I stubbed my big toe on a rock. It’s purple now, maybe tomorrow it will be black, blue, or a bit of both.

Two days into a stay at Falls Creek, I decided to run Spion Kopje, the brilliant 24km run the ‘out’ section of which ends with an undulating climb to the summit of Spion Kopje. Tough, but widely regarded as one of the best runs at Falls.

I wasn’t expecting a ‘pb’. I was prepared to pepper my run with judiciously-timed walks. Having survived all the hard bits, I was back on the dirt road up the back of Mt Nelse. It is one of my favourite sections of the run, a steady, not-too-steep climb on a good surface.

Good until I encountered the rock, that is. Smooth, round, about the size of a volley ball, buried in the dirt. Like an iceberg, its bulk – and menace - was below the surface. I could have stepped clean over it, could have scuffed it with my left shoe and merely stumbled: instead, I caught it flush on, stubbing my big toe, rolling over, and ending up staring into, and cursing, the clear blue sky.

After a few minutes’ limping, I was able to run again, albeit painfully. Oh, and also not downhill, because that jammed my throbbing toe into the toe-box of the shoe. Seeing about 70 percent of the distance left was downhill, that was somewhat of a problem.

Still, as the only member of our group to attempt Spion Kopje, with a multi-coloured toe to show for it, the silver lining of the cloud over my big toe has been having bragging rights without the necessity to back up with another epic run. This period of barely-earned respect and admiration will probably have expired by the time you’re reading about it.

 It also offered the perfect excuse to watch the next day’s session of 400s out on the Langfords Gap aqueducts. With over 120 runners taking part, both the logistics and the spectacle were formidable. Falls at Christmas-New Year is a great time to be a distance runner.

Most of Australia’s top runners are here, together with a far bigger number who either want to reach the same level, or simply get better. It is a time for building bases and relationships, a sound foundation of aerobic fitness and the realisation you are not alone in what is often referred to as a solitary sport both being valuable assets.

Inevitably, it is also a time to reflect on the year just past. Australian middle and long-distance running had a mixed time of it in 2011, memorable achievements balanced by disappointments.

In May, after Ben St Lawrence had broken the national record for 10,000 metres, Eloise Wellings had qualified for the Daegu 10,000 and Kaila McKnight had got the A-standard for 1500 in Korea, I wrote a column titled, “we’ve been here before”. It pointed out that we had been producing distance championship qualifiers for a few years now without any of them breaking through to perform on the bigger stage.

Some apparently viewed this as a negative sentiment, or as criticism. It was neither. Instead, it was an expression of hope that one of our distance representatives would make the same impact in Daegu as Craig Mottram had in Helsinki 2005 and Melbourne 2006.

In any event, it didn’t happen and distance running copped it in the neck somewhat in post-world championships reviews for under-performing. One obvious response is, “at least they got there” – unlike sprinters, 400m runners, high jumpers, hammer throwers. Our track and field team in Daegu, as in Delhi the previous year, had more holes than a Swiss cheese.

Most of these athletes are beginning their Olympic year at Falls, and you’d imagine one of their stronger motivations at the moment is to do better at London 2012 than Daegu 2011. Falling short of expectation one year is always a strong motivator to do better the next.

Not all of them will do better, of course. That’s the nature of athletics. No-one ever prepares to fail, but, inevitably, some do. One minute you’re flying, the next you’re flat on your back, staring into the blue sky, cursing your throbbing big toe.

I’m at Falls Creek at the moment. On the way down here my iPod broke so I was listening to Michael Buble and Dixie Chicks CD’s. My Dad is a huge fan of the Dixie Chicks and I have a soft spot for them on the odd occasion. Musically, I’m pretty diverse, but lately I’ve had a huge obsession with Rihanna, for obvious reasons.

Falls actually isn’t that far from Wollongong. I left at 8am and by 4pm, I had driven here, had a petrol stop, a few toilet breaks, a grocery shop, and unpacked and settled into the apartment. So I reckon the actual driving time is around 6 and a half hours, which isn’t too bad. 

