough (1:45:04)
pretty good, ⁓ but yeah, I just yeah, probably just looking at yeah the race directing and whatnot and a few decisions just need to sort of yeah. Especially with the ⁓ I mean there's no reason why they can't get the cr the crews can't drive out to a Massabac for instance. And if you're gonna order sh if you're gonna think about shuttle bus bus plan, you can't just have one shuttle bus.

Mitch (1:45:24)
Masswerk

No, no, no. No, that's crazy, especially for that stage of the race and like how how do you stuff that up so quickly? Like that's that's quite incredible.

Benn Coubrough (1:45:39)
Mm.

Yeah. And then you got yeah, so limited access to crew for that first hundred ⁓ hundred Ks, hundred miles of the race. And yeah, but Yeah, well that's it. Yeah.

Mitch (1:45:51)
Yeah. And that's where you make that's where you lose a race in your first couple of hundred as well. Like ⁓ Okay, all right. Very interesting. look it was a hell of a r it was a hell of a run to it was very interesting for, you know, being the dot watcher this year and not being part of it. ⁓ but it was it was, you know, to eat from a spectator's point of view

Benn Coubrough (1:46:02)
But no, but we'll see. But we'll see.

Yeah.

Mitch (1:46:17)
Getting the messages through saying that, you know, you'd you'd obviously had that really hard section pretty early and you were battling a bit. And then to see that come back and then all of a sudden go past five people in a fairly short period of time. Well, it felt short because I was asleep. and then yeah, to get yourself back into that third position and then, you know, be be right there at the pointy end for a win. I mean, it's it's absolutely incredible.

Benn Coubrough (1:46:22)
Mm.

Yeah.

Mm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm.

Yeah. No, it was it's just yeah, big learning for me was and known a few people said to me when they saw saw me like walking and doing it really hard, they're like, It just look, you you it's so early in the race you'll come back and like pass a couple of guys and they're like, you'll you'll be you'll be passing us soon, you'll b you'll bounce back, you just reset at the next age station, you'll be passing us in no time and you've ⁓ you've you've shown you can

you can pull to get pull things together. So it was ⁓ good and like having the crew there to again pull me through and help me when I need it and support and like Brett stepped up having to like he was gonna pace later and then he jumped in early. and and like yeah, so he and he was like all like 'cause obviously he ran

Mitch (1:47:19)
⁓

Yeah, massively.

Mm.

Benn Coubrough (1:47:44)
the 78k from Indian to Shay to Mont Shay and then obviously then from road 46 to Geyser that's another forty forty nine K and then he was like well he's like he was like I think he was trying to talk to Brooklyn to see if Brooklyn could run the last section but Brooklyn was already done. He worked so hard to help me when he needed to so but Brett was going to make that call. I said well Brett you just need to make that call if you feel like you can finish a race with me then do it if I've got to deliver

Mitch (1:47:47)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:48:13)
it solo or just have to do it solo, it's part of it. But ⁓ we'll just make sure I have lots of caffeine. but yeah we but we didn't get to do that anyway but like we were so pumped for that section. I just knew like with the ch especially with that change of course too was a lot. Like we we drove up it the day before the race and like it's a lot of like a lot of like there's a bit of single track and a bit of fire trail.

Mitch (1:48:20)
Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:48:43)
like four before tracks and stuff like that, but once you get what there's a long section of road down and that would have just that just suited me to a T. So yeah, j exactly. That would've been just yeah, my bread and butter basically. So it was sad not to be able to do that. Mm yeah.

Mitch (1:48:49)
Yeah.

Just to run home, lock in and run home. Yeah.

Yeah. And again the spectacle of all that, like, you know, you sort of if you've got what was it, seven and a half K or eight K or whatever it was, road section in, then you might have you might have four people on that road at once. You might have two people on that road at once, and that could have been any of the four. But it's a real opportunity missed, I think. And then obviously, yeah, like I mean that's you've

Benn Coubrough (1:49:08)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Could have been, yeah.

Mitch (1:49:24)
This is the first time we're speaking about it. I'm sure there was a few eff and blinds over there at some point and some super disappointment. But ⁓ you know, you y you seem quite level headed and calm about the whole thing, really. ⁓ but I mean, yeah, obviously there's some huge disappointment in there and it's you can't change it, I guess.

