WALKING IN THE RAIN AT COBURG

Contributed by Bruce Watt, AURA member (Capel Sound, Vic)COBRUG 24 HOUR FESTIVAL, COBURG (VIC), 15-16 April 2023

After 31 marathon races in my younger days and two spinal fusions, my back and knees prevent me from running. Due to lots of golf and dog-walking I have remained reasonably fit and my competitive streak has never left me. A few years ago I heard about parkrun, a 5km event held at 8am every Saturday all over the world and entered the Rosebud event. Then I bought a treadmill.

Then I entered a 10km racewalk and did a time that ranked no. 6 in the world but according to the strict rules my technique was illegal. What else could I do? I entered the 30km Walk With Women (but it measured 26km according to Strava) from Safety Beach to Sorrento. No problem. Then I entered the 32.5km Cystic Fibrosis walk. Took me 5 1/2 hours but again no trouble. 

So the next challenge was to enter the Coburg 24 Hour Festival on 15 April this year. My first and so far only ultramarathon – at age 83. This is held from 12pm Saturday to 12pm Sunday on a 400m athletics track. Events include Marathon and 6hr, 12hr and 24hr walks and runs. I entered the 12hr walk. Around 134 total entries with me being the oldest, but only four in my event. I organised my Burundian friend and athlete Adronis Karabegaga as my support person. 

My event went from 6pm to 6am. It rained heavily from 8pm to around 4am. My hope was to achieve 60km. I was very cold, very, very wet, and Adronis slept the whole night and was of little help. I drank too little fluid and got badly dehydrated. Over the last hour I sat in a chair every few laps for a rest. However I ended up winning the event and achieving 73.5km just missing out on the M80 Australian record (by only about 500m, I had no idea) but the second best all-time. The next day my left knee was the size of a football and five toenails were black but the euphoria from the race erased most of the pain.