Dave Byrne – Buffalo Stampede Part 1

Skyrunning might only be in its infancy in Australia, but if the Buffalo Stampede weekend is anything to go by, the future looks bright….Like that play on words!? In case you weren’t aware, the Buffalo Stampede is three days of racing based in the Victorian town of Bright. It features races of 26km (Actually 32.5km with 2,000m of vertical gain and descent) a 42km with 2,900m of climbing and a 75km where you traverse a crazy 4,500m of up and down. This year marked the second edition of the event, which doubled as the Oceania Skyrunning Championships. That lofty title brought with it certain prestige that meant each of the three races was well supported with class athletes from Australia, New Zealand and Europe. For me, I arrived with the plan of doing all of the races – the Grand Slam. Day one was the 26 (32), Saturday was the 75 and the final day the 42.

Setting sail at 11am on Friday in the first of my races it was warm and sunny and I felt a little uncomfortable. For some reason I never really settled into things in the days leading into the event and had a bit of lethargy in the legs. The plan I had was simple. Ease into it for the first kilometre, be at or near the front over the first climb and then roll through the fast road descent. I stuck to it and found myself with a small lead before the massive climb up Mt Porepunkah. It’s a very steep 7.5km, gaining 800m or so on a rocky and wide trail. The climb doesn’t sound too serious, but when you remove the slight flat sections and a small saddle two thirds of the way up, you have a bloody challenging hill!

I lead most of the way up, only being passed right at the top by Aaron Knight. A quick hello to Mel Parry at the summit, a cup of water and we hit the descent. From here I found myself in front again, quickly skipping away to a lead with Jarrod Kohler and Aaron in pursuit. It wasn’t the situation I had expected. Realistically I was thinking I would take it easy from half way up the climb, keeping in mind I had two more races to do. But being in front I decided I should maintain a steady rate and hold the lead. After all, it’s hard not to try and win when you get a sniff! So down the mountain I went…then back up….then down….then up….the course was ridiculously tough. There was little or no flat ground. You were either climbing or descending on a mostly exposed and very rocky trail. With the sun beaming down it was quite hot and the dust billowed from beneath my feet with every stride.

I got through my litre of Tailwind with 10km to go. Having consumed half a packet of shot blocks along the way I was well fuelled, but pretty thirsty. Electrolyte drink is great, but I still like water, and on a hot day I like it a real lot! Needless to say I hit the next aid station and smashed some H2O before looking back to see where the chasers were. No site of anyone gave me confidence to push on but keep it fairly relaxed. I still had in the back of my head that tomorrow was a long day out, so I should consolidate and save some gas. Unfortunately though, this course takes no prisoners and regardless of your effort levels, the ups and steep downs take their toll, plus the feet cop a real pounding from the rocky surface.

Quickly my lead dissolved to being a mere minute or so at Apex summit, what I thought was to be the final climb of the day. I hit the downward trail only to then remember there was one god-awful climb to come, followed by an equally crappy descent. Nevertheless I toiled away, having now glimpsed a chaser in hot pursuit. It wasn’t the man I expected in Kohler, instead it was the old war horse and legend of trail running – Brendan Davies. Knowing who was in pursuit kept me honest in the final kilometres and I reached the finishing arch pretty buggered but stoked with the win.

The time of 3:01 was around 20 minutes slower than I thought it would take, such was the toughness of the course and the draining affect of the heat. Needless to say I was not at all comfortable. Since my issues at Six Foot Track a month prior I had been struggling a lot with fatigue. One day I would be fine but then the next I’d hit the wall on a 60minute jog. I did however manage to get through a 45km race at Mt Buller two weeks earlier so that gave me hope of being in good stead for this weekend. But what transpired after the 32km race at Buffalo was quite distressing. I felt very ill and my heart rate went through the roof. A visit to the medical tent showed my heart was running well above what it should be, about 130BPM 20 minutes after the race. Normally I’m back down within a short time of crossing the line so this suggested I’d done myself a bit of a mischief during the race. I sat wrapped in a blanket and shivering with cold, feeling depleted and nauseous – far from ideal with two days of racing to come!

It took a couple hours to settle down and feel human again. In that time I cheered as my fiancée Emma Rilen won the women’s race, as well as supporting my brother and father as they completed what was their first ever races. Their achievements of simply getting through it were remarkable considering the extent of their training was a handful of jogs and creating a playlist to listen to during the event.

That night we had a few celebratory drinks and pizzas and pondered over the harsh reality that I should no longer aspire to run the Grand Slam. After the hard day I’d had, common sense prevailed and I decided to pull the pin on the 75, though I still harboured hopes of jogging the 42km race…

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