Running wise, things are going alright. I had a couple of setbacks with my foot but now it seems that it’s going to be okay. I’m up here with Brett Robinson, ‘Cracker’ Jack Bolas and Craig ‘Rowdy’ Miller. Cracker and Rowdy are Americans who joined the Melbourne Track Club last year and have both fitted in well. Brett has come up to Wollongong from Canberra before and trained with me and we work well together and seem to have a few tussles in training. Rowdy is an easy going and laid-back customer which is why he received a fitting nickname. Cracker is a bit of a hulk and spends most of his time working on his party muscles, but most of the time they’re all pretty good company. 

I can’t say I really do much in my spare time when I’m training at altitude. I’m not someone that needs to be out doing things. I’m quite happy just laying low and watching movies and TV shows on my hard drive. I’ve been getting through ‘Breaking Bad’ which was recommended to me by Adrian Blincoe. It’s a good series so far and I can’t believe how hectic everything gets toward the end of season two. 

I’ve got to a decent level in my training but I won’t race this Australian season as I’d probably struggle to beat the girls. My first race will be the 1200m leg of the distance medley relay at the Penn Relays in late April. After that I will head up to Mt. Laguna, just up from San Diego in California to do a month of altitude training. From there that will bring us to June and my coach Nic Bideau will make a choice as to what happens from there. The main thing I have to do though is get to that point with no interruptions so I can give myself the opportunity to qualify for the World Championships. 

Cracker is going to come to mine for a little bit after the Sydney Track Classic to see Wollongong and get some training done. I told him that he will scare the kids away with his monstrous chest but as we speak he has got his head phones in and pumping out some incline bench. Be well.

Olympic Trials Womens 1500 Final 2008 USA Track & Field

"I can't really believe it. It's been a crazy fortnight. Qualifying was difficult, it was difficult to get through. To have this result tonight, I can't believe it. These guys have been vaulting well all year. I thought maybe I would have been able to come out and get 5.85m on the first attempt and get maybe a bronze."

"Early on [in the final] I thought that there was no way I was going to jump, it was quite sore during my warm up. I went in and got some treatment from the doctor, when the boys were jumping 5.65m, and as that kicked in, I thought I was more and more of a chance of jumping."

"As this injury has developed we've realised there's probably less muscular stuff involved [in the injury] than we initially thought, and there's more neural stuff, and we just shut that nerve off, and I was able to get down the runway pretty well."

"I can't believe that I put up such a good attempt in the first attempt [at 5.85m], I was pretty devestated when it was a miss though, it would have been good if it had been just a rubbish jump and I hadn't cleared it, but it was a really really good attempt, it just wasn't quite good enough for 5.85m. I was just happy that there was enough left in me that I could do that second jump. I made some pretty good improvements to my run up on that second jump, and the way I lowered the pole, and that was enough to get me over. It felt like a good jump as well, but I haven't seen it yet!"

"Just thinking about that moment [the emotions] are coming back a bit now. It's been a very challenging couple of weeks, I've tried to be as honest as possible with everyone during that process, and you've all been through that journey with me. But it's been ten times worse from my perspective. Every day it was a question of whether I would jump or not, and going to sleep at night wasn't the easiest thing, I've been sleeping like hell. But good people around me have helped me make smart decisions, and that's what got me through."

[Could you have jumped again if you had to?]

"I can't answer that, I don't know, I might have blown something off halfway down the runway - I'm glad it didn't come to that."

"I thought I would have one jump in me like in the qualifying competition. In qualifying, after 5.65m I had nothing left, I wouldn't have been able to get down the runway. After the first miss tonight I thought that was it. I walked around a bit and I felt better. I can't answer if there was a third one in me, I don't know."

"I think I've proven something to myself by this working out the way it has. I've got a lot more in me, and I know that if I can do jumps like this under these circumstances, then when I'm healthy, when I've got good conditions, massive jumps are not out of the question, and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do next year."

"Dani definitely ignited The Flame and took a lot of pressure off. She's such a young competitor and to do what she did under pressure was just fantastic. I thought if I was able to compete at half that intensity, I would be alright."

[Did you think about waiting until one jump would have been certain to win?]

"That could have been six metres. The way these guys were jumping, it could have been 6.10m or 6.16m. The strategy wasn't to win but to get a medal, so I came in at 5.85m. To have enough left for a second jump was a surprise to me."

 

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'Hills are speedword in disguise '
Frank Shorter