HERON BREAKS AUSSIE RECORD AT TAIPEI 48HR

Kate Dzienis • Mar 29, 2023

Contributed by Allicia Heron, AURA member (Theodore, ACT)

TAIPEI 48 HOUR ULTRA MARATHON, TAIPEI (TAIWAN), 11-12 February 2023

It was a sunny and beautiful day in Taiwan, and the race started at 3pm, so we were able to relax beforehand. Not that I did, but in theory that was the plan. After waking at 4am, I thought I’d be able to have a little nap beforehand, but it didn’t work. All good, what’s another few hours when you’re already going to be awake for 48!

Come 1pm we started to head to the race area to set up. We had a big tent with an area which we were allocated to set up in. All was fine and everything was being set up and set out and smiles all round.

All the athletes were ushered over to the presentation area to be introduced. Wow, I saw myself on a banner! I’d never seen myself that like that before.

We were introduced as the clouds were rolling in, by this stage a cold wind had started and I (along with a number of the Polish runners who had flown to Taiwan from their winter) were in puffer jackets…I kept looking at the sky thinking this looks nasty.

After the presentation and introductions, we went back to the athletes area to finish our preparations. Five minutes before the race started, boom…the rain came down, in buckets! The race director was calling us all over to the starting area, and no one moved. No one wanted to start the race wet. However, we all did.

And we remained that way for hours! I actually didn’t mind it, I had my rain jacket on and, surprisingly I was in my zone. I noticed a few people not enjoying it, but I knew it wouldn’t last, and that they would be okay sooner rather than later.

I started out with my usual run/walk routine and the first 12 hours for me went like that, it was great and I felt so good. Then, out of nowhere, during my walk breaks, I was hypnotising myself and falling asleep. That wasn’t going to work, and I tried to shake it off, however I couldn’t.

I needed to change my whole strategy. What was I going to do? I let my crew know and we monitored it the next few laps, and I made a decision that the run/walk method wasn’t working and I really did need to change my strategy.

I decided to drop my walk completely, so slowed my run pace down in order to maintain a constant run. This worked! Yes, I thought! I solved it! I was feeling happy and great again!

After a while though, I started to get a pain in my right hip flexor. I didn’t think too much of it to begin with, but after a few hours it wasn’t letting up so I let my crew know I was in a fair amount of pain. After a while, I felt I couldn’t lift my leg and had begun shuffling, so I again informed my crew and came in for a break to get it looked at. My shin was hurting at this stage too, so Justin worked his magic and tried as best he could to fix my pains. Out I went, this time it took a bit of warming up to start a run again.

As the day wore on, it was hot and most runners were suffering because of it. I, though, was suffering due to my hip flexor. I donned a makeshift ice bandana (a few runners were in ice vests by this stage) and continued on my not-so-merry way. There were only a few hours left of the heat and then it would be night. I was okay with that.

As the second night fell, I noticed a number of runners either not running at all, or taking extended breaks. The race still had a good 14 hours to go and by this time was taking regular stops in the crew zone. By this stage, I didn’t want to eat, so my calorie consumption was diminishing and I was complaining of nausea and a full belly. The fatigue was getting deeper and my hip flexor, getting worse. At the start of the race, I said I wanted to sleep as little as possible…so as a good crew will do, they tried to adhere to my wishes. They allowed me to sit down for 5 minutes and be attacked with the massage gun every 5 (I think) laps, but this wasn’t helping. I needed to stop. They gave me a 15 minute nap in the hope that this would energise me, and I swear, I was asleep before my body hit the concrete floor! However, when I woke, I was worse than before. My crew could see that the Aussie record was starting to slip away.

After getting out there and doing another few laps, I came in to the crew zone in tears as I realised I was hallucinating. I needed to jump over gold Taiwanese writing embedded into the asphalt as well as moving black sheets out of my way whenever I crossed a timing belt in order to cross that timing belt.

My amazing crew consulted with each other and determined I needed sleep, but they were also cognisant that if this didn’t work, it could very well have been the end of my race. They rolled the dice, laid me down on some cardboard (borrowed from our new Polish friends Lukasz and Bartosz) and covered me with a sleeping bag and hoped for the best.

They woke me 1 hour later at 5am.

To be honest, I felt horrid, but the guys forced 2 gels into me and sent me off to do another lap. Thinking my hip flexor was torn, I begrudgingly went out for a lap to warm it up and stretch it a bit. I kept telling myself that all I needed to do was cover 6km an hour for the rest of the race, and I would be okay. It would be light soon.

The first time I went past the crew area, I had managed to get into a slow jog. A couple of laps later I was ready to take off my jacket. Then I somehow started running, and the sun was coming up. I don’t know how I did, but I managed to get into the zone and started laying out 8-9km an hour. I was now the fastest moving athlete out on the track! As the morning moved on, I was back. The record was just around the corner.

As the sun rose, it quickly got hot again. My crew were scrambling to find ice! I asked for an icy pole and my crew delivered! Bartosz was jealous when he saw me eating an icy pole. I told him to get one when he passed the crew zone. Each crew was working so hard to fill buffs and soak hats. Ice vests were back out. Spray bottles were back out. It was so hot.

The heat was now making it tough for many of the athletes, but for me, I was okay. I like the heat. I was powering on through the morning, and ensuring my ice buffs and head were always cold. My clothes were wet, so were everyone’s. I had a job to do, I had a target to get. I soon realised that I was going to achieve what I wanted to achieve. With the upmost respect to Nikki! I love that woman like nothing else! The Aussie record was going to be broken.

A few kilometres later, Justin and Matt were wrapping me in my Aussie flag and giving me a beer to celebrate the record. Then next lap, I continued on. I wasn’t going to be able to slow down and take it easy as the athlete from Taiwan in fourth place had been within a few kilometres of me all night, and she was now moving well and gaining on me. I managed to hold off the late surge from the Taiwanese runner and finish with a new Aussie record of 361.160km!

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