Greg Wilson's Australian 24 Hour Track Invitational

Four “failures” in a row so why put yourself to the test once again. DNF in this event last year (injured), Australian 6 Day in Adelaide (injured- only finished because I am pigheaded!), Two Bays 56km Trail – On age record pace at 40km and DNF due to thunderstorm, Sri Chinmoy 48 Hour was too hot and I only spent 36 hours of the event adding to my total inadequate distance!

Anyway I pushed aside a few reasons to not attend and decided that I had better make up the numbers for this final edition of Matthew Ekford’s special event. The vast majority of my M70 age record achievements have been in this event (11). Early on I enquired about a place in the field and Matthew rejected me, as his event was for runners who were young and fast. A little later after Covid he added an Open event, in which slower/older runners could attempt PB’s/records, without impeding the “A Team” on the inside lanes.

So with only 2 six hour races done, I turned up for my first 24 Hour in about 25 years. I guess it could be called “bursting onto the ultra scene”, with six M70 records accrued in one race. On the inside lane one Phil Gore was doing likewise, although at a much faster pace. In subsequent editions I managed to improve all of those records (except 6 Hour at Southern Sydney).

The first 12 hours was routine and boring. Just something to go through so you are still there, for the interesting and dreaded second 12 hours. I ran relaxed and smooth whilst creeping ahead of an ambitious race schedule. 100 kilometres was reached, which was on schedule for a big PB and had been adjusted back to “more realistic!” Justin Hiatt had the day shift and got me to the halfway in great shape. I told him he had left Nicholas Matthews with the difficult shift. Cold night, exhausted and emotional runner falling apart as myriad difficulties set in.

My race plan was to get well over halfway before everything fell apart and so find a way to fet to the finish in one piece. At 15 hours I was 3.4 kms ahead of my schedule and I gradually dropped back as I mixed running and walking. Nausea and lack of appetite became an issue and that came to a head when I took a caffeine gel. The idea was that it would be enough to get me running again. Nup! I threw it up before I could even swallow it all.

I walked down to the toilet, cleaned myself up, came back out and made myself run. There was no other choice if I didn’t want to waste all the work that had been put in. Twenty hours ticked over and I kept up a solid run to reach 100 miles. With a time of 21 hrs 13mins 47 secs I had broken my own record by 34 minutes.

There was some walking to recover from that unnecessary “death or glory’ sprint. I had said to Nicholas that if we could just get me to 100 miles the rest would take care of itself. Yeah right! Just don’t get too complacent, as it’s still almost three hours and it has to be covered. In the last hour with the arrival of daylight I managed to coax a solid run from my rubbery legs, just to make a certainty of it. With under 30 mins to go I surpassed my previous 24 hour record.

My schedule was to reach 178 kms and as I “sprinted’ the final lap I didn’t know if I could reach it. The final distance was 178.432 kms which improved the old mark by 3.4 kms approx. It was only days later that I realized that this was the first 24 Hour where I had ignored shorter distance goals and aimed at just the longest pair. That is no doubt a reason I was able to come away with records 15 and 16 in the bag. Other vital reasons were crew members Justin and Nicholas and weather that wasn’t “too bloody cold!”

Invitational winner was Luke Thompson who achieved a 237 approx Australian Team Qualifier. Strong throughout, he achieved his aim and enjoyed walking a few well earned “glory laps”. The others running hard to the end, were debut female winner Carrie Gleeson (206 approx) and Allicia Heron with another fine 200 km plus. Heather Hawkins was the other multiple AUTRA Age Record achiever with W60 for 12 Hours (89.958) and 24 Hours (151.474 kms).

A fine finale of this five year labour of love for Matthew, Martin and their assistants.