Goulburn parkrun director and trusty mate Jaemin Fraser alongside and supporting Isaac Hogan in an ultramarathon event at Mount Kosciuszko. Jaemin will have planned the logistics of the ultramarathon run next week in France and will coax Isaac through the lows of his ultimate challenge. Photo: Jason Pattison.
Next week Isaac Hogan will join thousands of runners on a gruelling 174-kilometre run around Mount Blanc in the French Alps for one of the world’s toughest ultramarathons.
Aside from the precisely calculated amount of water and energy gels neatly packed into his vest, he will have the knowledge of his and his father Dominic’s profession.
They are podiatrists in Goulburn from where Isaac has watched over the past decade a quiet revolution in distance running in his hometown. The installation of kilometres of walking trails along the city’s Wollondilly and Mulwaree rivers has seen a noticeable uptake in running and the foot injuries of those who went too hard too early.
Completing triathlons and five-kilometre parkruns along the river helped Isaac’s running in the early stages.
He began adding kilometres to his running and entered the 50-kilometre Ultra Trail Australia in Katoomba in 2022.
“I probably went in a bit naive because I had never done it, other than 50 kilometres on open roads around Goulburn – easier compared to running on trails which are quite different and take a lot longer,” the 29-year-old said.
“There’s probably a few hours where you think you will never do it again; by the next week you are looking for the next event,” he said.
“I thought if I could do that 50-kilometres I could do 100 kilometres which is like the next level, then I started doing these 100-mile ones.”
He completed two 100-mile races across Mount Kosciuszko in torrential rain both times, and passing Eagles Nest above Thredbo Village in -5 degrees.
But it’s the extraordinary ascent of 10,000 metres on Mount Blanc, the highest mountain in the alps that brings the most determined runners undone. Stuff up your strategy on energy consumption and exertion and you’re unlikely to finish. Last year 40 per cent of the field quit before the finish line.
Isaac Hogan at work where he has seen a rise in demand for sports podiatry coinciding with the popularity of running. Photo: John Thistleton.
In the afternoon of Friday 29 August the field will set off from Shamonix in the French Alps, one of the oldest ski resorts in France and the base of Mount Blanc. From there they will head south into Italy and continue onto Switzerland, around Mount Blanc and heading back to France.
Isaac will wrestle with his emotions as all distance runners do, and they’ll be magnified by his toughest challenge and what many say is unlike any other in the world. His mind will likely drift back to Kosciuszko.
“You are not only worried about the distance, you are freezing cold and the trails go from a nice runnable trail to ankle-deep slop,” he said.
He completed both Kosciuszko runs in 29 and 27 hours respectively, having pushed through that awful feeling of hitting the 60-kilometre mark and still having 100 kilometres to go. Pounding along in the dark with a dim head torch, with rain, lightning and thunder piling doom on gloom, all sorts of thoughts flood the mind – none of them good.
“So you try and break it up into little bite-sized chunks,” Isaac said. “Some pretty low lows in a race that long but there are some pretty good highs as well. Every time you are feeling low it’s normally because you have not eaten and have not drunk enough or you need a bit of caffeine. So you keep pushing and an hour later you are feeling on top of the world again and it is just riding those waves and not letting one of those lows be the time where you might pull the pin.”
And the highs?
“When you are running along Thredbo Valley and listening to the river, the birds chirping and the sun is coming up, it is nice and helps really wake you up,” he said. “When the sun comes up you have this big burst in energy.”
Preparing for Mount Blanc at the end of the day at work, he’s out the door with alacrity and headed for the gym.
A smile at the finish of the Buffalo Stampede Marathon in Bright, Victoria. Photo: Gav Moroney.
“We don’t have any hills that can compare with the hills over there, so I’m spending a lot of time at the gym on the stair machine,” he said. “One of my friends who has done it before says that it is probably the closest you can get to any consistent climb.”
A stairway to hell perhaps? Or heaven? There is no in between on this adventure in the clouds.