Benn Coubrough (1:49:26)
Mm.

Mm.

Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ there there is. There is. There's no, there's no point. Like it's they've made a call and I as I said, like I've said the whole time, th like the runner safety is number one and they definitely made the right calls for that and for that to happen it was just yeah, it's just could you have maybe have yeah, done something at the end, but anyway, it's the way it is and

Mitch (1:49:48)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep. Can't stew on it, I guess. I mean I wouldn't be putting my thousands of dollars back in her pocket, but you you will. You might be. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:50:06)
No, but now it's

Yeah, I dunno. Dunno. We'll see. we'll make that call later. I'll g I've got a I've gotta go do Cocodona yet, so yeah. So we'll do Cocodoner and

Mitch (1:50:20)
Yeah, you got that other pesky little race over in in America first.

Benn Coubrough (1:50:28)
See how that all goes. I've got how I just refreshed for the next couple of weeks and it's good to be back running and spent and saw the couple of the crew members this morning and we'll have the trial sessions tomorrow morning. So that'll be that'll be good and then yeah, just dunno, way up Coszy. Do I have a stab at Coszy and just do it just to do some Ks? But I don't know, we'll see.

Mitch (1:50:30)
Yeah.

Yeah, nice. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Yeah. It's gonna be beautiful weather down there this year. It's gonna be spot on, I've decided.

Benn Coubrough (1:50:56)
⁓ it'll yeah, well, yeah. Like I mean, we thought the weather was bad at Moa this year and it was just Moab got worse. I think I think ⁓ someone was talking to someone and they said like they they knew there was a h hurricane coming. Okay, wouldn't they still put the race on 'cause there's a there's a hurricane. So well you try and beat these things. But but no, but it was yeah, it was another I so grateful for the crew to

Mitch (1:51:04)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:51:25)
to help and support and again the the shit I put Nicole through and sharing ⁓ our second wedding anniversary in the car again or in a hotel in a in a hotel room with with four other guys again. Yeah.

Mitch (1:51:25)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

She's a lucky girl. But you get to you got to get married again, so that's ⁓ that's something. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:51:45)
Yeah, we got married by Elvis aga no w we didn't get married by Elvis, but we met Elvis at the at the reception and it was the same Elvis that married Hamish and Andy on their on on their Gap year tour. He sold us show show came out and showed us the photo. We had a photo with him and had a photo at the Calais. We had a limo pick us up and drop us off. ⁓

Mitch (1:51:55)
Good.

Really? That's pretty funny. ⁓ yeah, yeah. Yeah. Nice. Did you get some merch or I haven't seen my mug yet with with the photos of the wedding?

Benn Coubrough (1:52:13)
No, not yet. Not yet. There's ⁓ only one photo we f we ⁓ twisted that photo really, but yeah, not didn't get too much really. But we we just ⁓ but no it was it was a bit of bit of fun. I d and I didn't didn't lose that much money in Vegas, which was good. Well I didn't lose any money. Didn't lose really e well, I spent a lot of money but didn't lose any money. I ended up I ended up walking out with an extra sixty bucks, I think.

Mitch (1:52:21)
Huh.

That's good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Okay, that's good. Nice.

Benn Coubrough (1:52:37)
on the on Blackjack. So yeah, so it was alright. Only only gambled ⁓ ninety bucks I think and ended up walking out with a hundred and fifty. So yeah, sixty bucks out. So yeah. But but that's that's a wrap for Moab. yeah,

Mitch (1:52:48)
That's pretty good, that'll do it. That's a win.

Very good.

Benn Coubrough (1:52:58)
Really good to yeah, just see a lot of like a lot of people that I'd met last year and a few few new people and it was ⁓ good to see the crew and I mean, yeah, it was I mean, yeah, as as like there's ⁓ it's just this shit that she does get, but I mean y you g it's just hard. It's just hard to make.

Mitch (1:53:03)
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yep.

for sure. Yeah. And look I you know, I d I don't think one way or the other about her. I think you know, you know, I've been quite positive about her in the past, but I don't know. But yeah, anyway.

Benn Coubrough (1:53:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, let's just ⁓ yeah, we'll see what happens next year if it happens or not. I don't know. I'll I yeah, I I well I've still got to look at coup. ⁓ yeah. Excuse me, there's still a lot more to go to ⁓ to get to Coconona, so I've got a big big build for that and ⁓ but but yeah, they did know me though, so it was a good that a lot of runners did know who I was.

Mitch (1:53:42)
And you got a lot to do before then. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Bit of a reset time and

Yeah, that's good.

Benn Coubrough (1:53:57)
So ⁓ it'll be good going into Coconuna with hopefully a few more knowing who I am. So

Mitch (1:54:02)
Yeah, for sure. For sure. Is the list out for Cocodano? It would be, wouldn't

Benn Coubrough (1:54:07)
I don't think they've they haven't named the the elite l list yet. So the runners list is on the on not they haven't actually announced any elite yet and that's what Brogan was talking about. She's not doing it but she wants to do it. so sh I said to her just to reach out.

Mitch (1:54:10)
yeah, okay. Yeah, but not the not the ones I choked. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:54:28)
If not, she said she could pace. So Yeah, so we'll see.

Mitch (1:54:31)
cool, nice. That'd be handy. That'd be good. Very good. All right, buddy, listen, let's wrap it up. Your eyes are getting very red. Like you only been home for twenty eight hours or something.

Benn Coubrough (1:54:38)
But yeah, well let's wrap it up, yeah. ⁓ it's almost you're getting tired now. You're getting tired now. Gotta Yeah, gotta g gotta get up in ⁓ six hours time, so

Mitch (1:54:51)
Yeah, no, I won't I'll be there for the night session tomorrow. Yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:54:53)
You were doing a night session? Alright. Well yeah. I d actually I didn't post where it is in the group, but anyway, I won't do that. I think I did post it on Facebook earlier. But but yeah, well no, thanks very much, mate. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ the I we didn't the the hire car getting stuck on the Well, one last little s one last little story. We left Vegas. We're two hours out of Vegas.

Mitch (1:55:05)
Well good, no, good to s good to see you home in one piece. It was ⁓ touch and go for a bit.

Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:55:23)
still about three hours from LA and maybe a little bit of my driving. ⁓ got a flat tire. ⁓ spent a little bit of time hitting the the edge of the road and I hit a must have picked up a bolt and got a flat tire and we pulled in and no spare tire.

Mitch (1:55:31)
Hmm.

Nice.

That is crazy.

Benn Coubrough (1:55:50)
No jack. No punchy kit. Nothing. So like great. We passed a sixteen miles back we passed the service station. And we're trying to call the service station. They answered, they said there the town back there has a has a mechan a twenty-four hour mechanic. So we called him.

And luckily enough he drove ⁓ drove out and he was there and within forty minutes and fixed the punctured tire and got us back on the road again. Meanwhile calling ⁓ the sir the hire car company and they said we're in a dangerous spot so they weren't willing to send anyone out.

Mitch (1:56:30)
Ha ha ha ha.

Benn Coubrough (1:56:32)
So they said so their advice was to call nine one one to get emergency services to pick us pick us up and our all our luggage and then they would call an Uber and Uber us back to LA. So one, where was it how long the emergency services was gonna take to collect us? It was like five o'clock in the afternoon by that stage. So it was almost dark. And then and then in saying that the Uber's gonna come from where? LA. So that's a three hour drive.

Mitch (1:56:33)
⁓ brilliant.

Jesus. Yeah, yeah.

Benn Coubrough (1:57:02)
to come and get us so there's three hours waiting to then get another three hours back to LA. It was a whole nightmare of what they suggest they were not helpful whatsoever and and then now they're not even wanting to cover the the cost of cost me 240 US to try to get the tire fixed and they don't they don't even want to cover that. So yeah so won't be using that higher car company again

Mitch (1:57:12)
No, it sounds

Jesus Christ.

No, that's pathetic, isn't it?

Benn Coubrough (1:57:33)
Mm.

But no. But yeah, that's the last story. So we'll it's almost two hours, but we'll wrap it up. But guys, thank you for listening. ⁓ d yeah, d remember, it doesn't matter if you're the back, the front, somewhere in the middle, it's a happy trial. And yeah, thanks for listening to the Moab recap.

Mitch (1:57:38)
Very good.

It is

Nice one. Thanks, Benny. Well done again, buddy.

Benn Coubrough (1:57:55)
Thank you.